* Here’s the video update of my homemade sifter that shows pellets in action… and it only costs a buck! Some shopping links to less DIY sifters coming soon.
We have a lot of trees in Canada. They’re all over the place. Because of that we end up with a lot of tree-based manufacture from logs to lumber to paper. One product potentially unknown to the winter unaware in warmer climates is wood stove pellets which are primarily used as a heating fuel.* They’re compressed bits of wood leftovers – bark, sawdust, lumber trimmings, and the like – formed into very tight miniature ‘logs’ that then break apart into 5-10 mm segments with most relying on compression only rather than being bound with glues or other bonding agents. In effect something made from waste and that’s a good thing when the trees themselves are from well-managed forests. This isn’t clear-cutting to make rare lumber in the Amazon, this is sustainable farming on a longer time scale. And I’ve discovered another use for them that’s going to save me a bundle.
* Not to be confused with pellets made from specialty woods for BBQ and food smoking which are considerably more expensive. If you live far from the cold they can likely be ordered cheaply as a bulk product via DIY and home improvement centres locally since they come from the same type of suppliers that offer wood mulch and landscape materials who are used to shipping truckload capacities. Their weight probably makes them cost prohibitive through usual retail mail-order channels like Amazon or eBay.
I love my two cats dearly and would do anything for them since they’re such a joy in my life. My own little financial crisis of late however has made me re-evaluate every last expense around the house, cat costs included. I had already done research into the best health value for money on their food budget but it was the other end of the equation that was really chewing into the monthly spend. I’m talking cat litter here. A necessary evil because my girls live indoor exclusively and wouldn’t know what to do with the wild if it was set before them on a platter. They’d walk right up to my abundant local coyote and fox population and innocently ask “Do you have any food?” to which the wild beasts would reply with a wry grin “I do now.”
If this topic isn’t your thing, I suggest you stop reading right now because I’m going to expound on the gory litter box details cat owners need. If you’ve ever thought about adopting cats but the idea of litter duty put you off, read on then go get a pair in need from your local shelter. They live better with playmates their own height, drive you less crazy in the bargain, and a second is only fractionally more cost than the first. Please get adult cats if you can possibly resist kitten cuteness. They need you most and while cats hate change and may take a month of adjustment, they’ll love you for it that much more. Eventually.
The sheer volume of litter discussions that happen online are a bit disturbing (including this page of text) but simultaneously strange comfort knowing that I’m not the only poo warrior fighting this battle. My real hope for yet another posting on the subject is to find new cat owners or other strays like myself that were stuck in the scooping loop unaware of great alternatives that can save a stack of money and make for happier, healthier cats.
A price check of the old standby scoop scenario is in order. A generic box of clumping clay cat litter locally runs about $10.50 for 18 kg (thanks in part to a local 15% sales tax) with premium brands being up to double that cost. For two cats that meant a box every other week and even then it was a tight squeeze to stretch it that far. Let’s call it $25 monthly. I was guilty of simply not exploring other options and thought this was just how cat litter was done for the last two decades. It turns out to have a set of problems above and beyond expense but the litter box filling industry doesn’t really shout about those and when it comes to smelly cat leavings, people want the path of least resistance to get it out of their house as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Chats with vets in retrospect have revealed that the bentonite clay which forms the ‘clumps’ may not be great for their health. It’s a naturally occurring substance but usually includes some silica compounds, quartz dust, or even diatomaceous earth all of which are very fine particulate that can irritate and even harm respiratory and digestive systems over time – your cat’s and your own. There is a real and long-running debate on the true health impacts over time with plenty of anecdotal evidence but little real science. Of course the cat litter industry has waded into the fray and muddied those waters even more with denials and sponsored claims to the contrary. I think anyone on either side of that fence would comfortably admit that it IS very dusty and it DOES get inhaled and ingested to some degree. Beyond that make your own determination with a bit of research and reading but when there’s a much less expensive renewable option available it becomes a moot point to me.
Ordinary ‘non-clumping’ clay is a slightly cheaper option and I tried a bag of that for a short time after seeing a few people load up on the stuff at my local big box store. For all I know they were using it for non-cat purposes but I figured I’d give it a shot since it’s still sold everywhere. You use less to fill but change more frequently. The version I found ($5.75/10kg) had some anti-bacterial and fragrance additions and worked well enough but was heaps more mess compared to the clumping variety when it came time for cleaning and disposal. Clay doesn’t biodegrade well so spent litter had to all go in the bin and the smell factor on day three even after daily scooping was less than ideal because residual dust at the bottom gets soaked, literally. My suspicion is that this category of litter only survives because of old habits. Coupled with the facts that most material used in either of these two forms is strip-mined in less than environmentally ideal conditions and that it’s a heavy product which needs expensive trucking to get to me meant I needed to search beyond clay.
