I am doing the cost comparison at the moent as we have a new cat so I am working my way through the brands and types and finding which last longer and which work better.
So far my fav is the crystal one, which ever brand is cheapest. It seems to last the longest, isn't as messy and I'm scooping a lot less out. Down side is it goes yellow - so doesn't look so attractive
We use Catsan (it's in a blue bag). I find that if I religiously scoop it once a day the bag of litter lasts longer. So I scoop once a day and do a full change over once a week which includes hosing out the tray on the back lawn and leaving it in the sun for a bit. We have a tray with a cover cause one of my cats can not aim straight and pees over the edge! So the cover contains it. I scoop into a plastic shopping bag and chuck it in the bin.
ETA: Oh I also put in the litter a little bit of bicarb as it helps to absorb the smells.
Last edited by Laranna; January 12th, 2009 at 10:25 PM.
: eta
Whatever is cheapest! lol she rarely uses it.
Although I like the clumping stuff and she likes finer ones so she can dig better lol she cant balance properly on the pellety ones (she has only 1 back leg)
BTW you shouldnt be handling kitty litter in your condition!! It is very bad for pregnant women to come in contact with (or breath dust from) kitty litter and cat poo! (cant remember why so please dont ask me lol but there is something in it that is baaaaaad!)
Also dont put cat litter in your compost bin - cat excretement is NOT helpful like pig poo! lol
I used to use breeders choice but giz doesn't like it at the moment so we're onto the RSPCA stuff. I also put a layer of bicarb on the bottom before the litter goes in - I only put about 2 cups of the stuff into her tray.
she goes out morning and night so doesn't use it as much as if she was a 100% indoor cat - so I can go a week without changing it (I remove poos with toilet paper & just drop them in the toilet - her litter tray is in the bathroom), I usually bag it up and put it in the bin on garbage day (or I just flush it - yeh bad I know) - in our old house Dh had a tree that he used to go and put it under for me, then ever few weeks he'd dig it into the soil.
Wouldn't use crystal type litter - had a few too many friend's cats end up with runny bums from it (the chemicals that cause the clumping can irritate cats)
We use the crystal type and change it about once every week/2 weeks (we have 2 cats, indoor 100% of the time) Some weeks they don't seem to pee as much though? dunno.
Anyhoo - I scoop the poop out daily if I remember or get the chance
Then when cleaning it - I just bin it. Never occurred to me to put the cat poop in the toilet though - thats a new one!!
We have two cats. We use Purina Tidy Cats, lasts ages it you scoop daily. When I was pregnant Shel did it 99.9% of the time (unless I needed it done while she was at work!), but now we take turns, whoever doesn't feed Jazz at night, the other person does the litter and takes the kitchen bin out. We change our small kitchen bin each day, put the littler scooping in it, and put it in the big bin. They're indoor overnight and outdoor during the day.
Limey - That would be Toxoplasmosis. I dont handle the litter unless I have to. And when I do I put rubber gloves on and a dust mask!! It is rather funny to see. Everything I have read about it says avoid where possible but if you have to then use gloves and a mask.
We use the pine litter that you can get in the supermarket now, it's meant to be environmentally friendly and it does the job so we'll keep using it. We used the crystals before this and found that we have less mess on the floor these days. You can flush small amounts of the pine litter, or put it on the garden.
One of our kitties uses the people toilet which is fab! The other kitty isn't so good at using the toilet so we have to keep the litter for her.
We use the crystal one. Which ever is on special/cheapest.
I usually change it all once a week.
DP usually deals with the poo when he's home. He flushes it down the toilet too.
Me, I usually just bin it. I've flushed it a couple of times but it felt weird for me. Lol.
We used the litter kwitter to teach Otto to use the toilet.
It has a seat that fits onto the toilet with trays that you use in stages. So the first one completely covers it and is full of litter, the second has a hole in the middle, the third the hole is much bigger and then once they are used to going in the hole you stop filling the rim with litter, then you take the tray out and your kitty is using the loo! Luckily we have two toilets so it was easy to have one people toilet and one kitty toilet. We were having visitors come to stay so we went a bit fast, we didn't want them to have to take the seat off every time. It does need to be cleaned regularly as you don't use a lot of litter but as you move through the stages and they start getting it in the hole you don't need to change it very often at all. I think with just one cat it would be much easier. Cleaning is now DH's department.
Now we just need to teach Otto to flush it still makes us giggle when we see him sitting on the toilet, he's so cute!
We've always used breeders choice (I think that's what it is - it's green pack). We started using it because the petshop we got our first cat (who is now in cat heaven) used it and she was already used to it.
We are currently changing it twice a week coz we have a new kitten. Before we got the kitten we only had to do it monthly if that because our other cat does his business outside. Can't wait until the Kitten prefers to do his business outside too. I had forgotten how rank it smells!
At my work (vet clinic) we also use the Breeders Choice brand. It's pretty cheap and does the job well enough. I'm not sure how it compares to other brands if you plan on not cleaning it daily though, as we change-over the litter and clean the trays at least daily.
Sounds like you are being careful about the potential of catching Toxoplasmosis which is great. If you want to be extra careful you can make sure that the litter is changed daily. It takes at least 24 hours for the toxo to become infectious after it's shed in the cats poop. I got tested for toxo immunity when I first got pregnant because I'd been working with cats for so long, and the test came back negative for immunity. That means that in all the years I've been cleaning cat poop, not once have I contracted toxo
I use Breaders Choice too. We have 2 trays (& 2 indoor cats) and I change it every second day on average. We use a scoop & flush the poo - mostly i do all the kitty litter duty but I'll try to con DH into doing it 'cause we're TTCing.
For users of other types of litter - I wouldn't flush the poo unless the kitty litter bag said it was flushable.
Alioops, that definitely lowers the chance of the cats having/getting toxo. They usually get it from digging in the garden, or from eating raw meat, like rats or mice. Yummo!
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it still makes us giggle when we see him sitting on the toilet, he's so cute!
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