Sand as cat litter - have you managed it?

[JB]

We have 6 cats, 3 are inside-only, the other 3 do most of their business outside but occasionally inside.

All are on a raw (well, cooked for now, thanks avian flu ) diet, they’re all good drinkers as well, and the 3 inside-only kitties are just coming on a year old so get a lot more food than the adults. As a result, their pee clumps are enormous!

I already use an inexpensive litter, Special Kitty from Walmart, it works very well for odor and clumping and all the things. But we’re still flying through it with all the pee

I’m considering trying sand with baking soda to manage the odor, but having tried a non-clumping clay litter, I’m not sure that’s going to cut it.

So if you’ve done this, and managed it well, what are your tips?

[Phaedra1]

For almost ten years, I have used non-medicated chick starter as litter, and it works great. It is relatively cheap and lightweight, and it effectively reduces odors as long as the litter box is cleaned out every couple of days. However, one downside is that sometimes the dogs will eat it.

[Grey623]

No experience with sand but you might consider wood pellet bedding, about $8 for a 25 lb bag at Tractor Supply. Cheap and lightweight, toss in a handful and dump the whole box when it gets wet. My cats are OK with it, sometimes it dries out in the box and they use it again. I think it is pretty good with odor control.

Grey

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

The pelleted bedding for horses is $7 for 40lbs here. I use it.

[Grey623]

Thanks, I’m nowhere near the bag and made a guess at weight.

Grey

[Simkie]

I’ve tried wood pellets as litter a few times and just…don’t quite get it. How do you clean the pee without taking out the unexpanded pellets? Are you cleaning the box every day? I feel super stupid not being able to figure this out. I’d love to use pellets for the barn cat since I use pellets for the horses but it’s been such a fail every time.

To the original question here, I can’t imagine sand. It’s not absorbent? So you’ve got a box full of sand…and pee?

[JB]

@Phaedra1

For almost ten years, I have used non-medicated chick starter as litter, and it works great. It is relatively cheap and lightweight, and it effectively reduces odors as long as the litter box is cleaned out every couple of days. However, one downside is that sometimes the dogs will eat it.

I used this (crumbles) for several years, it really works well! Somehow it neutralizes the urine pretty darn well. I did have to stop using it for the litter box in the garage because dirty and all, the chickens would eat it But, I stopped using it when the cost of what I can get now was as much as the clumping litter I use

@Grey623

No experience with sand but you might consider wood pellet bedding, about $8 for a 25 lb bag at Tractor Supply. Cheap and lightweight, toss in a handful and dump the whole box when it gets wet. My cats are OK with it, sometimes it dries out in the box and they use it again. I think it is pretty good with odor control.

That’s an option, I actually have a bag of horse pelleted bedding I could trial. I can’t imagine it’s worse than sand, and because it’s pine, maybe a little better?

Whether it’s sand or wood pellets, I’ll add baking soda. I just never had to do that with the chicken feed because it somehow managed the odor, and it dried out fairly quickly. I’d just dump it all when it seemed dirty enough

[GraceLikeRain]

I’ve been trying the wood pellets with some success. I got a special box where there is a top tray with a grate and then a standard solid box underneath. The urine soaked pellets fluff and then you shake shake shake so they fall into the bottom tray.

So far, mine will only pee in it as I guess it is unrewarding to dig in and I worry about lightly damped bedding not breaking down.

With sand, how would you remove the urine?

[GraceLikeRain]

@Phaedra1

and it effectively reduces odors as long as the litter box is cleaned out every couple of days

Does it clump or are you dumping all litter every few days?

[JB]

@GraceLikeRain

With sand, how would you remove the urine?

that’s sort of the issue, I agree, and what I’d be using baking soda to deal with (theoretically). How long at what depth will sand + what amount of BS control the ammonia smell?

[Simkie]

Asking your cats to use a box full of pee & baking soda so you don’t smell it (but they do?) seems like a pretty icky way to go.

I’ve never really had a box stink that’s cleaned every day. What cleaning schedule are you aiming for…?

[JB]

Well, that’s the point of my post - has anyone done this and if so, how did they manage it.

I currently clean at least twice a day, often 3. Our boxes don’t smell. At all. The clumping clay litter I use does it’s job. We just go through a LOT of it so the entire point of this was to see if cheap sand can work

If those who have done it find they have to use so much baking soda to deal with the odor, then that pretty much negates the cost savings, even though we buy 12-15lb bags of BS regularly since we also have a pool

I don’t care that the urine won’t clump. I DO care if 4lb of sand has to be entirely dumped and replaced every 4 days to keep odor down.

[Aussie_2020]

For the pellets - I switch to a new litter pan everyday but, you can re-use the same pan. I scoop out the poop then I scoop again and let the ‘fines’ sift through the scoop keeping the intact pellets in the scoop. I drop those into the new pan. You still lose a lot of bedding. Plus I don’t like the cats having to deal with the pellets.

