Cat litter and food

[Mom-ninja.]

Talk to me about cat litter. We are getting a cat this Friday. I haven't had a cat in 9 years. What litter do I want to use?

 

I know I don't want the clay clumping stuff. My mom uses it and when I pet sit for you I can't stand the dust. It feels like that stuff settles in my lungs.

 

Also food. We give my dog Canidae. Any recs for cat food? And am I correct in thinking that cats need can food as well as dry? My dog only gets dry.

[nmoira]

If you can find wood stove pellets *without* additives, I'd give those a try first. They're like Feline Pine, but a fraction of the price.

[sarahbobeara]

We had our cat for 13 years and we used Feline Pine for at least 2/3 of that time. Less dust, no tiny litter pieces tracked all over the house, and you can scatter the litter box outside in an unused corner of the yard if you choose since the litter just breaks down to sawdust. You don't have to scoop it, we just changed it out completely every 5ish days. And I I agree, try to find wood pellets at a farm supply store. I've never hunted them down locally, but I believe it would save money. Around here a 20lb bag of Feline Pine is $9 but it would last our cat about 2 months +/-.

 

If we ever have another cat (please, Lord, no!), we will use Feline Pine again. I refuse to go back to the dusty sandy stuff.

 

Food, I don't have any recommendations. We used Nutro canned which is really expensive and I'm not sure it was that much better than any other food. I did use Wag.com, they were cheaper & offered a better selection of Nutro brand than our Walmart or Petco...free shipping on heavy cases of pet food is super!!

[Mom-ninja.]

 

If we ever have another cat (please, Lord, no!), we will use Feline Pine again. I refuse to go back to the dusty sandy stuff.

 

 

You're making me have doubt. After my last cat 9 years ago I swore no more cats, but I'm crumbling. Do I not want a cat?

[SJ.]

We use the clumping stuff, I think the dust issue has improved over the past 9 years. We tried the pine litter and I hated it because I found it much harder to clean.

 

Just remember cats can live 15+ years, some to 20! Choose wisely my friend. :)

[Mergath]

We use the clumping litter, so no help there. The dust doesn't seem that bad though, except when I change it out completely and have to dump in the new bucket. As for food, we use Earthborne Holistics, the grain-free variety. It's pricey, but my cats are so much healthier on it than any of the more mainstream brands.

 

As for canned food, males especially need canned food or they can have serious urinary troubles. Females don't seem to necessarily need it as much as the males do, but any cat is healthier with a bit of canned food each day. For that, we just get the Friskies stuff.

[Based on Faith Academy]

I was wondering this same thing for my kitten that I got a few weeks ago. Thanks for posting this topic!!!

 

I love the clumping Arm and Hammer stuff because it doesn't smell, but I hate the mess it leaves on the floor.

Anyone have experience with those mats they rub their feet against as he exit the litter box? Are they any good?

[Ellie]

I have only fed my cats dry food. We feed either Innova or Evo.

 

The litter we finally liked is made of wheat. I forget the name. It's only slightly more expensive than the clumping litters, all of which did NOT keep the odor down even though I cleaned the litter box daily. The wheat stuff does. It also tracks, but I never found any litter which didn't, so there you go.

[RemsMom]

I use the clumping litter. I liked the idea of Feline Pine and tried it with our cat when we first got him. He was about six weeks old and wet in his bed and cried over the Feline Pine (the only accident he as ever had). I talked to the receptionist at the vet's office and she said her cat got a UTI when she tried to switch because the cat just refused to go potty at all. I'm not saying don't try it, just thought I would give you my experience.

 

For food I use Taste of the Wild (dry food, no canned). It is expensive but my cat is super healthy so I think it is worth the cost. I also only give water from our reverse osmosis because I read it is better for cats, especially males.

[Anne]

My cat is over 17 and appears to be as healthy as the proverbial horse. We use the clumping cat litter which he tracks all over the house (yuck!). I have one of those mats (a big one) and it helps, but by no means solves the tracking problem. I'd try switching litters, but I'm kind of afraid of causing trouble... He eats only dried cat food (Iams or Science Diet, I never can remember which). He refuses to eat any sort of canned or wet cat food. He has never been sick. He's a nice cat, but I'm really tired of changing the litter box, listening to him yowl (particularly at 2:30 in the morning) and he sheds like you wouldn't believe...

 

He is my last cat.

 

I do enjoy sitting down to read with him snuggling in my lap,though - and I will miss that!

 

Anne

[Ali in OR]

Our humane society where we got our kitten uses only high-quality pet food, so I think they care about their animals' needs. For litter they used the pellets made from newsprint, so we just used the same thing. The cat likes it, no dust, doesn't really smell if you change it regularly, its' inexpensive, and I can get it at the grocery store. But the cat does like pawing the newspaper--I think he knows that's what his litter is made of! Must have a similar scent.

[Excelsior! Academy]

We use the clumping and scoop it daily. It gets completely changed at least once a week. We use the dry indoor cat food without fish. She was on it as a kitten before we got her. They swore it helped with odor. We tried to switch her to regular food and she had terrible poop and seemed ill, so we switched her back.

 

No troubles with tracking litter, but her box is in the laundry room which is separate from the rest of the house. There is a step up and a cat door before she can come into the house. The floor gets swept and mopped each day so litter messes are kept to a minimum.

[SABE]

Tidy Cats Instant Action has been the best litter that I've found for odor control. We scoop the clumps daily.

