Pellet bedding used for cat litter boxes

[trubandloki]

I searched, I found a thread from over 10 years ago, so I decided to ask (again).

Indoor cat litter box.
I clean it twice per day, one cat.
I have been using a standard clumping litter and I am happy with it.

Two different people, both cashiers, and two different stores in the last week (picking up some sale kitty litter) have said to me (with out me bringing any topics up) that I should use the horse pine pellets in my litter box, not kitty litter. “The pine pellets work so much better” is what they both said.

I am looking for other people’s insight on pine pellets used for a regularly scooped litter box inside.

Do you pre-wet the pellets to make them into sawdust or do you just use them as pellets?
Do the wet spots clump for easy removal?
Is it easy to scoop the fecal matter out?
How do you manage the sifting part of separating the waste from the not dirty litter (assuming you do not turn the pellets to sawdust first, neither cashier mentioned making it into sawdust first).

With the price of pine pellet bedding (I just bought a bunch for the barn), it is hard to imagine it is actually lots cheaper to use than clumping kitty litter, do you find it more economical?
I use pellet bedding in my stalls and I am having a hard time imagining it working well in my litter box, that is part of why I am asking.

[Red_Dust]

atone time I had a bag of pelleted kitty litter. It was literally the only bag left that day. Initially the cat used it, but then refused.
So just the texture of the litter may have been an issue. And I don’t know how cats react to a damp box.
So if you can divert a bucket of horse bedding to try, go for it, but prepare yourself for Cat to have her own opinion about it.
The best litter I ever used was ground up corn cobs, but I have been unable to find it again.
I know I won’t try pellets again even if Ms Cat has crossed the rainbow by now.

[Laverne77]

I tried pelleted bedding last year. I have 8 indoor only cats, so a pretty good sample size. I put straight pellets in a couple boxes, the pellets wetted down and made into sawdust in a couple boxes, and left their regular clumping litter in the rest. The first couple days they apparently tried the pellets and sawdust but the overwhelming consensus is that they preferred the regular litter. Cleaning the pellets was difficult since they were too large to sift through the scoop. The sawdust wasn’t terrible to clean but it doesn’t clump as well as clumping litter. In the end I mixed sawdust in with the regular litter just to use it up. Oh, and the sawdust seemed to get tracked out of the boxes even more than the litter. All that to say: my experience with it failed but I wish it had worked out.

[Texarkana]

I was volunteering at the local shelter for a bit. They used pellets in all their litter boxes. I honestly hated it. I think the odor was a lot worse and they were harder to clean. It definitely didn’t convince me to try it at home.

I do like other litter alternatives, like the corn litter. Unfortunately I currently have a cat who refuses them.

[Lah0808]

I am a tractor supply pelleted bedding as a cat litter convert. I wish I had tried it years ago because it is SOOOOO much cheaper. Now my caveat is I have one cat who is very not picky about the litter I use and is a very good girl and would never not use the box.

I don’t wet the pellets, I just put them in as they are. It does not clump at all, the pellets just turn to wet saw dust when they are peed on. The litter scoop I use is more like a little shovel, the slats are really thin so I just scoop out the wet spot just like you would a stall. It does not smell at all. Again only one cat but I never notice any scent. My cat just poops on top of the litter, she doesn’t really attempt to bury it. I just scoop it out and try not to scoop the pellets. I add fresh pellets daily. With one cat I probably use 6-7 bags a year, so I’m spending less than $50 for the year on litter. I used to use Worlds Best cat litter and it was so much more expensive.

I highly recommend trying it out if you have an agreeable cat. If I had a cat that was fussy about the littler box I may not chance it.

Edited to add, I have no tracking problems whatsoever with the pellets. Maybe once a week I’ll use a dustpan to sweep up around the litter box. I really am a huge fan of the pellets but again just one, easy going cat.

