No Tracking Litter Options

[LittleShadow]

Hello all,
As far as cats are concerned, the absolute worst part to me is the way that having an indoor litter box means litter being tracked through the house. Short of sweeping/vacuuming at least three times a day, I've found no way to keep litter where it belongs. Non-clumping tracks and is dusty, and a pain to clean. Clumping tracks, is dusty, sticks to paws, and there is the delight of it sticking to the box or not clumping hard enough.

I want to bring a catio cat inside, but that means a litter box. I'm not willing to deal with trying to keep up with litter again, and honestly, even dealing with the catio box is bad for my asthma. I've tried pine pellets in a breeze system, but the cat won't touch it, even with seeding the pellets with one of her deposits and not cleaning her other box as often to encourage her to use the new box.

She uses a regular box with clumping litter just fine, in case anyone is wondering, and when recovering from an ingrown claw, used shredded newspaper without complaint, though it reeked even when I cleaned it after every single use. She's very accepting of some pretty awful litter conditions, not going outside the box even when a relative forgot to clean it in my absence for an entire week one time, so I'm hopeful that I can eventually train her to accept something other than going outside or clumping litter.

Before the catio, she used to use the lawn to pee and the gravel or under bushes to poop. I want to try the breeze box with possibly either aquarium gravel or fake grass, but I thought I'd ask for opinions. I'm leaning towards the gravel, just because I'm worried she won't want to poop on fake grass, even though I'd probably find the grass easier to take out and hose down, especially if I kept two fake grass patches for quick switch-outs.

Any suggestions? Also, for anyone who uses aquarium gravel, what brands do you use? Does it in fact reduce tracking? Are there smell issues?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! I can't help regarding the aquarium gravel, but I'm using a combination of Dr Elseys and Littermaid walnut, and it seems to be doing the job pretty well. It clumps, doesn't track, doesn't stick to him and isn't dusty as long as I keep the correct ratio of the walnut in the elseys, (no idea why this works but it's as though the walnut absorbs the dust - it did the same eliminating the dust of arm and hammer. I don't like A&H any more - it sticks to him like crazy).

 

[LittleShadow]

Hm. Do you use a regular box, or a breeze box? I've also heard that the walnut stuff stains. You haven't had this issue? And how does humidity affect it?

I'd like her outdoor box and indoor box to be the same, eventually, and her outdoor box, while covered, currently does not react well when it rains. Between some edges of the catio getting wet when it is windy and rainy, and her wet paws, the humidity, and her clumping litter....well, I've had to clean litter cement off her paws far too often when it rains. That's another part of why I wanted to transition away from clumping litter, in addition to my asthma and hatred of finding litter bits tracked EVERYWHERE.

 

[Furballsmom]

I use regular boxes, Littermaids walnut doesn't stain, and I'm in Colorado - I don't know that I can answer all that well regarding humidity but it hasn't been an issue here.

 

[Seryy'smom]

Hello all,
As far as cats are concerned, the absolute worst part to me is the way that having an indoor litter box means litter being tracked through the house. Short of sweeping/vacuuming at least three times a day, I've found no way to keep litter where it belongs. Non-clumping tracks and is dusty, and a pain to clean. Clumping tracks, is dusty, sticks to paws, and there is the delight of it sticking to the box or not clumping hard enough.

I want to bring a catio cat inside, but that means a litter box. I'm not willing to deal with trying to keep up with litter again, and honestly, even dealing with the catio box is bad for my asthma. I've tried pine pellets in a breeze system, but the cat won't touch it, even with seeding the pellets with one of her deposits and not cleaning her other box as often to encourage her to use the new box.

She uses a regular box with clumping litter just fine, in case anyone is wondering, and when recovering from an ingrown claw, used shredded newspaper without complaint, though it reeked even when I cleaned it after every single use. She's very accepting of some pretty awful litter conditions, not going outside the box even when a relative forgot to clean it in my absence for an entire week one time, so I'm hopeful that I can eventually train her to accept something other than going outside or clumping litter.

Before the catio, she used to use the lawn to pee and the gravel or under bushes to poop. I want to try the breeze box with possibly either aquarium gravel or fake grass, but I thought I'd ask for opinions. I'm leaning towards the gravel, just because I'm worried she won't want to poop on fake grass, even though I'd probably find the grass easier to take out and hose down, especially if I kept two fake grass patches for quick switch-outs.

Any suggestions? Also, for anyone who uses aquarium gravel, what brands do you use? Does it in fact reduce tracking? Are there smell issues?

Thanks for any help!

I plan to try this one~https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fresh-St...Litter-Clumping-Cat-Litter-22-5-lbs/509616847

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Never tried gravel, etc., so can't help there. But, I had no issues with Fresh Step Unscented - hardly had any tracking at all. That is, until Feeby decided to start peeing on her own foot - and, well, you know what happened after that!

There is some dust with Fresh Step, but much less so with the Unscented version.

 

[tangers40]

I can't make any comments regarding the aquarium gravel situation either, but I will throw my hat in for another possible clumping litter recommendation.

I had been using Dr. Elsey's litter, but just recently decided to try Chewy's house brand Frisco litter as it was a bit cheaper. It's only been in the box a week or so now, but already I am noticing a lot less litter tracked outside the box. The granules are finer than with Dr. Elsey's, and whether or not that's why it doesn't track, I have no idea. But so far, so good.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

I second what tangers40 said. We too have switched to Frisco because it is cheaper and more fine. Tracking has been reduced for us as well using Frisco, although we didn't have a terrible lot of tracking or dustiness with Dr. Elsey's alone.

Have you tried a litter mat? It's a rubber or silicone mat that goes in front of the litterbox. The cat steps on them upon exiting the box and the litter gets trapped in the mat. We have one that we use for both of our boxes and that has helped a lot too.

