Advantages Of Non Clumping Litter?

sarah430

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This is kind of a random question but what are the advantages to using a non-clumping litter?

I've had my kitties for 6 months (they're ~ one year old now) and I'm still in the search for the "perfect" litter. I've decided that I definitely don't want to use clay and have been testing out SmartCat (grass seed), Worlds Best (corn) and Blue Buffalo (walnut) - all clumping. Fortunately my kitties aren't picky at all and I haven't had any problem transitioning them (knock wood).

Anyway, I know the advantages of clumping but am curious why one would choose to use non-clumping litter. Thanks!
 

MeganLLB

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I guess if you have an automatic litter box that cleans itself, you have to have nonclumping. Otherwise, I have no idea.
 

lyrajean

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A lot has to do with cat preference.

But non-clumping is particularly useful for young kittens who have a tendency to try and eat everything -even their litter. You don't want any ingested litter to clump up inside the kitten. That could be bad. Lead to constipation, or worse an intestinal blockage.
 

1CatOverTheLine

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A lot has to do with cat preference.

But non-clumping is particularly useful for young kittens who have a tendency to try and eat everything -even their litter. You don't want any ingested litter to clump up inside the kitten. That could be bad. Lead to constipation, or worse an intestinal blockage.
Absolutely true; I'd go so far as to say that exposure to even small amounts of sodium bentonite for cats of any age presents a very real risk. Sodium bentonite - the superabsorbent aluminium phyllosilicate clay which acts as the clumping agent in most clumping litter - can, in certain states, absorb as much as eighteen times its mass in moisture - the very reason that its main commercial applications are as a water barrier and sealant in landfills and in oil drilling rigs. Cats groom almost continually, and the sodium bentonite-rich dust which coats their paws after using the litterbox has to go somewhere when they groom. There's an abundance of anecdotal evidence that it will wreak havoc in a cat's digestive system, ultimately forming blockages which might or might not later be surgically remediable, and two formal studies are currently in process at universities in California and in Missouri.

Is clumping litter easier for cat owners? It surely is. Is it better for cats? Absolutely not.
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sarah430

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Absolutely true; I'd go so far as to say that exposure to even small amounts of sodium bentonite for cats of any age presents a very real risk. Sodium bentonite - the superabsorbent aluminium phyllosilicate clay which acts as the clumping agent in most clumping litter - can, in certain states, absorb as much as eighteen times its mass in moisture - the very reason that its main commercial applications are as a water barrier and sealant in landfills and in oil drilling rigs. Cats groom almost continually, and the sodium bentonite-rich dust which coats their paws after using the litterbox has to go somewhere when they groom. There's an abundance of anecdotal evidence that it will wreak havoc in a cat's digestive system, ultimately forming blockages which might or might not later be surgically remediable, and two formal studies are currently in process at universities in California and in Missouri.

Is clumping litter easier for cat owners? It surely is. Is it better for cats? Absolutely not.
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Thank you for this info!

Is this the same clumping agent that is used in the non-clay, biodegradable clumping litters? I think they use something else that's "natural" -- however proprietary so we may not be entirely sure.
 

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So far I've used a clumping litter (Precious Cat Ultra), Feline Pine clumping, and Feline Pine non-clumping. The winner in this house is the Feline Pine non-clumping (pellets).

Feline Pine Non-Clumping advantages, in order of importance to me:
  1. NO MORE litter everywhere. With the clumping litters, I would find bits of litter on the couch, in the bed, all over the house.... Even when we had a top-entry box. This is no longer the case, and we have an open litter box now with no cover, and no litter mat. Now, each time the cat uses the litter box, only about 0-3 pellets leave the box, and they stay within a 1 foot radius around the box, because the pellets are too big to get stuck in his paws or get tossed out of the box easily. My cat is a big digger, too!
  2. Much less dusty. My cat used to be covered in dust after using clumping litters, and he would exit the box and have to shake all the dust off. There's practically zero dust with Feline Pine non-clumping.
  3. Vastly superior urine odor control (this also goes to the clumping version of Feline Pine) - poop still smells, so you just have to scoop diligently, which you should do regardless of litter type.
It did take me a bit to figure out the best way to "scoop" the non-clumping litter. If you ever switch and are interested, feel free to message me! It has been so worth it to switch.

And I SWEAR I don't work for Feline Pine. =D
 

grooverite

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So far I've used a clumping litter (Precious Cat Ultra), Feline Pine clumping, and Feline Pine non-clumping. The winner in this house is the Feline Pine non-clumping (pellets).

