Cats, Ferrets, and Litterboxes

I have not been here in a while, so a little update. We have three cats, Tyran, Miki, and Ramman. We also have one ferret named Twitch. The cats and the ferret have been introduced and Ramman (6 month old cat) and Twitch (ferret) are becoming friends. They chase each other and romp around. Its so much fun to watch, and its always supervised play.

Well the ferret is getting curious about the cats' litterbox since it seems like a cave. She is not litterbox trained even in her own cage. (for some reason, she does not like it) I am asking on a ferret forum if the cat litter will be harmful to her and I'm awaiting an answer on that.

We use a wood pellet bedding (like for use in rodent cages and horse stalls) in the ferret cage and we have been trying to use this as her litterbox material. I was wondering if we could possibly use this for the cats as well. Its absorbent and keeps smell way down.

Also, would it be harmful to either cat or ferret if they are using the same litterbox?

No animal does well when it eats clumping cat litter, and I think it might be that ferrets will eat it. I hope you're getting more responses on the ferret board than here.

I really don't know the answers to any of your questions, and that may be why no-one else has replied either.

I suspect that wood chip bedding would work OK for cat litter, although it's obviously not clumping. I did have my vet warn me not to use any wood litter, but I was asking about changing litters because of my cat's asthma, and some wood litters have compounds in them that some cats are allergic to, so that warning may be more important for special needs cats than for healthy cats.

I got an answer on the ferret forum about the harm the clumping litter can do to ferrets. They said that the clumping litter can be injested and cause problems and that if they drag their behind on it, it can cause infections. So the clumping litter is a no for ferrets. I'll try and find out about the wood pellet bedding for the cats. I don't mind if its not clumping as I can just scoop out everything like I do for all my rodent cages and put in fresh stuff. Its uber inexpensive. $6 for a 30lb bag.