# feline pine or wood pellet litterboxes



## cinderflower

hopefully this is the right forum, it's such a big board, but i saw a couple of other litterbox threads here so . . . 

i have been using tidycat clumping litter for a few years now but i really dislike the dust plus several other things about it, (TRACKING--one cat demands that i have a litter box in my bedroom or he will pee in my bed, nowhere else but there and the box, so i had to give in to that condition . even thought that means kitty litter ends up IN MY BED, that's still better than pee lol) so i've decided to try to use wood pellet litter.

there's a place here called newgreenearth wood stoves and the owner turned me on to a 40# bag to try (how could i say no to free haha) and it's working well, except that i have two booda domes and not the felinepine litter boxes. i would have no problem buying the box except that they aren't covered and i've always used covered litter boxes and i don't want to change.

i was looking at other "sifting boxes" and one person will say it's great for the pellet sawdust and the next person will say it's a complete disaster, so i'm leery of buying one sight unseen online. i bought a clever cat top entry to cut down on tracking and it's sitting in the corner here. i never had to change the litter once. the kitten used it for a short time but only for pee, the middle one got in it a few times but must have decided he didn't like it, and my 15-year-old has arthritis and it would have been tantamount to impossible for her to get out of it, although she did like it when i put her on top so she could look down inside it lol. i cleaned it with bleach and air-dryed it so someone else could probably use it second-hand, right? (i always use liners anyway and i bet it was used maybe 10 times, tops). at the end, the kitten just abandoned it because i guess he figured if no one else wanted to use it, he didn't either. 

so does anyone here use feline pine/wood pellet litter and what do you use for a litter box? some people say tidy cat breeze is a workable option, others don't like it, but i don't think it has a hood/cover on it either, and that's something i really want. i'm trying to figure out if i could make some kind of sifting device with an elasticized border to slip on the ones i have, but i'm not sure what i would make it out of.

i had a couple of extra scoopers so i just took box cutters and cut every other bar out of them and the scoopers work great now.

this is a pretty busy board so i'm hoping a lot of you have experience with this special needs litter


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## yingying

I use wood pellets as kitty litter (the 40lb bag I got from gardening department). I never tried a sifting box. Love to, but all sifting boxes available on market are too small and low sided. I need a large one with high sides because my Meatball likes to do her business in corner and Metoo needs lots of space to turn around and bury her stuff. So I just got a regular large litter box. Not the sifting kind.

So far (for a year and half) it has been working great. When cat pees, the liquid runs to the bottom part of the box. So on top there are always whole pellet pieces and saw dust are at the bottom. But sometimes when my Metoo burries her poop, she will dig up quite a bit dust. I just sprinkle some new pellets to cover it. Every week I sift the box with a huge litter scoop, saving whole pieces and throw all dust. Then I wash the box. Every month I throw everything in the box and put new pellets. 

I really have no complain. The maintainance is minimal. I only need to scoop the poop out and flush them for once a day. There is no smell at all. Because my cats don't really touch the dust, there is no tracking. With the high sided box, they cannot kick pellets out either. And for two cats a bag last for 2 month. So the cost is less than $3 a month. My cats are very happy too


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## cinderflower

thank you so much for replying!  i wonder if there are really so few people who use wood/pine litter? i guess maybe so. personally, i tried feline pine years ago but it seemed more expensive at the time. i guess it was, i was just using plain tidy cat clay which comes out to about .26 a lb. i switched to clumping a few years ago which is about twice as expensive but more convenient. i didn't factor in the cost of zeolite crystals i was using with the non-clumping litter, either.

the way they market feline pine, it costs about .65 a lb in the grocery store but wood stove pellets (they are exactly the same product. exactly. little pellets made from scrap pine--no additives. fp costs more because of advertising ) are a whopping .12-.13 a lb. i haven't used it long enough to say for certain that you need less, but i've heard you do. so at 4.97 for a 40# bag, i think it's hard to go wrong. plus if you meet a nice store owner who will hook you up with a bag to try, you're not losing anything.

the way you are using it is about exactly the way i am right now. even with the large booda domes, someone (i suspect one of the males--i can't be sure because i don't watch them go) is managing to dribble between the cover and liner. it pools a little on the outside of the liner but doesn't go all the way to the floor. 

