Cleaning Cat Urine the Easy and Effective Way

cat-litter-aliens Cleaning cat urine and getting rid of all the lingering odor can be a tough job, as just about any cat care-taker can tell you. Part of the reason it seems so difficult is that cat urine really is more tenacious than dog or human urine.

What works to remove your dog’s or your child’s “little accident” won’t work on kitty’s pool of piddle. With the right tools, though, getting rid of cat urine odor and stains can be remarkably easy and fast. Sorry, though, aliens aren’t going to do it for you.

Finding the Cat Urine

Sure, it’s easy enough to find the general area of the stain–your eyes and nose are a good enough detectors for that. The problem is that while you may find most of the urine, you’re unlikely to find it all. Cats tend to scatter urine onto walls and furniture when the scratch around to “bury” their leavings. These little droplets may not leave a strong odor or visible smell, but they can attract your cat back to the same area to strike again. So unless you want to be cleaning that area repeatedly, you’ll need to eliminate all traces of urine.

Fortunately, there’s a very easy way to find all the cat urine in a particular area. Just turn the lights off and shine a black light (UV light) on the area where you want to find the cat urine. The cat pee will glow a dull yellow or white. Be forewarned, though, that this method also turns up any remnants of other organic stains, such as blood, vomit or other animal or human urine. You may not like what you find. 🙂

Eliminating the Cat Urine

Once you’ve identified all the stained areas, you’ll need an effective cleaner that eliminates all the odor and hopefully does so the first time around. Both homemade cleaners and store-bought cleaners can be equally effective. With the homemade cleaner, of course, you’ll need to collect the ingredients and proper containers and mix up the cleaner yourself. This isn’t difficult and will probably save you some money, but if you’re in a hurry, you may prefer to buy store-bought cleaner.

If you’ve already tried a few basic carpet cleaners or pet urine removers and they haven’t worked, don’t give up! There are products that work well. General cleaners and cleaners designed for dog urine won’t do it, though. What you want is a cleaner that mentions removing cat urine specifically, such as Dumb Cat Anti-Marking & Cat Spray by Life’s Great Products.

Not all of these products work the same way, so carefully read the instructions and follow them as precisely as possible. If you just dump the cleaner on the stain and scrub, you may be wasting your time. For instance, with enzymatic cleaners, you’ll need to make sure there’s no soap or detergent residue, such as carpet cleaner, on the stained area because this residue could kill the live enzymes, making the enzymatic cleaner useless.

By using the UV light method to find all the lingering cat urine stains and applying a proven-effective cleaner, you could be rid of all your cat pee problems in one day. With a particularly deep or wide-spread stain, you may need more than one application even of the best product, but as long as you’re working with a highly recommended product, don’t give up too soon.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

Effective Cat Urine Smell Removal Methods

As you’ve no doubt noticed, cat urine smell removal isn’t easy to accomplish using ordinary household cleaners. Even harsh chemicals like bleach can’t effectively break down the odor-containing crystals in cat urine and eliminate the smell. On the other hand, some very gentle, natural cleaners can break down these crystals so you can wash them–and the smell–out of your carpets, furniture, hardwood floors or wherever else your kitty piddled.

Find All of It

Cats are naturally drawn to urinate wherever they smell cat urine. Keep in mind that your cat’s nose is a lot more sensitive than yours. You may have removed the stains and maybe the cleaned item even passed the “smell test,” but there may be traces of leftover urine in the area where the cat wet. And a tiny trace may be enough to indicate to your cat that the area is appropriate for use as a litter box. You won’t find these traces by smelling for them.

Instead, use the easier and more effective method of darkening the room as much as possible and shining a black light (UV light) around the room. The cat urine, as well as any other organic stains like blood, will glow a dull yellow or white. You’ll probably see specks on the walls and furniture you didn’t even know were there. These should all be cleaned so the cat doesn’t stike there again.

