Wood pellet litter / playing in litter box

Hi! My kitten is about 12 weeks old and I've had her for almost 5 weeks. She's the only cat I have, and I live in a small studio apartment (about 250 square feet) in the city. So far I have used just one box with sand type litter, placed in the bathroom unless I'm cleaning, in which case I temporarily place it just outside the bathroom. She didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t need any training... jumped right in and used it 10 minutes after I brought her home from the clinic/shelter.

I have two questions:

1)From day one, she has enjoyed jumping into the litter box, using it as a place to crouch and make ready for a pounce when weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re playing. As you might imagine, the litter just goes flying all over, making a constant mess. This led me to buy a box with a full cover (clear plastic) and even buy the sand litter with slightly larger grains, thinking that this would be heavier and therefore less likely to fly out. It has helped some, but litter is still forever on the floor two or three feet in front of the box. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m thinking sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll grow out of this... any sugestions?

2)Problem one led me to question two. As others on this site have said, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been temped to use the wood pellets for environmental reasons, plus the guy at the pet store says it actually lasts longer and is therefore less expensive over the long run than the sand type. So, Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve giving it a try this week; Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m mixing it in with her old sand litter for the time being. My question is what type of box to use with it. The guy at the pet store says he uses one that has a screen at the bottom, which allows the pellets that have turned to sawdust after being urinated on to fall through; you just empty out the bottom every day or so. The poop you can easily scoop out. But I hate to have to buy a new box (Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m a student). Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I'll move this to Care and Grooming for you.

First - on the playing in the box. So normal. We got a mat (an old bath mat) and put it in front of our box and that collects most of the tracking (though not all...). It will calm down a bit as the kitten gets older - ours do it less and less, though Conor still uses it as her hiding place when she is playing with her brothers (grr...).

I think the sand element plays into it as well, to be honest - Paddington used to go CRAZY when we used sand litter. He loved the stuff. He would roll around in it, pat it down with his paws (making it go flying). It was cute but a pain to clean. Anyway, we switched to wood pellet type litter about two months ago and that has stopped it. He uses the box for what it should be used for...not playing!

We didn't get a new box when we changed litter. We just have two covered boxes. I know they do have special boxes for the wood pellet litter and I know on this site there are creative people who have made their own, but I have found that with our particular litter, our normal box works just fine. Oh, and the wood pellet stuff for us has been cheaper. We were buying a 10 liter bag of our sand litter once every two weeks or so (at 7 Euros a bag). On our wood pellet stuff, I can get a 10 liter bag for 5 Euros and it lasts me about a month. Obviously, this probably depends on what brand you are using and what not, but no matter what - in the long run it is cheaper!