i don't think people believe there is no odor. of course if you just left it there certainly would be, but completely changing it once a week or however often we do eliminates the sawdust. i've _heard_ that if you have a sifting box, you don't need to change the pellets because once they're urinated on, they just disintegrate back into sawdust. if that falls through to the bottom, the other pellets would be fine. i don't think i'd never change them though, even if you scoop the poop daily (or twice daily) you'd still get little fragments of it left behind. plus, cat urine in strong enough that i think old pellets would probably start to smell after awhile. pine is a good deodorizer, but not THAT good lol.

plus for people who have yards, the sawdust (minus poo) is compostable/mulch. because of the cat urine, i'm not sure i would put it on a garden where fruit or vegetables grow, but for just trees and shrubs, i think it would work well.

people are probably also suspicious because of the low cost, but this is one of those things that really isn't too good to be true. of course it *does* require extra effort in the beginning unless you have small kittens. you can't just throw the litter in a pan and expect them to use it. you have to start out mixing some with their old litter and phase out the old stuff in a week to two weeks, depending on how fast the cats adjust. i know some people who are really unhappy with it because they didn't give their cats a choice and they went outside the box, and once they do that, you know the drill. so if someone wants to change, you have to keep a back-up box with the old litter so the cat(s) won't be cornered.

i noticed you live in toronto. i love it there. i went to caribana in 2010, and i was going to come back this year but i'm going to vegas for my birthday instead  it's a beautiful city and i haven't been there to just sightsee for a long time, so that's what i'll do next time. caribana is fun, but if you don't do masquerade, there's not a lot of point in going again.


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## yingying

I got the idea of using wood pellets from my Metoo's breeder. I think on this forum we have an Ocicat breeder who also use wood pellets. If you have many cats, the price advantage is so obvious. I have also converted almost all my cat-owner friends (including Meatball's breeder) to wood pellets user. So far I didn't hear anyone switch back to what they used before.

Many ppl don't use wood pellet because they never heard of the idea. For ppl who do, many think non-clumping litter are just bad and inconvenient. I was in the latter group -- always wanted clumping litter. But I decided to give wood pellets a try, since it's irresistably cheap  It turns out so good and the maintanance work is even less than using clumping litter. With clumping litter before, I need to scoop 2-3 times a day to remove the "urine ball", but now only once a day (so sometimes even 1 1/2 day) to flush the poop. Also you cannot flush clumping litter. Yes I know there are some litter marketed as "flushable", but I had 2 friends who actually got their toilet clogged by flushable litter. Also cat urine is toxic for beavers and some other marine animal, so I would feel guilty doing that 

You can throw away the entire box of litter every week, since it's so cheap. But I do sift the box to safe the whole pellets. Those are not touched by urine so they are clean. It's like 15 min extra work but reduce the pellet consumption by almost half  I do that not for saving extra buck though, just because here in Toronto wood pellet is seasonal. I can only get it at a gardening store during summer. So I buy the whole year's worth once. And these stuff are heavy! So I try to reduce the usage to buy less bags :lol:


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## yingying

> i noticed you live in toronto. i love it there. i went to caribana in 2010, and i was going to come back this year but i'm going to vegas for my birthday instead :smile: it's a beautiful city and i haven't been there to just sightsee for a long time, so that's what i'll do next time. caribana is fun, but if you don't do masquerade, there's not a lot of point in going again.


I lived in many places before and I consider Toronto to be one of the few cities that are excellent to live in. I have no complaint of Toronto aside from the cold winter and high tax :lol: But I don't think Toronto is a good choice for sightseeing. Not too much to see IMO. If you have a few days to spend in Canda, I think Quebec city is an excellent choice. Vancouver not too bad either


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## cinderflower

if people haven't heard of it, i want to spread the word.  it's so much better on so many levels, but i will admit that what sold me was price.  i'm just one of those people who buys the cheapest toilet paper (for myself haha) available because i don't like spending money on something i'm literally going to flush down the toilet. i feel the same way about cat litter, just didn't find away around it before now.

actually the biodegradable aspect is awesome because i always felt guilty about the huge amount going into landfills. not to mention that clay is strip-mined which is hard on the environment.

i've had the bad experience of clogging my toilet like an idiot because i flushed poop. it didn't happen right away, i thought if i only dumped the tootsie roll it would be okay, but little pieces of litter stick to that and after several months, it built up in the u-joint. so i was scolded by the plumber. after that i don't think i even would have trusted "flushable" litter.

