Using Pellets For Cat Litter

Can You Use Wood Pellets For Cat Litter Heres The Answer You Should Be Knowing

Taking good care of your cats is not an easy task, but with the right tools, you can hit the spot. Finding the correct type of cat litter is a great task for cat-owners.

From clay to silica to corn, pine, and paper, there is an extensive range of varieties available. But if you want to maintain a harmonious balance with nature, you should go for plant-based organic litters.

Are you looking for an eco- friendly alternative for your commercial cat litter?

Luckily, there are a lot of eco-friendly litters available in the market to save your day.

Wood pellets are one of the best eco-friendly and cat-friendly options available in the market. Lets see how efficient and safe they are.

Note: In case youre looking for some more available options, you can read our cat litter alternatives guide here.

Shred Newspaper And Junk Mail

Before the rise of commercial cat litters, cat owners have been using plain newspaper as the place of business for their indoor cats. Even vets suggest lining the litter box with used papers after declawing your cat.

How to make it

Its pretty easy to prepare a homemade cat litter using newspapers . Just follow these steps.

How to make paper litter:

• For best results, shred the papers in long and thin strips.
• Soak the shredded pieces in warm water and dish soap. Leave them soaked until the water turns gray and the consistency is like that of oatmeal.
• For even better results, soak the papers long enough to take away all the ink. You dont want any leftover ink messing with your cats paws.
• Drain the gray water. Replace it with clean water for another period of soaking. This time, dont add soap.
• Drain the second batch of water.
• Put on your gloves. Sprinkling baking soda on the wet pieces of paper. Knead them and squeeze out the liquid.
• Get a screen and spread the now-crumbly but still moist paper over it.
• Set the screen up for air drying or sun drying. When the crumbly pieces of paper are completely dried, theyre finally ready for use.

So Is Pine Litter Right For Your Cats

In conclusion, I have completely transitioned now to pine litter, and the cats are happy. If you havent made the switch yet, I hope you consider it! Nothing comes close to how sanitary, easy, clean, cheap, and environmentally friendly as pine pellet litter. Its been years using pine litter now, and I havent been tempted to try anything else.

However, as much as we want the best for our cats. Sometimes they want other things. This is an unfortunate truth in owning cats. They decide, not us. Most of the time, though, if they avoid a certain type of litter, it can be for many reasons. Not the litter itself. Be sure that they dont have any medical issues and are spayed and neutered.

If you have any questions, feel free to post here or on my youtube channel! For other apartment litter box solutions and tips, see The Complete Apartment Litter Solutions!

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What To Do If You Decided To Flush Wood Pellet Litter Anyway

So, youve already made the mistake of flushing wood pellet litter, and now youre experiencing plumbing issues. We can help with that, too. Much like dealing with any other clog, there are some simple fixes you can try to resolve the issue. You may be tempted to wait, but the odds are your toilet will not unclog itself since wood pellets are not made to be flushed.

A Quick Comparison Of Our Favorites

Okocat Mini Pellets impressed us more than any other brand, and its our pick for the best overall wood pellet cat litter. Unlike some of its competitors and practically every brand of clay litter, Okocat is a dust-free formula. The manufacturer screens the litter before packaging and ensures only solid pellets are placed in the bag. This keeps your cat and family from inhaling a cloud of dust every time the box is changed. Okocats uses sustainably sourced wood for its pellets that naturally absorbs the potent urine odors.

The pellets are free of perfumes and artificial deodorizers, and theyre incredibly soft on a felines paws. The smaller pellets are less likely to stick in the cats paws or become tracked around your home. Okocats litter is biodegradable, and you can flush it down the toilet and forget about it taking up space in a landfill. Compared to the other brands, Okocat is more environmentally friendly and easier to use. If youre used to purchasing clay litter, Okocat may seem a bit expensive.

With the Naturally Fresh Pellet Unscented Non-Clumping Walnut Litter, you can train your kitten to get used to the feel of pellet litter. Older cats sometimes have trouble transitioning to natural pellets, but kittens adapt quickly to Naturally Fresh even when they were raised by a breeder using clay litter.

