Combo time

Bunky and I have always hated the clay dust and clay particles that get in to everything and smear everywhere when wet.  Unfortunately, previous forays (when Sydney was very young) resulted in “oatmeal-esque” litter messes.  Fortunately, the last two weeks with Natural Scoop litter have been very encouraging.

The first thing is that the natural litter is fluffy and light.  This lets me fill my giant litter box with just two bags instead of 34 lb. worth of clay litter.  The cost savings isn’t huge, especially since I mix in a few crystals to help with the odor control, but the weight is much less, which makes it much easier to scoop the litter and carry the bags up.

We also switched up our litter mat situation.  We got a food tray for really cheap to put just outside the door, since occasionally Sydney either kicks litter out or pees towards the door and some urine drips down and outside of the box.  Then further away in the more narrow hallway to exit the laundry room where the litter box stays, the entire way is one of those more rubber carpet-esque litter mats so that the cats cannot avoid the litter mat the way they used to when the mat was immediately outside the door.

This means they can’t kick tons of litter on the difficult-to-clean mat or pee on the difficult-to-clean mat.  The natural litter also tends not to fly as far and doesn’t really feel like anything when you step on a piece (unlike the clay which feels like sand and sticks in a mess on your foot.  In terms of performance, it clumps moderately well, and with the crystals I can’t smell any urine or poop (or clay).  With the new litter I think pee tends to go straight through it and then clump at the bottom, whereas with clay it would get absorbed more quickly and clump at the top.  This isn’t a problem, though.  So far so good, and I’m very happy with this new product!

Related posts:

1. How To Make Your Own Litter Box For Your Big Cat
2. Maybe Third Time’s the Charm
3. Scaredy Cat