Safe and successful litter for kittens?

[cocoa cream]

Welcome to TCS Marilyn! Thanks for being available to give us all such great advice!

I'm pretty new to cat ownership, so forgive me if this is a very basic question. I have three kittens that are about 9 weeks old, all from the same litter. I didn't know when I started litter training them that I should use shallow pans, so they are using standard litter boxes...but they use them all the time and have had no trouble getting in and out. Only one, Molly, has had accidents outside the box, and I think it was a result of two things: a) the previous residents of our house had a dog that may have been urinating on the carpet in a certain spot, and b) her brother and sister were having bad diarrhea and filling the litter box overnight. Both problems seem to have been resolved by thoroughly cleaning the area of carpet where she was urinating and by adding an extra litter box to the room they are in overnight. (I have 3 boxes spread throughout the house for them during the day, and I clean them twice daily.)

My question is, what is the best litter for kittens to use? I've heard some things about clumping litter being dangerous for kittens in the event they eat it, so I've been using Tidy Cats regular clay litter. I like the price, but I don't feel like I've ever really getting it clean because the urine doesn't clump. I do completely empty the boxes weekly and clean them thoroughly with a very mild bleach/water solution. Also, I think Molly may not like this litter because when she wants to cover, she scratches the sides of the box instead of digging in the litter. The other two are not picky at all...so I don't think a change would bother them. I just want to make sure I'm using something that will not harm them and that they all like. But I am on a limited bugdet so I can't buy any of the specialty stuff! Any suggestions?

P.S.--sorry this is so long...I just wanted to be clear about everything!

 

[thecatcoach]

I don't know what is the best litter for kittens, except to say that it should not be clumping litter. The reason it shouldn't be clumping litter is because kittens do have a tendency to put everything in their mouths, including their cat litter. It's very dangerous, since it can clump inside of them.

I will say that the boxes do need to be shallow and that you probably don't have enough of them. Kittens don't quite have the control (like human children) that they do as older cats. Because of that, boxes need to be within easy reach.

Marilyn Krieger, CCBC
www.thecatcoach.com

 

[cocoa cream]

Thanks for the quick response! That's what I thought I'd heard about clumping litter, so I guess I'll wait until they are alot older before I start using it. As far as having enough boxes, I don't think that's a problem. Like I said, we've not had any accidents since resolving the two previous issues. The kittens spend the majority of their time during the day in the kitchen and family room, both of which have litter boxes in them. They have used them without fail since day one.