Kittens and clumping litter

[moxiewild]

Is it okay for 7-just-about-8 week old kittens to use clumping litter?

We ordered non clumping, but were sent our regular litter by mistake.

We use Okocat, which is a wood based. Larger granules, extremely low dust. The kittens haven’t shown any signs of being interested in eating it. We have dirt, leaves, sticks, and Dr. E cat attract additive mixed with it as well, since the litter is feral.

We’re just trying to decide -

Would it be safe to just use these boxes of the clumping litter at their age?

Should we submit a new order, and would it be safe to use the clumping just for the next couple of days until the non clumping comes in?

Or should we go out and buy some random non clumping ASAP tonight?

 

[kittenmittens84]

They usually say it’s ok to use clumping litter with kittens around 3 months, but personally if the kittens haven’t shown any interest in eating litter or playing with it I would be ok with using clumping at 2 months. In the end it’s up to you though!

If you do then definitely watch them, when my cat was ~3 months he started eating litter out of the blue (anemia) when he’d never done it before and I had to switch back to pine shavings.

 

[nwc]

i stopped using clumping out of paranoia (my kitten is > 3 months) because he grooms himself after having his paws all in the litter, and I just didn't want yet another variable to consider if he gets sick for some reason.

 

[moxiewild]

They usually say it’s ok to use clumping litter with kittens around 3 months, but personally if the kittens haven’t shown any interest in eating litter or playing with it I would be ok with using clumping at 2 months. In the end it’s up to you though!

If you do then definitely watch them, when my cat was ~3 months he started eating litter out of the blue (anemia) when he’d never done it before and I had to switch back to pine shavings.

K kittenmittens84 Can I ask what brand of pine shavings you use? I have looked into this several times, and always end up confused.

Can I just use regular horse or small animal bedding? How does scooping work? How often do you change it out entirely? How is odor control?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

[kittenmittens84]

K kittenmittens84 Can I ask what brand of pine shavings you use? I have looked into this several times, and always end up confused.

Can I just use regular horse or small animal bedding? How does scooping work? How often do you change it out entirely? How is odor control?

Sorry for all the questions!

No problem! I use exquisicat pine cobble, they also make a pellet one but reviews online said cats seem to like the cobble texture more (it’s like flakes rather than little pressed pellets) so I went with the cobble.

As far as odor control and scooping, it’s really not as bad as I thought it would be. As long as you scoop daily it mostly just smells like pine trees. Our cat always pees in the same corner of the box, so I would just scoop out all the litter that looked soggy/darker, plus any poop obviously. I can’t remember how often I changed it entirely as he’s back on regular clumping litter now but since you have to scoop out so much and replace it every day it does stay fairly fresh.

Honestly the only annoying thing about it is that it gets tracked EVERYWHERE since the little bits are so lightweight. It forced me to switch to a top entry litterbox lol