Chicken Crumbles as cat litter.

sarah ann

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You can also try Purina Layena Sunfresh (non medicated). I buy the 25 lb bags, as the one 50 lb bag I got had mold in it. So far so good.  

I use one 25 lb bag for 2 litter boxes and it lasts about 1 week for 4 cats.  I have one cat who is very picky about having a clean litter box and the 1x per week cleaning seems to help.

Definitely lighter weight than the clay litter. Makes it much easier to move/empty the box for cleaning.
 

susank521

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Thanks, bigperm20, for the "crumbles" update. Received a Tractor Supply Grand Opening flyer in the mail this week for a local store, so will be testing it out shortly. Gonna start with 3 litter boxes that serve 7 cats (cleaned twice daily) and see how that goes. The boxes (and litter) are outside on a screened porch, so my real concern is mold. Sarah Ann, where did you get the Purina Layena Sunfresh and do you recall what the price was?
 
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bigperm20

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Thanks, bigperm20, for the "crumbles" update. Received a Tractor Supply Grand Opening flyer in the mail this week for a local store, so will be testing it out shortly. Gonna start with 3 litter boxes that serve 7 cats (cleaned twice daily) and see how that goes. The boxes (and litter) are outside on a screened porch, so my real concern is mold. Sarah Ann, where did you get the Purina Layena Sunfresh and do you recall what the price was?
I'm not so sure keeping it outside would be a good idea, unless you change it out completely every couple of weeks. Like you said, mold is a concern but I'm more concerned with insects. It is food you know... :) Inside this isn't an issue, but outside I'd think flies would be drawn to it.
 

susank521

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I started using the DuMor chick non-medicated crumbles from Tractor Supply on 10/19/13 in two litter boxes that serve five cats and get dipped twice daily. These boxes are indoors inside the Cat Castle. This has been a great success. The best mix for me in this situation is about 80/20 crumbles to Tidy Cat scoopable. Mixing the two helps with clumping and odor. I also sprinkle baking soda every time I dip per your suggestion, bigperm20. Love the price of the crumbles, and love the light weight. After almost a month, I still have about 1/4 of the original 50# crumbles bag left. Using clay litter alone I went through about 3-1/2 35# containers of Tidy Cat per month out there. I'm guessing that since starting the crumbles I've used approximately 1/2 of a 35# container. All in all, I have been very pleased and plan on trying the crumbles in some more litter boxes for some more cats.
 

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Interesting idea, chicken crumble, that might be helpful with kittens who need something akin to clay (but I hate clay litter and rarely use it, except for Dr. Elsey's Cat/Kitten Attract litter when training the babies.  .  Currently I use Tractor Supply's Pelletized Pine Equine bedding,$5.99 for 40 lbs., just like Feline Pine litter only a whole lot less expensive.  Deodorizes well.  I have many boxes because of being a rescue with many cats.  I also use ProPet Fresh Results clumping corn cob litter ($5.99 for 10 lbs at WalMart).  It is exactly the same product as Natures Miracle corn cob litter (made by the same company) but costs half as much.  This is good for declawed cats since there are no chunks.  I don't have any declawed cats at the moment, but the ones I have had in the past seem to like it.  I am about to try Cozy & Fresh which I also found at Tractor Supply,  Again it is pine pellets, for small animal bedding, but includes activated carbon for odor control.  It costs twice as much as the horse bedding but still less than Feline Pine, about $5.99 for 20 lbs.  I will put down a box of it in a couple of the areas and see if they choose it over the other, and also if it deodorizes any better, although the pine seems to do a good job, but I do totally dump and wash each box every time the litter had gone to sawdust.  I don't refill it at all.  Also, I really like Tractor Supply's 4Health canned food.  It costs no more than most commercial canned food (50 cents a can for small, 99 cents for large), and it has real meat and much less of the standard junk.  Read the labels and compare.
 

barbh

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Happy that I came across this thread, I have been looking into options of changing my clay litter. With 3 boxes going the price of clay gets expensive even with daily scooping and topping off. That along with the dust seems to be bothering me more lately with my asthma. I like the idea of mixing, I have a ckd cat who pees a lot so I need something that clumps well. Think I might see about picking up a bag and trying it in at least one of the boxes.

How does it work for a box that is in a high humidity environment such as the bathroom? Any issues with it developing mold?
 

susank521

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Happy that I came across this thread, I have been looking into options of changing my clay litter. With 3 boxes going the price of clay gets expensive even with daily scooping and topping off. That along with the dust seems to be bothering me more lately with my asthma. I like the idea of mixing, I have a ckd cat who pees a lot so I need something that clumps well. Think I might see about picking up a bag and trying it in at least one of the boxes.

