# Pine Litter Questions



## Gnotes (Sep 21, 2010)

Fortunate for me that the other day Target did not have any smaller size unscented cat litter. After lugging a 24 pound box into the cart, and anticipating having to drag it upstars, I said... forget it. So, off to Trader Joe's, and just by chance, I noticed their cheap Premium Pine Cat Litter. 7 pounds for a month's supply, not more than a few dollars. 

So, cat and kitten seem to be adjusting. I am gradually adding the pine stuff to the two litter boxes. Reading up on this here. So, here's a few questions I have not found answers to, and I hope some of you can give your expertise to. 

1. I noticed there is regular pine and scoopable pine. Is there a big difference? Any big preferences? 

2. I have been reading about the Feline Pine litter box. It is hard to find, but is it really much different from the other kinds of litter boxes that have the sifting grid? I was thinking of either looking for just the sifting part and/or replacing the box or boxes with a garden variety type of sifting litter box what would allow the sawdust stuff to go to the bottom. Would a regular sifting box work? Any suggestions, if so what ones? 

Not sure if kitties will take completely, but I really hope so. Already, especially with Ollie the 3+ month old kitten, what a big big difference in on odors or dust. I even like the smell of pine. 

I also read somewhere online that a yoga mat works great as a litter box mat.


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## Gnotes (Sep 21, 2010)

I guess there are no pine litter fans around. Today I did buy a box of the scoopable pine. It is rather finely ground, not pellets. Will be an interesting experiment to see if this works well. Maybe I can mix pellets with the scoopable as the kitties change over.


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## thenakedorchid (Sep 15, 2010)

I use scoopable Feline Pine. It's basically like sawdust. It does control odors well, but the tracking is ridiculous. Going to try Swheat Scoop to see if it tracks less. I'm trying to find a less expensive natural alternative to the World's Best Cat Litter.


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## Gnotes (Sep 21, 2010)

Thanks for the info on the tracking problem. I did buy a new litter mat today, but I guess the scoopable will not be a long-term solution after all.

For awhile, at the suggestion of a pet store, I used to mix World's Best with some kind of corn litter that was less expensive. It worked well as far as odors, but there was only one kittie at the time. Maybe mixing two types would be a way of keeping the costs down. I found World's Best too expensive, gravitated towards Arm and Hammer Unscented, but since I have two kitties, that's no solution anymore.


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## Olivers-Slave (Jul 25, 2010)

I tried the pine myself but it was like pellets and my cats refused to use it. sooo no pine for them


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## RuledByMiso (Aug 17, 2010)

I've looked at the pine but never tried it, as the price for it compared to the clay litter (at least in my area) is astronomical! Most of the brands I've seen are also the pellets, I don't think I've seen the clumping version yet. My cats wouldn't use the pellets.

I used Swheat Scoop before (wheat litter) and found it great for odor control and scooping, but it tracked so badly! And now, with 4 cats, it's a bit out of my price range.


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## Konotashi (Oct 20, 2010)

I use Feline Pine for my ferret, and although it turns to sawdust basically when it gets wet and he likes to dig it out everywhere, I don't care seeing as how it's the best odor absorber I've used thus far. I can deal with the little dusty stuff (it's not really 'dusty' but it does get everywhere) as long as I don't have to smell it.


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## thenakedorchid (Sep 15, 2010)

RuledByMiso said:


> I've looked at the pine but never tried it, as the price for it compared to the clay litter (at least in my area) is astronomical! Most of the brands I've seen are also the pellets, I don't think I've seen the clumping version yet. My cats wouldn't use the pellets.
> 
> I used Swheat Scoop before (wheat litter) and found it great for odor control and scooping, but it tracked so badly! And now, with 4 cats, it's a bit out of my price range.


Sorry to hear that about Swheat Scoop. That was my next option! I'm tired of the tracking.  Has anybody tried Yesterday's News?


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## Bert-Stare (Oct 24, 2010)

I've used the pine pellets (luckily no matter what kind of litter I used my cat didn't care so I got to experiment), but the tracking and pine dust was so ridiculous I could never bring myself to buy it again. I do like the pellets though, they are easy to use. I ended up finding wheat grass pellet litter (brand I use is Cat Country), and it absorbs odor well, doesn't really dust up, and is easy to scoop. 