now, as far as cat feces causing toxoplasmosis in sea otters and cat urine being toxic, i'm a little confused. surely sewage treatment works at some level on these things? i mean, hospitals flush everything, and even though biohazard waste is supposed to be separate, we both know what happens when hypodermic needles are washing up on the santa monica shore. i know that flushing cat waste is illegal in california for exactly this reason, but i would imagine some of their plumbing empties directly into the ocean. i don't know any of this for a fact, i'm just speculating. but there are cats who are toilet-trained as well, so i wonder about that. it's something i'll research before i stop bagging the poo and disposing of it in the dumpster. sort of an interesting topic. (sort of haha)

oh, i think toronto is beautiful. lakeshore drive, otherwise i know there isn't a lot but i like it there. i've been to montreal and toronto several times, never quebec city. i've been considering vancouver as well. it's quite a bit closer to denver. i considered moving to toronto but the winters are worse than denver. and it's a little more humid. considering how much snow the mountains get, people always think we have bad winters but not really.

i stayed at the sheraton downtown centre so i was only a few blocks from yonge street where all the restaurants are, but there was a sandwich place i ate lunch at all week because i liked it so much. i want to say it was "the lunch box" but i think that's a sushi place. it's vegeterian, and they just have sandwiches but instead of serving them with fries, they give you salad which i think is great. but i never got to eat any poutine, which i've heard doesn't exist in toronto anyway  (it does, but people in montreal will say, "oh that isn't REAL poutine.) it doesn't look like it's great for you, but i wanted to try some.


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## kty78

I know Equine Pine for horses also comes in big bags and is cheaper than Feline pine. I haven't tried it yet but I have been thinking about it. I also ned a bigger litter box. These two kitties came with a Petmate "large" litterbox.... I would like to see what they consider small. They share, so I think a bigger box is in order.


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## Valentine's Heart

I too use wood pellets. I've used it for years. I did try to go to regular litter, but I couldn't take the dust and tracking. I also sift once a week using a regular scooper and wash out the litter boxes. I started using it for the expense, but now I just think it is more sanitary. The boxes are easier to wash out and clean because the dust pellets don't stink to the box. Unfortuately, I go through 2 40lb bags a week since I have 7 cats. Sifting help conserves buying and lifting those heavy bags. I'm really surprised more people don't use them.


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## cinderflower

kty78: i think what is sold as horse bedding is the same thing. i read on one website (i can't even remember which, i've been to so many) that it is more crumbly or doesn't last as long as the wood stove pellets but DO IT haha. i think you'll be so happy. i know i was--happy to cut my cat litter cost from $70 to less than $5 a month. plus the added bonus, honestly, if you keep the box up normally, there is NO urine smell. i have a really sensitive sense of smell, and i always wanted to change the entire box about two days after i had completely changed it. i don't care how much deodorant or whatnot the mfr. puts in litter, even when you scoop twice a day, it starts to smell. but with the pine, there's just like an earthy scent, sort of like in the forest. i know the cats appreciate it too. cats don't like artificial perfume. now two of mine are playing in it hahaha--not all wild but the kitten and the grandma cat get in there and toss the pellets around. mr. ledbetter the bedwetter doesn't play in it, but he's using it, and he's the one i was _really_ worried about (see the wit's end cat wetting the bed post).

the booda boxes are really nice and big, they take over 14 lbs. of litter each, but they aren't sifting boxes and that's what i want. the ideal ones for pine litter have two bottom trays, one is a grate that separates the sawdust from the whole pellets, then instead of changing the whole thing, you just empty the bottom one into a trash bag. and it isn't heavy either, like wet clay litter. but until i can figure out how to rig them, i don't think i'll be buying the felinepinelitterbox.com one. i just don't like uncovered boxes.

*i do have a caveat for you if you decide to change: a lot of people don't do this, it turns out badly so they get frustrated and don't do it. when you make the switch, mix about a quarter of the pellets to the cat litter they're already using. you can do it when you change the box but i was told if i mixed it with semi-soiled litter, they would take to it better. if possible, have two litter boxes. keep one with your old litter for just in case, so the cat has a back-up. if (s)he doesn't like the pine, and there's no alternative, (s)he'll use the floor, or your bed . . . or the laundry basket, etc.*

*then instead of adding clay litter as you scoop, put in about a cup of pine pellets a day until that's all you're using. some cats adapt quickly, but it's probably best to stretch it out ten days or so. if you have a really old cat, it might not want to change litters, but one of my cats is truly a fuss budget about litter and he likes it.*

