Please recommend a kitty litter, and a question or two

[Lori B.]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. About 2 weeks ago we adopted a male kitten, approx. 9 wks old, from the humane society. He is our only pet and stays indoors all of the time. My 2 year old daughter (an only child so far) named him Gilbert and he is so wonderful and we love him so much already. I got him to the vet within 24 hours of getting him and got his shots, wormed, and a flea treatment. He has been a very good kitty and my daughter is gentle with him, so all is going fairly well.

However....my husband does not like cats very much. It was HIS idea to adopt a kitten, because our daughter is a daddy's girl and she wanted one. But he set down the ground rules that he does NOT want to smell the litter box, ever. I told him I'd do my best. I bought Feline Pine first because of Gilbert's age, but his first few days he had diarrhea pretty bad and the Feline Pine was not working well in general. The recommended a small dose of Kaopectate and changing to a clumping litter. The medicine worked great and I bought Fresh Step scoopable, simply because it was a little more expensive and promised to freshen with every step. Well, it works great for about 4 days and then the box just starts to smell sour and gross. Bear in mind that I scoop everything out twice a day and add a small amount of fresh litter to replace what was scooped out, and I also have some Arm and Hammer baking soda litter box deodorizer that I sprinkle in there and it helps a little. It says on the Fresh Step box to replace the entire litter box litter once a month only. I can't imagine! Like I said, after about 4 or 5 days, even with no clumps or solids in it, it smells. So......what is your favorite litter for odor control? Is the Arm and Hammer litter good? And what about crystals, do they do a better job? The odor issue is so important because we didn't have a good place to put his box due to the layout of our home so his litter box is at the end of the hallway next to our bathroom, in a quiet corner. But if we had guests over I'd probably dump the whole thing out and replace with fresh litter just to be sure there was no smell. Any advice on that would be great.

Another little problem with Gilbert is that he occasionally steps in his own feces and it gets stuck between his toes and he just walks around all over the house like that. That really grosses me out and I have had to wash his feet in the sink with soap and water several times. Of course, he hates this. I am a stay at home mom by the way, so I have time to note when all of this is happening. But I am wondering if this is abnormal behavior for a cat, to be content walking around with feces stuck between his toes? I thought cats groomed themselves a lot but Gilbert really doesn't. I brush him every other day and he loves it but also needs it. He's about 11 wks old now so maybe this problem will improve on it's own.

The last thing I wanted to ask about was this: Gilbert was skinny and had bad diarrhea the first few days but after he got better, he's been eating a lot and his belly is pretty big all of the time. I don't think a kitty is supposed to have such a big belly at his age but I could be wrong. His next vet appt. is July 24th and I will ask him about all of this but I'd love to hear from some of you all so if any of you have to time to write back, I'd appreciate it so much! Thanks.....Lori B., Ashley and Gilbert

[Traci]

Welcome, Lori....

You can skim the other topics in this forum for litterbrand preferences. Unfortunately, there is no perfect brand or type, all different kitties prefer all different types, so you have to find one he prefers, yet is preferrable to you as well.

As for the stools and stepping in......he is still a young kitten and is not an impeccable groomer yet. Give this alittle time and he will soon develop better grooming habits as he matures. For the time being, take a closer look at the diet you're feeding him. If by chance it is generic or a store-brand, this is probably why he is developing soft stools or diarrhea, these types of diets are not truly formulated with proper nutritrients for optimal health, and therefore can cause loose stools, diarrhea, poor absorption, GI tract problems, etc. Being he is still a growing and developing kitten, I would strongly suggest a premium kitten food (Iams for example)....and when he is ready to be graduated to adult food, keep within a premium type of adult maintenance diet (he can be graduated to adult maintenance anytime after 6-8 months of age). Once having him on a quality diet, you might find the stools less smelly, and therefore the litterbox may not be so hard to keep fresh and clean.

Extended stomachs can be the result of excess gas in the intestines, also as a result of a poor quality diet.

For future reference, tell your vet that kaopectate now contains subsalicylates, the same ingredient in pepto bismal that is toxic to cats. You might have had an older marked bottle, but for reference, you can't use the new formulations for cats. Your vet will need to advise other feline anti-diarrheals.

[davet]

anaother just an op[inion but i don't think there is any liter made that will satify your requirments....i think daily changing is the only absolute remedy.. i suspect that daughter is too young to take up the project but daily cleaning will solve all your problems,,,,,well maybe not your problems with your husband etc but at least with the odor.....

[Tina B and crew]

Ahhh....the quest for the perfect litter...or should I say neverending quest!!

