# Transitioning to Wood Pellet Litter



## nicolee (Feb 1, 2011)

I'm looking for tips on transitioning from Tidy Cats scoopable litter to Wood Pellets. My plan is to mix the two the next time the boxes get changed so that the cats get used to the feel of the pellets.

Is a sifting box necessary? I have 3 cats and two gigantic rubbermaid totes that I use for litterboxes. If it is necessary, how would I go about making them into sifting boxes? I don't want to downsize my boxes, as these are deep and seem to minimize tracking.

I thank you in advance for any advice you can give me. I'm looking to start the transition this upcoming weekend.


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## 3gatos (Nov 28, 2012)

I just made the transition to wood pellets and a sifting box is not necessary. I just scoop and flush the poop and change completely weekly. I love it! It took a while for my older male to get used to the feel of the wood pellets, but all use it well now


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## cinderflower (Apr 22, 2012)

i did it in april or may from tidy cat as well.

i have 3 cats, 2 boxes, so i left one with the regular litter and started out with about 25:75 (lower amount of wood pellets) with a little slightly soiled litter on top of it. then every time i removed any waste, i added pine pellets until that's all it was. the cats had no problem with it so i started on the second one and it all went smoothly. it took maybe 10 days or so.

like 3gatos said, you don't need a special box. if you reverse scoop every few days, you won't get tracking. if you don't do that, yes, it will get quite messy with sawdust tracked everywhere.

i have not done this because i don't have a drill, but if you have about 1" to 2" clearance on the boxes stacked together (as in nesting) then you mark carefully placed holes (measure the pellets so the whole things don't fall through) and then you'll just lift off the top one and empty the bottom. you might want to get another same size box to rest the top one in while you do this, i don't know how fast you are. :jump you'll still have to remove feces as soon as you are able, but you can flush them which makes it easier. 

i love it. no pee smell, and my cats seem to like it quite a bit too. that's kind of like liking toilet paper but you know what i mean.


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## nicolee (Feb 1, 2011)

Thank you guys for all your help. I just got laid off and was trying to find a way to cut back on expenses and I figured this would help a lot. I will keep you posted on how it goes.


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## Merlin_Guinevere (Sep 2, 2012)

When I adopted my kitties at age 6 months, they had already been using pellets at their foster mother's house. I originally bought rocks for them, and she said, "I don't think they are going to use that!" She was right!....Guinny thought it was a bed! lol Anyway, the next day I went out at bought the pellets, and I will never switch back to rocks. Since I started out with kitties that had to transition ME to pellets, I don't have any advice on that, but I do not have a sifting box (I used a sifting box once with the rocks, it smeared everywhere, and I threw that compartment into the garbage). The scooper I use has sifting slots, for good pellets. Then I just flush the poo or the clumped stuff. It's so simple once your kitties get used to it!


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## snowy (Aug 23, 2012)

Ummm...personally I like the sifting box very much cos it certainly saves lots of money as I only throw away the sawdust in the bottom tray and continue to use the good ones on the top tray. I just need to top up with new litter once a week. Depending on your hygiene expectation, I throw everything out twice a month, occasionally when I'm lazy, I throw out only once a month. One 20lb or was it 19lb bag lasted me 7months for 1 cat, that works out to less than S$3pm. Even if I factor in the cost of the sifter box, that would only cost me S$11.20pm (over 7mths), afterwhich its S$3pm for as long as the litter box last. 

I have used paper pellet before and that worked out to be more than S$20pm, I would rather spend that money on better quality food than on a litter. Not that litter isn't important, but if a good wood pellet which works so well and cost much lesser, why not.


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## Pursestan (Dec 31, 2012)

What brand of non-clumping litter are you all using? The breeder that I'm getting my new cat from uses Feline Pine cat litter. I looked it up and it seems to have mixed reviews (i.e. the new formula is different from the old formula).

Thanks.


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## snowy (Aug 23, 2012)

I am using Pee Wee, its wood pellet. PeeWee | How peewee works


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## grrawritsjordi (Dec 29, 2012)

I actually switched from FelinePine to Tidy Cats.

My kits used pine at the Adoption agency, so I decided to continue to use it, but I quickly decided to switch. The wood pellets do aboslutely nothing to hide the smell, plus it took me 30 mins to clean one box. I am sure the sifter would have been handy but I would get so annoyed I would just dump most of the litter every day and ended up spending too much money. My cats seem to like the clumping litter more than the pine as they can bury their waste.

I would suggest getting some sort of sifter as it takes FOREVER to sift it with a scooper.

To transition them, I would suggest putting in a little bit of the pine pellets and then add more pellets and less clay every time. I did the opposite when switching them to clumping litter and they did just fine.


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