Confused About Tractor Supply Equine Pine Pellets As Litter

babs' slave

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If this Equine Pine Bedding was great to use on cats, I think it should be stated on the bag! Period! It also should be stated on the bag whether or not it is Kiln dried! Period! That way we all can be sure it’s not going to hurt our precious cats!
I don't know if Tractor Supply still sells "Equine Pine Bedding" but the one I buy is called "Pelletized Bedding". I don't know if they're the same thing or not, but the "Pelletized Bedding" clearly states "for horses and small animals" on the bag with silhouettes of a horse, a cat and a rabbit.
 

babs' slave

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Been using pine pellets for a few months, and wouldn't use anything else. Anyone that is concerned about getting the pellets from Tractor Supply, just buy the Pellets they sell at Petsmart. Few dollars more,but when I factored in the travel expenses to go to Tractor Supply, the closer to me Petsmart wound up costing me about the same , and I can buy them anytime I am near Petsmart. ExquisiCat Naturals Pine Cat Litter | cat Litter | PetSmart
That's actually the best price I've seen for Pine pellet litter, aside from Tractor Supply. Thank you for the tip for anyone worried whether or not the Tractor Supply is kiln dried.
 

Sylvia Jones

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I agree that pine pellets are great And tractor supply has the best price The bags I have bought also have a cat pictured This one video with this one woman on you tube has caused so much confusion it’s crazy She is not the world safety expert on pine pellets She is certainly Not the reason I started using them And would Never be a reason to become concerned or stop using them There-are many credible cat owners on this site that have used them safely and happily for years
 

Bobsk8

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I don't know if Tractor Supply still sells "Equine Pine Bedding" but the one I buy is called "Pelletized Bedding". I don't know if they're the same thing or not, but the "Pelletized Bedding" clearly states "for horses and small animals" on the bag with silhouettes of a horse, a cat and a rabbit
Pelletized bedding is not the same as the pine pellets. They are not long pieces , but more like small round pellets and don't work the same way when sifting.
 

babs' slave

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Pelletized bedding is not the same as the pine pellets. They are not long pieces , but more like small round pellets and don't work the same way when sifting.
Maybe the supplies are different in various locales. I buy them from two towns in Texas, and they're tube-shaped. I've been buying the pelletized bedding for a couple of years now and I don't think I've ever seen a round one.
As far as sifting is concerned: when wet, the pellets turn to sawdust. You can then sift out the sawdust from the dry pellets. How does sifting work with the Equinine?
 

Sylvia Jones

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I really think it’s the same thing I ran out and had to buy feline pine pellets at publix when I couldn’t make it to tractor supply It was the same thing just less quantity for more money I was told by TS employee pine pellets bedding is what a ton of people buy for their cats
 

raggmoppgal

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I have been using Tractor Supply horse bedding pine pellets as cat litter for several years - saving a ton of money and controlling odors better than any other. I just want to say BEST LITTERBOX TO USE WITH IT IS A SIFTING LITTERBOX, not the Tidy Breeze $30+ one but a simple sifting box available for appr $17 on Amazon. You get two solid litter pans with this set-up, plus one sifting pan and a top piece that makes the sides a little higher. Works differently for pine than it would with clay litters. Dry pellets and poop stay on top of the sifter. Soaked pellets turn to sawdust and fall through. Because the pans are not fixed in place, as the topmost solid pan fills with sawdust, the sifting pan “floats” on top of the pile. The Tidy Breeze drawer is much too shallow to be practical for accumulating sawdust and it’s a mess to pull out. If you want to reduce sawdust tracking, make a little effort to work it all through the sifter so you have mostly just dry pellets ready to use. When you want to dump sawdust, switch your solid pans.

I think TSC gets pellets from several mfrs and I do hope all are providing product that can not harm cats. I hope no mfr is adding any sort of coating or binder that could produce a health issue. I do cat rescue, trap-neuter-return, and foster a revolving population. I also tried to research the mfrs when one pet cat developed a wound that wouldn’t heal on his foot. Turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma, and my vet indicated it’s a genetic issue. Just lately a couple of fosters are exhibiting allergic type symptoms in eyes and ears and again I am wondering whether a particular batch of pellets might be irritating in some way. So am rotating that room to newspaper pellets for the time being. At the very least, there are times that I know a particle of sawdust can kick up and cause an eye to become irritated.
 

VinylGurl

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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!!
Hi there, I know this was written some time ago...and I am ALWAYS behind the trend, lol, but I have been using the Tractor Supply pellets with a Tidy Cat Breeze XL litter system - actually have 2 of these litter systems set up for my 3 Bengal cats. The breeder whom I purchased my cats from was using pine pellets with them then, but I was using regular cat litter with them when I first got them because I just didn't know about the pine pellets...but then a vet tech friend of ours who also has Bengals among other cats told us she used the pellets so we decided to give it a try. I was sick and tired of the cost of the cat litter but also of the dust and the ridiculous workout I had when I would try to scoop it because it had turned into concrete practically where the cats had peed on it. I am extremely happy with my decision to switch. Clean up is MUCH MUCH easier and the product is far cheaper than the cat litter. Would I say that a 40 lb bag of the pellets lasts 6 months?? No way...but I can get a MUCH longer use out of a 40 lb bag of pellets vs a 40 lb container/bag of clumping litter. I also love the breeze XL cat box...I was able to get my pee pads to go in the tray underneath in bulk for a really great price as well, making it affordable and still cost effective over the old ordinary cat litter way. I change the cat box pee pad out around every 3 days and have noticed that my cats will make one box the "primary" box and that can change weekly lol...so one will regularly have turned into sawdust, while the other's pellets still are mostly intact. Anyway, just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on the matter.
 
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