Thinkig about switching to wood stove pellets for cat litter

But, I'm wondering how well it controls odor.

We have 4 cats, and have been using Tidy Cats clumping litter

Dilly said:

 
But, I'm wondering how well it controls odor.

We have 4 cats, and have been using Tidy Cats clumping litter

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I would hesitate to use a non-litter as a litter.  ANd the chances are it won't do a good job.  How many litter boxes are you using now and is your current litter not working well for you? Many people think you should have one box per cat, and with 4 cats I wouldn't use any less than 2 or 3 boxes to control odor.

Some good litters include:

Feline pine (pine based)

Crystals (any brand)

World's Best (corn based)

Sweer Scoop (wheat based)

There's 2 boxes. One upstairs, amd one down.

The current litter works great. I was just curious.

Dilly said:

 
There's 2 boxes. One upstairs, amd one down.

The current litter works great. I was just curious.

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Great! Don't fix what isn't broken!

This is a long thread that might give you some ideas about the options out there: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/248958/whats-your-favorite-cat-litter.

I personally just stick with what works.  Even with a gradual change; one of my cats did not like it and peed on my bathroom rug instead.  When we switched back to the normal litter she was fine again.  

Some cats don't like pellet litters. If you decide to switch, don't take away the Tidy Cats boxes, but add a new box with the pellets and give them the chance to use it.

Other options beside stove pellets are pine horse bedding and corncob horse bedding. Easy to find if you have a farm store in the area.

Odor control with the pine and corncob pellets isn't as good as a clay clumping litter. And you have to change the box more often when you use a natural litter.

4 cats and litter can be pretty darn expensive.

I LOVE using pellets! My cat room always has pellets. Every new cat or kitten that comes to me uses it just great.

As long as they can dig, they will go

SO much more inexpensive to use, scoop the poop out and the peed on pellets turn to sawdust, scoop them out and it's easy, since the litterbox scooper will sift the sawdust and save the unused pellets.

Well worth trying!

It more depends if your kitties will use it.

I have a declawed kitty and he refuses to use it.

I had a foster who refused to use it because it wasn't clean enough. She would poop right outside the litterbox every time.

Everyone else took to it. I still use it for fosters or other emergency cases.

It's also different you scoop to save the the pellets as the pellets break down into sawdust. 

And I think it kept the smell down pretty good, and it is a way cheaper litter. Just hard to get all kitties to use it.

Yeah I could see a declawed kitty not liking the pellets.

It does seem to contain the smell somehow too.

Thanks everybody for the input.

Were are going to try wood pellets for cat litter.   from my understanding, many animal shelters have started using wood pellets and by adding baking soda to the wood pellets will help with smell and you need to clean it more than when you use clay litter.

For some reason smell is not an issue with using pellets, and don't see how pellets need to be cleaned more often then clay litter.

Poop sits on top with pellets stuck on it, scoop those out, pee causes the pellets to fall apart, so to clean the box and not waste pellets, simply scoop pellets and sift over the trash, peed on pellet particles fall through the sifter and saves the unused pellets which are tossed back in the box.

Baking soda is your choice but try without first, I think you will find it's not even needed.

If our cat wasn't so picky with litter and tolerated wood pellets, I'd switch. It was one of the many litter we tested, but she would not go near it. 

I have 6 rescue cats and have been using wood pellets for 2 years -- they are great -- they merely disintegrate to sawdust when wet -- so I sift the boxes regularly and add pellets.  They are all natural -- so no nasty toxins (which are in most clumping litters) and as long as I keep the boxes clean - no odor.  I have mostly covered boxes -- my boys kick up a storm, -- so there are often a few dry pellets outside the box -- but no tracking like with regular litter.

I use pellets with my 6 cats -- and agree!!  And, because they are all natural -- no fear of toxins!

I bought a Breeze litter box on sale and I highly recommend it. I replaced the expensive pellets it had with pine pellets meant for horse bedding.  The sawdust gets sifted to the removable tray and the litter scoop is just the right size for the pellets to go through. No tracking and it smells great... I even have a litterbox a few feet from the bed and it smells fine. 

I love the breeze system. The pellets don't have silicone or anything which is great, they don't absorb urine easily which is also great and the cats love it. I have my cats in my heated garage because we have one cat that some how got leukemia. Don't worry, the garage is like a kitty city now lol. Anyways, I am building a custom litter box which is a bit larger than the breeze one. I'm going to create a slide for the urine to go on and the slide will lead out doors into a small ditch. everything else will work the same, just without the pads. the pellets last foreeever. This is going to help a lot int he money area too without risking their health which I will not do.

​do you use the wood stove all pine pellets? the 40lbs for 5 dollar ones?