A short experiment with shredded paper was interesting in that it’s a completely free material which worked… but only a day at a time. Vets have long recommended this as an alternative after surgery or injury so that clay litter doesn’t get trapped in wounds. Long strips from a cheap (not ‘cross cut’) home shredder can be used effectively for a few uses and they even absorb some amount of liquid waste but the fact is that it needs to be changed entirely every day and creates are real mess of leftovers. If you have a large yard with a generous garden hose for washing and a castoff place to dump and cover the refuse, it might be a solution but otherwise it was far too much smell and bother even with the trick of added baking soda. I could see some paper strips being added to other mixes to help stretch the blend but otherwise this is really a short term emergency solution at best. But hey, it IS free if you still get newspapers or junk mail and are quick with scissors.
I next asked my farm neighbour for some advice thinking her horses surely poop lots more than my cats to see if there could be some crossover of ideas. She was a goldmine of suggestions since dealing with animals is her forte and that led me to consider several other products. She uses bales of straw, hay, and various forms of wood shavings as well as softwood pellets soaked in water to break down into bedding for all manner of creatures from rabbits to chickens.
That was all the hint I needed to open the Pandora’s box of ideas from the internet. Make no mistake this isn’t my original idea and apparently clever cat owners and cat rescue operations have known this trick for years. I’m just late to the party. I can’t believe it took me this long to discover the secret to cheap litter boxing and don’t even want to fathom the money I’ve spent on clay over the years.
Enter my new winner, wood pellets. Cheap and local as well as better performance and nearly zero dust with only a bit of very manageable sawdust after every cleaning. I can get a bag of hardwood pellets at the local DIY store ($6.50/18kg) which now stocks them year round instead of just the winter heating season. Right there I’ve nearly halved the monthly cost compared to clay but as an added savings, you get double the volume by weight, need less for each ‘fill’, and scoop out much less every cycle. By my math what was easily $25 a month has just gone to less than $3 and I need only lug a bag home every other month instead of every other week. This could be the greatest discovery of my litter scooping life. And yes, I’m that excited about it.
Experiments in the sink tell me that both softwood and hardwood pellets will work but that the latter has a bit more staying power when it gets wet. There are some concerns over the use of pine (a softwood often made into pellets) because of toxicity but the arguments there seem confusing at best with champions and detractors alike. Some confirm with vigour that pine is guaranteed toxic while others say the contact with litter is minimal and the likelihood of ingesting dangerous doses is negligible. If pine is all you have access to in your locale and you have concerns, I suggest you talk to merchants about getting them to bring in hardwood versions from the same supply lines. What little I know about pellet-fired heating stoves tells me that many people prefer hardwood for fuel because they burn hotter so your store would have motivation to stock them beyond whacky litter needs.
Luckily for me the hardwood versions were slightly cheaper in my stores and stacked right next to softer sorts so it was an easy decision. The methodology of cleaning changes a bit in that you fill the box with fresh pellets and scoop solid waste daily. Liquid waste is absorbed by the pellets that then break down into sawdust. A fresh stir daily helps even out absorption and conveniently when I do the pellets release a pleasant ‘lumber yard’ smell which to my nose hides every last trace of urine aroma. Really, I tried to smell something and couldn’t.
For my schedule I go in every third day and ‘reverse scoop’ with my old slotted litter shovel. That’s simply taking the intact unused pellets, shaking a bit to remove the sawdust, then dropping them into a clean second litter box. I’m sure soon enough I’ll engineer a bigger ‘tray sized’ sifter* so I can do the entire box in one go but even scoop by scoop it takes less than five minutes. The leftover sawdust is actually very dry compared to damp non-clumping clay leftovers and easily pours into the bin if you must. Better still it can also go into a hidden corner of your yard to compost over time. I suggest a protected spot to avoid attracting other creatures but somewhere that will get rainfall to speed along the process.
