# Dog litter box?



## curly_DC

Where can I purchase a dog litter pan or box online? Petco no longer carries Purina Second Nature dog litter box with the dog litter. I searched ebay, Petsmart, Petstore, can't find one. Thank you.


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## Tom King

Sterilite boxes from Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot work fine. You just have to get one of the low sided ones. I make the ones we start puppies in out of a Sterilite box. I cut one side down to a height that we want with a utility knife blade clamped in ViseGrips, heated up red hot with a propane torch-don't do this inside.....

I knew that the standard size Second Nature boxes were no longer available a while back. Maybe they discontinued all of them???


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## curly_DC

What about a large cat litter bix like this? The short side to step in tge box is 6". Is that too high?

http://www.petco.com/product/108493/Petco-Mega-Rectangular-Litter-Box.aspx


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## Tom King

The Standard size that we use mostly, has a 3" high entry, and the sides are 5 1/4". Puppies usually start jumping over the sides when they are 8 weeks old. 6" seems a little high.


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## Tom King

I did some looking online. Looks like they are no available anymore unless you can find them in stock somewhere.

Carealot still has them listed. The mini size is the size we use most of the time.

http://www.carealotpets.com/products/second-nature-litter-pan__6844e.aspx


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## curly_DC

Thanks!


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## curly_DC

My dog is about 24 months and house trained to use potty pads. However I want him to also learn to gi outside and use a litter box instead of pads. I live in an apartment and just in case we can't make it outside for him to go.


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## Tom King

When you get the box, at first put a pad in it that he's used to. Some days later put a little litter in it (we use wood pellets). Gradually increase the amount of litter until it takes over the box.


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## curly_DC

Thanks. I was planning on using Purina Second Nature dog litter. What size wood chips do you use? Where to buy? Home Depot?


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## Tom King

We used Second Nature for years since it first came out, but for a few years now we have switched to wood pellets, that we like a lot better. Without getting into specifics about various reasons we like the wood pellets better, last I looked, the Second Nature was $18 for a 20 pound bag. Wood pellets are 5 or 6 dollars for a 40 pound bag.

The wood pellets look like they come out of the same extruder as the recycled newspaper ones. Look for pellets for pellet burning stoves. Smooth grained hardwoods work best. Oak has too much smell from the tanins, and it breaks down just from the pup walking on it. If you can't find those, pine pellets for horse stalls work fine. Tractor Supply, or farm suppliers carry those.


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## MBornadams

Tom King said:


> I did some looking online. Looks like they are no available anymore unless you can find them in stock somewhere.
> 
> Carealot still has them listed. The mini size is the size we use most of the time.
> 
> http://www.carealotpets.com/products/second-nature-litter-pan__6844e.aspx


Hi All!

We need advice...our little "Maui" is 7 mos. old...and has been house trained with the "Poochie Bell system " Yeah!! So far it works well...he lets us know he needs to go out to take care of business in the back yard. I always take him on leash, as I want to see if he's taken care of business and what it looks like (sorry for the details .

My question is, is it possible or smart to train "Maui" to also use a porch-type of potty pad system outside on our deck? The reason I am asking is that it is very muddy out in our back yard. Also, it would be helpful when we have those rainy days that no one wants to go out, hee, hee.....

I would still take "Maui" on his daily walks....Just curious if "trying" to train him to also use a potty pad system on the deck would confuse him.

I also thought of a dog litter box or pee pad system in the house. I really don't want to confuse....Where do people put litter boxes/pee pad systems in the household- -so, not to be an eye sore.

Can anyone suggest what to do or the system that works for their little guy/girl .

Thanks for your time and help....Have a great day!

XO,
Marie-Marie!!


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## curly_DC

I thought I would follow up to my post about the dog litter box. I did try the litter box with wood pellets. Great concept. However, my dog did not like the idea. I would put him on the wood pellets in the box, and he would just immediately jump out of it. The wood pellets seemed really hurt my own feet when I stepped on them, just to see what they felt like. Maybe to a dog's paws they don't hurt. It was a great idea. Just didn't work with my 2-year-old Sergio. He likes to go outside. Although, when it rains, that seems to interfere with his sniffing abilities. He doesn't dislike the rain or snow, but he can't seem to sniff and "go potty" when the ground is really wet. I haven't quite figured out what to do about that. It just takes him a bit longer to go outside if the ground is wet.


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## HannahBearsMom

Tom King said:


> I did some looking online. Looks like they are no available anymore unless you can find them in stock somewhere.
> 
> Carealot still has them listed. The mini size is the size we use most of the time.
> 
> http://www.carealotpets.com/products/second-nature-litter-pan__6844e.aspx


I was about to purchase 3 litter boxed @ $18.95 each. Shipping from Care-A-Lot's Virginia Beach location to my home in Northern Virginia (just outside Washington, DC) was $46! I called Care-A-Lot and the person I spoke with confirmed the shipping charge was correct.

