Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Not a joke! Considering that my cat is indoor and that I have no back or front yard, I need to use a cat box for him. What could I use as a free/low-cost kitty litter, do you think? Sand from the beach? Shredded newspaper?

Real kitty litter is a mixture of baked clay and diatomatious (sp) earth. The more expensive the package, the more additives (like perfume) are added by the manufacturer. It is highly absorbent and odor reducing and I can't think of anything else having those combined qualities.
Wikipedia says, "Conventional clay litter is indistinguishable from clay-based oil absorbent (used to clean oil spills); as the latter is far less expensive, it is often used as a substitute. Non-clumping cat litter is often made of zeolite, diatomite and sepiolite."
So a cheaper, quantity substitute could be oil absorbent in 50 lb bags.

One option is to train your cat (if it is young enough) to use the toilet. Obviously this would not be easy.
Personally, I buy the least expensive non-perfumed clumping litter I can find. Currently at Costco, 30lb container for about $7.50.

Bonus points: Train the cat to use the toilet, and use a compost toilet ala the humanure handbook, so you'd actually receive a net benefit from your cat (assuming you have a garden).
I use wheat litter myself. It's expensive ($10/12.3 lbs), but it's the only one in my grocery store that doesn't smell horrible and actually clumps.

Thanks everyone for the tips.
@Alex regarding smell: here's a little hack that has blown my mind, how effective it is in greatly (almost completely) reducing the smell of my cat's waste: convert your cat to a "raw paleo" diet. i feed mine mostly chicken drumsticks, with the occasional chicken organs or tuna (cooked, from a can).

I'm vegetarian so I don't think I could stomach preparing meat, but I'm sure that would help. My dad gives her a small plate of tuna or salmon if he's using it in whatever he's making.

I was surprised it wasn't mentioned here....so heres another for ya. As you may have seen a common alternative is 'feline pine'. Its sold under that name in most stores and is simply pine pellets. You should try it. If you like it, I'd suggest moving to pine horse bedding. Usually about $6 for 50 lbs or so, plus seems to last a bit longer. I've been using it for several years now. Also a shelter I recently got a cat from used horse bedding for all their litter boxes. They said it was the cheapest solution they found.

My girlfriend could tell you more about feline raising and cat food then I ever could. She raised both her cats on their natural diet of raw meat and fish. And I can tell you they are the prettiest and probably healtiest cats I have ever come across.

If you have cats, you should read abit about what the pet food industry does to their pet food products.

Feed them their natural food, if you are going to have cats. Start them from a early age. Poultry, beef, fish ( some need to be boiled ).. they are natural meat eaters!

The Costco kitty litter (KittyComfort?) is really good and super cheap. That being said, corn litter is the best for the smells. Corn is also a lot more renewable then clay, though it's light so it gets tracked more.

Just a thought, but cat litter wasn't invented until 1947. Before that, people used sand, sawdust, newspaper and/or a combination. While these things wouldn't trap the odor of the cat pee, they are cheap. (By the way, the original cat litter WAS the clay used to absorb oil spills).

Everything you want to know about the inventor of cat litter here:
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/06/us/ed ... itter.html

I've always said my next cat will be an indoor/outdoor cat. I hate messing with the cat box.

Also, the person that suggested composting the cat box stuff for the garden: cat or dog poop compost should only really be used on the lawn or in flower gardens--not vegetable gardens. There are too many bad organisms that lurk in dog and cat poop to risk ingesting some poorly broken down compost.

EdithKeeler wrote:Also, the person that suggested composting the cat box stuff for the garden: cat or dog poop compost should only really be used on the lawn or in flower gardens--not vegetable gardens. There are too many bad organisms that lurk in dog and cat poop to risk ingesting some poorly broken down compost.

A very good reason to have a litter box if you are in a town or city. If your cat is not pooping inside, he is very likely pooping in someone's garden or child's sandbox. Just because you don't have to deal with it, doesn't mean someone else isn't.

We use Swheat Scoop...made wholly from wheat...no clay, DE etc.

- Costs a bit more
- Lasts a long time
- Absolutely no smell
- No dust
- Clumps great

Best use of grains if you ask me.

Maybe even serves as a backup food source...ha ha...