Feline Pine Non-Clumping advantages, in order of importance to me:
  1. NO MORE litter everywhere. With the clumping litters, I would find bits of litter on the couch, in the bed, all over the house.... Even when we had a top-entry box. This is no longer the case, and we have an open litter box now with no cover, and no litter mat. Now, each time the cat uses the litter box, only about 0-3 pellets leave the box, and they stay within a 1 foot radius around the box, because the pellets are too big to get stuck in his paws or get tossed out of the box easily. My cat is a big digger, too!
  2. Much less dusty. My cat used to be covered in dust after using clumping litters, and he would exit the box and have to shake all the dust off. There's practically zero dust with Feline Pine non-clumping.
  3. Vastly superior urine odor control (this also goes to the clumping version of Feline Pine) - poop still smells, so you just have to scoop diligently, which you should do regardless of litter type.
It did take me a bit to figure out the best way to "scoop" the non-clumping litter. If you ever switch and are interested, feel free to message me! It has been so worth it to switch.

And I SWEAR I don't work for Feline Pine. =D
I'm VERY INTERESTED! So if its non-clumping....is it hard to keep the urine smell out of the litter box?? I'm moving into a studio apartment with carpeted floors this Thursday so I need to try this right away!
 
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sarah430

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So far I've used a clumping litter (Precious Cat Ultra), Feline Pine clumping, and Feline Pine non-clumping. The winner in this house is the Feline Pine non-clumping (pellets).

Feline Pine Non-Clumping advantages, in order of importance to me:
  1. NO MORE litter everywhere. With the clumping litters, I would find bits of litter on the couch, in the bed, all over the house.... Even when we had a top-entry box. This is no longer the case, and we have an open litter box now with no cover, and no litter mat. Now, each time the cat uses the litter box, only about 0-3 pellets leave the box, and they stay within a 1 foot radius around the box, because the pellets are too big to get stuck in his paws or get tossed out of the box easily. My cat is a big digger, too!
  2. Much less dusty. My cat used to be covered in dust after using clumping litters, and he would exit the box and have to shake all the dust off. There's practically zero dust with Feline Pine non-clumping.
  3. Vastly superior urine odor control (this also goes to the clumping version of Feline Pine) - poop still smells, so you just have to scoop diligently, which you should do regardless of litter type.
It did take me a bit to figure out the best way to "scoop" the non-clumping litter. If you ever switch and are interested, feel free to message me! It has been so worth it to switch.

And I SWEAR I don't work for Feline Pine. =D
Litter all over and urine odor are my biggest problem issues so I'm very interested too in how to scoop with non-clumping litter!

Thanks!
 

karrotlover

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  1. My simplest recommendation:

    The non-clumping pellets break down into a coarse sawdust when peed on. To work with this, get the Van Ness Sifting Can Pan. It's a 3-part litter box that is made of 2 regular litter pans and 1 sifting pan, stacked together. Stack it like this, top to bottom: litter pan, sifting pan, litter pan. Once stacked, use like a regular litter box. When it's time to clean, clean the poop first. Just scoop and discard the poop, and yes, you will be throwing away some pellets with the poop unless you use some sort of special poop tongs. Then lift the top pan, dump the contents onto the sifting pan, and sift the sawdust unto the bottom pan. Toss the sawdust into the trash. Return whatever is left on top of the sifting pan (the clean pellets) into the top pan, et voila.

  2. What I personally do now:

    Scoop the poop first as in Method #1. Then, instead of dumping the entire pan of litter onto the sifting pan, take your scoop and gently scrape around to uncover little mounds of sawdust where the cat has peed. Scoop up these mounds of sawdust into the sifting pan. Sift THAT. Return whatever is left on top of sifting pan into the rest of the litter.
The advantages of method #2 is that you sift only a little bit of material instead of a whole pan-ful of litter, and this makes sifting much quicker and easier. Also, my cat is very lanky, so the Van Ness sifting litter is a bit too small for him. So I use a separate, larger litter pan as the actual litter box, and just use the Van Ness sifting box as a tool. I ditched one of the pans in the 3-pan stack and just have the other two (sifting pan on top of sawdust-catching pan), empty, sitting next to the bigger litter box. But if your cat is okay with the size of the Van Ness sifting box, you don't have to double up like this! Also, if you use a Litter Genie, I now only use it for poop. You can dump the sawdust in it, but it will fill it up very quickly. I just dump the sawdust in my trash and don't have any odor issues.

IMG_3301.JPG


(It's been about 4 days since I last vacuumed.... And the litter box area is still this clean!!)
 