How does it work for a box that is in a high humidity environment such as the bathroom? Any issues with it developing mold?
That is a very good question and I'm going to find out. The next boxes (3 boxes serving 7 cats dipped twice daily) I try this on are located on a screened porch. The humidity isn't too bad this time of year, but it's still a concern. I will get a container like that pictured in @Wolfie305  's post for storage and see how it goes.
 
 I will put down a box of it in a couple of the areas and see if they choose it over the other, and also if it deodorizes any better, although the pine seems to do a good job, but I do totally dump and wash each box every time the litter had gone to sawdust.  I don't refill it at all.  
I had previously tried the stable bedding pellet stuff but it was a total failure in the clumping department so I gave up on it.  Perhaps I should rethink that and use is as non-clumping like Red Top Rescue does.  How long do you go before having to dump, clean, and start over, Red Top Rescue?
 

red top rescue

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The stable bedding & feline pine are the OPPOSITE of clumping.  They come in all hard and pelletized, and as they absorb litter, they disintegrate into sawdust. They are not meant to be clumping.  The Fresh Results corn cob IS clumping.  I usually have 2 pine pellets and one Fresh Results in this suite.

My daughter uses it and has a special box that lets the sawdust fall through a coarse screen and keeps the pellets in.  She only has two cats, however.  Since I do rescue, I can't even follow the usual rule of having one more litter box than you have cats.  Too many cats for that.  In the rescue "suite" (a/k/a what would be anyone else's master bed & bathroom suite), I currently have two adults (the moms) and five 6-month-old kittens.  I only have 3 boxes in this suite.  I dig them twice a day and dump them maybe every 3rd day, it used to be more boxes and more dumping when I had ALL the kittens and all 3 mamas (there were 15 kittens total when I started with this rescue, now just have the last 7 of that load to adopt out....)  With this number, it's better to dump every couple of days, the 3rd day is the last day -- sometimes they favor two of the three boxes so the one in the other room lasts a little longer.  They are HUGE boxes also.

In the other rooms I have multiple litter boxes.  Usually 4 or 5 in the dining area (I never use the dining room table to eat at!), 2 in my bedroom (one of those is a big low dog litter box, the other is a large enclosed litter box).  I have pellets in the dog box and clumping in the covered box.  In the 3rd bedroom a/k/a store room a/k/a extra rescue room, I just have one litter box.  This year there was a mama cat and 3 kittens in it, because mama cats cannot merge withthe  other cats.  Now they sleep in there but otherwise are merged with my other cats AND the 3 Maine Coon kittens, also 6 months old, and they all get along.  All of my "permanent" cats now were rescues at one time who either ended up being unadoptable for one reason or another, or else are still waiting for their forever homes but have been here a year or more (i.e. the Leftover Moms).  Anyhow, I have tried just about every litter there is at one time or another, and have ended up favoring the pine pellets because it is inexpensive and deodorizes well AND I don't feel bad when I take the bags to the dump every week because they will be great for the landfill.
 

wolfie305

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So this has been working beautiful.......until this morning. I discovered MILLIONS OF TINY WHITE BUGS ALL OVER THE FEED CONTAINER AND I WANT TO DIE RIGHT NOW. I am crying. Absolutely FREAKED OUT. I am trying to vaccum them all up and everything that was on the shelf thing where the container is being thrown away.

The bugs look like dust. Then I noticed it moving and almost threw up.

No wonder my allergies have been so bad. I hope to god my poor cats haven't been affected by these things.
 
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susank521

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Oh no!  I'm so sorry for you and that this has happened. I read something on another thread along time ago about meal bugs, or something. I can't imagine that the cats would be bothered by them, so don't worry about that.
 

wolfie305

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I'm too freaked out to even touch the container to get it out of my house!!! They're everywhere! I just doused the entire area with bleach and they're still coming!!
 

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Good to know.  I guess I WON'T try the chicken feed as litter.  As for getting rid of tiny bugs, if you coulld slip a plastic bag over the container and just put it in the freezer, the bugs will be frozen in a little while and THEN you can dump it all outside and wash the container etc.   I use the freezer technique when ants get into anything.  I've saved a whole bag of dog food at a house where I was dogsitting by doing that and then using a collander to shake the frozen dead ants out of the dog food by shaking it like I was panning for gold.  The bugs fall out and the dog food remains fine.
 
