Pick up your litter

November 14, 2019 11:45 AM

What am I missing about this cat litter:

We've just moved our cats over to Purina Yesterday's News (Amazon link) cat litter. It's not smelly or dusty, which is great, and the cats seem fine with it.

But I've never used a non-clumping litter before - how am I supposed to clean the box? Feces is visible, so that's not an issue, but in the past, you just sifted out the urine clumps. This litter is made of these little recycled paper stick-like things, and I can't tell where the cats have urinated. Does the litter become visibly changed when urinated on, or am I supposed to do a whole box replacement periodically, or what?

posted by Chrysostom to Pets & Animals (6 answers total)

I use pine pellets, and if it's the same, I think changing the whole box every week or so is right.
posted by LizardBreath at 11:51 AM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

I used this stuff when my cats were kittens, and yeah you just throw it all out when it gets gross. It probably has directions on the bag saying how often to do this, and you can probably get by with a bit less than that.
posted by aubilenon at 12:16 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Stir it around (ideally at least daily) so that moisture gets evenly distributed through all the pellets so they last longer. As long as they don't get too wet, they won't smell. Eventually, they'll have absorbed as much as they can, and then it's time to throw them out. Replace the litter all at once when it gets smelly or soggy.

I haven't used this specific material before, but with the various non-clumping litters I've used (I like crystals), stirring regularly really helps extend the life the of litter and is basically the only way to get the litter to last as long as the bag says.
posted by katieinshoes at 12:21 PM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

One thing I should add: If you have trouble with the non-clumping litter getting gross too fast, you might need another litter box. I found my litter couldn't absorb moisture well enough to handle multiple cats' pee -- I think it needs a little time to dry out between uses. A bag of crystals (yeah, I know you're using different stuff) in one litter box would only last half a week before it got gross, but two bags split across two litter boxes would easily last two weeks.

I don't know how many cats and boxes you have, but if you have any trouble with the litter, make sure you've got enough boxes.
posted by katieinshoes at 12:30 PM on November 14, 2019

Changing the whole box every one or two weeks sounds like a PITA. I love using micro-crystals. One bag in each litter box lasts a whole month. Day-to-day it just requires a good stirring and swapping out the crystals once a month takes just 15 minutes for 2 boxes.
posted by homesickness at 1:33 PM on November 14, 2019

I usually get the litter box right after someone uses it (have 2 cats & I’m home a lot) and the pee is a big damp patch which I dispose of and then top up the litter box with fresh litter. If the pee has dried it’s harder to see, but after using it a while I can tell the peed on litter pellets are swollen & a lighter colour than unused litter, plus my cats leave their pee in a patch so it’s all in one spot. I also have 2 boxes for the 2 cats and clean out the whole box about once a month. I don’t use trays but plastic storage tubs as this is what the cats were used to when we adopted them, and so I fill the boxes about 2-3 inches.

(It’s worth persisting with paper litter IMO given the environmental impact of clay & crystal litters.)
posted by hgws at 4:10 PM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]