Here is a follow-up to my investigation of alternatives to the scented
clumping litter I was using.
Since I had the brothers move in with me I switched to clumping litter
and while I never had a problem with the standard litter I may liked the
clumping a bit better though not 100% sure. The first one I tried was
scoop-away scented which spread perfumed dust all over the house. It
clumped very well but I wondered about the health aspect for the cats. I
tried another brand of scented clumping clay and it was better but still
somewhat dusty and I was still worried about the cats.
I then bough the wheat litter and here are my results so far.
Even though I made changes to one litter box at a time some of my results
were hard to computer since the cat do no consistantly dive their use
between the two boxes (each day) even if they are filled the exact same
way.
So far I have tried a mix of about 70/30 of wheat and tidy cat unscented
clay. I am working toward 100% wheat and see evidence the cats will be
fine with that. The wheat litter says to fill to 3 inches but that is a
bit deep for my taste and it seems the cats don't like it either. In
fact their drop off in use of the "wheat" is what led me to mix in the
clay but I later discovered they just did not like the litter so deep and
I liked it better shallower also. The level of dust around the apartment
has dropped considerably. At this point I don't think it is higher than
normal dust level.
As far as smell goes there where a few time I came home while using the
clumping clay when I detected some odor. While it is entirely possible
it is just random chance or the air flow outside their window changed
with the weather warming it is hard to believe there is no connection
with the change of litter and the complete lack of having an "odor"
event. It has been way longer than I ever saw between "odor" events in
the past. I also feel the wheat is much safer for the cats and hope this
is true.
After I switch to 100% wheat for a few weeks I will post a second report.
Andy
Joy - 19 Apr 2008 19:26 GMT
> Here is a follow-up to my investigation of alternatives to the scented
> clumping litter I was using.
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> Andy
I suspect that they tell you to fill it deep because that makes you buy more
of the stuff. It's kind of like the directions on a bottle of shampoo,
telling you to use it twice, or the toothpaste ads showing a huge amount of
toothpaste on the brush.
Joy
outsider - 20 Apr 2008 10:25 GMT
>> As far as smell goes there where a few time I came home while using
>> the clumping clay when I detected some odor. While it is entirely
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Joy
yep.
Marina - 20 Apr 2008 12:56 GMT
> After I switch to 100% wheat for a few weeks I will post a second report.
Sounds like the wheat will be a success.

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Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.