[Kyrabee]

I have tried the pellets and the cats said no. I guess they didn’t like the texture. What I don’t like at my age and degree of decrepit-ness is the weight of the bags. I can do 20 lbs OK but wrestling around a 40 bag is getting to be a struggle.

I haven’t tried the pellets with the current cat. I am currently using Catalyst litter and she really like it. It is very soft. I am guessing the pellets would be a no.

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

I switched to pellets. I first mixed the cat litter with the pellets.

I love the price, love the no tracking. A bit more work but they also make scoops for pellets.

When it’s wet, you can tell if the sawdust is pee - it’s darker.

And much more biodegradable than clay.

The local shelter here uses them, too.

[avjudge]

I currently use the horse pellet bedding in some of my litter boxes — the mudroom bathroom and screened back porch, and a store room that the cats sometimes get into (and locked into, usually inadvertently, for a few hours here and there). I use a clumping wood litter (Okocat) farther into the house and upstairs.

I have had cats in the past who were not happy with pellets but my current ones don’t seem to have a problem. As it is wet by urine and breaks down I just mix it with the remaining pellets until the box starts to smell at which point it gets a complete change. Scooping solids is no problem once it is mostly sawdust; when it is still pellets I just try to shake or pour off as many as is easily done.

Overall I find the scooping litter easier to use. I find I tend to procrastinate on changing out the sawdust for new pellets. That is not really a problem on the porch, but the mudroom bath can get a little whiffy. OK, sometimes a lot whiffy. I have been considering switching to scooping litter in there.

I am not sure how the cost works out. Obviously the Okocat is a lot more expensive than the pellets, but the litter box doesn’t have to be dumped every week or two like the pellets do. The size of the bag is no problem since we have it in the barn for bedding and I just scoop out a few tomato cans worth to bring into the house.

[JB]

Another option if you can find it so it’s cost-effective, is chicken feed crumbles. I used it for a long time when we had chickens. It doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, it clumps, it doesn’t smell (ok there’s a bit of chicken feed smell but it’s not a SMELL), it controls ammonia odor, and even though not a lot of stuff sticks to the poop, it manages to knock out the smell.

I’d been using the Producer’s Pride from TSC, but it’s gone up enough that it’s a bit more $$ than the littler we use now. But what I haven’t worked out is whether it would last longer and make it more cost effective

[Simkie]

I’ve used this stuff, which is pretty regional, but like it a lot:

Cedarific - NEPCO's All-Natural Cat Litter Product

It clumps, it smells nice, it’s very soft. It absorbs VERY well. It’s cheap. It does track. Instructions say to leave the pee & mix it back in–I don’t do that (gross!) I remove it.

I tried pellets. I couldn’t figure out how to clean the box every day. I guess I needed a very different scoop, but I’d end up just removing pellets along with waste.

[S1969]

@trubandloki

Do you pre-wet the pellets to make them into sawdust or do you just use them as pellets?

When I used pellets for my cat I wet them and made them like sawdust. Otherwise you can’t sift with your scooper.

In the end I never found it to be as good as regular cat litter.

[Grey623]

I love the wood pellets from Tractor Supply. Dirt cheap, and I usually can buy a bag that’s been torn open for even a few dollars less. Both my cats are fine with it, though I now have one box with wood pellets and one with World’s Best. They use them pretty equally, but I have a problem pee-er and like to give her options. I just toss a single handful in. As soon as someone pees it disintegrates into sawdust, and I don’t bother scooping, just toss it all out.

Grey

[Aussie_2020]

My cats reluctantly used the pellets. I didn’t like them, too hard to sift, didn’t control odor well, and my older cat acted like they hurt his feet. So I changed to the wheat chaff type. It does track but I have a couple mats in front of the boxes to help with that.

[clint]

I do a lot of kitten/cat fostering, and I have always used clumping sand litter (or non clumping sand for young kittens). It is in their DNA to use sand based litter. A few years ago I adopted out a kitten, and forgot to mention what I used for her litter. The adopter used some sort of corn based litter, which the kitten refused to use and for the rest of her life, even though the adopter switched back to sand clumping litter, that cat was never a reliable litter user. I have tried other types of litter, and I have never had great success using anything but sand based.