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Consider Cat Attract By Dr Elsey

Cat Attract is an herbal additive that is designed to attract cats to a litterbox. Its often used for kittens that are just learning to use the litterbox but its also a great option to help manage house-soiling cats. You can check the latest price and.

Dont expect it to work any miracles but it can be a useful part of your toolkit for transitioning your cat to wood pellets!

Properties Comparison: Traditional Clumping Cat Litter Vs Pine Pellet Litter

Pine pellet is usually lauded for being much better than the traditional cat clumping litter. But why? This table might help cat owners understand:

Out of all the 6 important categories, pine pellet litter has won 3 of them and tied one. Very clearly, the winner. The one thing that traditional cat litter has on pine pellets is the occupation of mind space of regular people thinking they need clumping litter for cats .

For most cat owners, the main type of litter that most people commonly use is clay litter . Most people get it because its the most commonly available, and its what we see the most on store shelves, TV, youtube, on ads.

Not knowing or researching that other litter types are better for cats until they encounter the problems everyone uses clumping litter has: litter tracking and the amount of waste that has to be dumped out every few days.

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Pine Pellet Cat Litter Pros And Cons: Is It Really Worth Using

February 20, 2020 by Wendy

Alternative litters are catching on in popularity as people are seeking out more environmentally and budget-friendly options. Since I tried this with my cats, I want to discuss the pros and cons of pine pellet cat litter. It might seem like a great solution, but the reality is it may not work for everyone.

At a Glance: Pine Pellet Cat Litter, Pro vs. Cons

As you can see, for every advantage to using wood pellets as cat litter, there is also a disadvantage. Youll need to weigh the pros and cons before deciding if its right for you and your cat.

Does Wood Pellet Litter Require A Custom Litter Box

Wood pellet doesnt require a custom litter box, and you can use the one you already have. It also doesnt matter whether the litter box is hooded or not. However, there are litter boxes custom-designed for pellet litters that can help you avoid scooping daily and make your cleaning process easier.

These litter boxes are equipped with a sifting tray that separates the sawdust from the fresh pellets. The sifting tray fits onto the regular tray at the bottom of the litter box. The sawdust falls through the holes of the sift to the bottom tray while the intact pellets stay on top for your cats use.

The design of the Purina Tidy Cats Breeze litter box incorporates a drawer at its base where the sawdust can collect for removal without you having to deal with the sift or dismantle the box. The Purina litter box comes with its custom pellets but you can use most pellet litters as long as they are compatible with the holes of the sift.

Since wood pellet litters dont have a standard granule size, you should make sure the size of the shifts holes matches the kind of pellet litter you use. The holes should be smaller than the pellets but large enough for sawdust to easily fall through. You also dont need to fill the litter pan to the brim. Instead, 2-3 inches deep is enough because some pellets soak up urine and engorge, thus taking up more space than when dry.

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Our Favorite Pellet Litter Alternatives

Maybe youre sold on the idea of pellet litters but not entirely over the moon when it comes to wood.

Well, youre in luck. Wood is far from the only option when it comes to pellet litter! Ive already mentioned a few of the options including newspaper and zeolite but lets take a closer look at some of these options.

Is It Safe To Use Pine Pellets As Cat Litter

Yes, wood pellets, in general, are an excellent substitute for non-biodegradable cat litter. They are environmentally friendly because their substrate is wood. Pine pellet litter is made of compressed wood fiber. It is made from a variety of organic materials such as wood shavings, wood chips, and sawdust. Pine is a softwood, just like redwood, fir, cypress, and cedar.

Pine pellets are a great biodegradable substitute because the raw material is readily available and sustainable. It is a lot cheaper than the widely-used clay litter. Because of the pine pellets non-clumping nature and large size, it does not stick to your cats paws. This avoids the possibility of your cat licking the litter off of its paws and ingesting it, possibly causing gastrointestinal obstructions.

Before using pine pellets for your cat, make sure your cat is not allergic to it. Some cats may react negatively to the resins found in pine and cedar pellets. The same goes if your cat has asthma, as the sawdust may trigger a reaction.

