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The Litterbox Chronicles
Tuesday, June 9
Do you remember (I'm stretching here) when I went on my personal Be Greener Initiative?
(not green like Kermit, green like environmentally friendly)
Well, I did and I am pleased to report that we are continuing to be mindful of what we buy, what we throw, and what we recycle. I get a good case of the guilts if I buy something whose container or packaging can not be recycled... I still have more guilt than I feel like I should; but I am limited to a certain extent when it comes to packaging. I've got a good supply of reusable shopping totes which I remember to use 85% of the time and I have worked harder to rid my home of toxic cleaning supplies.
As part of the Green Initiative I decided to involve all members of the family, including the zoo.
Harley got off easy
His main environmental offense was poo bags& those were switched to biodegradable bags.
Jack & Benny didn't fair so well. Standard issue clay cat litter does not fall under the "environmentally responsible" category.
Is she really talking about my bathroom habits again? ~ JackAll of my reasons and thoughts about the big switch are in a post titled
Please, lets not have Protest Pooping
which was soon followed up with
Poop Central wherein I declared the litter lemony and failed to follow-up more than that.
After giving the litter a fair shot I just couldn't for the life of me deal with either the overwhelming lemon scent (which grew rather than dissipated as time went on) or the tracking of corn husk dust everywhere.
That dust/litter stuck to the big furry bodies of Jack & Benny better than velcro - and they left it everywhere. I don't know about you, but I was not thrilled to find kitty litter on the kitchen counters, in my favorite nappin blanket, or in the bathroom sink.
Needless to say Arm & Hammer Essentials did not pass the CursingMama test and was promptly stamped "FAIL" leaving me to figure out WTF to do next. I knew I couldn't take such a big bold step like I had the last time and think that Jack & Benny would miss the chance to protest poop again.
Lucky for me I found a box of this sitting on the shelf right next to the Undesireable Lemon Scented Corn Husk Dust of Doom. (ULSCHDoD)
I took a box of each home & began introducing the Feline Pine scoop into the ULSCHDoD slowly & methodically to improve my chances of avoiding protest pooping. Once the transition was complete I evaluated the Feline Pine Scoop and was pleased with the scent and reduced tracking - but the clumps just didn't hold together well enough for a box that gets the kind of use & abuse my boys give.Back to the drawing board.....and the grocery store......I looked down and saw this....
Same light pine smell - no tracking - slowly introduced....I think we have a winner.It is unlike anything I have ever used before (you scoop the solids and the liquid disintegrates the peletts & you leave that go until its time to change which I do about every 5 to 7 days) so it took a little while to get used to it...now we're wondering if we couldn't just flush the solids & dump the box into the compost bin rather than the garbage can...so I do have some more research work to do..
Crap - literally. If you want to try FelinePine here's some incentive
I thought maybe it was time to check my Green IQ - 62!!
to share a link for a place to recycle your rechargeable batteries....
Call2Recycle
and a link for a place to donate your old cell phones so they don't end up in the landfill
CollectiveGood
10 comments:
I'm disappointed to hear about Feline Pine clumping. I was eyeballing it as an alternative. Everything I've read says that introducing feline or canine leavings into your compost is a no-no. If you find differently, I'd like to hear about it.
DO let me know about the flushability of that stuff, because I studied the packaging for a long time to determine whether or not it was flushable, and it doesn't say anything about it.
Currently, I'm using the Worlds Best Cat Little, entirely for the flushability, since I keep the poop-box in the bathroom. I'd try Feline Pine for sure if it was flushable. It's also less expensive than the other stuff...
Ok, I don't want to be a buzzkill or anything, but flushing cat poo is bpoo that somehow kills sea otters oncead for our sewer systems. Also, I think that they have discovered that there is something in cat the treated sewage reaches the sea. Flushable cat litter is actually illegal in the state of California. Sorry.
Check your laws. In California it's illegal to flush feline waste.
What? That is not what I said! My stupid mouse sabotaged my comment. Damn it. Anyway, I said that cat poo is not only bad for our septic sytems, it contains some kind of pathogen that kills sea otters once the treated sewage reaches the sea. And it is illegal in the state of California (am I the only person that hears the Governator's voice when I read the word "California"?)
I think the main danger of cat litter in the compost bin is transmission of toxoplasmosis. That is only dangerous if you are pregnant, and even then, if you have lived with a cat for any length of time you have probably already had it and not known. But please do your own research -- mine is just vague memories.
How does the Feline Pine smell??? I'm afeared of that, since the box here is somewhat centrally located.
Cool. My verification word is "comenow."
Um - you don';t live in California and there are no sea otters here. Just sayin......
The other Deb...who flushes.
I had heard about the not flushing in Cali as well. Not sure about our locale. Hey. How did that lemony pine smell mix together?
Chris,
The Feline Pine for the most part has no smell at all. It has no added dyes, or perfumes. It does a fine job of killing any kitty odor from urine Regarding poop stink, as long as you cat buries their shit, no stink there either. We unfortunately have one cat who is above shit burying. Benny is king of I'm to sexy for burying my own poo. Jack will go behind him and follow up with the burying of the poo, or one of us people has to. Once buried, no stink.
Mr. Motorcycle
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