Automatic Litterbox Central

Hi,

I'm the proud papa of two newer (4 months) kittens from the local shelter. Although they are wonderful, they do happen to be little stink factories.

I'd used Fresh Step clay litter with my last (solitary) cat, which worked fine. With two kittens, however, the Fresh Step just doesn't seem to be cutting it.

I've never used clumping litter (I'm old-fashioned, I guess.) Is it any better at odor control than conventional clay litter, or has it become popular just because it's more convenient?

Thanks,
Robert

I've never used regular clay litter, but I wanted to point you in the direction of the corn litter called The World's Best Cat Litter. It might be something for the kittens, since you don't want them to get clay stomach from the clumping clay litter. (That is when/if they ingest the clay litter, they won't pass it and it will stay in their stomachs.)

We normally use the clumping clay, but are trying to change the cats over to the corn. We feel it is less dusty, hides odors better, takes up less space in our Litter Robot drawer, and, if you don't have an LR, it can be flushed. We got our first sample from a cat show and their claims are pretty much accurate.

The Litter Robot and the Omega Paws litter box both require some form of clumping litter, either corn or clay. You might want to check out those products, too. The Omega is basically a non-automated LR. Our testers are pretty satisfied so far and we're pretty satisfied with the LR.

I hope that helps. Good luck with the baby-cats. Post a link to some pics of the kittens if you want. I'm sure they're adorable.

cas

Thanks cas. I've heard of World's Best and other alternative litters. My kids were on the Yesterday's News recycled newpaper litter after their surgeries, but it didn't seem particularly good at odor control.

I'm looking at giving the Omega Paws box a try, so I'll probably experiment with different clumping litters, and possibly give the World's Best a try. (Recommendations for any particular brands?) In an ideal world I'd have a Litterfree or Litter Robot, but they're a bit pricey for my budget right now.

For what it's worth, I live in California, and there seems to be some unexpected side effects from people flushing their litter -- the local sea otter population has been devistated by a toxoplasmosis outbreak, and the source seems to be cat litter. It might help to inform your readers about this problem and caution against flushing litter.

http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archiv ... otter.html

Thanks! I'll try posting some pictures once I get them developed.

The brand is, believe it or not, "The World's Best Cat Litter." We refer to it often as the WBCL - it's a sort of embarrassing thing to write b/c it sounds like such marketing-speak.

We've purchased it through a site called stuffweuse.com - they have good pricing. But, for a trial you might want to pop in some place local - do you have a Whole Foods?

The Omega works best if you roll it every day. Also, there are two sizes - small and large. I don't know what your vet has predicted for the final size of your little cuties, but you might want to think about that when making a decision. The large isn't available widely, so you might have to order that.

Best of luck and I look forward to seeing the kittens.

i've never used any of the two but you could use ordinary soaps
toner cartridge
busby seo challenge

Plain clay litter is horrible for odor control and tends to be very dusty. I highly recommend World's best Cat Litter for kittens, if they are older kittens the cheaper clumping clay is fine - I like Dr. Elsey's PRecious Cat ULtra or Scoop Away Unscented (still has a light scent but not as bad as some). Stay away from scented litter as they offend kitty noses and may cause litterbox avoidance problems.

If your kittens' feces smell terrible, you should also examine their diet and make sure they don't have intestinal parasites. A stool sample can be examined by the vet for parasites. To reduce stool odor always feed a high quality canned meat diet. Cats can't digest plant matter so it ends up in their stool. A high quality diet is more digestible and results in less stool output. It may cost more but the cats will be able to eat less of it and in the long run they will be much healthier.

Dry cat food not only causes stinky large stools, it leads to obestiy, diabetes and kidney disease because cats can't turn starch into energy - instead it is coverted into fat. They also cannot regulate their blood sugar well when fed carbohydrates since they lack one of the metabolic pathways to metabolize carbohydrates, leading to diabetes and obesity.

A raw meat diet is actually the healthiest but one step at a time

Here are some helpful websites with regards to choosing the best food for your kittens:

http://catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm

Nature's Variety raw frozen or Instinct grain-free canned foods are some of the best:

http://www.naturesvariety.com

Good luck with your new kittens!!