Enclosed, cabinet and top-entry boxes

Almost everyone searching for these wants the same thing: the box out of sight. That is a completely reasonable goal, and it is worth knowing what each way of achieving it costs the cat, because the cat gets a vote and exercises it.

The four approaches

Hooded tray

A standard tray with a clip-on dome and usually a flap. Cheap, widely stocked, and the easiest to reverse if the cat objects, since you can simply take the hood off. Contains scatter well, contains smell inside the box rather than removing it.

Cabinet

A piece of furniture with a cat door and a tray inside. This is the version most people actually want, because it puts the box in a living space without it reading as a litter box. The two things to check are internal clearance and airflow: a sealed box in a sealed cabinet is unpleasant to stand in.

Top-entry

A sealed tub with a hole in the lid. Excellent at stopping scatter and at keeping dogs out. Bad for any cat that cannot jump comfortably, which includes kittens, seniors and overweight cats, and impossible for a cat recovering from surgery.

Enclosed automatic

The drum-style automatics are enclosed boxes by design. They solve the smell problem properly by removing waste rather than trapping it, and they look like appliances rather than trays. They are also the most expensive answer by a wide margin, and they have their own entry height and weight constraints.

What to check before buying

• Internal dimensions, not external. A cabinet 60cm wide with thick walls and a plumbing chase can be 45cm inside, which is too small for a large cat to turn in.
• Ventilation. An open or vented back panel, or a gap under the door. A sealed cabinet concentrates ammonia at cat height.
• Door removal. Flaps are the most common single reason cats refuse a hooded box. Buy one where the flap comes off and start without it.
• Cleaning access. If you have to lift a heavy lid and reach in at an angle, you will scoop less often, and the whole point was to make the box pleasant to live with.

If your cat stops using an enclosed box

Take the door off first, then the hood. If that fixes it, you have your answer and a hoodless tray in a discreet spot is the compromise. If it does not, the enclosure was not the problem, and it is worth reading the page on litter box avoidance, which starts with the medical causes rather than the behavioural ones.

Where to buy them

Cabinets and hooded trays are one of the few parts of this category where the big Australian retailers are genuinely competitive, and the specialist brands offer little the general retailers do not. We cover what Kmart, Big W and Target stock and what the pet chains and Bunnings carry, and we earn nothing from any of them.

Common questions

Are enclosed litter boxes bad for cats?

Not inherently, but they take away things cats value: sightlines, escape routes and airflow. A confident single cat in a quiet house often does not care. A nervous cat, or one in a multi-cat home where being cornered is a real risk, frequently does. The rule of thumb is that if you are adding a hood to solve a smell problem, you are solving your problem by making the cat's worse.

Do litter box cabinets work?

As furniture, yes, and they are the most popular version of this idea in Australia because they let a box live in a lounge room. What they need is genuine ventilation and enough internal room for the cat to turn around, and cheap cabinets often provide neither. Check the internal dimensions rather than the external ones, and look for a back panel that is open or vented.

What is a top-entry litter box for?

Two problems: litter scatter, because the cat climbs out through a lip that knocks litter off its paws, and dogs, because most dogs cannot get into one. They are poor choices for kittens, elderly cats and anything with joint problems, since the cat must jump up and down every time.