Apply an Effective Cleaner

Both homemade and store-bought cleaners can be effective for cat urine smell removal. When combined correctly, certain household products like baking soda, mouthwash, and vinegar can break down and remove tough cat urine. A commercially made cleaner containing enzymes is another option. Enzymes are naturally occurring proteins that break down organic material like proteins, fats and carbohydrates. For urine, you’ll probably end up with a formula containing protease and/or amylase enzymes. Just make sure the formula you choose specifically states on the packaging that it’s effective on cat pee. Otherwise, it may be too weak to do much good.

Follow the Correct Cleaning Procedures

Homemade cleaners are dependent on specific chemical reactions, so as long as you follow the basic procedure for mixing and applying the blend, chances are it will work. For instance, if you use white vinegar to mop up a fresh puddle on the linoleum, as long as you use a strong enough solution (1 cup vinegar per gallon of water), it should remove the odor.

Enzyme cleaners are a bit tricker. These cleaners contain biologically active material (enzymes) that area sensitive to temperature, moisture levels and chemicals. Applying such a cleaner to a carpet you’ve already tried to clean with chemicals could deactivate the enzymes, making them useless. If you’ve already applied chemicals, rinse the area with plain water before using the enzyme cleaner. These cleaners should also stay moist and at least room temperature the entire time they’re left to work, which should be at least 12 hours.

Keep in mind, though, effective and long-term cat urine smell removal depends on ensuring that kitty doesn’t wet in the same place again. You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

Learn How to Completely Eliminate Your Cat Urine Problem

You love your kitty, but a cat urine problem can quickly become so intolerable you consider re-homing her. When your house smells of cat pee and every morning or when you get home from work you find another wet spot somewhere in the house, it can drive you crazy. Eventually, you may even stop having people over because of the smell. That nasty odor isn’t good for your health either. The ammonia content in cat urine can irritate your airways and may eventually cause breathing problems. With a little patience and understanding of feline behavior, though, you can get rid of your cat urine problem for good.

Get to the Root Cause

By instinct, cats choose one place to do their business and consistently do it only their. Its not natural for a cat to pee all over the house. If your cat’s doing this, something is wrong. Unless you find out why your cats urinating where she shouldn’t and solve that problem, the most effective cat urine odor removal product in the world wont get rid of your cat urine problem.

Your first step should be to take your cat to the vet to have him checked for health problems that can cause inappropriate urination. If your cat turns out to be healthy, the cause may be stress. A change in a cat’s environment or routine, no matter how small, can seriously stress a cat. If nothing’s changed (not even a new cat in the neighborhood), something may be preventing your cat from using the box. It could be the litter, the box’s location or a cleaner you’ve used on the box, a child who likes to bother kitty when she’s in the box or another cat bullying her away from the box.

Keep in mind, too, that your cat may not stop wetting in a particular area until you completely neutralize the odor of cat urine there. This means you may have to clean a few times while your getting your cat back into the box-only habit.

Get Rid of That Cat Urine Smell

Cat pee–there’s nothing quite like it. It reeks to high heaven and it’s seemingly indestructible. Sometimes you feel the only thing you can take comfort in is the fact that house cat urine still isn’t quite as bad as bobcat urine. 🙂 As stubborn as cat urine odor might be, though, you can clean it up and eliminate that smell from your house.

You have two basic choices–homemade cleaners and commercially made enzyme-based cleaners. Both can eliminate odors from a cat urine problem. For homemade cleaners, you’ll need a proven-effective recipe because some only eliminate the odor you can smell, but leave a trace the cat can smell. The risk is the same with enzyme cleaners. Some do work great on cat pee, but others are only effective on lighter odors like dog urine.

Using the right cleaning procedure is also important. With the homemade cleaners you have a bit more flexibility and they should work as long as you follow the basic procedure. Enzyme cleaners, however, contain natural proteins (enzymes) that are affected by chemicals and temperature. It’s essential to use these products exactly as the manufacturer directs to allow the enzymes to work. At worst, you could kill the enzymes and the product will be little better than water.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

How Do You Get Rid Of Cat Urine Smell for Good? Find Out!

Struggle with cat urine smell long enough and it can start to seem like you’ll never really get rid of the odor entirely. Even asking “How do you get rid of cat urine smell?” feels like a waste of time. If you’re getting frustrated, rest assured that is possible to eliminate cat urine odor without getting rid of your cat. The only thing standing between you and a fresh smelling home free of cat pee smell is the right cleaning solution and proper cat “management.”

