How much do you spend on cat litter?

[Holenewme]

Disclaimer- I’m a first time cat owner so please be gentle!

Just wondering if I’m doing something wrong with my cats litter as I’m spending a fortune on it. He has 2 litter trays (extra large ones from pets at home as he’s a biggish breed) which I completely empty and refill once a week. I also scoop out once a day. I get through 3 8L bags of Catsan cat litter a week. These are the only size and brand they have in my local shop although I wouldn’t be able to carry a bigger one anyway as I don’t currently drive. It costs £6.50 a bag, so £19.50 a week.

I use a bag each to refill the trays and the other bag I use to replace the bits I scoop out during the week. I used to buy the liners too but they don’t seem to do anything. If I put less than about 3/4 bag in the tray it doesn’t look deep enough for cat to dig to cover poo (not that he does anyway, he just stands in it, freaks out, then runs around the house crying).

I really need a third litter tray as our house is 3 floors and cat has hazard a few accidents on the floor that doesn’t have a tray. But I don’t want to spend another £25 a month!

I’m going to do a big online order which gets the cost down a fair bit and saves me lugging it about. But I’m doing something really obvious wrong aren’t I? Is everyone spending crazy money on cat litter?

I found catsan to be smelly anyway so switched to clumping litter where you can remove pee and poo

Maybe it is the litter itself holding the stink then. I wouldn’t be changing it every week if I didn’t have to. I’m a complete slattern in comparison to some of the 48hour sheet changers and duvet cover ironers I see on threads here.

Thanks for the advice. I’m going to give the chick feed a go as I have loads of the stuff and my chickens are too old for it. I’m glad it wasn’t something really stupid like I was supposed to leave it in the bag or somesuch thing.

ticklingcheese thanks for the tip. I’ll let you know if it all catches fire or something ridiculous.

I use Cats Best . When I got our cats (mid May) they had two trays and I bought the £27 (ish) bag .

We've since moved them onto one huge tray (it was an under bed storage box , I took the wheels off) and its in the cupboard under the stairs (with a catflap in the door ....how cool is that ? )

It really does minimise the smell, even in a small space . Pee clumps after a few minutes .

I think we're onto the end of bag 2 . Just scoop and replenish

Nice on their little paws too.

We use wood pellet, usually Pets at Home own brand or Platinum Plus they also stock. It's around £6-£7 for a 30 litre bag and we go through approx a bag a week I think - for 4 cats (who currently have 5 litter trays...)

They do free delivery for orders over £35 so I just buy a few bags at a time with other stuff too.

Holenewme you're welcome 😉

Mine only do the granulated stuff that clumps, and you need to remove the wee regularly (1-2 a day) so it doesn't stink ( since you have a stinker, cute one Btw).

I have four cats and one large litter tray. We use two bags of Sainsbury's clumping litter a week (£6.70) for topping up.
No smell and only change the litter fully once in a blue moon.

Hi Op,
We are new cat owners too and have a larger cat. We started on the wood chip stuff but have moved on to a larger tray from Amazon and buy the clumping litter from Tesco. Puss loves this. She seems to find it easy to scrabble in and comfortable. It is £4 a 10l bag. You do have to scoop the clumps out daily. It is heavy to carry but could be ordered online. I would most warmly recommend this as our cat had some territory issues, became stressed and began pooing out of the box. The minute we put out the clumping litter she jumped in the tray and used it and now she seems very happy and contented. 😺

I use intersand classic. A15kg bag lasts about 6 weeks. Change once a month and scoop one e or twice a day depending on how much the poo monster cheddar produces.

I use Pets at Home non-clumping wood pellets (they were on pellets when they came home & never changed). 3 big 30l bags delivered lasts me months, total cost £21.

2 indoor only cats. They have 2 trays, but have never ever used one of them. Scoop every time I see a poo, check for wet patches at the same time & scoop them, full change every 2 weeks as that fits in with fortnightly rubbish collection. Put less than an inch of pellets in at the start, then they break down as they get wet & by the end of the fortnight I still have a couple of inches in there despite the scooping I've done.

Mine go through phases of horrendous smelly poo, but the smell vanishes once the poo is buried & within an hour or so it's safe to scoop without a gas mask on .

We use Tesco odour control antibacterial litter, £4 a bag. We have one large tray and she's mostly an indoor cat. We go through one 10L bag a week. I scoop daily and fully change the litter every 3/4 days. I use litter liners for ease of cleaning up.

30l bag of wood litter from B and M, scooped daily and emptied completely every 5 to 7 days.

Costs £6 a bag, lasts for a month.

Buy cheap cat litter. There's a difference in types of cat litter but not really between the brands. Whether he likes clumping, non clumping, clay etc then just go for the cheapest version of that. Supermarket's own, for example.

