Home made kitty litter

[Zenbirder]

I am tired of buying kitty litter, it seems an unnecessary expense. Plus I try to conserve so I scoop for too long without changing it out and my siamese rebells by leaving gifts in other locations.

The cats do use a pile of pea gravel in the back yard, so I am wondering what could be mixed with it for absorbancy, sawdust perhaps? Or sand? Any experiences and ideas would be appreciated.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I met a man at a grocery store once who was stocking up on boxes. We got to talking, and he said he used the boxes for his cat. He said he shovelled in some dirt, and when the box was well used, but not leaking though the bottom, he just tossed it in the compost pile, dirt, poop, box and all. he had been doing this for over 20 years.

 

[Beekissed]

That sounds reasonable, but maybe with a waterproof like a trashbag lining. You think the smell would be a problem with just soil? Over time, it might be hard to find some soil that is loose enough to use for this, maybe?

Would stall-dry, sawdust and sand be more expensive than kitty litter? How about cedar chips? Will cats even use cedar chips?

 

[MrsCountryChick]

I used shredded newspaper once in a pinch & it worked. I sent it thru the paper shredder as I would for shredding a bill or personal paper before going into the trash. I only used it temporarily for a day till I got new litter. Suprisingly it worked just fine. No tracking of stones or pebbles anywhere & the newspaper is absorbent. I now use the Tidy cat litter with the ceramic stones & interchangeable urine pad, & LOVE it. NO smell at all & I have 4 cats. I have 2 boxes but they all use the same one, go figure. :/ So I change the urine pad every 4 days, it seems to fully fill the pad while not offending my cats from use. I scoop poop from it the ceramic stones daily. They recommend changing the urine pad every 7 days. They also recommend to have 1 more litter than you have cats, but mine are stubborn & have used a litter in the same place for a long time, my oldest is 10yrs. ...& he's not about to change now, lol. & I have NO urine smell, it's Soooooo worth it, plus no tracked litter. Well I do have my son's stubborn cat who is rather large who likes to really swat the pellets & does fling about 10 to 20 outside the litter, but I gladly pick them up Vs 'trying' to pick up the tracking pebbles from regular litter.

Oh I just want to mention if anyone buys one, Tidy Cat has a $5.00 coupon inside the box on a litter box (I guess for you to save on buying a 2nd litterbox purchase) & a coupon inside also on the refill pellets & pads......... I used my key in the store to cut the end package tape & reach inside & took the paper with the coupons out to use on my purchase right then in the store on checkout. More people may check into the litter system if they had the coupons on the outside. Walmart is the cheapest that I've seen for the Tidy Cat litter system & pellets & pads. Silly why the coupons are on the inside.

 

[farm_mom]

"swheat scoop" works good, but is expensive. It's supposed to be made from wheat. I wonder if other grains, or objects of similar shape and size would work?

 

[ScottyG]

MrsCountryChick already said it, but when my (former) cat had surgery, he needed gentler stuff than kitty litter, and I used shredded newspaper and scrap paper. It didn't contain the smell as well, but worked quite wonderfully.

 

[MorelCabin]

Is simply training them to go outside to do thier bussiness an option?

 

[RTRChick]

Train a cat?

 

[Wildsky]

Cats will go out to go potty - but some keep cats indoor only. My cat is indoor only - I've used some kind of stall pellets before in a pinch - I have it in the garage for the horse barn, and I threw some in the cat box with stall dry I don't think that would be any cheaper or better.

My cats are very picky - I tried that pine stuff once - they wouldn't go NEAR it.

 

[Wildsky]

Train a cat?

LOL - or the cat train you! LOL

My current little booger (Cornish Rex) will play fetch if that counts as "training"...