This past March, just before our city's lockdown, we had to let our cat of 18 years cross the rainbow bridge. It was the worst day of my life. We always had her using clumping clay litter and it was dusty, costly and the litter tracking was pretty bad.
Fast forward to now - We decided that we missed having a companion too much and we've healed enough to open our home to another kitten...
& today we got approved to adopt this little baby!!!
This time around I'd like to not use clay litter. Has anyone had any experience with transitioning to wood pellets?
I'm open to any tips, suggestions, hacks and products.
Love the wood pellets.
You’ll need a sifting tray system with 3 baskets, one perforated and two solid.
When cleaning, you’re shaking into the first solid bottom container and then placing the perforated one in the second.
Empty the first, then invert the perforated one and empty the pellets into the first one. This gains access to the grate at the bottom of the perforated one and you can do a cleaning of the grate. Sometimes it gets clogged with small pieces of pellets and large clumps of sawdust. Easy to clean, I use a small screwdriver.
Put the remaining pellets back into the perforated basket and top up as needed.
Less mess, less tracking issues, less odours (the poop will sit on top, doesn’t bury easily) and wayyyy less expensive.
Thank you!
How often are you finding you need to completely replace the pellets? Or just keep on adding new ones? Do you find the pellets absorbed any of the poop smell or at least dried them up? lol
With clay litter we scooped the clumps/poop everyday and replaced all the litter about once a week. Added about 4 inches in the box.
I never replaced the pellets, they just turn to sawdust and go away.
The pellets will remove the moisture from the poop but there will be some smell when fresh....
Daily removal and I’d usually add a scoop of pellets once a week.
BTW - very cute kitten!!
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten....
I think we mixed wood pellets into her usual litter at first, and gradually increased the amount of wood pellets until she was fully transitioned. Didn't have any problems. Probably could have done it all at once now that I think back. As already mentioned, you should use a sifting litter box. I use the exact same ones as linked and they work fine, but I wish there were bigger ones so my cat would have more room to maneuver in them. If anyone knows any larger sifting litter boxes, let me know!
The wood pellets does an ok job at masking the poop smell, but just ok. I would not say it's the strong suit of wood pellets. I'd focus on your cat's diet to make improvements on that front. Transitioning from kibble and wet food to raw made a huge difference (for the better) in the poop smell for my cat. We scoop right after she poops, and refill as necessary because we always try to maintain a constant level of pellets in the box. We never fully replace the pellets, instead just clear the dust, and wash the litter box once a week, re-use whatever pellets are leftover and top up again.
walleye*guy wrote: ↑
I never replaced the pellets, they just turn to sawdust and go away.
The pellets will remove the moisture from the poop but there will be some smell when fresh....
Daily removal and I’d usually add a scoop of pellets once a week.
BTW - very cute kitten!!
I knew she was the one as I saw her. Wood pellets sound great and I think my wallet will be happy too. Thank you, you've been super helpful!
bobohobo2kx wrote: ↑
I think we mixed wood pellets into her usual litter at first, and gradually increased the amount of wood pellets until she was fully transitioned. Didn't have any problems. Probably could have done it all at once now that I think back. As already mentioned, you should use a sifting litter box. I use the exact same ones as linked and they work fine, but I wish there were bigger ones so my cat would have more room to maneuver in them. If anyone knows any larger sifting litter boxes, let me know!
The wood pellets does an ok job at masking the poop smell, but just ok. I would not say it's the strong suit of wood pellets. I'd focus on your cat's diet to make improvements on that front. Transitioning from kibble and wet food to raw made a huge difference (for the better) in the poop smell for my cat. We scoop right after she poops, and refill as necessary because we always try to maintain a constant level of pellets in the box. We never fully replace the pellets, instead just clear the dust, and wash the litter box once a week, re-use whatever pellets are leftover and top up again.
Thank you for your response!
I feel a little more confident in my decision now and did a bit of research. As for larger sifting litter boxes, I've seen people DIY with large storage bins... Maybe thats an option?
