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RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

Ocimom — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:31:12 GMT

The pellets take awhile to break down, and you would clean it out before the cats walked too much in them. The pellets I have do not have chemicals in them.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

ScarletDreams489 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:48:58 GMT

I have an interesting question. I know that pine shavings are very dangerous to most small animals because of the chemicals in the pine. It causes cancer among other things. It worries me that perhaps it would be the same for cats? Non-pine pellets seem like they would be the safer bet. There is also litter made out of recycled paper, but I doubt that would cut back on smell at all.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

Ocimom — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:04:48 GMT

Well then its the way its made, cause the clumping kind kept odors down unlike the normal clay litters. Maybe it was the fact that it bonded into solids that could be removed easier.

But now that you mention it, I have noticed that the clumping would get smelly at times on the bottom like the clay. I'll stick to the wood pellets

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

evendozen — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:36:58 GMT

Ocimom - clumping and traditional non-clumping litters are BOTH Clay.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

vettechgirl — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:47:01 GMT

Let me add that I have severe asthma and allergies to just about everything, so these comments are also coming from someone with similar conditions to yours.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

vettechgirl — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:45:28 GMT

Some cats can have allergies to the dyes and perfumes. Fresh step is known to cause irritation to the pads of the feet with some cats.

My vet and myself before she even told me, recommend Tidy cats for a clumping litter. Though I don't like it much for clumping the urine. At least with my cats it doesn't clump. I also use World's best cat litter. It's corn cob based, so as long as your cats don't have any corn allergies, I think this really is one of the best cat litters out there. But it doesn't do much for the smell if your cat doesn't bury thier business.

Hope this helps!

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

Ocimom — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:59:57 GMT

And the doctor doesn't have to deal with the smell of wet (pee) clay litter! I will not go back to clay litters - you can't keep the odors down unless the box is changed EVERY day (completely) and that's a waste of money.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

evendozen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:50:16 GMT

I once asked a human-doctor lung specialist which type of litter is better for human lungs, the plant fiber based ones or the clay and he immediately said the clay was better (no opinion on the clumping aspect)

Fragrances should be avoided for you and for kitty as was previously posted.

I have found that the least dusty unscented clumping litter is Precious Cat.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

Ocimom — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:16:13 GMT

I started with the Feline Pine. But then I found that if you use the untreated wood stove pellets from the Farm Supply stores, you only have to pay less then $4.00 for 40lbs of pellets.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

PeaLoki&Gabe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:08:04 GMT

Pine

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

SuperCat — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:11:44 GMT

Wood pellets sound interesting -- are they expensive? What kind of wood?

Below is a picture of Rusty dragging a 50 lb. bag of used kitty litter out to the garbage:

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

Ocimom — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:08:36 GMT

Have you considered the wood pellets? That is what we are using now. The cats like it and it cuts down on odors too. I HATE clay litters!

For those who are having problems with the pellets. You have to do this gradually. You can't expect the cat to know that a pan full of pellets is a litter box. When I switched over, I put in a cup of pellets to 2-3 cups of clumping litter. Let them use that for a few days. As you clean/scoop it out and add more - put in more pellets. In about 2 weeks your cats should be used to pellets and be using them entirely.

That's what we will do with baby Jack next year (I'll have to ask the breeder what she is using) - a gradual change over to the pellets.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

PeaLoki&Gabe — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:17:58 GMT

I bought a bag of feline pine just to try it last night, and my trio aren't quite sure what they're suposed to do with it.

RE: IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

SuperCat — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:52:20 GMT

Clumping or non-clumping is up to you, what you should look at is the dust factor. Cats can develop problems inhaling too much dust on a regular basis. They do sell frangrance free low dust products. There are also different litters to use besides clay but I've never tried these. I am also allergic to perfumes and I have had great luck with Walmart Special Kitty storebrand clumping. It says it has fragrance, but I can't tell that it does. Another thing, when you see how the perfumed litter smells to us, just think what it smells like to the cat -- some of these litters are so full for perfume that its a wonder the cats even use them.

IN terms of our health and our cats' which is the best type of litter

WoridocK — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:01:15 GMT

Over the years we have used both clumping and nonclumping litters. We changed back to non clumping litter several years ago because of concerns about the chemicals in them as I have asthma and allergies to dust, perfumes etc. With the store brand of non clumping litter, we don't have litter box problems however recently, I heard that the non clumping litters could pose a health hazard to our cats. Does anyone have the most current answer to this question. I 'd hate to switch and start having litterbox issues and exacerbate my asthma.