I've used this litter for over a year, but recently my cat has converted to an outside cat and won't use the litter box anymore (I can't blame him, who would want to use a little box when they could use the great open outdoors?), so now i have about 35lbs of this litter sitting in my closet. Maybe when the winter storms start he'll be more apt to use the littler box... or maybe he'll brave the storms!


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## Ducman69 (Aug 28, 2010)

thenakedorchid said:


> Going to try Swheat Scoop to see if it tracks less.


Swheat Scoop sticks to their paws too.

Luckily though, since its big crumbles of the stuff, it does fall off pretty quick, but expect to get some outside of the litter box almost every time. 

This is what mine looks like after a week:









LOTS tracked out, but luckily you can see that by the time they get to the cat door, its all fallen off. *whew*


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Miu won't co-operate with fine pine litter. She'll show her disapproval by taking a dump outside the box.....and she's actually gotten annoyed with it enough to take one of those dumps in front of my very eyes! Call that a strong message..!


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## Bert-Stare (Oct 24, 2010)

Alpaca said:


> Miu won't co-operate with fine pine litter. She'll show her disapproval by taking a dump outside the box.....and she's actually gotten annoyed with it enough to take one of those dumps in front of my very eyes! Call that a strong message..!


One time while I was changing the litter, one of my cats had to go poo. When I got back inside she had scooped the stray littler into a little mound on the floor and pooped on top of it... she was sitting next to it with her chin on the ground looking up at me with apologetic eyes.... "did I do good?" was the expression. one of the cutest things I've ever seen.


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## thenakedorchid (Sep 15, 2010)

^Awww! Good neko!


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## glassbird (Jun 19, 2009)

Interesting thread...we have 7 cats, so litter is a big subject for me. We have been using various brands of clumping clay, and I have to say that I hate all of them. Heavy, dusty, cold, miserable to scoop. Blech. I have converted two of our litterboxes (6 total) to pine, and I am MUCH happier about them! I started out with Feline Pine clumping, and that was bettter than clay clumping...once I learned to scoop and shake gently, since the clumps break easier than clay clumps. Smelled better, and was shockingly easy to lift and dump out the contents. The bottom of the pan was dry! Nothing stuck to it! And it can go into our compost pile! (The compost is used in perennial beds, not veggies.) Then I tried the non-clumping. Same benefits...lighter, smells good. And much less tracking than the clumping version.I am amazed by how the volume in the pan increases from day to day, yet it is mostly dry (I give each box a good stir at least once a day to distribute the moisture). I asked my roommate if she was adding pellets to the boxes, because the initial one inch layer was turning into 5-6 inches deep in a week! But no, it's the urine expanding the pellets.My next step is to buy one of those Feline Pine litterboxes. My research on this subject has produced firm opinions that the FP litterbox is the only way to go with this product. The holes are sized just right. I have looked at a few sifting litterboxes at local stores that are just generic sifting boxes, and I can see where they would not work...holes too big or too small. I am going to use the FP box only as a sifting device...to separate the unused pellets from the sawdust. That should make the litter even more economical. By the way, the only place that I have found that sells the boxes is felinepinelitterbox.com (20 bucks plus shipping)


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

@glassbird: I totally wish I could convert Miu to pine since it's so much lighter. I do not relish carrying around 50lb boxes of cat litter as I'm a small person. I think I put out my back once.


@Bert-Stare: Oh my god, that is very very cute! I would be laughing too hard to clean up!


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I tries Yesterday's News. My cats didn't like the pellets, and I didn't like the wet newspaper smell and didn't really think it controlled odors very well. I tried the Pine pellets and the Swheat Scoop, and one of my cats started pooping outside the box. So I'm back with clumping clay litter with added Bicarbonate of Soda. It controls the odor well, and a fluffy bath mat takes off most of the litter from their paws. I scoop 2x/day. And my cat who was pooping outside is pooping back in the box again. Gotta go with what works!


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