*you have to remove the poo as soon as you can, and the pine does nothing for that odor, but i just scoop poops a couple of times a day, unless somebody drops a neutron bomb, and trust me, you'll know it haha.*

valentine: seven cats! i can only imagine litterbox changing day. i whine and moan when i have to change mine (not really, the cats don't listen and no one else cares ). newgreenearth sells a TON (50 40 lb. sacks) for 198.00, which is about $45 off. but i don't have anywhere to store that much wood. i'm going to put up a note in the laundry because a lot of people here have cats, and i'll see if enough people want to make a co-op. we have storage spaces in the basement, but i only have room for about 3. if you buy a ton, they deliver it too.

to avoid lifting, i saved a few of the tidy cat clumping litter buckets with snap-on lids and i just distribute it immediately. two 27 lb. ones will hold about 40# of the wood stuff.

i got curious about the flushing cat poo stuff, and i found 
http://www.cat-urine.net/cat_litter.html and 
http://www.moderncat.net/2008/11/13/toilet-training-your-cat/

not that anyone wants to toilet train their cats--i did at one time when i had two bathrooms but at this juncture in my life, nah. basically it just says that sewage treatment doesn't kill the toxoplasma gondii parasite. then it sinks to the bottom of the ocean and is eaten by crabs. then sea otters eat the crabs (or whatever, it makes its way back up the food chain). so there's not really a law against it in california but they strongly warn people about doing this.

so flushing cat poo: maybe not a good idea. yes, the pine is biodegradable and it technically can be flushed, it just might be bad for marine life. but that's your business. i don't go around telling people to cut up their plastic can holders because dolphins get caught in them, i'm not going to tell people not to flush their cat's poo.  especially if you have seven cats and you actually make the jump to biodegradable pine. that in and of itself practically makes up for your entire community's use of clay . (okay, not entirely, but you must go through a boat load of litter.)


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## spotty cats

yingying said:


> I think on this forum we have an Ocicat breeder who also use wood pellets. If you have many cats, the price advantage is so obvious.


Yep that's me :lol: I've tried all kinds of litter, many breeders I knew were using wood pellets and once I tried them I'll never go back to other litters.
Plus it's completely safe for my kittens.

I do use the proper sifting boxes but also know people who's bought 2 large storage boxes and very carefully drilled holes in one and set them inside each other. 

Valentine - 2 40lb bags a week is a lot. I have 10 trays and a bag lasts around 2 weeks


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## littlesushi

i have always been curious about feline pine, but concerned about how sanitary it is, maybe because i have a hard time envisioning how it works. so the pellets that come into contact with urine turn into dust, does that mean the intact pellets are covered with dust eventually? also is it messy cleaning up pellets that might have had poop stuck on them?

sorry if i'm asking dumb questions..i would love to switch out of clumping clay litter, and didn't like my experiences with swheat schoop and world's best. 

thanks!


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## kty78

I'm thinking about trying it too. I'm not too happy with the Tidy Cats we're using, I bought what their previous owner was using but every time I walk by the litter box I can smell it and that's just a day or two after I change litter. I was going to try a clumping litter this time and forgot and bought the same old stuff. I also need to get a bigger litter box. I think that would help with it getting stinky so quick. Just not sure what kind I want to get.


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## cinderflower

littlesushi said:


> i have always been curious about feline pine, but concerned about how sanitary it is, maybe because i have a hard time envisioning how it works. so the pellets that come into contact with urine turn into dust, does that mean the intact pellets are covered with dust eventually? also is it messy cleaning up pellets that might have had poop stuck on them?
> 
> sorry if i'm asking dumb questions..i would love to switch out of clumping clay litter, and didn't like my experiences with swheat schoop and world's best.
> 
> thanks!


that's not dumb at all. ideally, it's better to use a sifting box (www.felinepinelitterbox.com ) which i suppose i'll have to buy because i haven't had any bright ideas on how to rig my booda boxes.

the sifting tray sits above the bottom collection tray a few inches (i'm supposing, i haven't actually seen one) and the pellets that absorb urine disintegrate back into sawdust and fall through the grid, leaving only the intact pellets above. the collection tray must then be emptied of sawdust, i'm imagining every two-three days, maybe more or less.

the pellets are large enough that they don't really clump around the poo, however, i find myself removing pellet-studded poos hahaha. but they don't disintegrate so they do nothing for the odor. you must remove the feces as soon as you can. i guess some cats are polite and leave them sitting on top for you to easily get--mine are actually not quite so polite and try to bury them, thus breaking them apart and mashing pellets into them (hahaha). whether or not they change this behavior later i have no way of telling, it would be nice if they did but if they don't, no biggie. i just go in and scoop, and i actually wear rubber/latex gloves to pick out the little hunks that are left behind. kind of gross, i know, but better than leaving them in there to smell. the whole point of the system is to have a nice clean kitty bathroom.

