Straw for cat litter?

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Stormy Peak
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Straw for cat litter?

Post by Stormy Peak »

So, I'm 3 days shy from getting my disability check....and need cat litter. Don't have the money to buy any. However, I do have a big bag of chopped straw (approx. 25 to 30 pounds) that i bought a few months ago, to use as bedding in a feral cat shelter I built. That bag was the smallest one I could find, and I think there's enough straw in it to make beds in probably 30 of those shelters.

I'm thinking of putting some in the litter box, at least until I can get some cat litter. Not sure how it will work, or if the cats will use it. But it has to be better than nothing. Back when I was a kid in the mid 60's and into the early 1970's a lot of people i knew, who had indoor cats, use to shred newspapers for litter....or even get a shovelful of dirt and put it in a cardboard box. Buying litter wasn't really all that common, at least around here. I don't have any newspaper...and the ground is froze... so I'm going for what I have.

Anyone else ever use straw? or have any other ideas to get me by for a few more days?

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Leigh Ann Anderson
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Leigh Ann Anderson »

I think that sand or dirt would be most cat's preference. But then, I have a cat who pees on towels, so he has 2 "litter" boxes with towels in them. He was declawed prior to coming to my house, so he has some residual pain in his poor little mutilated toes. Good luck
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T.D. Palm
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by T.D. Palm »

They sell litter made of grass seed; so if you have any grass seed around, use that
It's better to have it & not need it than to need it & not have it.
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Stormy Peak
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

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It makes me sad that in the USA, declawing cats is still legal in most areas. I think there might be a state or two that does, and a few cities. I know in the UK and in a handful of other countries, it's been made illegal.

Also, I think even the term declawing is a deceptive term...as it's an amputation, and the cats end up having to walk on the amputated edges of bones where it use to be a 'knuckle' in that spot. It's kind of you to set up the litter box with towels, I doubt most people would go through that kind of effort and clean up involved.

My cat, Thump, had to have her right back leg removed when she was about 5 or 6 months old. She was a stray, and was hit by a car and not rescued by anyone for almost 2 weeks. There was no way to save her leg, and the vet didn't even have to save her life, but she did, and amputated the mangled leg, and kept her at the clinic for another 3 or 4 months, until I ended up with her.

I've learned that with Thump, I have to clean the litter box every day and sometimes 2 times a day.
When Song was my only cat, I could, when my back was hurting a lot, go one day and not clean the litter box.
But now with Thump, it's two cats, so no skipping a day, no matter the pain it causes, and also because Thump finds it hard to balance on just her one back leg. If there's a clump in her way...she will poop on the vinyl flooring outside of the box.

I'm not sure though that I want to use any towels for a 3 day situation... am afraid the cats might think that any towel is 'good to go (on)'

Also, I didn't know they made cat litter out of grass seed. I Googled straw for cat litter, and found out they make straw pellets for cat litter too. But, I don't have any grass seed either. I do have about 1/2 a gallon of sand...but I need it to sprinkle on the ice at the bottom of my porch step where ice melting off the roof refreezes.

I'm going to just try to add a little of the straw into what's left of the litter..to see how the cats react to it...and if they seem ok with it...I'll put more in there, then just dump it all into a garbage sack and put in fresh straw next time out. If it doesn't work... Maybe they will just use the box anyway, and I'll have to use toilet paper to pick up and wipe down the messes as they happen.

I can't remember the last time I ran out of cat litter and didn't have the means to buy more. The price on everything has gone up so much, I got dinged at the grocery store a bit more than I planned on last week. :P

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The Steward
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by The Steward »

When we were poor early on (the rescue), we used this. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... _vc=-10005

It was $4 a bag at the time, but $8 isn't that bad either. Cats LOVE it, and it takes 0 effort or strength to clean it out. It just dissolves and then dumps seamlessly. The only problem we had was ONE of the 40 cats was allergic, and so we had to switch back to the sand, but 40 pounds for $8 isn't too bad!
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Gigi Gofaster
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Gigi Gofaster »

The Steward wrote: 1 year ago When we were poor early on (the rescue), we used this. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... _vc=-10005

It was $4 a bag at the time, but $8 isn't that bad either. Cats LOVE it, and it takes 0 effort or strength to clean it out. It just dissolves and then dumps seamlessly. The only problem we had was ONE of the 40 cats was allergic, and so we had to switch back to the sand, but 40 pounds for $8 isn't too bad!
This stuff works really well. We won a pallet of it in a raffle and it was a hassle to use in the horse stalls so I just took it home and used it in the cat boxes. If you want it fluffy it's easiest to cut the bag and wet it with a hose and wait until it fluffs up; but our cats were fine with the pellets.

