Kitty Litter...

[desi]

The weekly changing out of kitty litter is the bane of my life. On a visit, an Australian friend mentioned that her kitty litter lasts a great long time. Jealous, I attempted to find similar in Bangkok.

Months went by and I discovered a mall in north Bangkok that has the best range of supplies I've ever come across in Thailand (I don't have the name on me at the moment). Amongst it all was Magic Clean kitty litter. Supposedly, instead of exchanging the kitty litter weekly, it's now supposed to be monthly.

Has anyone else come across anything similar? Better? In Bangkok?

[MrSnrang]

I use that same exact litter with my ferrets. It has the advantage that it doesn't produce much dust at all.

[desi]

Thanks MrSnrang. I've been using a kitty litter that's supposed to be low on dust but this one seems to be even lower. I was afraid my cats would avoid it as it's more like gravel than sand or shavings. But so far, no problem with my female.

[tiggerclare]

The kitty litter that i am using now for my two kittens is called PeeWee. It is made of large pellets pressed wood pulps, creates almost no dust with used with their PeeWee litter box. I think the magic clean is those made of silica crystalline pellets, which will be dangerous if cats accidentally swallow down. But then again, if your cats don't play with cat litter, then there's no worries. So far, we are very please with the brand we are using and we purchased it off at FurrPurr at soi 33/1 sukhumvit road. I didn't see it being sold elsewhere yet.

It takes a while for the cats to get used to the large pellets when switching from their normal sand litters. But you do need to clean the cat litter around once a week, yet it is less hassling than the sand litters and less, very little odor compare to sand litters. the down side is you do have to clean out their poops almost everyday cuz the pellets won't cover up the poops. here's a site that explains the product

http://www.holisticpaws.com.sg/productCat_...l_petToilet.htm

hope this helps

Clare

[desi]

Hi Clare,

It reads well, but I was looking for a kitty litter that's less work than the weekly full exchange of the box. I was doing a partial clean mid week, then exchanging for new once a week. Going to once a month with minor partials is something I'm aiming at. Fingers crossed my cats feel the same.

And yes, teaching them how to use the toilet has crossed my mind...

[tiggerclare]

Hi Clare,

It reads well, but I was looking for a kitty litter that's less work than the weekly full exchange of the box. I was doing a partial clean mid week, then exchanging for new once a week. Going to once a month with minor partials is something I'm aiming at. Fingers crossed my cats feel the same.

And yes, teaching them how to use the toilet has crossed my mind...

hmm~cleaning the cat litter once a month......i don't think cats would like that. but there other types of cat litters including the automatic cat litters, where the litters clean by themselves. All you need to do is to clean off the storage bags. The price of the self cleaning cat litter is at the higher end. And yes, making cats to use the toilet had crossed my mind as well. My cats love to play with the toilet a lot, so, I had to painfully take off the toilet training option. If your cat is an outdoor cat, then you can train the cat to do its business out in the garden.

As for my experience, once the litter box gets dirty (not cleaned for two~four days), they just refuse to use the litter box all together. And they will remind me that they want to use their litter box and want the litter box to be cleaned. Perhaps, you can really train your cat to use the toilet that would be the best for both. Even though, it will take a while to fully train your cat, but cats can be trained! ^^

Clare

[mgjackson69]

The best cat litter is the neighbor's garden

I have to agree with Clare. Any cat that I have had around (several over the last 24 years, the first two lived almost 20 years) would never use a litterbox that was uncleaned for more than a couple of days. I tried the toilet-training thing, but could not get my (now-ex)wife to help enough to make it successful...I guess she liked smelling cat shit more...<sigh>.

The last two cats, with my son and his mom in USA, never really cared to use a litter box...they would rather ask to go outside.

Edited August 3, 2008 by mgjackson69

[desi]

Well, the instructions on this kitty litter says to clean the bits out on a regular basis, so it's like like there's bits left about. But, no matter, as my male will not use it. I caught him peeing by the shoes and that is not a positive vote for this litter. So, I've added their regular kitty litter in on top to see if he can gradually get used to it.

As for outside, I won't go that route. I already lost a cat shipped out with me and I won't risk it again.

And being on the third floor also nixes out them wandering around as they'd just be using my neighbours plants!

Also, when I lived higher up my female took a nosedive from the 7th floor, which is safer from the 3rd (I've read). Depending on where she'd over (straight drop to the ground or minor drop), she could get hurt. And she does tend to get distracted by birds and my patio is their home (I'm up in the trees). Swooping around, chattering amongst the palms, the birds love it. They even act affronted when I'm sitting out there and they come across me watching them.

[tiggerclare]

Do you mean you got the kitty litter PeeWee? If that's so, it took both of my kittens at least a month to get used to it. They both used cat sands before this and love the feeling of digging into sands. So we had mix the old sands with the new pellets with gradually more pellets whenever we clean the litters to see if they adapt to it. for instances, 80% old litter + 20% new one and go by the ratio change.

But you have adult cats already, so it might need to take more patience in transferring over to pellets. It is all the same for almost all cats when you are changing a different brand/type of cat litters. The cats insist their favorites and we insist on our new choices. So, it's a tug of war between human and cats.

Perhaps your cats are sensitive to where the cat litters are situated. I had a problem with my cat litters where, with the sand litters, they will use it on spot A. But when i changed to pellet litters at spot A, they refuse to use the litter box. At first i almost gave up and go back to cat sands, until i shift my pellet litter to spot B. Then all of a sudden, they LOVE using the pellet litter box and i am all relieved and happy. Cuz with the old cat sands, i have to sweep my floor every time they use their litter box.

and yes, i think the downside of peewee is that you gotta clean out the bits of poo everyday, but to me it beats cat sands! I hope you can find the best solution for both you and your cats.

Clare