Chicken Crumbles as cat litter.

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bigperm20

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I use Tractor Supply, too and also noticed the dust.  Our local store now has no clumping litter but about 75 bags of the non-clumping.  I suspect somethings going on with the formula.  Hope they are figuring out the dust issue!
It's more expensive (obviously), but the Doc Elsey's Ultra is pretty darn good so far. It clumps up like you wouldn't believe so it should last a while. It's also the lowest dust i've ever seen in a clay litter. It has a bc wry fine dust that you can just barely feel on your cat's coat. There is no smell either.

The early TSC litter wasn't even this dust free. Another thing i hated about the TSC litter was it absorbed poop smell well, but then once the poop was removed the smell remained. I remember having brand new litter in a clean box, end up smelling terrible almost immediately. I'm not sure what happened at TSC but the location near my house still has plenty of clumping litter. It's just not very good anymore. It's hard to expect much when it only costs $5.99 for 25#. The Dr Elsey's Ultra is $18.49 for 40#. The lack of dust makes it a good buy. It is still cheaper than WBCL, which is outrageous.

The Chicken Crumble really is the cheapest option but my girls refuse to use it now.
 
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bigperm20

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Update: The Dr Elsey's has been a dream so far. I wish I had found it years ago.
 

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To answer your question back several entries, @bigperm20, the horse litter I use does swell and is easy to scoop out in a pile, but if you have a cat that likes to dig a lot, it WILL turn into sawdust like the pine litter and sink to the bottom.  Its still easy to extract with practice by running the scoop under the batch where it is lurking, like the corner, and then tilting the scoop some as you draw it back.  The sawdusted clump or some of it will stay on the scoop and the still intact pellets will roll right off.  Dr. Elsey's is great, just not for 15 cats.  Any clumping clay litter no matter how good is no match for this number.  I highly recommend it to normal people with a reasonable number of cats. 
 
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bigperm20

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To answer your question back several entries, @bigperm20, the horse litter I use does swell and is easy to scoop out in a pile, but if you have a cat that likes to dig a lot, it WILL turn into sawdust like the pine litter and sink to the bottom.  Its still easy to extract with practice by running the scoop under the batch where it is lurking, like the corner, and then tilting the scoop some as you draw it back.  The sawdusted clump or some of it will stay on the scoop and the still intact pellets will roll right off.  Dr. Elsey's is great, just not for 15 cats.  Any clumping clay litter no matter how good is no match for this number.  I highly recommend it to normal people with a reasonable number of cats. 
Wow! Fifteen? That's a lot even for a rescue. I can see where budgeting comes into play then.

I really can't see myself having more than 2... of course the 2 I have happen to be very high maintenance so there's that. I know the next cat I adopt (which will hopefully be in a decade or so) will be an adult. I got all my kitten cravings extinguished with these two. Although it is funny to look at pictures of them when they were little.
 

2oldn2ys

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I have tried many different egg crumbles from Atwood's, Tractor supply and my local feed store. The thing I've noticed consistently is the light color crumbles work as well as Tidy Cat scoopable while the dark do not. Always ask to see what you are buying. Avoid Ranch Pro from Atwooods, Tractor supply carries Dumor which is ok but Purina flock raiser works best. The light poultry clumps well and you don't have the gross litter box smell.
 

fluffypokey98

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Has anyone checked out their local wholesale clubs? I did the math and it is cheaper to buy wholesale club brand clumping litter vs layer crumble for chickens as cat litter. Cost me about 25 cents per pound for clumping store brand cat litter. $9.99 for 40 lbs box of wholesale club cat litter. Much cheaper and works well.
 
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bigperm20

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Has anyone checked out their local wholesale clubs? I did the math and it is cheaper to buy wholesale club brand clumping litter vs layer crumble for chickens as cat litter. Cost me about 25 cents per pound for clumping store brand cat litter. $9.99 for 40 lbs box of wholesale club cat litter. Much cheaper and works well.
If you look back though this thread you'll see I used a cat litter brand from Tractor Supply for almost a year. It worked really well for about 6 months of that year. Then, like all other sodium benotite litter I've tried, it got very dusty.

I've been using Dr Elsey's Perfect Unscented for about the last 6 months and it is my perfect litter. No dust, no smell, and it lasts.
 

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After reading all the posts on this site, I decided to try the Chicken Crumbles, non medicated,for cat litter and truly love it. We have 5/cats and used the light weight clay clumping litter, but it was so dusty that we were having a hard time breathing just cleaning it.

We read about Chicken Crumbles on this site and decided to try it. We slowly mixed the Crumbles in with the clay litter, and it has been about a month now, and have 5 boxes with just Crumbles and 2 boxes of mixed. All of our cats are using it and it is much easier to clean, less dust and tracking, but one of our cats wanted to eat it at first, so sprinkled baking soda in it a few times, and that cured that problem. I have to use a larger holed scoop as I was using a finer scoop for the clay. I love that there is not any slime on sides of pan, smells good, clumps good, and is a lot less expensive. I can get 40#'s for 9.69 at our Family Farm and Home store. Tractor Supply is a little more expensive depending on what kind you buy. Think I paid about $15 for 50#'s of Purina Chicken Layer Crumbles. It was a little darker and a little finer than Dumar Chicken Crumbles, but worked good too.

I wanted to share my experience using this litter with everyone, as without your input I never would have known about using Chicken Crumbles for litter. It is saving our breathing saving on dusting, and is saving us money!

Tx everyone!
 

kittyluvbatcat

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I tried the Dumor Poultry Crumbles as kitty liter. The Starter crumbles cost more. When you figure you saved three dollars and some cents without adding the cost of baking soda? Where and what did I save. I think folks are doing the math wrong. $12.99 divid by 50{#] = $.26 a pound. $.26 x 35# kitty litter clump stuff =$9.10. So I saved $3.89. Add the cost of 2-3 boxes of baking soda in the crumble= why should I switch. I don't see the big savings.
 

gailmaison

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I have used regular chicken crumble...what i had left after all my hens were murdered by the neighbor's dogs...and it works great. Clumps well...perhaps not as small of clumps as TWB...which imo is the best. But the crumbles are definitely CHEAP 
 

ltodeasa

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Re: a safe way to let your cats outside-- start researching "catios" (cat patios)! They are fantastic!
 
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