Next to food, cat litter boxes are about the most important thing to your indoor cat.  Cats are fastidious creatures which like to have somewhere clean and fresh to do their toilet.  They need plenty of room to move without treading on something they did previously.

There are plenty of cat litter boxes available on the market from a plain tray to the fully automated variety.

When you're choosing your litter box, be sure to get one that's large enough for your cat or if it's currently a kitten, one that will be large enough when it's fully grown.  The box should be at least four inches deep or the litter will go everywhere.

Litter boxes are important to cats and are considered to be the next in importance to their food. Like people who love their toilets clean, cats don’t really love messy and smelly litter boxes. They want some place where they can move around and do their stuff. Litter boxes are available on the market and come in different size and shapes.

Types of cat litter boxes:

1.    The tray.  This one you will need to clean yourself at least once a day but you can make it easier by lining it with a newspaper before putting in the litter.  That way you can just fold up the paper and soiled litter and put it straight into a plastic bag for disposal.  If you're lucky, you won't even need to wash the litter tray.

2.    Hooded tray.  This one is as above but with a hood or lid for the tray.  This gives the cat some privacy but can also prevent the cat from kicking litter all over the floor.

3.    Hooded tray with filter and door flap.  Both these additions help to contain the smell but don't imagine that you don't need to clean this one as often - you do!

4.    Automatic litter tray.  These vary but there is one type which you roll first one way which tips the used litter into a removable tray, then another way which returns the unused litter to the tray.

5.    Fully automatic litter tray.  These are quite clever beasts and are great for people who don't like cleaning litter boxes.  Once the cat has finished its business and leaves the tray, an air filter switches on.  Ten minutes later, a robotic rake sweeps away the by then clumped litter into a waste tray which it opens then seals on its way back.  The waste tray only needs emptying about once a week.  To use this properly, you will need good quality clumping litter and a handy mains power outlet.

Automatic cat litter boxes really are the best option both for the cat and for their owner.  They are far more hygienic than normal litter trays; the human doesn't have to touch the waste and the cat doesn't have to come into contact with it either.  This is particularly good for cats which are prone to cystitis or other infections.