Transitioning to wood pellet litter?

[david68]

I just can't take the fine dust from clay litter anymore. It gets everywhere, on everything. I've lived with it for years, and I'm reaching the breaking point. I'm tired of keeping things covered with old sheets just to keep the dust off. I feel like I could vacuum seven days a week and never get all of it, and it clogs up my vacuum cleaner bags. Plus, I have four cats in the house, and litter keeps getting more and more expensive. I think the brand I use was ~$13 for a 40lb. bag when I started buying it a few years ago. Yesterday, it was $21 due to another price increase.

I'm thinking of switching over to wood pellet litter, and for those who've gone this route, which system have you found works best? And any tips on getting the cats accustomed to it.

 

[verna davies]

I changed to wood pellets several years ago. I had two litter trays, filled one with the usual litter and one with the wood then after several days mixed some wood with the clay in your case, a few days later added more wood and so on until it was all wood. Hope you have a successful and easy transaction.

 

[Alldara]

The best way I've found to transition cats from one litter to another is this:

Take 1 box and fill it 100% with new litter (if you only have one, get a second to do this with).

Take a poo from the old box and put it in the new box.

Gently pick up cat and place in front of box with new litter and poo. Do not fuss if cat immediately runs away.

Once cat uses new litter, slowly have new litter conquer new territory of litter boxes until all boxes are changed over and you're out of old litter.

if after 1 month they don't use the new litter, try a different brand or texture. There may be a strong reason why your cat won't use the new litter.

Its always best to use a litter your cat will frequent. Holding 'output' too long can cause life-threatening health issues.

I found it's easiest to change them over if you get one bag of pellets and a small bag from the same brand of the chopped up version of the pellets.

Please use only cat litter and not rabbit/horse/etc as cat litter is treated to remove the phenols that are toxic to cats. Using rabbit or other can cause urinary issues in cats.

I use Okocat. Non-clumping is always less dusty than clumping. Clumping agents are fine powders that will always cause dust.

I haven't had any issues with any cat-specific wood pellet litter. Okocat is just my preference. There are many less expensive ones. The PetSmart brand was good too. My cats also don't have trouble using an "off-brand" one if it's on sale now that they are transitioned.

My new cat took to Okocat from clay that he was using at the shelter with no transition.