Our kitty litter of choice is not a kitty litter. We use Eagle Valley Advanced Bedding Management or "ABM", a compressed pine sawdust pellet that is intended for large animal stalls. Why? Because it is cheap. For us, "cheap" equals CLEAN.

Bags of AMB are 15.91 kgs and cost only $4.99 at our local UFA agricultural supply shop. One bag lasts us a whole month. We have upto six adult cats in our home cattery. There are at least four litter boxes on the go all the time. With the economy of ABM, we can afford to dump the entire box every day, reducing odor and controlling disease that is shared in cat feces. Because ABM is made from pine, it smells good, too. Heaven knows that, with a stinky stud cat in the house, odor control is very important.

Not all pine is good, though. Pine-based cleaning products are bad for cats because they contain phenols. Phenols are toxic, even deadly to cats. Phenols cause liver damage. Pine Sol, Dettol and essential oils contain phenols and should not be used where cats may ingest or inhale them. If you wonder if a cleaner is safe, try this test. If the cleaner clouds water, it may contain phenols and should be avoided unless you know it doesn't.

ABM, however, is kiln dried at high temperatures, removing phenols from the product. ABM and some other kiln-dried pine bedding/litter/wood stove pellets -- yes, stove pellets make great kitty litter! -- should be safe for cats.

ABM's pellets are a tad larger than the kitty litter, but none of our cats have ever cared, except those who have not been exposed to pellets before. After we wash and disinfect litter boxes, we don't dry them off; the residual moisture softens the fresh pellets a bit.

Pine pellets aren't for every cat owner. They do break down into sawdust, so if you are not changing boxes frequently, you may have more tracking than with most litters. We use covered boxes with doors and litter-caching mats. NEVER EVER flush wood pellet litter. Be extra careful flushing the solid waste from the box -- it will have sawdust on it, or worse, the pellets, themselves -- unless your plumber looks like Mike Holmes. Our plumber visited twice in one week when we first switched. No, I didn't do it on purpose.

On the upside, I find it much easier to clean litterboxes with pellets than with other litters. If you think sawdust pellets are bad for drains, try clumping litter.

In the case of ABM, we get way more kitty litter than we pay for.

ABM's web site:http://www.abmanimalbedding.com/about.htm

Instructions on how to make a pine litter sifter are in the link below. http://catnipkids.homestead.com/PinePelletLitter.html

I do disagree with the posted instructions on how to clean the box, however. "I spray with whatever it is that you use to kill germs, into the litter box and wipe down. ... I no longer have to scrub litter pans in the tub once a week :-) they are clean every day...." Simply spraying a litterbox with a disinfectant will not disinfect it. A litterbox -- or any surface you need to disinfect must be washed with dish soap and hot water, rinced and then disinfected using diluted bleach or another appropriate disinfectant. In a multi-cat home, this should be done weekly.

Never use a cleaning product, ie. spray disinfectant, that is not rinced from the surface. Cats are far more sensitive to cleaners than humans are.

Warnings about phenols and cats:Purebred Cat Rescue, has good information: http://purebredcatbreedrescue.org/household_and_holiday_hazards.htm

"Lysol, Pinesol and other cleaners may be dangerous if used anywhere around a cat. Cats are VERY sensitive to many chemicals and other substances that are safe for people and dogs."

"Phenols and Pine Oils (as in Pine Sol) evaporate to the air and may be harmful if breathed by your cat. It is much safer to avoid using any cleaning agent that ends with "-OL" or contains phenols or Pine oils in the home."

Spic and Span and Dettol also contain toxic phenols. So do some essential oils.

Essential oils should not be used on cats. Tea tree, for example, is deadly. This is an Australian Government site, "Pet Grooming Establishments Code of Practice": http://www.environment.act.gov.au/__data/assets/word_doc/14885/petgroomingest...

"Phenols should not be used where cats are held because they are particularly toxic to cats. "

Other sites: http://www.fabcats.org/poison_article.html http://www.cathealth.com/Tox.htm

Unfortunately, household cleaners are not adequately labelled for us to know what is and isn't safe around our pets. The fact is that some products specificially labelled for use with pets, like citrus-based cleaner TKO, are not, in fact, safe. Your best bet for cleaning around pets is dish soap and water, rince, then, if disinfecting is desired, follow up with dilute bleach and let air dry before allowing pets on the surface.

...Pam