This is a specific conversation about Cat litter boxes — size, type, and placement — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
Ambushing at the litter box entrance is a classic hooded-box problem — the single exit turns it into a trap, and a bolder cat quickly learns that. Switching to an open tray removes that chokepoint entirely, which is the right instinct. Before I point you toward a specific tray, a couple of quick questions: how many cats do you have, roughly how big are they, and is the ambushing cat doing this consistently or only occasionally?
Two cats — one is quite large, maybe 5kg, and one is smaller, around 3.5kg. The bigger one ambushes the smaller one pretty much every time she tries to use the box. We only have one litter box at the moment.
inparticular.ai
That's a really important detail — one box for two cats is part of the problem regardless of the hood. The rule of thumb is one box per cat plus one extra, so you're aiming for three boxes ideally, or at minimum two. For a 5kg cat you also need a genuinely large tray, because most standard ones are too short for a big cat to turn around comfortably. What's your setup like — do you have space in a couple of different rooms, or are you working with one area?
We could do two boxes in different rooms. We have a utility room and a bedroom we could use. Would two be enough?
inparticular.ai
Two in separate rooms would make a real difference — the key is that the smaller cat always has an escape route and can't be cornered. For the tray itself, I'd go with the Savic Senator Open Litter Tray. It's one of the genuinely large open trays on the UK market — 56cm long — so your bigger cat fits properly, and the low front entry means the smaller cat can bolt quickly without having to squeeze through a hood. Get two of those, place one in each room, and you should see the ambushing stop within a week or two once the smaller cat realises she always has an alternative. Keep them well apart so neither box feels like the other cat's territory.
That makes sense. Should I get rid of the hooded box completely or keep it as the third option?
inparticular.ai
I'd retire it, at least for now. If you keep the hooded box in the mix, the larger cat may claim it and you're back to the same trap dynamic. Two open trays in separate locations gives the anxious cat genuine freedom of choice, which is what you need to break the pattern. Once things have settled down for a month or so and the ambushing has stopped, you could reintroduce a hood in one spot if tidiness is a concern — but honestly, most cats are happier without them, and open trays are much easier to keep clean anyway.
Perfect, that all makes sense. I'll order two of the Savic Senator trays. Thanks.
inparticular.ai
Good plan. Give it a couple of weeks and you should notice the smaller cat using the box much more confidently. If the ambushing continues even with two open trays in different rooms, that's a wider territorial issue worth looking at — but in most cases, removing the hooded box and adding a second location sorts it completely.