You might ask your feed supply if they have any ripped bags you can have for reduced price (or even free). If they can't sell them because the bag gets ripped - which happens a lot - they usually just want them gone.
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Stormy Peak
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Stormy Peak »

Thanks for the information on the pellets. I will have to look into that. We don't have a Tractorsupply place here, but we do have 3 'farm and ranch' supply places....yeah...lol...in a town of under 4,000. But if they don't have something similar, I have an uncle and his wife who go to Montana (no sales tax there...Idaho ha 6%) about once a month and get supplies for their horses as a Tractor Supply store. I know they will pick up some for me.

The straw, so far, hasn't been rejected by either cat. No messes outside the litter box, and the straw has been moved about in the litter box. I put most of it in one corner, and it's been scratched out to the middle of the box. It doesn't trap the smell as well as clumping litter, so I sprinkled about 1/2 a cup of baking soda into it, I hope that will help.

Last year I was getting 20 pounds of clumping litter for about $8 -- it's now around $14. (Arm & Hammer and Fresh Step)
Dry cat food...3 pound bag, went from under $4 a bag to a bit over $8 dollars...Friskies, Meow Mix and Purina brands.

I'm going to look into online places like Chewies, I think...seems they offer better prices than my local stores are doing. Plus, in the past 2 months, it's been impossible at times to even get 3 pound bags of dry cat food, or even the better quality cat litter.

I had to buy some PAWs brand cat food at one point, because the shelves were empty of everything in 3 of the larger stores here. My cat's didn't take to it. I finally a week later, bought some Friskies, and they ate that, and I ended up giving AU a small handful of cat food in with his dry kibble, just to use up that cat food.

Stormy
Last edited by Stormy Peak 1 year ago, edited 1 time in total.
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Kelly Haggerty
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Kelly Haggerty »

I have a cat with bad allergies so I have to cook his food for him. You can use basically any meat, pork shoulder is pretty inexpensive, and add this https://www.bloomproductsllc.com/produc ... m-vm-9003/. They only need about 1/2 tsp of the supplement each day, so the 1lb size lasts me for about 4 months. It's cheaper for me to do that than to buy cat food.
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Stormy Peak
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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Stormy Peak »

Update on kitty litter...

First thing I did after reading in this thread about the pellets for horse stalls, was look in my town for some. Nope, none here, the closest I could find any was in Missoula Montana, and shipping on 40 pounds of pellets...well...buying the clumping litter would be cheaper. Plus, I was kind of wondering how to soften the pellets, as a poster here mentioned they would open a bag, wet it with a hose, and let the pellets soften up. I don't really have the means to do this...hard for me to move a 40 pound bag out to where I can do that with a hose, then get it back inside.

However, I found this clip on YouTube, and it suggests using wood stove pellets if I can't find the livestock stuff. I can get a 40 pound bag of pure pine pellets for about $8.00. The Little Giant pans are probably the way I'll go as they have a built in dead space between the pans, where as that pre-made system doesn't... with my back, I don't want to be doing anymore lifting and shifting than I have too, as she was showing with that pre-made unit. Although, I suppose I could super glue some kind of blocks onto the pans rims to create a space. I just need to see about availability of the pans and their cost for this area.

[YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhgynG9 ... L&index=25 }

Her next suggestion is what I found interesting though. She puts them in a shifter litter box...and when the cats urinate on the pellets, they dissolve and the powdered pellets drop through the holes of the top part of the box, into the bottom part. So then all you have to do is clean solids, and 2 or 3 times a week, just lift the top part off, and empty the powdered damp stuff out of the bottom. A poster in the 'peanut gallery' said they use this method, but also just put a liner in the bottom so all they have to do is lift the damp powdered stuff out, no need to wipe down the bottom pan each time.

I think I will give this a try, since I can get 1oo% wood pellets (no additives) at the local ranch supply store here. Using a shifter pan system would help me, given my bad back.

Also, I have some deep holes in my lawn, that my old dog, Jaya, had dug. I could probably use the powdered stuff to fill up. I never used the clay clumps, because they were clumps, and I didn't know how the clay would mess with the water draining down into the lawn in those big holes. But I think I could mix some dirt and the 'sawdust' together, that eventually, the urine would leach out of the area, where the clay might 'hold' onto it. Plus grass might grow there again, where with the clays...maybe not. These holes are huge...Jaya dug them, then would lay down in them...so they are about 2 feet deep, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet long. Big enough to tip the riding lawn mower over.