Welcome to the board Lori and congrats on your new kitty. As far as litter preference goes...so far I have found the crystal litter to be the best at controlling odor for the longest amount of time. It is expensive but I use it in all my house litterboxes. My garage litterboxes get Feline Pine. I gave up on clay, both clumping and non clumping, long ago. No litter, not even the crystal, will control odors if it goes unchanged for a month. I change out my crystal litter about once everyother week...more if needed. I do scoop it and add a litter fresh each day. You might also try a covered box, those help some.

Thanks Traci for the warning about Kaopectate...I was thinking the same thing. I wonder how many vets don't know of the change??

[davet]

heres one that didn;t know but the only use i had for Kao was by rectum....worked real well for diarrha but did not use it orally but that is good info Traci......

[Mona]

I just adopted a kitten 8 weeks old now 11 weeks old. She is a joy but canned food produces a bad odor.

I am using S'Wheatscoop and can say after scooping no odor remains. and it is safe and non toxic. She also steps in feces sometimes and we wash her feet off. Try it, as the clumping litter if ingested can harden in their insides.

For my older cat I use Tidy Cat with Crystals blend and it is marvelous at controlling odors. Sometimes Chloe uses HOneybun's box too under supervision. ALso arm and hammer and Tidy Cat make a deodorizer that is very effective. Good luck.

Mona , HOneybun and Chloe

[Lori B.]

Thank you all so much for the replies. I was shocked to hear about the kaopectate! The bottle I have is over a year old but doesn't expire until 2004, so I guess it was safe since Gilbert is fine. I am feeding him Iams Kitten because they gave me a small bag of it at the shelter and I just kept feeding it to him. I think the diarrhea the first few days was a combo of stress and the worm medicine they gave him. His tests said he didn't even have worms but the vet said he didn't get an ideal specimen and that it was hard to believe he had no worms since he came from a crowded shelter and was crawling with fleas when I got him. I wanted him wormed because I knew my daughter would be kissing him a lot. *L* My husband works away from home 4 days per week so I really only have to keep things super-fresh the 3 days he is home. And I have noticed that although he won't admit it, he does like Gilbert. It's little things, like when Gilly walks by my husband will wiggle his foot which encourages him to play with it. I also caught him petting him when he didn't know I was looking. AND....once when he thought I was in the other room, I heard him singing to the cat! *L* He was saying "Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? It's because you are a cat and I ain't down with that." I started laughing hysterically and he stopped singing and told me to mind my own business.

What is it about some men....they think they are not manly if they love cats? I just don't get it! My dad is the same way but I always had cats when I was a child, dad tolerated them. Even my older brother pretends to hate their family cat. He calls him "*beep* Kitty" but he actually loves the cat according to his wife. Oh well. Men.

Thanks again for the advice and the welcome!

[MA]

I am currently working on an article about Kitty Litter and to say it is an eye opener is putting it mildly! There are over 308 brands of kitty litter available world wide. Many of the new brands coming out are enviromentally friendly due to the fact that kitty litter takes up more space in landfill today than disposable diapers do! Approx. 4 billion pounds of it is dumped on already stressed landfills! They now make it out of wheat, out of paper, out of pressed sawdust and hog fuels.

I have 12 litter pans upstairs and I scoop at least 4 times a day and clean completely 3 times a week. I also run a citykitty ionic litterbox air purifier a very small machine that delivers a great deal of satisfaction. I have no odor problem at all. I use the cheap clay litter during the times when the house is busting over with cats, and scoopable after kitty season and the rescues are gone. I tried the pearls, but didn't like them because the cats tended to play and eat them, which is not good.

[Lori B.]

I just read over my last post and noticed one of the words I wrote was replaced with "beep." That is great, I am fine with that. For the record though, the word was "Sh*tty Kitty." I didn't want anyone to read it and think it was something worse than that! *L* I have a 2 year old so obviously I don't curse often, if ever. Every word I say gets repeated.

[Susan and the girls]

I just wanted to put in my two cents about litter.....

I've found that "Scoop Away" has the same quality as the litter you were speaking of.... Even without poop or pee in it, after a couple of days it has a strange odor.

My favorite overall is TidyCats. I buy whichever one is on sale - "multiple cats" or "immediate odor control." They both work really well.

I guess I gauge how well the odor control is on my husband's nose. It's strange that he can't smell anything BUT cat litter.... LOL So if he mentions it, I know it's smelly.

I have three cats inside, and three boxes. I change each of the boxes out completely monthly. I scoop daily and replace litter as needed. I feel for MA and her fourteen hundred million litter boxes..... She's a saint; that's for sure. We need to set up a "Help-MA-with-the-cost-of-rescuing-kitties" fund.....