Community Chat

[lvenjay]

Goodstuff - It sounds like you have a great system! I find the clay litter heavy for me to lift and change in litter pans. With several litter pans and a multicat household, it adds up. But I think each person has to find what works for them and their cat(s).

[Tinkrbl44]

On 11/12/2014 lvenjay said:

If you can find these pine wood pellets for wood stoves, it is like the original feline pine, in my opinion.

I am glad it is not just me that noticed. I am sure whatever they have done, it is to make more money.

Do the wood pellets serve any other purpose? I'd never heard of them.

[lvenjay]

My understanding is that the wood pellets were originally designed to be used in wood stoves, either as starter or as fuel.

I do not know if the feline pine creators found that this worked well as litter and went from there, but I do suspect the wood pellets were first used as fuel, not litter.

These pellets look just like the pellets in feline cat litter. The salesperson told me people also use the wood pellets for bedding for animals, especially small animals like guinea pigs, hamsters, ferrets. Because of this, they locate a stack of the bags of pellets by the pet aisle, in addition to the fuel aisle.

The pellets are made of compressed wood (pine) shavings or leftovers from other wood projects. So it is basically a way to recycle otherwise not used wood. That is what first attracted me to the pine litter, because it seemed to be environmentally safe.

When I first bought the feline pine and the store brand pine litter, it smelled like pine and worked quite well. About a year ago, the products were revised. Since then, the smell is almost chemical in nature, the litter dissolves faster requiring more frequent purchases and there is now sometimes a layer of dark, wet, kind of gooey stuff at the bottom of the pan when I empty it. This didn't happen before. I suspect they have now included an additive which wasn't in the litter before.

The pine pellets I bought at the feed store appear to be similar to the original pine without any additives, in addition to be quite a bit less expensive.

[Southernfriedchick]

Ivenjay,

I'm calling tomorrow to see if it's in stock. If it is, off I go.

Besides being a lot lighter in weight, the thing that impressed me was no stinkin' litter, after 3-4 days.

Thank you again. By the by, My DH and I did rescue about 10 years ago and due to health issues in the family, we had to stop, but the 'hood cats that come by know where food and water is. I also carry bags of food and jugs of water in the trunk of the car...just in case.