Also you could get him a litter tray house. That helps with the smell. My girl is very small so we easily found one but you can get bigger sizes for big cats. The one we have even has a charcoal filter on the roof to help with the smell.

And finally, you don't need to fill them too deeply. As long as there's enough litter in there for him to cover over his poo he's ok. A couple of centimetres deep is enough if you're scooping daily.

Oh, also - don't be so hard on yourself. Cats are all individuals and some of them are very clean and discreet with their litter trays, and some aren't. I'm really lucky that my cat is great with her litter tray. It means it never really smells and we have no accidents. I take no credit for this, it's just how she is. Some cats are "stinkers" and walk through their poo and don't cover stuff up properly and generally make a big smelly mess. You aren't doing anything wrong. You can encourage or discourage certain behaviours, but for the most part if he's not good with his tray then it's probably just how he is.

His litter trays are the ones with the roofs and charcoal filters. They still manage to stink the whole house out. I think most of the problem is h not burying his poo and scattering what he does do - it ends up all over the tray walls and roof and covers loads of the little granules. So even when I scoop out the solid bits there’s pop cakes over loads of it.

My cat has a gut disorder and goes to the toilet a lot so I spend about £20 a month on cat litter for one cat and she also goes outside. I use a small tray though.

Also she scatters litter far and wide.

I've got six cats, three indoor and three in/outdoor. I use professional classic cat litter and a bag will last three weeks. I've honestly tried all litters and this beats them hands down. For sensitive tums Hills i/d or royal canin sensible is good to feed. Litter available from bitiba.

Worlds best cat litter
Expensive initially but lasts for ages.
We have fussy cats who let you know loudly when they have pooed so you can get rid quick. If the tray is dirty they wee on the bed. Not happened since moving to worlds best.

Hi OP

I have two cats - one of whom didn’t bury poo which meant it really did smell.

I was using worlds best but on @Toddlerteaplease recommendation tried intersand. Big cat will bury if using that but only that - have tried others since but nope only buries with intersand classic.

It’s a really soft litter which I think is why. I found it better than worlds best for smells, but think it tracks slightly more.

I’ve just switched to Smart Litter (£3 for a 10kg bag in Asda). It’s a wood litter, completely biodegradable and naturally absorbs stinks.
I scoop visible poo everyday and then empty and clean the whole tray every 2-3 days. I can usually get by buying a bag of litter ever other week.

Worlds best cat litter here too, 2 mainly indoor cats with a xl litter tray, full change fortnightly and scooped daily. Smell is so much better than when we used Catsan and it's also less painful to stand on a bit they have tracked around the house!

I have had litter issues too,in fact the council at one point refused to empty my bin because of the weight! Something had to give! I'd been using Tesco value litter for years and doing a complete change of two cat loo's every day. It was cheap at £1.55 a bag and with 7 cats cheap was important! After the council incident and a chance conversation with someone, I decided to do some research and bought three different brands to try,Bio catolet, wood pellets and Breeder Celect paper pellets. They hated the wood pellets and between the two paper one's I decided on the Breeder Celect, though there is nothing wrong with the Bio catolet.
This decision had revolutionised the whole litter issue for me. I do have to sift and scoop, which I've never done in 35yrs of cat life but that doesn't bother me. I've reduced the overall cost,my wheelie bin is a fraction of the weight it was (council happy)and I compost the litter(environment happy), once the poo and wee bits have been removed (you couldn't use any compost that's had litter put in it on growing veg or fruit, only plant's. Breeder Celect is £11.99 for a 30L bag from Amazon,so purse happy and back happy,as no more lugging bag's from Tesco) But most important of all my little bundles of fur are happy.

Forgot to say,a 30L bag at 11.99 lasts approximately 2-3 weeks.

Sorry to ask holenewme but is his poo 'firm' or soft? How old is your cat?

I'm asking because when one of mine was little he had 'soft' poo (very smelly) combined with lacking technic, he always, always got it on his paws, to take round the house (we cleaned his paws every time 🤪). We gave him everything 'over the counter' for this, nothing worked. In the end our vet gave him antibiotics and it was like a miracle.

Cat poo should be quite (very) firm and not easily distributed to tray sides, have you tried without the top? Lots of cats hate this and you are quicker to detect poo if visible (stinkable) 😁.

So what I'm trying to say, his smell and all over the placeness could be an infection. (You really have to insist with the vet, if soft poo, our vet atleast sits tight on his antibiotics).

And Btw i have one who doesn't cover, and they are carnivores - it stinks when new 🤣. Also when changing litter brands, do it the same way as changing food, a little overlap, more each day.