Have you checked at Petco to see their loose litter prices?

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

I did buy this scoop - it works pretty good. I find I use it for the poop, and then pull back the clean fines and use a regular scoop for the wet (which is obvious since it’s darker). I do find my cats prefer me mixing the pellets with the clean fines.

[Phaedra1]

I clean it kind of like a stall. I pick the poop off the top, pull back the clean litter, and scoop up any wet stuff. I dump the entire litter box and wash it every two weeks.

[Simkie]

@JB

Well, that’s the point of my post - has anyone done this and if so, how did they manage it.

But it sounds like you know it doesn’t, at least not in how you maintain your boxes, since you can’t remove the pee. Unless you want to maybe rig up a way the pee drains through the sand and collects in a pee pad or something you change a few times a day, maybe? But even with that, the pee will coat the sand pretty quick and stink. And just be icky. You’d need a way to wash it?

If you’re looking at this for cost savings, you could probably mix some amount of sand with your current clumping litter without much of a change to how it functions. Then treat it as you do now. It would be heavy, but probably not any more than it is now, and the silica in the sand could be a issue for your cats lungs, but that doesn’t seem to be your concern. You might have to play around with the ratio to figure out what the best mix for your purpose is.

I mix cedarific (a sawdust litter) with clumping litter (we use walnut) for the barn cat to make it more absorbent. It works fine. It clumps a little less hard. But it’s better than using either one of those litters individually for him.

[ReSomething]

I have to think about this bc I have had up to 5 cats using litter but they are indoor outdoor.
I have a friend that swears by pine pellets, I’ve never noticed an odor but I likely wouldn’t, and it’s messy as heck. She dumps the whole thing into the compost waste, and she’s very vague about how often she does it. She has one tray, next to the door from the kitchen to the garage, for two indoor outdoor cats.

I have five trays, two in each bathroom, the master is oversized so there’s space and we don’t use the tub in the guest bath so that’s where they go, and one in the mud room, I use tidy cat clumping mixed with tidy cat non clump in the 50 lb sacks from TSC, and I get two to four weeks before I have to dump, scrub or swap out the tray and refill my daily scooped litter. It says two weeks’ odor control on the packaging.
With three current cats I can really stretch it having five trays.

I totally go by cost so if the milk jug type containers are less per ounce I buy those versus the buckets and try to track sales. I just like the 24/7 red label tidy cat brand, hubby has brought home all the cheap stuff at one time or another and since I’m the one that hears about the smell or mess and has to clean them I prefer that brand.

I get more odor if I don’t take the bag of scooped waste straight outside. leaving it inside every time I open the can lid I get a whiff, so it either goes in the guest bath trash can with the pedal lid that I am just using for waste till trash day or I make the trip outside.

I’ve tried using baking soda when I was working and not scooping daily, scooping every day is more consistent. I also bought multiple trays, the smell seems to get into plastic so I scrub or rotate trays and now with five for three cats that’s not a big deal.

I’d say it’s more costly to start and not a space saver but the time savings of multiple trays vs frequent dumping and refilling of one or two is quite nice!

[trubandloki]

@Simkie

I’ve tried wood pellets as litter a few times and just…don’t quite get it. How do you clean the pee without taking out the unexpanded pellets? Are you cleaning the box every day? I feel super stupid not being able to figure this out. I’d love to use pellets for the barn cat since I use pellets for the horses but it’s been such a fail every time.

I started a thread on this very topic because everyone was telling me how great the horse pellets were for the cat box.

I too can not figure out how it is better.

We scoop 2x per day with a commercial clumping cat litter and so far we have found that to be the best for the inside cat.

I find the best way to save money on litter (admitting here that I only have one inside cat, I do have a litter box in the barn but it is almost never used, I use the walnut litter in that box) is to buy lots when it is on black friday sale.

[S1969]

I can’t imagine using sand. Heavy and stinky is all I can think.

I used wood pellets for years. I always fluffed them up and used them like sawdust. Not 100% broken down, but close. It is quite cost effective because an inch of pellets makes a few inches of sawdust and it smells piney.

I would pick it like a stall as well – pick the poop, clear clean sawdust away from pee spots and then scoop as much of the peed on pellet/sawdust into the garbage. Every other time of cleaning the box I would fully clean/rinse it which I don’t have to do as much with store bought litter as it’s better at odor control. But, yes - more expensive.

[Christa_P]

I use Tidy Cat Free and Clean Unscented with activated charcoal and totes with hole cut in the short side as litter boxes. 3 totes/Litter boxes for 4 cats, 2 in my primary bathroom, near my bed, the third is in the office. I scoop daily with a heavy, metal scoop to scrape the any clumps off the bottom and sides. I only do a complete change every few months when it stops clumping well, the activated charcoal really seems to work to control the odors and the clumps are solid.