Litter tray management is a fundamental welfare issue for indoor cats because inadequate provision is the leading cause of house soiling, a major source of cat abandonment, and an indicator of preventable chronic stress.
Litter tray welfare is an unsexy but genuinely important welfare topic because getting it wrong leads directly to house soiling, which leads to owner frustration, which leads to abandonment. Cats avoid trays that are too small, too dirty, too covered, too scented, or in the wrong location — and they have no way of communicating their preferences except by eliminating elsewhere. Understanding litter management as a welfare issue rather than a housekeeping problem transforms the owner response from punishment to problem-solving. Most litter-related behavioural issues resolve entirely when tray provision is optimised, without any other intervention.