Why Cat Urine is So Stubborn

Cat urine really does cling to most surfaces. The uric acid in cat urine forms crystals that adhere almost anywhere they’re put and are impervious to water and most cleaning solutions. It’s these crystals that produce that unmistakable pungent cat pee odor. Other components in urine create the stains, so while it’s fairly easy to get the stains out, removing the smell is a lot tougher. In order to get rid of cat urine smell, you need something capable of breaking down the crystals on a chemical level.

Homemade Cat Urine Removal Recipes

A number of other fairly common household products can help you clean up the stains and smells. These include vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, liquid Castile soap, hydrogen peroxide and certain types of mouthwash. Usually, one of these ingredients alone won’t help much. The right amount in the right combination with other ingredients either boosts the mixture’s overall cleaning power or creates a chemical reaction that breaks up and lifts out the cat urine crystals.

You can work with a proven-effective recipe or experiment to come up with your own. Just use some precautions when you create your own blends. Never mix vinegar and hydrogen peroxide or you’ll end up with peracetic acid, which is corrosive and toxic. Storing baking soda and hydrogen peroxide in a closed bottle will cause a fizzy, messy explosion. It’s also important to use the gentlest natural cleaners on delicate materials like silk. White vinegar is safe for almost all items, although brown vinegar may stain.

Commercial Cat Urine Removal Products

Look for pet urine odor removal products in the pet supply store or other store’s cleaning supply section and you’ll find most of them credit enzymes for their effectiveness. These cleaners use naturally occurring proteins (enzymes) that break down organic material including urine, sweat, blood and vomit. Not all of these products totally eliminate cat urine, though. Some are just too weak. Others contain the wrong kind of enzymes. Protease is the enzyme that breaks down protein stains like urine, although amylase, which breaks down starch, may also help. Avoid using large amounts of protease-based enzyme cleaners on your carpets and furniture, though, because inhaling these enzymes for an extended period can irritate your airways. The right cleaning procedure is crucial with enzyme products. They need to remain damp for at least 12 hours in order to effectively get rid of cat urine smell.

Although these cleaning products should do the trick if used correctly, you’ll also need to pin-point and deal with the reason your cat’s peeing in the house. You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

Cat Urinating in the House? Here’s What You Can Do!

No matter how much you love your kitty, a cat urinating in the house can quickly become a major headache. Maybe you’re at that point already: disgusted with the persistant odors, worried your guests will notice “the smell,” frustrated with finding yet another wet spot even after you’ve done everything you can think of to stop you cat from peeing everywhere.

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Although it may seem like it at times, your cat isn’t doing this because she hates you or she’s trying to control you. Sure, cats can be manipulative sometimes, but rest assured that cats don’t pee on the carpet or furniture or anywhere else to get revenge or because they just don’t like you. Think about it–they’re not offended by the smell of their own urine (unless it gets really extreme), so it doesn’t even occur to them that you might be. If your cat’s urinating in the house, there’s a real reason with a practical and possibly very simple solution. You can stop your cat from urinating in the house and, with the right cleaning solution, totally eliminate the urine odor.

Dealing with the causes of inappropriate urination usually isn’t complicated or expensive. You may need to have a health problem treated, change something about the litter box, plug in a feline pheromone defuser (they’re less than $20), or simply clean up old urine stains that are attracting your cat (see: tips on cleaning cat urine). The biggest problem is in accurately identifying what’s causing your cat to avoid the litter box. For help with that, check out the info on why cats urinate in the house.

Vinegar And Cat Urine: Tips on Using Vinegar for Cat Urine Removal

Search online for natural cat urine odor removers and you’ll probably come across a few tips for using vinegar to get rid of cat pee stains and odors. While vinegar is rarely enough to remove urine that’s been left for more than a few hours, it does have its uses. It’s gentle, natural and lifts out odors well. Vinegar leaves its own pungent odor behind, but that goes away in an hour or so. If you use a large amount, you may find the area smells like a salad bar for a few days, but that odor will eventually fade.