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

@avjudge

can get a little whiffy.

My new word while cleaning the litterboxes…

[f0rf31t]

I switched to a pellet litter (not made for horses - I don’t have horses at this stage of my life and even if I did they’d be boarded most likely so wouldn’t have horse pellet bedding handy) because for whatever reason my cat’s usual clumping litter just turned into a complete rock-solid wreck twice (the cat is healthy, this happened late summer/early fall so I think it was humidity paired with me probably slacking a bit on scooping his box out.), my cat hasn’t had a problem with the pellets but my cat has never been a picky boy. His are…shoot I can’t remember the brand now, it came in a green bag. They start as pellets but turn to sawdust pretty fast.

Odor hasn’t really seemed worse to me. Only reason I even tried it was again, the weird situation where the litter I’d been using (Tidy Cats, whatever formula has the red colored lid I believe) did the clumping like, a literal whole box of litter into a big clump. The first time I figured it was a fluke, dumped out the entire contents of the litterbox and tried again, the second time I made a point of really staying more on top of the box than I did with the last round and it still did it so I figured it must’ve been the litter and decided to try something different and started with the pellets figuring if that didn’t work I’d try some other stuff but the pellets worked!

Again - I’m lucky, my cat isn’t a picky boy as long as his box is clean. Not everyone’s cat is as not-picky as mine. My cat’s probably around 11-12 years old for reference; I don’t know his exact age, he’s a shelter cat and was a younger adult when he was there.

[GraceLikeRain]

I currently have a pellet box available and none of my five will touch it. Any tips?

I’m also trying a walnut option. They walnut shells are light weight and smell lovely but it’s $$$.

With such a large group and scooping at least once a day I can’t do something that’s $5/lb like some of the options suggested. We were paying $0.40/lb for scoop away unscented until they changed their formula and now it is more dust than liter.

[avjudge]

@f0rf31t

my cat’s usual clumping litter just turned into a complete rock-solid wreck twice (the cat is healthy, this happened late summer/early fall so I think it was humidity paired with me probably slacking a bit on scooping his box out

I have had this problem in the most humid part of summer With World‘s Best ((corn) clumping litter. Just to let you know you are not alone. I was able to break up the clearly clean clumps so I didn’t lose use of the litter.

@GraceLikeRain, I have had cats who did not like pelleted litter. (My current crop is fine with them.) If they have never used it before they may not recognize it as an acceptable surface, or they may know it’s to be used but just not like it. #1 can be addressed, and seems more like likely If it’s a number of cats. Before giving up, you might try spritzing the freshly changed box with water to partially break The pellets down so it is not so pebbly. If they use that, add less water next time and gradually work toward fully intact pellets.

I have found the different brands seem to have different odor control properties. I was using TSC, and some time ago I noticed the color of the pellets changed and it got smelly much faster. Most recently I finally tried some from the semi-local feed store and so far I have been much happier with them. They are not even made for bedding; they are marketed as stove fuel but 100%softwood. The price is just about the same and the clerk told us that they are commonly used as bedding.

Some years ago I used Feline Pine. It smelled strongly of pine, too much so for me.

[f0rf31t]

@avjudge

Some years ago I used Feline Pine. It smelled strongly of pine, too much so for me.

I think Feline Pine might be what I use (It doesn’t stay in the packaging because I usually transfer it to a plastic bin) and it doesn’t seem overly pine scented to me but that’s me and everyone’s nose/tolerance for pine scent is different.

Yep. Looked it up. It is Feline Pine. I think specifically the non-clumping Feline Pine because after whatever his usual litter did I didn’t want to mess around with clumping. (I think the one of the rounds of “litter turned into a big clump” had me throwing the whole box out, litter and all.) I’ve had good luck with it so far but ymmv for anyone else.