Composting and Cat Litter

belongstoevie

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Does anyone out there use cat litter to compost? I know that cat litter can carry diseases from cats that may not be good for plants, but honestly, I don't have much of a garden anyway, so probably won't use it as compost was meant to be used if it'd do more harm than good.

So why compost? Just because I feel so bad throwing away the types of things I do. Recycling is fine, but we don't have a greenwaste or anything for food scraps. So just to reduce the amount of trash, I'd like to compost. What I'll do with the compost when done, I don't know. I can take it to my parents' house and then put it in the greenwaste (they have it, we don't).

Of course, if anyone of you use it (droppings removed, of course) and it works, I'd love to use the compost as it was meant to be! I currently use Feline Pine. Would that work? Does anyone use another type that works better?

I've tried to compost without the cat litter, but there's a lot more food waste than plant, and it basically just rots. Even though I don't need a high quality compost, I don't want food rotting and stinking in my back yard! So I THINK this would help balance it out, and help everything to decompose in a cleaner way.

I know I've gone off on a bunch of tangents, but if any of you have insights to anything compost or compost and cat litter related, I would appreciate anything you can share!

Thanks!
 

monaxlisa

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I wouldnt use cat poo unless you feed a raw diet. There are so many preservatives and chemicals in cat food that the poo doesnt break down. My cats used to use my moms garden as a litter box and it didnt break down at all and if they used one area a lot it would start to smell like a litter box. Maybe the green stuff would help it break down though..?
 

kittymonsters

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The key to composting is the proper balance of "green waste" and "brown waste". We compost our horse manure. Which is pine sawdust (brown wasite) and horse poop ( green wastes). I also add my cat litter to this. When properly mixed, need to rotate the pile, the cat poop mixes in just fine.

I think many people don't compost cat or dog poop because it is "carnivore" feces and thus a meat based by product. Instead they use those doggy doolies, mini septic type things.

Maybe the feline pine, with the food waste and cat poop would actually decompose better because of the "brown waste" of the pine shavings.

Have you tried doing a google search of composting cat poop. I bet someone has done it before, LOL.
 
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belongstoevie

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Thanks for your responses!

Yes, I did Google it. It actually mostly came up with, basically, having cats poop ON a compost pile! Hah. Like, instead of a litter box, a small compost pile. Not what I wanted.


So, Kittymonsters, when you add cat litter, do you leave the cat poo in? As MonaxLisa said, I was worried about chemicals or diseases. When you leave it in, you still can use the compost for plants and they're ok?

Thanks again, I'm excited about trying it this way!
 

gailc

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When I visited my sis in March in VA a ecological shop has a pet waste composter for sale.
And in this months Organic Gardening there is an article about composting dog waste.

I personally wouldn't use it however but if you compost cat litter you should be using an organic cat litter that breaks down. I would also purchse some red worms (the same ones used in vermicomposing) to aid in the breakdown. This is should ONLY be spread around ornamentals (like trees/shrubs/flowers) not any crops grown for food production.
 

kittymonsters

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Originally Posted by BelongsToEvie

Thanks for your responses!

Yes, I did Google it. It actually mostly came up with, basically, having cats poop ON a compost pile! Hah. Like, instead of a litter box, a small compost pile. Not what I wanted.


So, Kittymonsters, when you add cat litter, do you leave the cat poo in? As MonaxLisa said, I was worried about chemicals or diseases. When you leave it in, you still can use the compost for plants and they're ok?

Thanks again, I'm excited about trying it this way!
Yes I leave the poop in, however it makes up a very small percentage of the compost. We have 21 wheelbarrows of horse waste a week vs one litter bucket of cat waste a week.

Proper composting piles get pretty hot and should inactivate most harmful organisms. It should not be like putting raw sewage on plants. Horse and Cow manure are full of nasty organisms. Horses naturally carry
Clostridium species in their guts which cause tetanus and gangrene. These come out in their poop. Also horses are chronically infected with multiple worm species and have to be given wormer on a regular basis. I guess with cats it would be Toxoplasmosis that is the worry.

We use our compost as fertilizer for the yard mostly. However our neighbors all come to get it for their vegetable and flower gardens. For some reason we seem to make Supreme compost, lol, and it is free.

I think if I didn't have the horses I would get one of those "doggy dooly" septic compost type things for the cat poop. Then just put the rest of the litter with the yard waste for recycling pick up. Of course this would be assuming I lived more urban. Right now, one would be hard pressed to get more rural than where I am. No such thing as recycling here which really is a bummer.
 

jaffacake

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I bought a different make of litter for Maisie yesterday and while reading the bag i thought of this thread because it says...

....
* Do not compost or dig into the garden as cat faeces may contain bacteria.

...
 

icklemiss21

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Originally Posted by Jaffacake

I bought a different make of litter for Maisie yesterday and while reading the bag i thought of this thread because it says...

....
* Do not compost or dig into the garden as cat faeces may contain bacteria.

...
well, cats poop in gardens if they are outdoor so I don't see how that would help.

From what I have seen, you have to use a natural litter (feline pine, swheat scoop, world's best etc) and compost it for a very long time to ensure that it gets to the hotter part of the compost heap to try and kill the toxo and only use as fertiliser on ornamental plants (not anything you would eat / kids would play in / that you would bring into the house etc)
 

jaffacake

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