Question for clumping litter users AND also folks who use the crystal litter

[peg2001]

I thought the whole attraction of clumping litter was that you could scoop out all liquid and solid waste so you did not have to do a complete litter change. You just add additional litter as needed. Do you still dump out the whole pan and start over? How often?

Does anyone use that newer crystal litter? How do you like it? Do you find it to be much more expensive to use?

Thanks!
Peggy

 

[coliebird]

I haven't used the new crystal litter so I can't help you there. As for the clumping litter, I have 2 cats so it gets scooped every day. Then once a week we change the whole thing. Hope that helps.

 

[smileybrat]

I use clumping litter but not the crystal stuff. I have 1 cat, 2 litter boxes. Scoop them once a week and change the entire box about once a month. Even though you are scooping out the waste the rest of the litter still gets old and needs to be dumped or it will stop clumping as well.

 

[MHopkins2]

I use the crystals and LOVE them. I scoop once or twice a week (whenever I remember) and there's next to no smell. I change the whole box a little more often than the recommended once per month (usually about every 3 or 3 1/2 weeks) because I can't tolerate any box smell at all. I can usually catch a decent sale on the stuff, so it averages out to around $10/month. I don't know how much "regular" litter costs, but it seems reasonable to me.

If you're thinking about a "transition..." My cat was a year-old rescue kitty, and had never used the crystals before, but I wanted to give it a shot. As soon as I got him home from the shelter, I put him in the box; he hopped out and looked at me like I was nuts. I put him back in, and scratched at the litter in front of his paws. He figured it out and we've never had a problem.

 

[believe]

Scoop daily and change usually when I open a new container of litter. Lately I have been changing it once a week, just make sure I only put enough litter in to use for one week so I am not wasting a lot.

 

[moinab]

Maybe it depends on the cat? We tried the crystals and hated it. Very bad odor after two weeks, even though we scooped every day. It's supposed to last a month, and we have only one, 7 pound cat. I thought it would track less, but we still had little litter crystals everywhere.

We use the BJ's store brand scoopable litter. We scoop every day, but only change out the whole box a couple times a year Seriously, though, that's all that we need to do. Scooping every day seems to be the key for us.

 

[MickeysMommy]

I used the clumping stuff when Mickey was a kitten and the vet told me not too ~ that the clumping kind gets stuck in their paws. I then checked his paws and sure enough he had litter in between his "fingers". I then switched to regular litter and we haven't had a problem. (He's 4 now) I wonder though if it's only for kittens or full grown cats too though (the litter in the paws)? I scoop out the litter everyday and change the whole box every week or week and a half. I've always wondered about the crystals though.

 

[TerryKitten]

We used to do crystals for about 6 months, but we had to go back to clumping. We loved the crystals, but the cat didnt' like how it was hurting her paws.... slowly she started pooping near the box, not in it. We finally got the hint and went back to "soft" clumping.

We loved the crystals... it absorbed the mosture and we just had to deal w/ the solids every once a day or so. We'd replace the stuff every 3-4 weeks. Too bad the cat didn't like it.

 

[MHopkins2]

Originally posted by TerryKitten
We used to do crystals for about 6 months, but we had to go back to clumping. We loved the crystals, but the cat didnt' like how it was hurting her paws.... slowly she started pooping near the box, not in it. We finally got the hint and went back to "soft" clumping.

We loved the crystals... it absorbed the mosture and we just had to deal w/ the solids every once a day or so. We'd replace the stuff every 3-4 weeks. Too bad the cat didn't like it.

Not that a second try is probably worth the risk at this point, but were you using the round crystals or the "track-less" kind? I bought the TL once, but realized that if it were me, I wouldn't want to have to walk on sharp rocks to get to the bathroom. The round ones do take more work to keep them from going all over the house, but they're nice and soft on tender paws.