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November 17, 2007
on cats and cat littler 
I was reading Kate's Ride my Handlebars, and she wrote about attending an event featuring Jeanne Roy. In it, she mentioned the whole issue of cat litter -- that it's heavy and expensive and difficult to get home on a bicycle, and she mentioned that she was going to ask Roy about the effect of housecats on the environment for her story in the Trib.
So I excitedly check out There’s more to it than recycling, and there's nothing about cats. Damn it.
Here at Athenaville, we have three indoor-only cats, four catboxes and damn, a lot of issues around cat littler. The stuff doesn't biodegrade!
I'd really like an alternative that doesn't involve letting the cats outside. We have one cat who leaves editorial statements about the litter when it doesn't meet her high standards. So when I think of feline pine or other products like that, I fear for how many editorials I'll have to endure.
I did learn recently, however, that Charles Mingus -- who wrote a book on cat toilet training, called the Charles Mingus CAT-alog for Toilet Training Your Cat -- shredded his own newspaper for cat litter.
Dear g-ds, what did our grandparents use? (Oh yeah, they prolly didn't have cats in the house)
Posted at November 17, 2007
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Comments
I started using Feline Pine cat litter because it can be composted. I also didn't like the fact that my long-hair cat was ingesting a lot of clay dust when he cleaned himself, with who knows what sort of effect in his gut.
It might be worth trying a small bag of Feline Pine to see if it passes muster with the one cat. Or perhaps World's Best Cat Litter -- the texture is similar to clumping clay, but it's made from corn and so may also be biodegradable.
In theory, composting does get hot enough to kill bacteria, but I don't plan to use the compost on vegetables.
I sometimes flush the solid waste, but I've read there are concerns about toxoplasmosis affecting sea otters, so I've lately been putting the solid stuff in paper bags in the trash. I haven't had problems with other critters getting into either the compost bin or the trash.
Posted by: heather w at November 17, 2007 8:50 AM
My cats are really picky and I successfully transitioned them to Feline Pine by following the instructions on the bag. It's actually cheaper than the regular stuff because a small amount of it lasts two weeks (I have 2 cats, 1 litterbox, and use 1/2 small bag every two weeks - 1 inch in the box). And it doesn't track all over the house like the other stuff, too.
I don't work for them, just have been really happy with the switch.
Posted by: jane at November 18, 2007 10:11 AM
Around the turn of the century (i.e. 1899), my great-grandma trained her cat to use the toilet. I don't know whether he was able to pull the chain to flush, but it's not a new idea at all.
I have four indoor cats, and it is indeed a problem. I haven't figured out how to bring litter home on my bike (I ride a Biria) either.
Posted by: robin at December 20, 2007 3:30 PM
A few months ago I had a scoop free litterbox and I had the same concerns you do. It was easier to deal with than all the scooping, but you just throw away the cartridge at the end of its usefulness (in my case that's a week because I have four cats) and that creates a whole lot of waste. So I did some investigating and came up with the Cat Genie (http://www.catgenie.com). You hook it up to your plumbing and it washes and dries the litter granules and flushes the poop out of your house. It's a pretty big initial expense, but after that you hardly ever have to buy new litter, just once in a while to replace granules that have been scattered about by your cats. I've had one for about two months now and I couldn't be happier.
btw, on the conservation front, the cleaning cycle uses about as much water as one toilet flush.
Posted by: Carrie at December 28, 2007 10:16 PM