Cat urine, consists of mainly three chemical parts. The Urea; It makes the urine sticky and allows the other two parts to stick around. Urochrome gives the urine its ugly yellow color that stains carpets, furniture, the wall and anything the cat sprays or urinates on. The third main part of the urine is Uric Acid. Uric acid in the urine consists of salts and crystals that give off the extremely pungent odor. These gaseous odors attach to minute solids floating in the air, drifting in one direction and then another by electric charges in the air imbedding in carpets, drapes and walls. Carpet and furniture are reservoirs for pet allergens, and the allergens can remain in them for four to six weeks. An ozone generator will remove the odors by seeking out the source and destroying it. Aerosol sprays and candles only replace the odor with a more pleasant odor; they do not remove the odor but only cover it up. There is a natural, permanent solution that resolves odor problems, called Air-ReNu a paint additive; that is mixed with paint and applied to the walls of the affected room. Air-ReNu continues to work removing odors and improving indoor air quality, 7/24/365 year after year as long as the paint lasts.

dehumidifier works wonders.

Although I generally don't like air fresheners (headaches, sneezing, etc, plus they generally smell fake to me), I do like the Fresh Wave gel.

We replaced our wall-to-wall nasty carpet in the basement with tile a few years ago. So much easier to keep clean and doesn't absorb odors and get musty. Wish we had done it when we moved in, it made such a difference!

Also get one of those contraptions from the grocery store or Target that automatically sprays the air freshner every couple of minutes......

Anonymous wrote:Your cats are peeing on the carpet. And probably spraying pee on the walls. Get a UV light-- http://www.naturessecretweapon.com/products/stain-detectors/ and you will be able to see it everywhere that you are smelling anything stinky. You should change your litterbox MUCH more often or switch to a different type of litter and litterbox--maybe a covered one. Cats don't really smell much at all--but their pee is deadly.

OP here, they're both fixed and never sprayed on the walls before... but I'll check once we get that UV light.

Thanks for the tips.

OP here, thank you PP for the dehumidifier suggestion. It looks like it's much quieter than our Delonghi, which has a pump to remove water, so we don't have to dump it manually.

I'll keep an eye on it to see if it comes back in stock.

And thank you to the PPs. I ordered a UV light from Amazon and will check the carpet.

I'll see if we can do something about the food. We buy Wellness Core, so it's high protein, so maybe that might be part of why it stinks so much.

As for litter box, we clean it twice a day, so I don't think that's a factor.