Some questions about pellet litter...

[alzycat]

My IBD cat has suffered from chronic diarrhea for years, but things are finally looking up with a food & probiotic change! I've used just the plain old clumping granular litter her entire life, but now that I live in a small apartment, it's getting pretty annoying to vacuum up tiny grains that end up all over my place every day (she's really fluffy & they tend to get stuck in her fur). Pellet litter didn't seem like an option with her diarrhea, but now that she is having solid poops, I really want to try it. I have a few questions that google seems to have differing answers for, so I thought I'd ask this community:

1. Does pellet litter clump at all? I've read that pine pellets turn to 'sawdust' with urine, so you can just sift it out- is this true for all pellet litters?
2. Do you need a sifting litter box to use pellet litter?
3. Do you still scoop out the poops or just pick them out with a bag?
4. How does pellet litter stand up to smell? Like I said, I live in a small apartment, so I want a litter that can mask the urine/poop smell but also not be so fragrant that it makes my entire place smell like litter (a lot of granular litters have a really strong fragrance that I avoid)
5. Although things are looking up, she does have IBD & I'm sure she will have flare ups again some day. How does pellet litter stand up to the occasional bout of diarrhea?

Thanks in advance!

 

[verna davies]

I use pine pellets without any problems. To answer your questions with the experience I have:-
1. it does clump and turns to sawdust and is usually easy to scoop out.
2. I dont have a sifting litter tray.
3. I use a bag to remove the poop.
4. There doesn't seem to be any fragrance on the litter and depending on the poop, sometimes smells stronger, I can get an odour but it isn't overpowering and soon goes
5. One of mine has occasional diarrhoea, on those occasions I scoop. The pellets seem to contain the area.

Hope this helps.

 

[Maurey]

1. It does not clump at all, in my experience. Regarding forming sawdust, most do. There's a specific type of sieve and pad litter systems (such as the Purina Tidycats system) that has water-resistant antibacterially coated pellets :>
2. It's ideal, yes!
3. I tend to use a scoop, but either works, honestly.
4. The traditional pellet litter & sieve box I used stunk to high hell sadly -- Jum's urine doesn't even smell that much, and didn't smell almost at all on clumping litter! Once I made the switch to a sieve and pad system, smell instantly went away for me. That said, ymmv, some people swear by normal pelle litter and sieve boxes. Could be that it's just so humid here in summer it's not really viable, or I tried poor quality pellets -- who knows! I just know it didn't work for me.
5. Normal pellet litter doesn't, ime. The one time Jum had diarrhoea when we were using normal pellets I had to throw away the remaining pellets and wash the entire box. With the sieve and pad system, most brands of coated litters are washable! Once you get the technique down, it saves on litter use a lot. Haven't bought a new bag of litter in months, as I've been washing her current litter :>