Cat Litter - It's a minefield! - What do you buy?

lostinrates

lostinrates wrote: »

We moved from crystals to moonlight clumping, which I find fantastic, but, as Cast best flushable has also been so well recommended here we've just..this morning, changed to that (my cats are little troopers and don't mind sudden change of litter). We want to reduce non recycle-able waste, and the flushable aspect appealed, but that we can also add to compost is even greener, and I think flushing will be an option taken only if in a hurry. The smell of the actual litter is nice and neutral, but the small bag doesn't go very far, and I think it will be less cost effective than moonlight ultra clumping, but we'll see.

One cat tested it for us immeadiately and I can already see I'm going to miss the ease of ultra clumping...perhaps this will win me over during the week, i hope so!

Ok further to above, the girls like the litter...they are using it a lot seemingly just for fun. (they've both gone way more than usual) BUT, I will need to go back to the petshop and buy at least one other bag, probably two, though we plan to make a zoo plu order they have got through phenominal amounts and its now rather thin in our big litter tray. It does clump better than I thought it would (phew) just takes longer than moonlight, and does hit the bottom of the tray (which moonlight never does if it is thick enough) which means cleaning the tray regularly will be essential, rather than a nicety. It also doesn't scoop as cleanly/clump as well as moonlight, so takes marginally longer.

We've decided to plan on using it untill new year to give it a decent length of time, but if its a choice on ease and economy only (which it is not for us) I think moonlight clumping would win.

Firewallrob

Not sure if this has been covered re so called flushable litter .........

I used tesco paper litter at my old house with no problems, but after moving house I used a combination of Tesco and Bob Martin paper litter (they are both the same basically).

When wet it goes just like toilet paper and looks easy to flush - wrong !!!

Luckily it didn't resemble cat litter when the water authorities had to unblock both mine and two neighbours sewer pipes :eek:

It all goes in the bin now !!

I spoke to my dad who used to inspect council housing, and he told me that you only ever put human waste and toilet paper down the loo - even cat poo doesn't break down as easily, let alone the litter which sinks to the bottom.

Fire_Fox

I don't have any problems flushing the OkoPlus, although I do split the pee clumps as they can be quite large. There is no reason why you can't flush cat poo as all the solids get composted at the water processing plants; many water companies are using reed beds to filter and break down the waste to great effect.

Obviously don't flush clay litters as these are not compostable: I wouldn't personally use these as the clay has to be 'mined' affecting the environment, and then land-filled, same again. From what Cally6008 said in post 44, doesn't seem like cheap is that economical as you have to use so much.

cally6008

Well, the tesco value stuff is cheap on my pocket and lasts me a good length of time so ... for me ... it is very economical and it is good value.

Signing out of this thread now, I wont be back

bbbfmiot

My elderly cat is quite fussy and only will use the tray. She can digg so enthousiastically lol that i changed her tray for a closed one, which she at first didn't trust as it reminds her of the basket used for her trips to the vet.:rolleyes:
Finally she accepted her new toilet and at least the amount of litter that gets digged out has been reduced.
I have used almost all litter types, and i was very happy with the clay clumping litter, Extreme Cat litter from Zooplus, which was great quality and a clean scent, but they have changed the formula and is not as good a it was before
I am using Oko now, which is good, no poo/wee smell, clumps fine and I flush it down the toilet. It traces a little, but I put a doormat under the entrance of the tray and it catches almost all the sand. I take out the clumps once or twice daily. I clean out the tray completely every week, but will re-use the sand which is still good. Every 2 weeks i will change the sand completely

lostinrates

re flushing, to be on the safe side I'm going to compost...TBH, as its partly to be green we're doing it it really makes far sense to compost, not flush..

But thanks for the warning Firewallrob, I'll make sure I think of that on days I'm feeling like avoiding an extra trip outside )

emlou2009

lostinrates, i found that with the okoplus at first as it seemed like i'd put a whole bag in and had nothing to top up with, but i have been using it for a couple of weeks now and still have at least half the second bag i bought left. i find it smells less than moonlight, as with the moonlight i kept accidently breaking the seal on the clumps with the scoops which made them completely fall apart which was really annoying, so i kept having to empty the tray completely. i havent had to do this with oko yet so its definitely working out more economical here!

lostinrates

emlou2009 wrote: »

lostinrates, i found that with the okoplus at first as it seemed like i'd put a whole bag in and had nothing to top up with, but i have been using it for a couple of weeks now and still have at least half the second bag i bought left. i find it smells less than moonlight, as with the moonlight i kept accidently breaking the seal on the clumps with the scoops which made them completely fall apart which was really annoying, so i kept having to empty the tray completely. i havent had to do this with oko yet so its definitely working out more economical here!

Thanks, hopefully I'm just being stuck in my ways. I have a huge tray, (my girls like to go together :rolleyes:) So bought a couple more bags today and there are now two whole bags in my huge tray. I'm hoping I can scoop thouroughly with no breakages or lost bits and keep this lot going as I did moonlight. Its cerainly good to know its worked out for you. We'll buy a big bag from zooplus as already recommended too to help with cost.

rita-rabbit

davetaylor wrote: »

Yeah, I know it won't be the full effect but I have nearly a full bag of the old stuff and I am not gonna chuck it. So am happy to mix it for the moment till the old stuff runs out.

Dave x

& is better for the cats who don't like drastic changes

rita-rabbit

please do NOT flush - some us can only afford 2 drink tap water!