 

[tangers40]

I second what tangers40 said. We too have switched to Frisco because it is cheaper and more fine. Tracking has been reduced for us as well using Frisco, although we didn't have a terrible lot of tracking or dustiness with Dr. Elsey's alone.

Have you tried a litter mat? It's a rubber or silicone mat that goes in front of the litterbox. The cat steps on them upon exiting the box and the litter gets trapped in the mat. We have one that we use for both of our boxes and that has helped a lot too.

I had more tracking with Dr. Elsey's than I cared for. I have a litter mat, but my awesomely ridiculous fuzzball exits the box on the side without the mat about half the time. And although I haven't tried many litters in my cat-owning life (couldn't stand Petco's house brand, made the room smell like there was something electrical getting hot in there all the time), I also didn't like the amount of dust I got from Dr. Elsey's. Everything in the room is covered in a super-fine layer of litter dust. The box is in the guest bathroom, so that means that every time a guest comes over and, say, uses a kleenex or wipes their hands on the hand towel, they get the smell of litter dust.

As I said, I've only had the Frisco in there for a week or so. But I don't notice the clay smell when I clean the box, so I am hoping it is less dusty. Definitely less tracking, though.

 

[LittleShadow]

Oh yes, I've tried mats. Generally I've found the only thing they do is make it harder to clean the litter that gets everywhere, because now you also have to try and get it out of the mat.

While I do appreciate attempts to direct me to brands of clumping litter you've found less awful than others, what I'm really hoping is to find something that isn't a clumping litter. I've tried many, many brands of clumping litter, and while some are slightly less dusty or clump a bit better than others, I've yet to find one that doesn't end up everywhere. I've been a cat person long enough that fur finding its way into everything doesn't bug me, but cat litter in my bed is not something I find myself able to tolerate. It doesn't help that unless I wear a quality mask, dealing with the litterbox usually makes my lungs hurt.

Most of my issues I've just sucked it up and dealt with in the past, but I'm also worried about Molly. With the weather getting wetter, I've had to clean clumping litter out of Molly's paws several times, especially around her little polydactyl claws that hide between her main toes and dewclaws. I'm worried about her ingesting cat litter or developing other issues with how the litter can get trapped there.

I know some people have used aquarium gravel in outdoor litterbox setups, so I'd been hoping that someone might have tried it as a litter alternative in other situations too. I hadn't thought I'd been so unique in my search for something that wasn't standard litter. I suppose I'll just have to try myself, and see what happens. If my experiments fail, I'll certainly try some of the suggestions here for clumping litter though.

 

[nese]

I've tried aquarium gravel, it smells so bad that after the first pee I have to dump it to the trash immediately.
We are using pine pellets now with our 6 cats, with DIY shifting litter boxes, similar to breeze system. It is the easiest way for me to deal with litter with multiple cats.
At first try ours also didn't touch the pellet, they even didn't like the smell. After making slow introduction they get used to it after 3 weeks.

At first I put two litter boxes side by side, one is filled with their regular clumping litter, the other is filled with pellets. For 2-3 days they just smelled the pellets with a dislike in their face

After 2-3 days I took a handfull of pellets and spread it on to their regular clumping litter. After they got used to it, I added a bit more pellets. Step by step by adding more pellets in each 2-3 day, finally their old litter box was full of pellets and they were using it with no problem, approximately after 3 weeks.

It may took longer for some cats, but if the transition is slow enough, I guess every cat will get used to it in time.

 

[Tobermory]

A local cats-only shelter is using rabbit pellets (alfalfa). They were using Yesterday’s News paper litter but lost their supplier and other sources were too expensive for their budget. This place is kept cleaner than human hospitals so it must be working for them.

The place where I volunteer was using wood-burning stove pine pellets. You just have to make sure they’re untreated. We just lifted out the solids and any wet sawdust. I was surprised at how well it controlled odor given the fact that staff and volunteer litter box cleaning there is a little...inefficient. They’ve switched to clumping litter and it hasn’t been a good change, mainly because they don’t use it properly.

 

[sabrinah]

How quickly did you switch to the pine pellets? If I had switched straight from clay to pine pellets my cat would have peed on my pillow for sure. I spent a good 3 months doing a super slow switch because I really needed her to accept it to cut down on litter cost. I'm sure a younger cat wouldn't require such a long transition time, but my old kitty is very resistant to change.

 

[Wile]

I've tried just about everything at this point and found that there is no perfect litter out there. The two that I keep returning to are non-clumping unscented low dust clay and the crystal style non-clumping cat litter. If you haven't tried it already give the crystal litter a shot. It controls odour really well, is very low dust, and tracking is minimal if you get the larger size crystal (not the sandy stuff made for persians). It also isn't affected by humidity.

 

[LittleShadow]

Hmm. So from what I'm hearing....
A) Aquarium gravel is used in OUTSIDE litterbox areas for a reason....it's a bad choice indoors. It may still be an option for her catio, seeing as we occasionally get rain with sideways wind that turns her current litterbox into cement soup.
B) Pine pellets may still work with Molly.....but it will take a much longer transition period than any other litters I've tried before. I may not have used a long enough transition period when I first tried.
C) Large size crystal litter may be an idea worth trying.

I also just cleaned her breeze box out, filled it with fresh breeze pellets instead of pine pellets, and added a litter attractant I'd picked up to the pellets. She's already gone over and sniffed it twice, walked in it once. The first time I tried the breeze pellets a few months ago she slept in them, and ignored the box after I put a stool in it to try to clue her in. I wonder if the litter attractant will do the job? I don't much like the breeze pellets for long term, but if they get her to use the box, I can probably transition easier from breeze pellets to pine pellets later. Fingers crossed!