Composting wood pellet cat litter

DaftyDuck

Davesnave wrote: »

Well, that shut everyone up! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not as much as trying to say his name right did. He was Zakaria Erzinçlioglu, a large -HUGE- bearded Turkish-Hungarian-middle -European with the most perfect deep booming voice and impeccable grammar. Combined with his huge stature, a pronounced limp, and his tendency to quietly start talking over coffee of his latest.... project.... he'd have made the best Bond villain ever. It was a truly lost calling!

soupdragon10

Thanks to everyone for their replies - I think for the present I will be bagging this up and putting it out for the refuse people to take.


As I have free range cats who distribute their waste around the garden (they have only been using trays while the weather has been so bad) I am not sure of the reasoning for removing this, is it because of the protein content?

madjackslam

We have a vegetarian rabbit, and use these wooden cat pellets for her toilet. It absorbs urine better than the recycled newspaper ones, and turns it into a brown sawdust. This seems to break down rapidly in the compost heap and, together with the straw and faeces, seems to give the heap real oomph. It's the first time I've got close to "proper" compost.

DaftyDuck

soupdragon10 wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for their replies - I think for the present I will be bagging this up and putting it out for the refuse people to take.


As I have free range cats who distribute their waste around the garden (they have only been using trays while the weather has been so bad) I am not sure of the reasoning for removing this, is it because of the protein content?

That .... um... component doesn't tend to break down in the compost, just stays as a sticky, smelly lump... which leaves you feeling mucky and smelly if you handle it! Not pleasant. The woody part, as madjackslam says, turns rapidly into quality, smell-free compost. His bunnys' poos will break down fast, as they're part-digested green stuff anyway. The urine (cat or bunny) acts as a compost activator, speeding up the breakdown. "real" gardeners always pee on their compost heap, rather than go indoors.

(Glad it's not a carnivorous bunny, btw, as they are savage little bleeders!)

djohn2002uk

DaftyDuck wrote: »

"real" gardeners always pee on their compost heap, rather than go indoors.

I've been gardening for 57yrs so I think I could call myself a "real" gardener by now and have never seen anyone do that at an allotment or in the garden. It's just something that seems to have perpetuated through forums such as this and passed on by "inexperienced" gardeners.
My compost bins are ready every spring without any accelerators and I certainly wouldn't want cat poo in my bins.

lostinrates

djohn2002uk wrote: »

I've been gardening for 57yrs so I think I could call myself a "real" gardener by now and have never seen anyone do that at an allotment or in the garden. It's just something that seems to have perpetuated through forums such as this and passed on by "inexperienced" gardeners.
My compost bins are ready every spring without any accelerators and I certainly wouldn't want cat poo in my bins.

Tbf, I don't think that most people announce they are doing it then and there for viewing pleasure.....

'Oi, Djohn, I'm off for a widdle in the compost.....wanna watch?' Doesn't strike me as ideal over the fence conversation!

I imagine people have been widlding at convenient points in gardens, like compost heaps, for as long as we have had gardens, because its convenient as much as anything else.

DaftyDuck

LIR, no, I've never seen anyone do it either, despite having binoculars in my shed! Nonetheless, it's an excellent accelerator, one of the best. (Un)fortunately for me, my compost bin is very visible, so I'll use that as a happy cop-out, and waddle in for my widdle.

djohn2002uk No, it's not an urban myth - not even a rural one. The house I grew up in had two professional gardeners (edit: one after the other died; it wasn't that huge!), and they used to do it - back in the 50's and 60's. I know of several aged and experienced almost-professional gardeners who do it (hence the "real" in quotation marks), and several professional garden writers who recommend it. Bob Flowerdew swears by it, for instance. There may be the convenience element, but there is actually some point to it as well. Favoured by the organic brigade as well....

Animal urine is widely used in this context in agriculture and, up until the 50's, was commercially sought after, concentrated, and sold as an activator. It's still commonly used as an activator throughout the Third World.

There is, however, a distinction between pee and poo... an important one that your comment seems to confuse. Cat poo is not going to help a compost heap, and has no place in mine. Pee, of any mammal, is.

lostinrates

DaftyDuck wrote: »

LIR, no, I've never seen anyone do it either, despite having binoculars in my shed! Nonetheless, it's an excellent accelerator, one of the best. (Un)fortunately for me, my compost bin is very visible, so I'll use that as a happy cop-out, and waddle in for my widdle.
.

Live life dangerously. Our compost is on a roadside track. If people are looking through the boundary then they will see DH there often enough. He also puddles around our hen house every Friday. The dogs think this is a great game.

DaftyDuck

OK, I will, if you will... A "shewee" attachment on a Dalek compost bin... my genius idea of the day, ©Dafty

But I might wait for the wind to die down, and the weather to warm up, as I don't want any pruning by frostbite!

lostinrates

DaftyDuck wrote: »

OK, I will, if you will... A "shewee" attachment on a Dalek compost bin... my genius idea of the day, ©Dafty

But I might wait for the wind to die down, and the weather to warm up, as I don't want any pruning by frostbite!

Our compost bins are actually just three palets with the open side facing the road. I just nip down track a little and go by the hedge