I came across a YouTube video by a woman who runs a cattery and states she found a better, and safer, litter. She purchases Equine Pine Pellet Bedding from Tractor Supply Co. and uses the top portion of the Tidy Cat Breeze system (the part with the slats in it) on top of a larger litter box that is lined with a puppy pee pad. When cats urinate on the pellets, they apparently turn to sawdust and go through the slats into the bottom box. The solid waste is scooped out and about once a week the pee pad/sawdust from urine is discarded. This woman states that not only has this significantly reduced the amount of money she was paying for cat litter she states it is safer for cats. Purity and safety of a product are very important to her, which I appreciate, but she also states that pretty much every other type of litter, from clay to any type of clumping litter, is toxic. Among these she mentioned litter made from corn due to the GMO factor. (I've used World's Best Cat Litter for years and is great for reducing odor and very easy to clean.)
Since World's Best litter is approximately $9.00 for an 8 lb. bag that barely lasts a month, I was very interested in the pellet idea. A 40 lb. bag of the Tractor Supply Horse Bedding pellets is $6.00 and, according to the cattery woman, will last approximately 6 months for 2 cats. This woman said other places sell the horse bedding pine pellets if one doesn't have access to a Tractor Supply store but to be sure the pellets are kiln dried. The assumption in this statement is that the Tractor Store brand IS kiln dried. I headed to our local Tractor Supply store, located the product shown in the video, but didn't see anything on the bag about the pellets being kiln dried. I asked the Tractor Supply employee who helped me if there was another version of this product that was kiln dried and told her it was to be used as cat litter. She said a lot of people had been purchasing the pellets for cat litter and there wasn't a different version of this product.
I did purchase a bag but was still concerned about it since "kiln dried" had been stressed so much in the video. I sent a message to the woman from whom I saw this tip, told her the above, and asked if her bag indicated the pellets were kiln dried. She said I needed to call the Tractor Supply Co. phone number on the bag, give them the manufacturer's number listed on the bag (I'm assuming that is the bar code since the only other number on the bag is the SKU #), find out who manufactures that product for them, then call that manufacturer and ask if they are kiln dried. If this was an issue ie. the same product, sold by the same store, had different properties, this should have been indicated in the video, imo.
In the meantime I've seen many other videos of cat owners using pine pellets (some from Tractor Supply, others from various places) - all very satisfied with them and no one says anything about the drying process. Since it's the weekend, I sent an email to Tractor Supply CS and promptly received an answer, the two main points being that (1) the product I purchased is either kiln dried or rotary dried but (2) it is meant as horse bedding and they do not recommend it for any other use and take no responsibility if the purchaser uses it for something else. Peachy. I found a web site that one can enter the bar code (UPC) of a product and get the manufacturer. I did so and Tractor Supply was identified as the manufacturer.
I again contacted the woman in the original video with the above info to which she replied I couldn't take "short cuts" and needed to call Tractor Supply and ask for the name of the manufacturer, etc., etc. I certainly haven't been taking short cuts since I've been trying to research this all weekend and many cat owners are using all manner of horse bedding pellets as litter with no reported ill effects (many of these videos go back to 2106).
Checking in here to see if anyone uses the Tractor Supply Co. Equine Pine Pellets and, if so, did you "find the manufacturer" as I keep being told to do? I've been looking for a less expensive cat litter that works as well as the one I've been using but I don't want to use something that could harm my cats; although, according to the woman I referenced, she thinks my litter is toxic as well. Arrrgggh!!
Since World's Best litter is approximately $9.00 for an 8 lb. bag that barely lasts a month, I was very interested in the pellet idea. A 40 lb. bag of the Tractor Supply Horse Bedding pellets is $6.00 and, according to the cattery woman, will last approximately 6 months for 2 cats. This woman said other places sell the horse bedding pine pellets if one doesn't have access to a Tractor Supply store but to be sure the pellets are kiln dried. The assumption in this statement is that the Tractor Store brand IS kiln dried. I headed to our local Tractor Supply store, located the product shown in the video, but didn't see anything on the bag about the pellets being kiln dried. I asked the Tractor Supply employee who helped me if there was another version of this product that was kiln dried and told her it was to be used as cat litter. She said a lot of people had been purchasing the pellets for cat litter and there wasn't a different version of this product.
I did purchase a bag but was still concerned about it since "kiln dried" had been stressed so much in the video. I sent a message to the woman from whom I saw this tip, told her the above, and asked if her bag indicated the pellets were kiln dried. She said I needed to call the Tractor Supply Co. phone number on the bag, give them the manufacturer's number listed on the bag (I'm assuming that is the bar code since the only other number on the bag is the SKU #), find out who manufactures that product for them, then call that manufacturer and ask if they are kiln dried. If this was an issue ie. the same product, sold by the same store, had different properties, this should have been indicated in the video, imo.
In the meantime I've seen many other videos of cat owners using pine pellets (some from Tractor Supply, others from various places) - all very satisfied with them and no one says anything about the drying process. Since it's the weekend, I sent an email to Tractor Supply CS and promptly received an answer, the two main points being that (1) the product I purchased is either kiln dried or rotary dried but (2) it is meant as horse bedding and they do not recommend it for any other use and take no responsibility if the purchaser uses it for something else. Peachy. I found a web site that one can enter the bar code (UPC) of a product and get the manufacturer. I did so and Tractor Supply was identified as the manufacturer.
I again contacted the woman in the original video with the above info to which she replied I couldn't take "short cuts" and needed to call Tractor Supply and ask for the name of the manufacturer, etc., etc. I certainly haven't been taking short cuts since I've been trying to research this all weekend and many cat owners are using all manner of horse bedding pellets as litter with no reported ill effects (many of these videos go back to 2106).
Checking in here to see if anyone uses the Tractor Supply Co. Equine Pine Pellets and, if so, did you "find the manufacturer" as I keep being told to do? I've been looking for a less expensive cat litter that works as well as the one I've been using but I don't want to use something that could harm my cats; although, according to the woman I referenced, she thinks my litter is toxic as well. Arrrgggh!!