if you don't have a special litterbox (which i don't right now but i'm really leaning toward getting a couple) then you will have to scoop out the intact pellets (i just put them in a bucket thing i have), throw away the dust, then put the pellets back in the box and add a few. if you get the sifting box you don't have to do this.

however often you want to completely change all the pellets is up to you. i use liners, so i like to change those every 10-14 days, depending on if i can smell them. i still wash the boxes completely once a month or so because even if you use liners, you still get splashes and crumbs and stuff like that that will stink it up. also, you have to be fairly meticulous about removing the sawdust because if you don't, you'll end up with the cat tracking it and i'd think that would be even more unsanitary than just tracked litter/dust.

at 4.97 for 40 lbs., that comes out to about 12 1/2 cents a lb. even the cheapest non-clumping litter is over .25 a lb. and you really need to change that every day or it smells. the clumping i was using is about .50, if you buy feline pine in the grocery, you're going to spend .65 a lb. so i strongly suggest getting the wood stove pellets fuel because it's exactly the same--just way cheaper. look online for "wood stove pellets" and you should be able to find a hardware, house & garden, even livestock supply (i've heard it's sold to be used in horse bedding, but you can't count on me for that info). i'm in colorado so people using wood stoves is a lot more common since x-cell energy just keeps going up. people get tired of paying $400 a month just to heat their homes.

the only question left is whether you want to flush the bm's or discard in a poo bag. personally, i throw them in one of those doggy do bags people carry with them because i've read enough info on toxoplasmosis to be satisfied that it's a parasite that isn't killed by sewage treatment. therefore, if it ends up back in the ocean, it falls to the bottom, crabs eat it and it makes its way back up the food chain and is currently killing sea otters. they have been termed "the canaries" of the ocean, referring to the fact that they used canaries in mines to test for noxious fumes. sea otters dying would be an initial sign that something is going wrong with the ecosystem. i figure it's in bad enough shape that i don't want to add to it (another reason for the pine--clay ends up in landfills, pine can be mulched back into your lawn or garden).

but what you do is up to you, i'm not going to be tree-hugging obnoxious. people are adults. 

initially i think this may be a little more work but it works out to a routine that isn't worse than before. clay litter is heavy, this isn't, it's cheaper, it's biodegradable, there is no dust, so it's healthier for humans and cats both.

if you start out using it new, you have to start out by mixing some with the existing litter you have. just keep adding more pine until it's all that's in the box. try to keep a back-up litter box with what you've been using because some cats balk at this and if they have nowhere else, they'll go on the carpet or some other place and then you have a whole set of other problems. it should take you at least a week to change over, some cats take longer but i have a fussy cat (one urine-challenged and two who adapt to almost anything) and it only took me about a week. whatever works for you.


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## cinderflower

> also is it messy cleaning up pellets that might have had poop stuck on them?


i just toss them as collateral damage. i'd invest in a box of latex gloves so you can get the hunks that fall through.

these pellets are too big to fit through a regular scoop, so i took box cutters and cut out every other bar on a cheap scooper i have. that lets the pellets fall through but it also lets smaller hunks of poo go.

i'll just say that the non-litter tracking, hypoallergenic, cost efficiency, and NO SMELL (as long as you get the poop, there is no urine odor) benefits outweigh the small inconvenience of gloving it up once a day.


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## cinderflower

kty78 said:


> I'm thinking about trying it too. I'm not too happy with the Tidy Cats we're using, I bought what their previous owner was using but every time I walk by the litter box I can smell it and that's just a day or two after I change litter. I was going to try a clumping litter this time and forgot and bought the same old stuff. I also need to get a bigger litter box. I think that would help with it getting stinky so quick. Just not sure what kind I want to get.


years ago i used tidy cat non-clumping. you have to change it every day or it _will_ smell. i think that fact makes it much more expensive even though it looks cheaper. of course, i guess some people don't do that, but i can't stand cat urine smell and it's totally non-absorbent. i used to add zeolite crystals to it so i could go 2-3 days before i had to change it again. you used to be able to buy a milk carton of those things at petsmart, since they've started adding it already to some litters i don't know if you can or not. i was using tidy cat clumping for the last five years or so, but the tracking is horrible, it's in my bed, i have to vacuum every day, it's expensive, it's dusty, it's heavy, i've just gotten really sick of it.

