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Kitten eating clumping kitty litter

post #1 of 5
11/6/11 at 9:49am
Thread Starter 

Before I took him home, I knew of one instance of him eating the litter box. I'm not sure if he did it more than once or home much, but last night he was in his litter box and started eating it.

 

I looked and both the litter at his previous home and here, we use clumping litter. I tried to find the ingredients on the box to see if it had Sodium bentonite but the box didn't have any ingredients. It did say on the box 100% natural clay, does that include Sodium bentonite?

 

I brought him home yesterday, and he has been eating all afternoon, had some milk from his mom and ate this morning. However, hes only gone once since hes got here.

 

Is it normal for the kitten not to go often? Should I be worried? I can't afford to take him to the vet at the moment.

 

Help please :( Any advice would be appreciated.

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post #2 of 5
11/6/11 at 10:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey You View Post

Before I took him home, I knew of one instance of him eating the litter box. I'm not sure if he did it more than once or home much, but last night he was in his litter box and started eating it.

 

I looked and both the litter at his previous home and here, we use clumping litter. I tried to find the ingredients on the box to see if it had Sodium bentonite but the box didn't have any ingredients. It did say on the box 100% natural clay, does that include Sodium bentonite?

 

I brought him home yesterday, and he has been eating all afternoon, had some milk from his mom and ate this morning. However, hes only gone once since hes got here.

 

Is it normal for the kitten not to go often? Should I be worried? I can't afford to take him to the vet at the moment.

 

Help please :( Any advice would be appreciated.




How old is the kitten? In my experience, kittens under eight weeks old sometimes eat cat litter. The younger the kitten, the more frequently the kittens eat it. For kittens under eight weeks, "natural" cat litter is recommend. By "natural" I mean ones like Yesterdays News (http://www.yesterdaysnews.com/).

 

If you can not get that litter, then make sure you buy NON-CLUMPING litter. Since a kitten ingesting clumping litter can be VERY DANGEROUS, in my experience as a vet tech. I would recommend you take him to a veterinarian, since the clumping action of the litter could have caused a blockage in the kitten. 

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post #3 of 5
11/6/11 at 10:22am
I take it he's a baby? If he's eating litter, you really need to switch to non-clumping litter immediately. Clumping litter can kill him. I don't mean to be an alarmist or anything, but yes, you need to be worried about his eating clumping litter. When you say he's been eating all afternoon, you mean food, right?

I don't know how often kittens should go to the bathroom. Adult cats poop once every 24 to 36 hours.

None of our kitties ate litter when they were kittens. One of ours did once he was older, and it was PICA, a sign he was anemic. But if this is a baby, he's probably just being a kitten. Some do this.
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post #4 of 5
11/6/11 at 10:53am
Sodium bentonite is natural clay litter. Only foods have to have ingredients labeling. If it is clumping clay litter, it is at least partly sodium bentonite. It is very dangerous stuff that holds 10 times or more of its dry volume in moisture. I won't use it at all for my adult cats, but it can kill a kitten. I'd be watching this kitten carefully and preparing to go to an emergency vet.

Good luck! Lots of: vibes.gif that this little one is OK.
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post #5 of 5
11/6/11 at 12:38pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks guys.

 

Yeah, I meant eating and he went again a about an hour ago. I am gonna hopefully take him to a vet tomorrow (since he seems fine) and hope I can get a free check up. I'm gonna go and get some non-clumping litter tomorrow as well.

 

I'll keep you updated.

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