 

We use a mixture of dry and canned food, and I mix the canned food with a little bit of water when I prepare it. Like the previous poster said, I've also read that male cats need plenty of moisture in their diets to reduce the chances of urinary problems. I look for brands that have real meat as the first ingredient and don't contain wheat.

[VaKim]

I have a dozen cats - indoor/outdoor - and 4 litter boxes. We use Equine Pine from Tractor Supply. It is basically the same as Feline Pine, but way cheaper. We have no odor problems, and love that there are no chemicals or anything do worry about. It is the best thing we have ever used, and I have always had cats.

[tammyw]

Our breeder recommended using two things:

 

- Pure clay litter from Walmart (a store which I hate, but buy it because it works). It's called Special Kitty and it's like $2 for a HUGE bag. Crazy cheap.

 

- Line it with the pine pellets from anywhere (we get the Trader Joe's brand).

 

Lay down an inch or two of pine pellets and then cover it with the clay. It's not dusty at all. It REALLY is very good for preventing smell. We scoop every day (you can't really scoop the pee) but the pine pellets absorb much of the urine. Then we dump the entire thing and start over once a week. Works really well and is the least smelly litter I've ever had.

 

Btw, I've heard horror stories about the clumping kind (the damage it can do to a cat) so it's good you plan to avoid it!

[zoobie]

We use Dr. Elsey's after dealing with a male cat who is very particular. It's expensive for litter but cheaper than a new couch. :/ I doubt I'd start a kitten on it. I'd find out what he has been using, then buy that and mix it with what you want to use. Slowly decrease the old and increase the new.

 

Our kitties eat Blue Buffalo Indoor formula. The almost 18 and 20 year olds get a can of "meats" at night. They had thyroid issues and we used to hide the meds in it and we wanted to gain weight. Now the 20 year old will.not.shut.up until she gets her meats. She's old, bossy, and my baby! :) Another don't start it unless you want to create a habit. Dry is much better for their teeth!

[Mom-ninja.]

Thanks everyone. I'd like to go with the wood type pellets or newspaper pellets.

 

I'm nervous. We'll pick out a cat tomorrow. Our animal shelter is doing a "Feline Friday" and all cats/kittens will be $5.

 

My ds has been begging for a cat for years so I figure now is the time to it with the shelters overrun with kittens from breeding season.

[Laurie]

 

 

I'm nervous. We'll pick out a cat tomorrow. Our animal shelter is doing a "Feline Friday" and all cats/kittens will be $5.

 

 

I've had cats all my life. Right now, we have 3 cats and all of them are from the animal shelter.

 

I took the food advice from the lady who was fostering the first of these kitties and used Wellness dry and canned foods. This didn't work out well at all. Our female kitty became diabetic eating that food. I changed her food after she was diagnosed to the lower carb canned food that the animal hospital recommended...Fancy Feast Classics (only the Classics of this brand are appropriate for a diabetic cat). Some cats will recover and not need insulin just from a diet change like this, but it didn't work for our cat since she had probably been undiagnosed for too long. She's been on insulin for a little over 2 years now and is doing well but this is a very expensive chronic health problem to deal with.

 

One of our other cats also got sick eating the original diet and also Fancy Feast. After other tests we ended up having allergy testing done for him and it turns out that he has many food allergies, the worst ones being soy and flaxseed which are used in many brands of cat foods. He eats prescription only food now and thankfully his digestive system is recovering.

 

I would be careful about the kitty litter, too. Our diabetic cat has also become asthmatic and has an inhaler. I wouldn't buy any litter with fragrance, and even the pine scent can cause problems for some cats.

 

LIke I said, I've had cats all my life but I've never dealt with chronic health problems like I have with these 3. I feel guilty because I think they would have been healthier if they had been barn cats catching mice out in the country somewhere rather than eating this SAD, Standard American Diet, for cats.

 

Sorry to be such a downer but I wish I had known then what I know now. I wish you and your new kitty all the best.

[Paige]

My male cat gets a combination of special expensive urinary dry food and wet food. I wish we could move him to wet food only because it is cheaper but I'm scared because the vet wants him on the expensive dry only. The mix is a compromise. I don't want another $$$ emergency surgery. My female cat likes Nutro dry and has never had any problems. (Get a female to avoid urinary problems!)

 

We have used every kind of litter and prefer the clumping sand for odor. Maybe my cats are messy, but they scatter and track every kind of litter. The pellets don't seem to absorb the smell as well.

 

For the wet food, I've found the cheapest is Amazon Prime with Amazon Mom's Subscribe and Save if you have 5 or more items coming that month. It saves almost $10 per package for us. You just have to be careful and watch the prices and be willing to switch to a slightly different brand or flavor. We only use grain and fish-free products for the problem cat and have always been able to find something suitable each month.

[Pawz4me]

What litter do I want to use?

 

You should start off with whatever litter the cat is used to using, and change gradually to whatever you prefer. Although IME having worked in cat rescue for years, the cat is often the one to decide what will be used. I'm not a fan of any of the natural litters. IME most cats don't really like the natural litters, and they don't perform very well in the odor control department.

 

Some brands of clumping litter are much less dusty than others. Although unfortunately I've found that the amount of dust can vary from container to container even within the same brand.

 

Also food. We give my dog Canidae. Any recs for cat food? And am I correct in thinking that cats need can food as well as dry? My dog only gets dry.

 

As with litter, you want to start off with whatever the cat is currently eating and make any changes gradually. Felidae is the feline version of Canidae, and it's a good quality food. Canned food is much healthier for cats than dry food. If you can't afford or just don't want to feed all canned food, I highly recommend feeding at least a little bit of canned each day.