I'm still looking for an alternative.


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## curly_DC

HannahBearsMom said:


> I was about to purchase 3 litter boxed @ $18.95 each. Shipping from Care-A-Lot's Virginia Beach location to my home in Northern Virginia (just outside Washington, DC) was $46! I called Care-A-Lot and the person I spoke with confirmed the shipping charge was correct.
> 
> I'm still looking for an alternative.


I live in NoVa. You're more than welcome to have my litter box that I purchased from Care A Lot. I wasn't sure what to do with it. It's never been used. PM me if you want to pick it up in a public place. Wood pellets are only $5 for I think a 40 lb. bag. I got rid of those.


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## krandall

curly_DC said:


> I thought I would follow up to my post about the dog litter box. I did try the litter box with wood pellets. Great concept. However, my dog did not like the idea. I would put him on the wood pellets in the box, and he would just immediately jump out of it. The wood pellets seemed really hurt my own feet when I stepped on them, just to see what they felt like. Maybe to a dog's paws they don't hurt. It was a great idea. Just didn't work with my 2-year-old Sergio. He likes to go outside. Although, when it rains, that seems to interfere with his sniffing abilities. He doesn't dislike the rain or snow, but he can't seem to sniff and "go potty" when the ground is really wet. I haven't quite figured out what to do about that. It just takes him a bit longer to go outside if the ground is wet.


Yeah, I think it would probably be a LOT harder getting an adult dog to use a litter box if they weren't used to it. I know that, at one point, I tried to get Kodi to use a pee pad, simply because that would be mmore convenient than a litter box when traveling. Huh, huh, nope, no way, no how.:biggrin1:


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## tootle

We use the plastic tray that goes under washing machines that you can find at places like Home Depot


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## Tom King

Care-A-Lot is out of them too. So is everyone else. We were going to drive to Va. Beach (shipping cost more than the box) and get what they had left, but the last one left a week or so ago. Pam even called Purina, and they are no longer having any made. I'm in the process of working on something that will work for people getting our puppies.

I think it's really hard to get an adult, who wasn't raised on them to start with, to switch to using pellets. I'm sure they don't hurt the dogs feet, but one pellet will absolutely hurt my foot if I step on one. I have learned how to walk in areas where a stray pellet might be though.

I can improve on the Purina box. The sides should be a little higher to contain the litter better, and the entrance should be just high enough that it's not comfortable for a 10 week old boy to only put his front feet in. Width needs to be exactly 24" to fill one space in a folded in expen. I called Flambeau, but they want to make a minimum of 5,000.


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## Carefulove

I use a long Sterilite box from Walmart. 

When we first got Toby I got a few of the cat litter boxes from Target and they worked great for a while. For some reason, Toby likes to use the box while he is standing Sideways, so he started leaving his back legs out of the box and peeing on the floor right against the box. That is when I went to Walmart and got a low but long Sterilite box and it's working great so far!


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## krandall

Carefulove said:


> I use a long Sterilite box from Walmart.
> 
> When we first got Toby I got a few of the cat litter boxes from Target and they worked great for a while. For some reason, Toby likes to use the box while he is standing Sideways, so he started leaving his back legs out of the box and peeing on the floor right against the box. That is when I went to Walmart and got a low but long Sterilite box and it's working great so far!


That's exactly what happened with Kodi as he started getting a bit bigger, and why we switched to the Rascal Dog litter box. The Walmart Sterlite would have been a lot cheaper, though!


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## Tom King

I think the height of the entry is very important for some males dogs. Front feet in only is a phase for some males. If the entry height was just high enough so it is not comfortable to just stand across it, I feel like it would work a lot better. The Purina boxes (no longer manufactured anyway) have too comfortable of a lowered entry.

If you do have a problem with front feet in only, push the litter to the back 1/2 or 2/3s of the box, so he has to get all the way in to get his feet on the litter, or get one that he has to do a little jump to get into.

We're still searching for exactly the right box.


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## HannahBearsMom

> I use a long Sterilite box from Walmart.
> 
> When we first got Toby I got a few of the cat litter boxes from Target and they worked great for a while. For some reason, Toby likes to use the box while he is standing Sideways, so he started leaving his back legs out of the box and peeing on the floor right against the box. That is when I went to Walmart and got a low but long Sterilite box and it's working great so far!





