Best litter tray for Savannah cats

Savannah cats are a real edge case when it comes to litter trays — they're among the tallest domestic cats around, and almost every standard box on the market is genuinely too small for them. Most litter boxes are undersized even for ordinary cats, who need a tray at least 1.5 times their body length; for a three-year-old Savannah, that means you're looking at something seriously large. Covered boxes are tempting for tidiness but Savannahs in particular tend to reject them — they feel confined, and their height makes the ceiling of most covered trays a literal problem. How big is your cat — rough weight and body length if you know it — and are there any specific issues right now, like missing the tray, spraying the sides, or just refusing to use it?

That side-peeing is almost always a size and depth problem — he's backing up to do his business, his rear end clears the wall, and everything ends up on the floor. At 7kg and 90cm he's a big boy, and a standard tray simply won't contain him. How deep are the sides on his current tray, do you know? And is it covered or open-top?

Right, that's your problem. 12cm sides are nowhere near enough for a cat his size — he's basically standing in it and aiming straight over the edge. You need something with sides at least 20–25cm high and a footprint large enough that he can fully turn around without his backside overhanging. For a Savannah his size, my clear recommendation is the Savic Nestor Giant Litter Tray. It's one of the largest open-top trays available in the UK — around 59cm long and 39cm wide, with high sides — and it's built solidly enough to take a heavy cat without flexing. It won't fix things overnight if he's developed a habit of going near the tray rather than in it, so give it a good two or three weeks. Fill it deeper than you think necessary — 7 to 8cm of litter — because tall cats tend to dig dramatically and shallow fill makes the problem worse.

Most clumping litters work fine in it. For a Savannah I'd lean toward a heavier, coarser clumping clay or a wood-pellet litter rather than a fine lightweight one — fine litters travel further when a big cat kicks, and you'll find it all over the floor. Something like Catsan Clumping or wood pellet litters like Ökocat are good choices. The deeper fill I mentioned also helps a lot with scatter. One other thing: with just one cat, clean the tray daily if you can — Savannahs are fastidious and will start going elsewhere if the tray feels dirty to them, which at his size is the last thing you want.

Good call — it should sort the side-peeing within a couple of weeks once he's used to the extra depth. If he seems reluctant to switch at first, put the new tray right next to the old one for a week before removing the old one entirely. Cats are creatures of habit, but give him a clean, deep, giant tray and most of them come round quickly.