Cattery infections rarely travel on a cat. They travel on a hand, a scoop, a shared bowl, and a kitten that skipped isolation. The working numbers are short: 1 part bleach to 32 parts water, 2 deep cleans a week, 30 seconds of handwashing, 14 days of quarantine, and 1 litter per queen per year.
Why 1:32 and not a splash
Household bleach at 5 to 6 percent becomes an effective surface disinfectant at 1:32, which is 125 mL of bleach in 4 L of cool water, or roughly 1 cup per gallon. Stronger is not better. At 1:10 the solution is corrosive to stainless steel, degrades plastic trays in weeks, and irritates the airways of kittens in a closed room, which is why many breeders ventilate instead of pouring.
Three numbers decide whether the mix works. Contact time: the surface stays visibly wet for 10 minutes, then air dries. Potency: a bucket mixed at 08:00 is weak by the next morning, so it is dumped daily, not topped up. Temperature: cool water, because hot water drives the chlorine off in minutes and the smell tells you the active ingredient has left. Never combine bleach with an ammonia-based cleaner or with a urine enzyme product in the same bucket; the gas produced is the reason that rule exists.
Two deep cleans a week, two scoops a day
Daily work is scooping, twice a day, morning and evening, plus a wipe of the rim. Weekly work is 2 deep cleans, spaced 3 and 4 days apart, on the litter area and the kitten room floor. Between the 2 cleans, 1 midweek pass on high-touch spots: door handles, tap handles, scoop handles, and the scale used for weigh-ins.
Box count matters more than box hygiene. The rule is 1 box per cat plus 1, so 4 queens need 5 boxes, and a nursery with 6 kittens plus the queen needs 7. Fewer boxes means urine on the floor, and floor urine turns a cleanable surface into a permanent reservoir. A 14-day look at the floor is worth more than a monthly deep clean, because a damp patch behind a shelf is where ringworm and coccidia survive the routine.
Thirty seconds at the sink
Wash for 30 seconds with soap and running water before and after every contact with a cat, a litter tray, or a kitten. Count it: 30 seconds is 2 rounds of a slow chorus, well past the 5 to 10 seconds most people take. When hands are not visibly dirty and a sink is 20 m away, a 60 to 70 percent alcohol gel for 20 seconds is the fallback, not the default: gel does not remove the organic load that carries panleukopenia.
Put a sink or a gel station at the door of every room that holds cats, and 1 more at the isolation room. A cattery with 3 rooms and 1 sink means 1 of the 3 rooms is being entered with unwashed hands, which is the same as having no routine at all. Visitors wash first, before they touch a single kitten, and no visitor enters the nursery in the first 14 days after a new arrival.
Fourteen days in the isolation room
Every arrival, show return, or post-vet cat spends 14 days in a separate room with its own bowls, scoop, and cloth. Fourteen days covers the incubation window of the common upper respiratory infections and gives ringworm time to show itself on a cat that was exposed on the way in. A cat with sneezing or eye discharge on day 12 restarts the clock at day 14, and a kitten from an unknown origin is safer at 21 days.
Order of work is part of the design: clean the youngest and healthiest first, the isolation room last, then change clothes. Keep 1 set of shoes for the cattery and 1 pair for outside; a shoe sole carries more than a hand does, and the 5 steps from the door to the nursery are the ones that matter. Disinfect the isolation room daily, and its tray separately, never in the same sink as the nursery bowls.
The cleaning schedule that holds
| Zone | Times per week | Dilution | Wet contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Litter trays, full wash | 2 | 1:32 | 10 min |
| Kitten room floor and walls to 1 m | 2 | 1:32 | 10 min |
| Isolation room surfaces | 7 | 1:32 | 10 min |
| Food and water bowls | 7 | Hot wash at 60 C | 60 C, 2 min rinse |
| Carriers and show cages | 2 to 3, after trips | 1:32 | 10 min |
| Soft bedding and cat trees | 1 | Laundry at 60 C or steam | 60 C, 24 h to dry |
The pattern to notice is that dilution is uniform and frequency is not. Bowls and isolation surfaces need daily work; soft furnishings need heat, not bleach, because a cat tree cannot be soaked and a damp tree grows the problem you were fighting. Two trays and 2 sets of bedding per cat let 1 set dry for 24 hours, which matters more than any spray.
What bleach does not fix
Bleach is the wrong tool for 3 common problems. Ringworm spores survive a standard 1:32 contact on porous wood and fabric, so those items are replaced or steam cleaned instead. Coccidia oocysts are resistant to most routine disinfectants and need steam or a specific veterinary product used exactly as labelled. Panleukopenia is the exception in the other direction: it is killed by 1:32 with 10 minutes of wet contact, but only on a clean surface, because organic matter blocks the chlorine.
Clean before you disinfect: strip litter, hair, and film first, then apply. A dirty cloth over 3 surfaces spreads more than it removes.
Hygiene is not a substitute for screening
A clean cattery still needs paperwork. Before a first mating, both cats should be tested for FeLV and FIV, screened for the breed's known problems, and checked for HCM by echocardiogram in Maine Coons and Ragdolls or by DNA test for PKD in Persians. The pre-breeding test list and the genetic testing walkthrough cover which tests apply to which breed.
Plan the numbers before the litter, not after. One litter per queen per year, 3 litters in a lifetime, retirement at 6 to 7 years, and a waiting list that exists before mating rather than after birth. A queen bred back to back to fill demand is the pattern that produces both a crowded nursery and the hygiene failures above, because 12 kittens in 1 room outgrow any cleaning schedule.
Your first 4 moves
- Mix 125 mL of bleach into 4 L of cool water in a labelled bucket, and dump it nightly.
- Set 2 deep cleans 3 and 4 days apart, and scoop twice a day in between.
- Put gel at each door and a 30-second timer at the sink; visitors wash before touching.
- Open the isolation room at 14 days for every arrival, with its own scoop and cloth.
Terms mentioned in this article
Frequently asked
How strong should the bleach solution be for a cattery?
Use 1 part household bleach to 32 parts cool water, which is 125 mL in 4 L or about 1 cup per gallon. Keep the surface visibly wet for 10 minutes, then let it air dry. Mix fresh daily, never top up an old bucket, and never combine it with an ammonia cleaner in the same container.
Is 14 days of isolation really necessary for a healthy cat?
Yes, because a cat can shed before it looks sick. Upper respiratory signs usually appear within 3 to 10 days, and ringworm can take 14 to 21 days to show on a cat exposed on the way in. Keep its own bowls, scoop, and cloth, and clean that room last. A kitten of unknown origin is safer at 21 days.
Does bleach disinfect everything in a cattery?
No. It handles panleukopenia well when the surface is clean, but ringworm spores survive on porous wood and fabric, and coccidia oocysts resist most routine disinfectants. Replace or steam those items, and use a veterinary product exactly as labelled. Cleaning off organic matter always comes first, because dirt blocks the chlorine.