> That's exactly what happened with Kodi as he started getting a bit bigger, and why we switched to the Rascal Dog litter box. The Walmart Sterlite would have been a lot cheaper, though!​


I'm looking at a couple boxes to use as litter boxes for Maccabee. The first is a Sterilite box measuring 23" x 16" x 6" and the second is a Container Store box measuring 27-1/8" x 16" x 6-1/4"

I like the idea of 4 extra inches with the Container Store box, but I'm wondering if it will be too tall for him to jump into. I guess I could get one of each (both for less than the price of the discontinued SecondNature box!). I want to place an extra box or two in the living area and kitchen so we can give him more freedom (when we are able to pay attention to him), and one for upstairs in my bedroom for right before bed and early mornings.

(I'm going to also post this in Tom's potty system thread)


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## krandall

HannahBearsMom said:


> I'm looking at a couple boxes to use as litter boxes for Maccabee. The first is a Sterilite box measuring 23" x 16" x 6" and the second is a Container Store box measuring 27-1/8" x 16" x 6-1/4"
> 
> I like the idea of 4 extra inches with the Container Store box, but I'm wondering if it will be too tall for him to jump into. I guess I could get one of each (both for less than the price of the discontinued SecondNature box!). I want to place an extra box or two in the living area and kitchen so we can give him more freedom (when we are able to pay attention to him), and one for upstairs in my bedroom for right before bed and early mornings.
> 
> (I'm going to also post this in Tom's potty system thread)


The good thing IS that they are cheap enough to experiment with. For Kodi, it is all about turning radius. As he started to grow, all of a sudden, he started pooping outside (but right next to) the litter box rather than in it. Then I caught him in the act, and saw that the problem was that he had gotten large enought that he couldn't comfortably make his "potty dance" circle INSIDE the box. So he was TRYING to be food by going as close to the litter box as he could. I got a bigger box, and the problem was solved over night!


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## HannahBearsMom

So far, the 23" x 16" x 6" Sterilite box is not working for us. After I set it up, Maccabee ran at it and jumped right in. He jumped out, but it was more difficult for him than getting in. I gave him some extra freedom last night, blocking off all exits to the living room and letting him roam freely while Hannah and I kept an eye on him. 

I caught him as he started pooping right next to the new litter box, scooped him up and placed him in the box in his expen to finish. He was playing with a bed I took out of his expen and placed on the living room floor (he never liked sleeping on that bed). Hannah and I noticed it was wet, but thought it was because Maccabee was chewing on it, folding it and chewing, licking, etc. After Hannah went to bed, I looked more closely and noticed the bed was much too wet to be just saliva and lifted it up to discover a small wet spot beneath it. I tossed the bed into the wash and doused the wet spot with Nature's Miracle. This morning he pooped near the new litter box again, and he may have peed in a different spot (I used Nature's Miracle even though I'm not certain he peed). 

Maccabee DID use the new litter box upstairs, in my bedroom, when I placed him in it right after I removed him from his crate this morning. In fact, he used it twice: once when we first awoke, and once after I showered (he was in the crate while I showered). Both times, I placed him in the litter box which was on top of his crate (I stood close by to make sure he didn't jump out.

Do I need to introduce the new litter box to him somehow? I'm thinking about putting the new litter box in his expen along with the old one. I'm not sure what else to try, other than cutting down one side to make a lower entrance (and I'm not even sure that is the problem).


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## krandall

Talk to Pam & Tom, but I'm guessing it's just too hard for him. I had no problem switching Kodi from one litter box to another, and my original litter box didn't look exactly like what Pam and Tom were using. BUT... ALL of them were easy to get in and out of. I don't think it takes much to discourage them when they are still learning the ropes. My experience with Kodi was that if he was pottying NEAR the box, he was trying, then it was my job to figure out what was keeping him from being completely successful. I think I'd cut down a big section of the long side to make it really easy for him to get in AND out. You wan the right thing to do to be the EASY thing to do.


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## HannahBearsMom

krandall said:


> Talk to Pam & Tom, but I'm guessing it's just too hard for him. I had no problem switching Kodi from one litter box to another, and my original litter box didn't look exactly like what Pam and Tom were using. BUT... ALL of them were easy to get in and out of. I don't think it takes much to discourage them when they are still learning the ropes. My experience with Kodi was that if he was pottying NEAR the box, he was trying, then it was my job to figure out what was keeping him from being completely successful. I think I'd cut down a big section of the long side to make it really easy for him to get in AND out. You wan the right thing to do to be the EASY thing to do.


I'm due for a call to Pam & Tom, so I will call them. I think I'll stick with the litter box he's used to, plus the one I can place him into (on top of his crate) until I can modify the Sterilite boxes this weekend.


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## Carefulove

Laurie,

also keep in mind that Maccabee will continue to grow and jumping in and out will become easier for him. The box may not work now but it may down the road.

Toby was over 16 wks I think when I got him the new box.


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