Litter Box Litter Mats in Review

Anyone who owns a cat that uses a litter box indoors knows the problem: cat litter sticks to their paws after they've done their business and is then spread throughout the entire home. litter box Litter mats promise to help, and we've put them to the test.

We share our home with 3 cats, 2 of whom regularly use the litter boxes indoors. Since they are long-haired cats with particularly long fur between their paw pads, the issue of clinging cat litter is especially severe.

We've already tried many different types of cat litter (The best cat litter – eight different products put to the test!), but none of them could satisfactorily prevent the tracking of cat litter throughout the house.

Therefore, we decided to conduct another test with our feline friends and tried out two different types of litter box Litter mats.

The first variant catches the Litter in a mesh of loosely woven, fine plastic hairs. When the cat walks over the mat, the individual pellets get caught in this mesh.

The second type of cat litter mat consists of two superimposed layers. The first layer is a honeycomb-shaped grid where the cat litter pellets are brushed off and fall onto the second layer, where they are collected. To remove the accumulated cat litter, the Litter mat is open on the short sides.

Our assessment criteria were:

1. Were the cats bothered by the Litter mat?
2. How well was the tracking of cat litter prevented?
3. How easy was it to remove the cat litter from the Litter mat?
4. How easy was it to clean the Litter mat?

Test Result

1. Both Litter mats did not bother our two cats at all. We observed no change in their behavior when entering or leaving the litter boxes.
   
   
2. Both Litter mats prevented the tracking of cat litter well to very well. We found hardly any cat litter pellets in the apartment, and the daily vacuuming or sweeping up of crumbs is finally no longer necessary!
   
   
   
   
3. From the sieve-style Litter mat, the cat litter can be easily and quickly poured back into the litter box. With the Litter mat made of plastic hairs, the pellets must be vacuumed out of the mat, which is much more cumbersome and doesn't completely succeed.
   
4. The sieve-style Litter mat is also particularly practical for cleaning. One of our cats regularly manages to urinate outside the box. Since the two layers of the sieve-style Litter mat are connected with Velcro, they can be easily separated and cleaned individually under running water with detergent. They can also be easily wiped dry. While the plastic hair mat can also be cleaned under running water, it doesn't get truly clean, and it takes a long time to dry. After a few weeks, it also smelled distinctly of urine, and we had to dispose of it.

Conclusion of our litter box Litter mat Test

For us, the sieve-style Litter mat is the clear winner in this test, and we are very satisfied with it. Thanks to its rounded upper mat, it also has the Benefit that our round litter box can be placed on the lower mat, so the Litter mat never slips. It is certainly important to choose a sufficiently large mat and place it in the correct spot in front of the box, i.e., in front of the exit for enclosed litter boxes, and where the cat normally leaves the box for open litter boxes. Because only if the cat walks over the Litter mat after using the litter box can the pellets be brushed off.