Kitty Litter made with diatomaceous earth

[leonie]

Aside from the environmental problems, is this kind of litter safe for cats? The kind I use now is WC CAT made with just diatomaceous earth and montmorillite only in Kamloops, BC, Canada. I've used this type of litter all my life, well for my cats!, and have apparently had no problems. My cat companion is 14 1/2 years old and has never been sick in her life except for when I discovered she was allergic to the wheat in canned catfood and a few bouts with fleas - the last one cleared up within a couple of days using FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth.

Any other comments about disposing of this litter are also welcome!

Thanks,

Leonie

 

[ondine]

Is the litter you use made of DE or does it have DE in it?  Any DE I've purchased is so fine and powdery, I'd be afraid that the cats would inhale it while using the litter box.  I imagine it would be great keepings fleas down.

I dispose of our clay litter in the regular trash and feel guilty about it.  But our cats refuse to use anything else, so I'm kind of stuck.

 

[leonie]

Hey Ondine,

It looks just like the old fashioned clay litter but is made of a chunky form of diatomaceous earth (very small pebbles) and claims to be 99% dust free and I'd have to agree with that. I've tried some plant based litters but this one seems to absorb the odours a lot better and lasts 5-7 days when scooped daily. 

The best ever litter situation I've had (since all of my cats have preferred going to the bathroom indoors) was when I lived in Thailand. I was far away from Phuket City and couldn't find anything resembling litter except sand which at first, I hauled from the beach - but then what to do with the dirty stuff? I flushed it for a while nervously as Thai sewage pipes are notoriously narrow. Then gradually that got to be a pain so I reduced the amount of sand down to zero - yes, an empty litter box! They went in the box with nothing in it and I was home enough to just rinse it into the toilet whenever they used it. Super!

Leonie

 

[ondine]

I am not sure if there's litter here with DE in it but I'm going to look.

I like your idea of no litter, too.  A friend had a cat who used her tub - all my friend did was flush the poo and rinse out the pee.  She had seven kids and never worried too much about disinfecting it.  I would have but her kids were healthy, so ...

of course, I have six cats, so I fear that wouldn't work.  Sure would save me some money, though!