Quitting Litter

Arguably the worst part of owning a cat of any breed has got to be the litter box. You have so many options, clumping or non clumping, slide, light weight, multi-cat odour control, the list goes on. Then there's the smell! It's next to impossible to keep the litter box from smelling for more than 5 minutes ( isn't it funny how the second the box is clean suddenly they have to poop! ). No matter how good a litter clumps small bits of pee covered clumps break off and mix with the remaining clean litter meaning you only have a matter of days at most before that "cat" smell is all through your house! Once you have cleaned the litter box you're hit with the next issue, where to put everything you just scooped out. You finish scooping your box and maybe you have a Litter Locker or access to an outdoor garbage to throw everything out in, but its smelly and heavy and gag-worthy by the time garbage day comes! I wanted to write this post not only for the families of our kittens, but just for any cat owner. As most of you may know, Persians are brachycephalic. They are essentially the pug of the cat world. Unfortunately it's their flat squishy faces and big round eyes that we love so much that can cause issues. One thing you have to be aware of with a Persian cat is the dust that your typical clay litter causes. Even if you use a "low dust" clay litter it can still be too dusty for the sensitive airways and eyes of a Persian. Add to that how cats all seem to be able to track litter all over the house no matter how many cat litter mats or different types of litter boxes you buy.

As a cattery we obviously have multiple cats so finding something that isn't dusty and doesnt track very much has been a challenge. Finding one that has odour control strong enough for all of our cats? IMPOSSIBLE! One day while scrolling Facebook I saw a post about using wood pellet litter. I honestly didn't see how in the world that could work and I thought it would be so much more complicated so I put it out of my mind without a second thought. I really wish I had have looked into it more closely, it would have saved me so much sweeping , heaving 1000 lb garbage bags to the side of the road and sooooo much clay litter in our landfills. Of course the day came where I had just had enough! I was ready to try anything, even toilet training if I had to. That was the glorious day that I properly looked into wood pellet litter and realized just how clean, cost effective and environmentally friendly it is! I will start by saying that for Persians particularly it has been incredible. It isn't "low dust", its NO DUST! There is little to no tracking of anything although the odd time I will find a pellet to 2 directly outside of the box. Wood pellet litter is so inexpensive, you can buy a 40 lb bag for $6.99 CAD at any tractor supply or hardware store. Wood pellets for wood burning stoves work incredibly well and pellet horse bedding is always a winner. When they get wet they turn to saw dust meaning that a simple sifting system is all thats needed to completely remove all pee. Being able to remove all pee means that the litter box stays smelling fresh but even the wet sawdust doesn't have the same strong ammonia smell that clay litter can't cover because the wood does such a great job at absorbing it. The poop is flushable so no sitting in garbage cans waiting for pick up day. And the best part of all , when its time to fully dump the box, even the pee covered sawdust IS COMPLETELY COMPOSTABLE! No more bags of clay litter polluting our planet. Now I am fully aware that most cat owners do not use wood pellets. For that reason when it is time to litter train our kittens we do use traditional clay litter. I feel it would be irresponsible of me to get them used to the wood pellets and run the risk of litter box issues in their new homes. I do want all families of our babies know that we believe wood pellets are the healthiest form of litter they can use for their new kittens respiratory system. As with anything else I would be more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have whether you have a kitten from my cattery or not, all you have to do is reach out. I am clearly a firm believer in the wood pellets and if anyone asks me how I have a house with 6 cats and no litter box smell, I have no problem telling them how I QUIT LITTER!!