Just curious if anyone uses the horse pelleted bedding (like Equine Fresh from TSC) for the cat litter box. Pros/cons?
TIA
after years of using whatevers in the grocery store, including some nasty silicon litter (i don’t know what came over me back then) i’ve switched and have been using the pellets for a couple of years. i love it because i dump the soiled litter in the leaf compost in my back yard. i also like that it doesn’t smell perfumed. catbox is in my daughters bathroom. sometimes the cat pulls a pellet out on her paws, but other than that it’s been great. it’s way less $$$ than the clay cat litters, and green.
after years of using whatevers in the grocery store, including some nasty silicon litter (i don’t know what came over me back then) i’ve switched and have been using the pellets for a couple of years. i love it because i dump the soiled litter in the leaf compost in my back yard. i also like that it doesn’t smell perfumed. catbox is in my daughters bathroom. sometimes the cat pulls a pellet out on her paws, but other than that it’s been great. it’s way less $$$ than the clay cat litters, and green.
Do the pellets break down like they do in a horse stall or do they stay in pelleted form?
Feline pine is equine fresh/woody pet but much more expensive with the small animal label.
I enjoyed the smell and it clumped ok but you can’t get it through the scoop unless it is totally broken down. I ended up wasting quite a bit scooping every day.
I have two cats, so two boxes. One box is the “feline pine” and one is regular Tidy Cat Clumping. My female uses the pine box ONLY to pee in, so for me, it’s great. I just use the large-hole scoop and mix it up as the pellets break down into saw dust. Once about 95% of the pellets have broken down, I pour out the box into my garden and refill with a bag of generic store-brand pine pellets. One bag lasts about 30 days.
My male cat refuses to use the pine pellet-filled box. Guess he doesn’t like the feel under this paws.
I only had a cat for a year, but I quickly switched to the pine pellets after trying several different litters. I preferred the pellets, as they really held the urine well, and never smelled. The “other” just sat on top, making cleaning the box super easy. I’d dump the “used” litter on my compost pile for daily cleaning. I also found I was using less for my weekly “renewing” of pellets. Economical & ecological at the same time, imho.
If you want more “clump” try a wheat based litter like Swheat Scoop. It clumps nicely. We have many cats so I just get Wheat Mids at the feed store. 50# bags - under $10.00. Works great, is natural, cats like it.
Cracked corn works great, easy to clean, and no odor. It is so much lighter weight also. It also clumps.
[QUOTE=etc.;4004250]
Cracked corn works great, easy to clean, and no odor. It is so much lighter weight also. It also clumps.[/QUOTE]
Oh now that is an interesting idea!
Stupid ?
Wheat Mids? Sounds like an interesting idea but, for the ignorant (which I admit to being), what exactly is it?
[QUOTE=Holly Jeanne;4004607]
Wheat Mids? Sounds like an interesting idea but, for the ignorant (which I admit to being), what exactly is it?[/QUOTE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_middlings
I second the wheat cat litter. I use Swheat Scoop for my five cats (3 litter boxes) and it has NO ODOR–just “wheaty” smelling when they pee. It clumps great, I use less, it is totally biodegradable and flushable. It does track out of the box a bit, but vacuums up well.
I am going to look into the wheat middlings at the feed store. I figured I could find it cheaper if it wasn’t labeled “cat litter” in a fancy white bag.
I’ve tried the pellets, but my guys didn’t like them and they don’t clump as well.
Figures
None of our local feed stores carries wheat mids and the closest place to get the wheat based litter is about 45 minutes away. Any of you Lexington folks reading this know where to get the wheat mids? Thanks!
I use horse pine pellets for my cats and they haven’t treated it any differently than FelinePine. I really love the pine pellets. 1) it smells like wood, not chemical cat litter 2) it only smells like cat waste right after they poop in it 3) it lasts a long time, because it doesn’t clump. When I clean the poop out I mix the rest of the litter together and it dries out and the cats use it again and again. I have 2 cats with 3 litter boxes and I only have to empty them completely every 2-3 weeks, generally when all the pellets have broken down. It does track quite a bit when there aren’t a lot of formed pellets left, but it vacuums up easily.
Swheat Scoop is also good, if you’re looking for a clumping alternative. I’ve also mixed the two and had a nice happy medium between clumping and non-clumping.
I just purchased cracked corn and will give it a whirl immediately. If it works, great. If it doesn’t my hens will be getting the cracked corn. 
I have used the corn, the wheat, the clay and newspaper pellets. Now I use equine wood pellets (Equine Fresh or Equine Pine, TSC for around $7 for a 40 pound bag) for the 2 cat litter boxes, and it is the cheapest bedding we have ever used. I put 3 (32 oz) yogurt containers of pellets in a large bowl, and add 2 containers of hot water and stir. While the pellets are softening I clean to boxes out, add in either Sweet PDZ or baking soda, then add 1/2 of the wood pellets to each box and mix it all in. The clumping is okay, the added deodorizer keeps the odor to a minimum, and the cat isn’t eating clay off of its paws. Any spill over vacuums up completely, and I save a small fortune in bedding costs. We’re glad we made the move.
I use the pelleted stuff for our catboxes, around here it is Stallmaster. Much cheaper than Feline Pine. Cats hardly track it out of the box, which is a must for my SO. It doesn’t clump per say, but less odor and tracking is worth the trade off. I don’t even have a special litter scoop, just use one of the regular ones and after some practice don’t waste much in the way of clean pellets. Only regret is I didn’t start using pellets sooner!
ETA: To answer your second question, they do break down, but the saw dust sifts to the bottom, so you just move the clean pellets aside and scoop up the sawdust and the expanding pellets that didn’t completely disintegrate. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and less dust kicked up than with clay litter.
Yup, I use the stall pellets for kitty littler, and mix in some baking soda. I scoop and flush the solid waste, and stir around the remaining pellets/sawdust, and it lasts for ages.
Our three cats use 1 box in our bathroom with Boreal (Agway) pelleted horse bedding. Stirred and de-pooped, lasts 2-3 weeks. Love the stuff and my allergic cat is so much better with it.