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karrotlover

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I'm VERY INTERESTED! So if its non-clumping....is it hard to keep the urine smell out of the litter box?? I'm moving into a studio apartment with carpeted floors this Thursday so I need to try this right away!
Since I switched to pine litter from the traditional clumping litter, a smelly litter box is pretty much a thing of the past. The pine pellets absorb the liquid and swell up, then break down into coarse sawdust. This happens pretty fast (5 minutes?) and neutralizes the urine smell in the process. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with carpet, and the litter box is right next to the entrance. I "scoop" the pee every 1-2 days, and the only time you can tell by smell that there is a cat in the house is if the cat has pooped in the last 30 minutes or so. When I notice him going #2, I always pick up after him immediately, so that's rarely an issue. Also, since we put him on a raw diet about a month ago, he only poops every 3 days. =)
 
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Evie's Mommy

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I really want to switch to a pellet litter, my cats are so messy! I'm always stepping on litter, its everywhere despite having a litter mat.

How fast do you guys go through bags? A 40lbs bag is only $23 so it seems like it would be cheaper than regular clumping litter.

Is it hard to scoop? How does it hold up against diarrhea?
 

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Another vote here for non-clumping pine pellets. I decided that the dust and clumping agents of any of the clumping litters (clay, walnut etc) are likely to be bad not only for cats but also for humans! You're breathing in that dust every time you scoop, and that can't be good for your lungs. One of my cats agreed - he was always sneezing after using the box. Also the area near the litter box was always liberally coated in dust.

I wish there were a sifting litter box system for large cats, but unfortunately there are few options apart from buying a couple of stacking sweater boxes and wielding a hand drill. My solution was to use the Tidy Cat Breeze box inside a Petmate jumbo litter pan. I tossed the sideguards on the Breeze box and took out the tray that normally holds the pads. As shaking out sawdust can get messy with the big litter pan, I buy large-size litter liner bags and put those underneath the Breeze box, with a thin layer of pellets to catch any liquid pee. Then all I have to do is stir the pellets so the sawdust falls into the bag. Changing the bag when it gets full takes about 30 seconds. If I had more time I'd get the second pan and empty it out daily, but I'm just too busy and the bag solution is so easy. Frankly I don't know why anyone uses clay litters, with this option available.

As far as how much litter...I go through 5 lbs of Feline Pine a month with two 15 lb cats.

Finally a word about transitioning your cat: GO SLOW. My cats were highly reluctant to switch but they're absolutely fine with it now. I used Okocat clumping litter for long haired cats as an interim step. The pellets are smaller than Feline Pine.
 
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sarah430

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Thank you karrotlover and sophie1! I'm going to give the pine pellets a try. So far my kitties have tolerated all the changes from clay to corn to walnut to grass seed, so hopefully the transition will be easy, but I'll take it slow.
 

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So upon further research I found that horse bedding pellets are basically the same as the cat litter pellets, and half the cost at Tractor Supply.
Anyone here use the horse pellets?
 

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Update: my cat has some allergy issues, so to eliminate any potential pine oil effects, I swapped out the Feline Pine with the Blue Buffalo walnut pellets today. So far so good. Only thing was that my dumb cat thought the walnut pellets were treats. He ATE a couple of them! So I threw in some used pine litter pellets into the box and he got the message then. Hopped in, dug around, and pooped.
 
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sarah430

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In the middle of transitioning - one litter box is Okocat as recommended above and the other is blue buffalo walnut. I decided to go all in with the pellets since they have transitioned with everything else ok and they still have the box with walnut litter. The first few days they only pee'd in the pellets, but now they are also pooping in it too. The smell is soooo much better. I'm going to start mixing in some of the feline pine with the Okocat. Hopefully I've found the solution to the yucky urine smell. For some reason the earthiness of the walnut, corn and grass seed litters seem to make the urine smell worse. Once the bag is done no more walnut litter.
 

grooverite

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In the middle of transitioning - one litter box is Okocat as recommended above and the other is blue buffalo walnut. I decided to go all in with the pellets since they have transitioned with everything else ok and they still have the box with walnut litter. The first few days they only pee'd in the pellets, but now they are also pooping in it too. The smell is soooo much better. I'm going to start mixing in some of the feline pine with the Okocat. Hopefully I've found the solution to the yucky urine smell. For some reason the earthiness of the walnut, corn and grass seed litters seem to make the urine smell worse. Once the bag is done no more walnut litter.
Is the pellet you're using Feline Pine or the horse pellet variety?? I'm just about ready for the change myself.
 
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sarah430

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It's Feline Pine. But if that transition goes well I'd consider getting the horse pellet variety available at the feed store if it's essentially the same thing.
 

grooverite

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It's Feline Pine. But if that transition goes well I'd consider getting the horse pellet variety available at the feed store if it's essentially the same thing.
Ah thats good to know! Thank you!
 

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I was going to switch to the pine pellets, and yea at Tractor supply a 40 lb bag of the horse ones are $6.
But I don't think that my cats really like it. I buy tractor supply's paws and claws litter and it is $5 for a 25 lb bag and it isn't dusty and it does a pretty good job of odor control, but I can still smell one of the cat's litter boxes.

I'm afraid of litter box avoidance if I try to switch and they don't like it.
 
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