Flushable Litter or Toilet Training

[purrrdy]

I was wondering if anyone uses flushable litter? I live in town and am on a city sewer system.

I was hoping, once my new kitten arrives, to keep litter boxes next to the toilet and possibly transition over to toilet training when he/she is older.

Is this a viable plan. or am I missing something?

 

[betsygee]

I have been using Swheat Scoop flushable biodegradable litter for quite awhile now.  Love it!  I've had no problems flushing it and the kitties use it just fine.

 

[purrrdy]

Does the flushable stuff clump until it hits the water, or is it like non clumping litter?

 

[betsygee]

It does clump up.  Their website says to let it sit in the toilet 20 minutes before flushing to make sure the clumps break up, though I've never had to wait that long.

 

[lamiatron]

there are quite a few different brands of flush-able, natural, litter. as @betsygee  mentioned, swheat scoop, there is also nature's miracle corn based litter, there is Worlds Best Cat Litter, I think even Tidy Cats/Arm and Hammer have some natural options too. 

I wish you good luck in finding one that works for you and your new kitty.

Just something to consider, it really depends on kitty if she/he will use the natural litter...

I had an experience where both of my cats hated the natural litter (i was using WBCL), and they both had issues with going outside of the box when using the natural littler, and it went away once i switched back to clay. So just to be safe, you should offer your kitty options. Maybe have one box with the natural stuff, and one with regular clay litter, or have the clay litter in case you run into any issues!

 

[purrrdy]

Thanks for the info Lamia.

I suppose I will have to go with the same litter the breeder uses initially and slowly transition over. Sounds like the flushable litters are all made out of some sort of particle materials like corn or wheat - not clay.

I did read that some people advised against it due to clogging pipes - that's the one thing I wanted to be sure of before I get started down this road. I don't want my new kitten to have to go through multiple litter transitions if I find out the flushable method does not work.

 

[lamiatron]

i hope you're able to find one that works for you, and your kitty. my cats seems to like using the litter box that's in my bedroom okay, although they have another available to them...so the big factor for me was odor control, and low dust/tracking.

it led me to switch around litters a lot with my cats, to find the perfect one that worked for us all! I even gave WBCL a shot (the natural corn based litter), i was not a fan of the litter as far as tracking/dust/odor control, and i guess neither were my cats, as they would go #1 in the litter box, but decided to do #2 outside of the box (i guess they also felt odor control was not good). Could be that, could also be that they prefer to use clay more so than natural litter. My girl Jet is very finicky when it comes to litter, so I have to stick with what she's good with. 

the household fave is Nature's Miracle: Intense Defense Clumping Clay litter


take a look at the reviews. These reviews are what influenced me to try this litter out in the first place and i'm glad i did. after a 40lb bag of this, i decided to try another litter, Dr, Elseys Precious Cat in the blue bag, but it didn't work out for us. even the BF told me i'm not allowed to buy anything else than this one. The price is really high on amazon, but trust me you can get this litter really cheap at a pet store (i usually get it for between $16-18 for the 40 lb bag at pet smart)

They also have a natural litter:


this one I have no personal experience with. Again, you can get this for a lot cheaper at the pet store. 

Good LUCK!!

 

[betsygee]

I've transitioned four cats over from clay to natural.  I just slowly added more wheat and less clay each time I changed it.  They're all on wheat now and I love being able to flush it.  I wonder if the problem with clogged pipes is not waiting long enough for it to break down before flushing?