Mopping up Fresh Puddles

Vinegar is a good first-line treatment for any freshly deposited cat urine puddles you may find. While brown vinegar is equally capable of cleaning cat urine, it may leave a yellowish or brown film, so white is preferable. For tile or hardwood floors, mix 1 cup of white vinegar in 1 gallon of water and mop or wipe down the soiled area with this solution. Vinegar’s not the best choice for carpets and other absorbent material, though. On soft surfaces, vinegar alone may work on fresher spots, but it’s more effective with other ingredients.

Removing Cat Urine from Clothes

Because vinegar is so gentle, you can safely use it to get cat pee out of non-delicate machine washable clothing. Fill up the wash machine and add half a cup of white vinegar and two capfuls of any mouthwash that contains alcohol. Next check if your powdered detergent contains Borax. If it does, add another 1/4 cup to the amount of powdered detergent you’d normally use. If your detergent doesn’t already contain Borax, add a 1/2 cup. Add the detergent/Borax to the machine and wash the clothes as usual. You’ll need a different cleaning method to get cat urine smell out of clothes that require hand-washing or dry cleaning.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.

Warnings

Some of the most effective cleaners for cat urine are those that use live enzymes and bacteria. These micro-organisms eat away at the uric acid crystals that make older cat urine stains so hard to remove. Because they’re alive, though, they’re sensitive to chemicals, including vinegar. If you’re planning to use vinegar and an enzyme cleaner, check that the brand you have won’t be damaged by vinegar. If you decide to experiment with making your own homemade cleaner, don’t mix vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in the same container. The combination creates peracetic acid, which is corrosive and toxic. Also avoid cleaning the litter box with vinegar. Some cats hate the smell and it could make them avoid the litter box, worsening your problems.

Cleaning Cat Urine: Removing Old Urine Stains

Cats identify appropriate areas to urinate based on the odor of cat urine, whether their own or another cat’s. If you’re trying to get your cat to stop using a particular location as a litter box, it’s essential to remove all traces of cat urine smell. The same goes if you’ve just moved into a new house or apartment where the previous owners had cats. If those cats wet on the carpets anywhere, your cat will most likely detect that odor and start wetting there simply because she thinks that’s where she’s supposed to go.

And finally if you move into a place with detectable cat urine odor, you’ll need to get rid of that odor for your own health. Cat urine contains a high concentration of ammonia, which can irritate and even damage your lungs. Keep in mind, too, that if you wait too long, you may become so used to the smell that you cant even detect it…but your guests will be able to.

Find it All First

The first way to find cat urine stains and odor sources is to simply look and smell around. The problem with this method is that not only is it unpleasant (who wants to walk around inhaling cat pee smell?), it’s also ineffective. Older cat urine spots probably won’t be visible, especially on dark carpet, and the smell may have dissipated so much that you can’t smell it, but your cat can.

To prevent future problems, you’ll need to find all the stains and remove them completely. The easy way to do this is by making the room as dark as possible and shining a black light flashlight around the room. These flashlights are normally sold for finding scorpions in the dark, but they also show organic stains including urine, blood and vomit from human or animal. Outline the soiled areas with tailor’s chalk or tape so you can find them once you turn the lights on. If you try this, though, be prepared to find lots of nasty stains on the carpet, especially if it’s an older one.

Apply the Proper Cleaning Solution

Not all pet urine odor removal products work on all pet urine. Dog urine isn’t quite as tenacious as cat urine, so products for dog urine may not work well for you. Don’t think a cleaner that gets rid of most of the odor is enough, either. Some cleaners remove the odors humans can smell, but leave a trace the cat can smell, so kitty will keep returning and urinating on that spot. In the right combination and applied correctly, certain household products like baking soda, mouthwash, and vinegar can break down and remove tough cat urine. Alternatively, you can use a store-bought cleaner based on enzymes or bacteria that break down the crystals in cat urine.

You can solve your cat’s inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Instead of wasting time learning by trial and error, read the book Cat Urine Problems Eliminated to discover proven-effective ways to retrain your cat and regain your home.