Cat litter!

[SpotsandBays]

Newbie questions!
So we’ve currently got a litter tray with Catsan non clumping litter, taking the solids out daily. It was just the first brand I saw so went with that, I’m pretty happy with it to be honest! However just wondering about the wood pellets/biodegradable alternatives.
Can you put these in your garden compost bin? Do you put the solid waste in there too? Or just everything in the general waste bin?
I’ve got a spare bathroom bin with a lid that I was thinking of using for the solids rather than putting it in the bin in the house (to prevent smells), and then just emptying it every few days into the black bin. Does anybody else do something like this?
Tell me about your cat litter/waste routines!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

As far as I'm aware you cannot put animal waste in your green bin, so I put it in the general waste. I was using a recycled coconut husk litter but my local supermarket stopped selling it, so I generally steal the horses bedding, so used to be wood pellets and now using straw pellets (plus the cats don't eat the straw pellets unlike the horses!). I have a wee compost caddy/ bin that I bought from Aldi ages ago and line it with a compostable bag so at least its all as biodegraded as I can make it even though its going in the general waste.

 

[smolmaus]

We use wood pellet litter but unfortunately our local authority doesn't accept it in organic waste so it has to go in general. Very annoying, but I still prefer the wood pellet to other kinds of litter anyway. It used to be by far the cheapest option, but prices have been going up. If you can put it in organic waste the solids need to be taken out anyway, same as if you want to compost yourself.

We take solids out every day into biodegradable dog poo bags then the rest usually lasts about a week, sometimes more if you put a good lot in the box. It's excellent at smell-absorption. I personally hated catsan, it tracks everywhere and it's so expensive!!

 

[SpotsandBays]

Sorry guys - I should have been more clear! by compost bin I mean like a big fat one that doesn’t get collected. It sits in the garden!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I'm not sure you'd want to add it for composting, but I am no gardener so I don't know! I know my parents looked at getting a sort of mini septic tank type thing for dog waste, it was a tank you buried in the garden and would biodegrade the waste but they never tried it in the end.

 

[NinjaPony]

I use Felipure litter and would never go back… it’s much better than Catsan having used both.

It’s clay clumping but it’s very fine so you can just remove the clumps and not waste lots of litter. It really keeps the smell to a minimum and doesn’t track all around my carpet. I get a big 18kg bag and it lasts ages, this is for one indoor cat.

I get mine here but you can get it from lots of websites.

https://www.petscorner.co.uk/felipure

 

[HappyHollyDays]

As long as you use something biodegradable then poo can go down the loo. You wouldn’t want anything that sticks to the poo blocking the pipes and drains. I don’t know if it’s a boy cat thing but I found wood pellets stunk of pee and the house reeked of it so I swapped to Worlds Best Cat Litter which is corn based and fully biodegradable. It got quite expensive so I now use chicken layers crumble which is the same thing but much cheaper.

 

[ycbm]

When i have to use cat litter I use clay pellets, the really cheap stuff. I take out the poop and the wet clumps and put them in a small bin with a tight lid until there is enough to make a trip to the dustbin worth it. I use laundry spray or fabric freshener in the bin and in the cat litter, which keeps the smell right down. .

 

[Cloball]

I started with catsan but now use the cheap clumping stuff from Lidl and it's great looks exactly the same but I can lift the wet out daily. M tends to go outside most of the time. I tend to wrap it in newspaper or put in a dog poo bag and put in the black bin. Wouldn't want to put it in the garden compost as I don't think it gets hot enough to kill the nasties but I might be wrong. Pretty sure he poops in my flowerbeds anyway... Auto-composting?

 

[SpotsandBays]

Thanks everyone! I think I’ll have a test with a few different brands and see which we like best! I’ve dug out the little bin for poop too and popped a compostable liner in (will go in the gen waste bin).
I think the best way forward is for poop to go in the bin but then if I find a suitable compostable litter, then that can go in the compost bin!
Thanks all!

 

[chaps89]

Please don’t put poo down the toilet - afaik our sewage systems aren’t set up to treat it ?
I use worlds best. It’s expensive (£30-ish) a bag but that bag lasts me (well, 2 cats!) around 8 weeks, so £15 a month.
When I used wood pellets I found I used a bag a week and they got up to £7 a bag so far more expensive.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I use Cat's best, compostable, and have made a compost heap for it in my garden.

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

Know this is what you're using but use catsan non clumping as we have house cats and it's less smelly - the poop is skipped out after they've been/when noticed then the whole thing is emptied, washed out and refilled once a week.

The tray is very big though as 2 big breeds and PD had a terrible habit of not properly sitting in it... Need to make sure the litter is filled pretty deeply or the wee starts to smell before the week is up

The only downside is the litter is so light they like to boot it everywhere on exiting the tray...

 

[mini_b]

Catsan is the best “normal/commonly available” litter you can buy I think. It is really absorbent and good for the ammonia stink. However it’s expensive.

I’ve got 2 cats and one tray, I use the cheap Aldi non clumping litter and dump the whole lot into the bin every other day which goes out with the main rubbish. A 1.99 bag lasts me a week. I’m not comfortable putting any cat poo in the toilet.

loathe clumping litter, I’ve broken 2 scoops and an actual tray trying to clean the bliddy stuff

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I honestly had no idea cat poo and loo were not compatible. In the past it has been touted as a way of being green by reducing land fill and there are litter trays which fit over the toilet seat with a hole which cats are trained to use rather than a ground tray.