Good Cat litter

biko

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I use the cheapest litter I can find. The stuff I buy is like very fine gravel. It's unscented. I buy it in 5kg bags.

I'm trying to locate Poultry or Layer Crumble. It's really chicken feed but apparently so cheap and good it can be used for the kittens too. This guy swears by it.

edit, just saw Garths post.

dh0661

I asked the question, and curiosity got the better of me. I purchased the wood-pellet litter from the vet's pet shop, and found it much, much better than the ones that I bought in the supermarkets.

The name of the one I bought is - Beauticat wood pellets cat litter, "ultra absorbent, biodegradable with pine fresh fragrance". 15 litres for €15-00.

The Sweeper

I can't imagine poultry layer pellets making good cat litter. If they're the ones I'm thinking about, they have their own distinctive, yeasty, bone-meal type of smell. Yeah a 25 litre bag is about ten bucks here (versus 14 bucks for a 15 litre bag of cat litter) but it'd make me shudder to imagine what that would smell like after being used as cat litter.

I've just switched to the brand my local cat shelter use because it's garden friendly and you can either throw it on the garden or compost it (use a special compost corner and buy some tiger worms - more on that for anyone who's interested). Haven't tried using it yet, but was getting tired of dumping plastic bags of used cat litter weighing nearly 2-3kgs a time in the bin.

dh0661

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I've just switched to the brand my local cat shelter use because it's garden friendly and you can either throw it on the garden or compost it (use a special compost corner and buy some tiger worms - more on that for anyone who's interested). Haven't tried using it yet, but was getting tired of dumping plastic bags of used cat litter weighing nearly 2-3kgs a time in the bin.

Yes we are interested, well at least I am.

The Sweeper

I've been doing a bit of research on this because I want to give my cats restricted outdoor access when we move house. Some of the reading I did involved building cat runs, which is pretty straightforward, but there was also a piece on building a cat run with a built-in no-clean litter area.

The design appears to be build up an area (using house bricks or timber or whatever) within the run to use as a litter area. Maybe a square metre of space, or smaller - 100cm x 50cm, plus a foot deep for instance (this isn't an exact science). Start to layer it the way you would a raised garden bed for the layered bed style known as "lasagne gardening" or "no dig" gardening. No soild base on the pit, just layers of organic matter built up from the ground.

Wet newspaper on the bottom, then some well rotted animal manure, then some straw (preferably pea straw or lucerne), a handful of fertiliser like blood and bone, more newspaper, more manure more straw - repeat until you've reached the desired height inside the walls of the pit. Water it all in well.

Add compost worms - preferably what are called either red worms or tiger worms. Your garden centre will sell them by the 1,000. (They'll double their numbers in six months, but since you've left your lasagne-layer cat poop tray open to the ground at the bottom, this won't be a problem). Top the layers with a few centimetres of topsoil or good compost, and then cover that in the sort of irresistable, fine grade bark chippings that cats are notorious for digging up in other people's gardens to take a poop. You don't want to overfill the pit, because you don't want kitty to be scattering bark chippings everywhere, but the level will lower as the material breaks down and the worms do their work.

The upshot is this - compost worms will eat meat scraps and everything else organic, including cat faeces. The reason you're never supposed to put meat in a compost bin is that it will attract flies, maggots, scavengers, rodents and so on. Plus if the heat in the bin doesn't reach an optimum level to kill off bad bacteria, it's a hazardous material for the home gardener to be handling to scatter around their plants. However when you're striving to create a kitty litter area that's a different matter. First cat crap won't be as noxious as rotting raw meat. Second, it won't be as attractive to rodents. ("Yum! Cat crap!" - I don't think so.)

The lasagne layer process is important to keep the worms in the kitty litter - if there isn't enough food for them they'll nick off into the rest of your garden (good for garden, bad for litter pit).

I'm going to give this system a go myself and see how it works out, with the given caveats of paying very close attention to hygiene if I have to touch the litter pit once it's been built and is starting to get use. The alternative to having it as access for cats outdoors is using it as a dumping ground for any cleaned out litter from inside. If you're going to do that you'll HAVE to use a plant-based or paper-based litter. The RSPCA Australia make a garden-friendly litter product called Max's - not sure if something similar is available in the UK/Ireland.

Sage'sMama

I use the crystal beads cat litter for my indoor cat. It's see through beads with small blue ones there is no odour and the cat doesn't dig her way to the other side of the world when she's finished anymore. I think it's great and it's only €8 from the vet. You pour the whole bag in one go into the litter tray and remove the "poo" from the tray after they go and the beads soak up the wee. This causes the beads to turn white so you know when there all nearly white it needs to be changed. I change mine once a fornight. It really is fantastic. You just have to stir it each day to spread it out. When we moved from the apartment to a house with a garden i didn't want sage wandering so we built her an enclosure like the ones in catterys just slighlty larger and put large logs in it and a house for her to go indoors. She loves it and i don't have to worry about her when i go to work. She gets the benefits of being outdoors and is safe at the same time i'm just sorry i didn't know about the lasagne affect litter system then though i only finished it a week ago! otherwise i would've tried it.

Shelli

I use that crystal beads litter too, it's the best, and I've tried loads of them.

Pet-stop sells it for about €4.50 per pag.

Our man in Havana

Tact or Cats Best.

Jack B. Badd

Interesting thing I noticed this morning - we changed one of Eve's litter trays from Cat's Best to Catsan Hygiene last night as she's been suffering from cystitis and the vet thinks trying a few different types of litter might help her find the one she's happiest with. I woke up this morning feeling like my mucus membranes had been totally dehydrated - sore eyes, nose and sinuses. Both my boyfriend and I feel like we're coming down with a cold (which we're not afaik) after only 12 hours of having the clay litter in the house. Will definitely be moving back to Cat's Best later on. The clay stuff is being relegated to an absolute emergency...

Themadhouse

Chick crumb is the same as worlds best. Both are made from corn. It can be flushed and does clump. We use baking soda on the bottom of the tray and sprinkle some on top to give it a fresh smell. It is also safe to use for kittens. It's v cheap and i wouldn't use anything else!

Jack B. Badd

I'm finding it bloody hard to find chick crumb in London unfortunately...