At least I knew long ago that specially made plastic litter boxes in the pet aisle weren’t a good bargain. I simply head over to the plastic storage bin section of the MegaMart and get high-sided totes for a fraction of the price – remember you’ll want two or more for ease of scooping. My Nigella is rather enthusiastic about her dig and cover sessions but the high sides easily contain most of her twice-daily furry whirlwind. If your cats have trouble getting in and out (mine don’t since they’re used to the initial leap) simply make some sort of helper step out of a second smaller overturned box.
If your litter doesn’t stink, I’ve found that a ‘hood’ is really unnecessary and can even cause some behavioural issues. While some cat ‘experts’ disagree on this point, many times individual cats do like a bit of privacy, say a dedicated closet with perhaps a fan that vents outdoors, but a closely enclosed covering can make them feel too claustrophobic. Especially if the cat doesn’t fit the size litter box you’ve chosen. I mention this tip of the cat psychology iceberg mainly to help anyone trying to diagnose why their cats might not immediately take to using wood pellets when switching from clay. Think like a cat where space and smell are paramount in their ‘Is it too weird?’ analysis. Mix a bit of used litter into new. Place the box where they can or can’t be seen doing their business depending on their preference. Gently force them into the new mix by gradually taking away the old. They hate change so try to only switch up one variable at a time to see how each is accepted and you’ll eventually land on the magic formula. As always reward and praise for a poo well done helps reinforce the desired behaviour.
After a few months of testing everything from paper out of the shredder to scoops of sawdust from the mill down the road my pair were up for digging into anything I threw in there. Older cats set in their ways might need extra transition help in the short term and may like a small portion of pellets pre-dissolved by you in a bit of water when doing a completely new fill so they feel like they’ve ‘covered’ to their satisfaction. If however you’ve got new pile of kittens, start them off in pellets and I’ll wager they’ll never know the difference.
That brings me to another bonus that was a bit unexpected. Unwanted ‘litter tracking’ through the house has been reduced to a bare minimum. For years I used a long rug made of a brushy material meant to catch bits of litter trapped in the girl’s paws as they exited their private loo. I laid this along the approach to the box and it did a good job but didn’t catch every last speck of litter which I’d find accumulating in spots where the cats liked to sit, sleep, or generally shake their legs in a sort of litter disco. Sweeping just became a part of daily life but if you see the size of fresh pellets you know they’ve got almost no chance of being carried out of the box. The sawdust is similarly less track-able because it’s so lightweight and doesn’t seems to ‘stick’ to fur with anywhere near the force of clumping litter. The last month has been a broom-less joy.
One last benefit comes for people who might have trouble lugging around bags of spent litter – the time when you least want a broken bag accident. Fresh 18kg bags of pellets weigh just as much as clay but at least they’re usually sealed well when you get home from the farm supply. Since pellets are much lighter by volume and you’re really only carrying a small measure of used feather-like sawdust on the ‘dirty’ side it makes for a much easier time. Older owners that struggle moving the weight around will surely appreciate this small help. I’ve found that as long as I don’t wait too long to reverse-scoop, the sawdust is even dry enough to leave the transfer litter box nearly clean without needing a water wash every time. I do still run a hot water ‘sterilize’ cycle with a very mild bleach solution (outdoors, well rinsed and ventilated because ammonia in cat urine can react with bleach) every few fills but anyone on the litter treadmill knows each small convenience helps.
The clay litter industry sees this writing on this wall and has started offering a myriad of options made from more natural products. Recycled pelletized paper, wood shavings, chicken scratch, and even the leftovers from corn processing all get re-branded and have their profit margins cranked up to maximum.* There are also high-tech silica crystal litters that promise carefree and long-term solutions albeit at a similarly hefty price. Many of these various formulas get great reviews from cat owners but the reality in my remote locale is that most aren’t available to me and when they are, they’re easily double or triple the cost. I think if you have cats that are particularly fussy about what they scratch in you might have to explore these options but I’m lucky that my girls don’t seem particularly picky about what’s under their paws when the call of nature hits. I would say that even if it takes weeks of transition, the long term cost and health benefits outweigh any short term transition difficulties. Don’t give up after just a few days attempt.
* Some cheeky producers are even taking ordinary wood stove pellets, putting them in a fancy bag festooned with pictures of cats, and charging three times the price. Most have since had to admit the practice and that nothing special is added to their products.
If you’re not a cat owner and have read this far no doubt you’re asking how in the world anyone could be so enthusiastic over cat poop methodologies but if you are a cat owner hopefully this litter tale will rock your world as much as it has mine. I won’t say scooping is now a joy but I no longer dread the task or expense and my girls are just as happy.