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Okocat Natural Wood Cat Litter

If you have a long-haired cat breed such as a Main Coon or Persian, try the Okocat Natural Wood Cat Litter. Designed specifically for long-haired breeds, this cat litter has larger pine pellets that wont get stuck in your cats luscious coat as easily and tracks much less than regular cat litter.

The one downside of these larger pellets is that they can feel a little uncomfortable for cats to walk on. For that reason, kittens or an injured cat who has sensitive paws are better suited for a softer and more gentle litter. It may also take a little longer for your cat to adjust to using wood litter as the pine pellets are a lot bigger than regular clay litter granules.

With that being said, another huge bonus of this product is that it is a low-dust litter. While this helps to reduce tracking, it is also better for your cats respiratory health. Moreover, this is a clumping wood litter and so the pellets wont crumble to sawdust when they come into contact with liquid, further reducing the mess.

The powerful clumping action also effectively captures and eliminates odors. Your cat will be happy their toilet doesnt stink, and youll be glad your home doesnt! This also makes for easy scooping, and you can easily clean your cats waste away like normal. Its also flushable and compostable for easy and environmentally-friendly disposal.

Pros

Cons

Three: Transition The Litter Boxes

Remember that you want an alternative box for the cats as long as possible. If your cats are using the wood pellet only box, transition their old clay litter box. If they don’t want to use the wood litter at all, transition the new box until they get the hang of it. When they do, you can switch their old one out.

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Disadvantage Hard To Manage

You scoop out the lumps and they come with a lot of loose pellets. This is quite wasteful as those pellets are untouched by cat urine or anything else. It also leaves the sawdust behind.

So now you have a second process scooping out the pellets and not the sawdust. This is time consuming but easy as almost all scoops have a grate thats too small for wood pellets to fall through . When done, dump the sawdust and transfer the untouched pellets back into the litter box.

You could just dump it all every so often as it can be an inexpensive litter. But being frugal, I like to preserve the 50 to 90 percent of unpolluted pellets.

But there is an easy workaround that makes sawdust and pellet separation very easy and not at all wasteful.

Our Recommendation For The Best Sifting Litter Box For Pine Pellets

To narrow your search for the best sifting litter box for pine pellets, weve tested a few out. Read on to learn my top picks for sifting litter boxes.

They made the following sifting litter systems for clumping cat litters, so you must adjust how you work with them. You will still need to scoop out solid waste. When you sift, you want to keep the clean solid pellets, not the sawdust.

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Option : Modify The Mix

Over time, you can slowly change the composition of your cats litterbox by adding a little bit of wood pellets to their existing litter box. Eventually, youll end up with more wood pellets than traditional litter.

Take your time with this transition and give your cat plenty of time to get used to the new litter. Its also a good idea to keep one litterbox full of the old litter at the start. Once you see your cat start using the mix of wood pellets and traditional litter, you can begin adding the wood pellets to all the boxes.

You can stretch the transition process out as long as youd like and you should cater it to your individual cat. More stubborn cats are going to need more time to transition to their new pine pellets.

Buying Guide: What To Look For When Buying A Sifting Litter Box

What is the best sifting litter box for pine pellets?

It is hard to know what is best when theres information all over the internet.

In this buying guide, Ill go through a few criteria to check off before choosing a product.

These criteria will help you choose the best litter box for your cats health and happiness.

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Pine Pellet Litter: Main Pros & Cons

Other reasonsto use pine pellet litter for your cats:

• Non-toxic & natural. Pine pellets are generally safe for cats as long the pellets are made from untreated wood in which all pine pellet brands made for cats are.
• Much healthier for everyone. Almost no dust is produced when scooping or adding into the litter box.
• Efficient. Cat owners never have to dump out and replace the litter in the box. Unsoiled/new pellets remain at the top and the sawdust settles to the bottom. It keeps a clear separation between soiled/unsoiled litter. Nothing is wasted and saves good pellets from being thrown away.
• Flushable & disintegrates when wet. Because pine litter disintegrates into sawdust, the dust or pellets can easily be flushed down the toilet without worrying about clogs.