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bigperm20

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So this has been working beautiful.......until this morning. I discovered MILLIONS OF TINY WHITE BUGS ALL OVER THE FEED CONTAINER AND I WANT TO DIE RIGHT NOW. I am crying. Absolutely FREAKED OUT. I am trying to vaccum them all up and everything that was on the shelf thing where the container is being thrown away.

The bugs look like dust. Then I noticed it moving and almost threw up.

No wonder my allergies have been so bad. I hope to god my poor cats haven't been affected by these things.
Probably just a bad bag of feed. I really have no idea as I'm just as new to this as all of you. I can see how that would make you no longer want to use it. I would probably feel the same. However I've not yet had that experience so I'm sticking with the program. My kitty Oksana is extremely fussy when it comes to the litter box, especially changes in the litter itself. She transitioned so easily to the crumbles that I wouldn't dare switch them again.

Plus I'm still finding that dreaded clay litter dust in cracks and crevices all over my house. If I do have to switch from crumbles, I'd probably have to use feline pine or something like it. 
 

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NOPE. Threw the entire container out and everything that was in a 3 foot radius of that bookcase thing it was on. I've been gone most of the day and just came back to look....sure enough, still more bugs everywhere. Thinking about tossing the piece of furniture..

Ended up bying a bag of pine litter cause it's the same price for the same amount of somewhat the same. Both cats just used it fine.
 
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susank521

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Bigperm is probably right about the bugs coming in the bag of feed. Like weevils in flour. I know that doesn't make you feel any less creeped out, though. 
 

wolfie305

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i dunno, I've had that bag since September and this is the first time I've seen them. And I have an irrational FEAR of small bugs (ants, fleas, etc), so I am always checking my house just out of extreme paranoia. Definitely would have noticed them before.
 
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susank521

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Update on my experience using chicken crumbles as litter:

Been using in the Cat Castle (2 boxes for 5 cats cleaned twice daily) for 3 months.

Been using for the house cats (3 boxes located on catio, serves 7 cats, cleaned twice daily, crumbles stored in old Tidy Cat bucket)  for 2-1/2 months.

pros:

1) cost savings - one $18.00, 50# bag lasts as long as 3 $13.00, 35# containers of clumping clay

2) light weight

3) low dust

cons:

none found yet

Love this stuff!
 

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Actually you CAN beat it and not risk the bug problem.  Tractor Supply carries ANOthER kind of horse bedding in addition to their pine pellets.  It's in a large paper bag (at our store, it's over with the horse feed bags) and it's called BEST COB PREMIUM HORSE BEDDING.  It costs $8.99 for a 40-pound bag and it's made of corn cob crumbles/small pellets.  It CLUMPS FOR EASY CLEANING (according to the bag) rather than just turning into sawdust like the pine pellets.  It doesn't have the nice smell of the pine pellets; it doesn't have much smell at all actually.  No dust, no chemicals, totally healthy.  I've been using it for at least half of my 10 boxes and it's very well accepted by most of the rescue cats.  I have a few who still want the soft sand litter so I keep a couple of boxes with that in it too, but I DO like this Best Cob product.  I suggest you chicken crumbles fans try it before bug season begins.
 

red top rescue

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PS - it doesn't clump HARD like standard kitty litter, but it does kind of stick together so if you have a wet spot, you can easily scoop it out all together and not have it fall to pieces.
 
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bigperm20

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Actually you CAN beat it and not risk the bug problem.  Tractor Supply carries ANOthER kind of horse bedding in addition to their pine pellets.  It's in a large paper bag (at our store, it's over with the horse feed bags) and it's called BEST COB PREMIUM HORSE BEDDING.  It costs $8.99 for a 40-pound bag and it's made of corn cob crumbles/small pellets.  It CLUMPS FOR EASY CLEANING (according to the bag) rather than just turning into sawdust like the pine pellets.  It doesn't have the nice smell of the pine pellets; it doesn't have much smell at all actually.  No dust, no chemicals, totally healthy.  I've been using it for at least half of my 10 boxes and it's very well accepted by most of the rescue cats.  I have a few who still want the soft sand litter so I keep a couple of boxes with that in it too, but I DO like this Best Cob product.  I suggest you chicken crumbles fans try it before bug season begins.
I've never had ANY bugs from using Chicken Crumble. In fact I've only heard of one person having that happen. The main benefit of the crumble to me personally is
A. The cats love it
A1. Lack of Dust
B. It clumps well (not as well as clay litter but still very good)
C. It hides odors well

Does the horse bedding meet all those criteria? If so I may have to give it A try.

I personally am hesitant to switch as one of my girls gets fussy when her litter is switched.
 
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