some people prefer corn, like world's best, other people say that smells (wouldn't work for me), sWheatscoop i never tried, i was even on the verge of making my own cat litter but aside from the labor intensive aspect, supposedly it smells also. (can you tell i am neurotic about bad smells? hahahaha) i'm unhappy with the clumping even, because to me it smells after 2-3 days. my cat's are even so much happier with the pine, probably because it's not difficult to keep 99% odor free.

if you have more than three cats, i don't know. i would think it might be much more difficult to keep it poopless. you'd have at least one cat going in it 24 hours around the clock, but with three i can handle it. more than that, i think it might be a problem for me.

also, the silica/zeolite crystals are wicked expensive, and i just don't think it can possibly be healthy for the cat. i hate odor, but not at the expense of my pet's health.


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## kty78

I just have the 2 cats. I scoop the poop every time they poop. lol. I'm probably spoiling them to where they won't use it if there's poop in it but I can't stand anything stinky in my house either. The litter box is right outside the bathroom door which is next to the back door and in a little entry hall type thing between the bathroom and kitchen. So I pass by it a lot. If I smell poop, it gets scooped. I too, have to sweep up the litter that gets tracked all in that area. I have one of those little mats in front of the entry to the litter box but that doesn't do much. So this weekend I'll probably look around for a bigger box. Ours is the "Large" hooded litter box from Petmate. It's really small. I would say my almost 6 month old male cat is longer than the litter box. They're both sharing it at the moment. I'll have to measure to see how big of a box I can fit in that space. I might have to put a big one in the basement. I know I've heard that's not a good place but these cats LOVE going down in that dark musty area. My laundry is down there and we store stuff so it's not a totally neglected area.

I saw those Clever Cat top entry boxes at Feeders Supply. I thought about cutting a hole in the top of a rubbermaid tote.


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## cinderflower

check out the booda domes, well not if you're going to change to pine litter because that's what i have and i want a sifting one. they work okay but it would just be much easier for me with one that had a tray i could whip out and empty. but they're big. they're the biggest ones i've ever seen but that really doesn't mean much, it's not like i've seen every litter box made 

try something top entry to make sure your cats will use it. actually, since you have kittens, i'd say they would. the kitten is the only one who used mine and he ditched it because no one else was using it. it's just sitting here, you could have it but shipping from denver to kentucky would probably be more than i even paid for it. it's fantastic as far as no tracking. don't buy the special liners if you use them, you could just use extra large trash bags. that's what i used. i always put three on them anyway since they always rip through the first one, the second is to catch extra litter that falls through and the third is just to keep it relatively clean until i can wash it. i wouldn't use liners at all but i don't like trying to wash the gigantic litter boxes in my bathtub  so i like to just squirt a little dish soap in and swish it around and rinse it. it's still a good idea to wash them with liners but it's hardly any work. the ripped one i throw out when i change litter, the second one becomes the first and the third one lasts forever. i know that's a lot of plastic but i don't drink out of plastic bottles so i figure i'm breaking even.


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## littlesushi

cinderflower said:


> ...



thank you so much for the lengthy description! it helped me a ton  maybe i'll look into it.


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## kty78

Haha, I hear you on the shipping. Thanks for all the info, I still haven't decided what litter box I want to go with. I did see the Booda Domes at the pet food store the other day. I think these cats would use anything if I put it in the corner and put cat litter in it. And they love to jump and climb and get in things so I doubt they would have an issue with the top entry either. Also I looked at some plastic totes today because I liked the size, nice and big, but I started thinking what if they think the other plastic totes I have clothes and stuff in are litter boxes too. Of course their hooded litter box isn't shaped much different, it just has the entrance in the front.


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## kty78

I don't know if you've thought of this, but if you like the litterboxes you are currently using, why not buy the feline pine sifting box, and dump the pine litter from your current litter boxes into it, shake, dump the good litter back into your own litter boxes, and voila! Clean litter. That way you only have to buy one, and you can still use your covered boxes. That's what I'm thinking about doing. I have been experimenting with different litters, clumping, nonclumping, scented, unscented, and I don't like any of them. The cats use whatever, and I scoop all the time, I just don't like the pee smell. Time to try pine pellets. I think I will like it. I know for our guinea pig, pine shavings really neutralize urine odors. I tried other stuff before that, like care fresh bedding and fleece.... yuck. So this week I plan to start switching to pine pellet litter.


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## kty78

Also I read a ton of reviews on different sifting litter boxes and the general consensus was the one specifically designed for pine pellet litter works much better than others.


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