Anyway, this had been put on a backburner for some time now, but I'm still struggling financially and want to find a way to reduce the budget. A 20 pound box of clumping litter...is running about $12 to $13 now...and I probably go through 60 pounds a month. : (

There is some litter that is $9.00 a 20 pound box, but for some reason...it doesn't last as long and even if I pour baking soda in with it, it doesn't help much with the smell.

I hope too, that the more or less constant feel of the pellets will keep Thump inside the litter box to do her job. She only has 3 legs, and if she feels a clump or two under her feet, it makes her jump out and poo on the vinyl next to the box. I try to keep the litter box clumps cleaned out, so she doesn't feel unsteady on her 3 legs, when inside of the box, but I can't watch the box all day long. I do clean it every morning, but sometimes even that's not enough for Thump.

Anyway, I thought I would put this up again, in case there are any other cat owners, tired of the high cost of clay litter.

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Re: Straw for cat litter?

Post by Stormy Peak »

Well, I managed to buy the 5 gallon plastic pans, three of them. I couldn't find any in my town, so had to order them in, they arrived yesterday.

Au enjoyed the several lengths of brown paper packing material...shredded the heck out it, which brought him great joy and me, walking around the living room later for several minutes with my 'grabber' stick picking it up that way so I didn't have to bend over to much and aggravate my back.

And the cats have been having fun playing in the box the pans came in...each take turns just sitting it in and peeking out over the edge, and sometimes sleeping in it.

I bought the 40 pound bag of pellets yesterday...the folks at the farm and ranch store put it in my car, and my sister, got it out of my car this morning. So, later today, I'm going to open the bag and see how big the pellets are, then get my drill out and drill holes into the bottom of one of the pans, that are smaller than the pellet diameters, so that powdered wood pellet stuff will fall through the holes into the bottom pan.

The 3rd pan is for when I need to empty powder out of the bottom pan... I can just lift the top pan with the holes from one pan to the other...the go empty the pan with the powder in it, and put it aside until the next time I empty powdered wood pellet from the set up.

I think too, I am going to get a scoop full of pellets and add some of that into the last amounts of clumping litter...so the cats will get use to the feel and smell of it for 3 or 4 days...each time I get rid of clumps from that litter box, I'll sprinkle in a tiny bit more of the pellets...then once I can't really clean any more clumps out... I'll toss that litter box and put into place the new set up.

My main goal is to save money, given the price of wood pellets and the boxed litter.
My second goal, is I can toss the wood dust into holes I have in my yard and use it to fill said holes. My beloved Jays dug HUGE holes in about 5 spots in my yard... I can't even bridge 3 of them with my riding lawn mower, they are that wide and DEEP!
The clumping litter, would have made a mess of it...especially if it rained...and would never really break down into the soil like the powdered wood will do. Any urine in the wood powder, probably won't be enough to hurt anything, especially since, once I get the holes almost filled, I plan on putting about an inch or two of real dirt over it, and toss some grass seed into that.

My sister, also hauls out my garbage for me, as I can't get garbage trucks down my alley, they want me to drag a container almost 200 feet to the road...and I can't do it. The alley is dirt, with a hump, the can would be lop sided going down the alley, and would tip. And too, my drive and the alley are dirt...and when it rains it's a sloppy mess and in the winter, there's sometime snow that goes half way up to my knees and then that snow compacts and can become a sheet of solid ice that can get Super slick when the sun hits it in early spring.

So, my sister won't have to haul out heavy sacks of nasty urine smelling litter now. I'll have a pail with a lid and a garbage bag lining for the solids...which I will put into a plastic sack, tie off, then put into that pail, so that she will only have the more light weight litter remains to haul away.

I'm glad I learned about this system and I hope it works, that Song and Thump will be ok with it. Especially Thump! She only has 3 legs and if she hops into the litter box and there is even 1 clump in there, and she feels out of balance from it, or even litter that is too deep...she will hop out and poop on the vinyl floor next to the box. I hope she will like the no lump pellets that won't have to be so deep as the 'sandy' stuff. And I won't have to be cleaning/disinfecting my utility room floor once every two weeks or so when Thump does that.

The trials and tribulations of a cat owner! lol

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