Does anyone here use Silica cat litter for their cats?

[jory29]

I am wondering if Silica cat litter is a good product, and would like to have some feedback from those who have used this type of product for their cats.

Thanks for any in-put... :)

[dolphie]

get another box.
i've got four cats and two boxes, and cleaning them both out every other day it never gets smelly.
if you're cleaning it enough, it wont.
if you let it get dirty enough to the point you need smell control, your cats are going to start doing the business somewhere else, and it wont be pretty.

[jory29]

get another box.
i've got four catsand two boxes), and cleaning them both out every other day it never gets smelly.
if you're cleaning it enough, it wont.
if you let it get dirty enough to the point you need smell control, you're cats are going to start doing the business somewhere else, and it wont be pretty.

Thanks for the tip, I should have mentioned we also have another litter box downstairs.

I wonder if maybe I am using too much litter in there. We do dump it out completely after about 7-10 days, though.

[mlc2000]

You might want to edit your posts and put some punctuation in there and break up your paragraphs.
It is brutal to read.

[eelfliw]

Silica is good. It absorbs all the liquids and doesn't smell. But it's very pricy. So I would use it only if I'm away for several days.

The clay stuff is too heavily scented and it produces a very fine dust that can be inhaled by cats (and humans while cleaning). I don't imagine clay dust to be good for your health.

You can try pine wood pellets. These pellets will break down into dust when exposed to poisture. And the dust is not as fine as clay dust so it doesn't get airborn as easily. Plus it's bio-degradable so you can flush it down the toilet. The pine dust also has natural wood smell which reduces odor. You can get a 40 lb bag of pine pellets for about $8.

[jory29]

Silica is good. It absorbs all the liquids and doesn't smell. But it's very pricy. So I would use it only if I'm away for several days.

The clay stuff is too heavily scented and it produces a very fine dust that can be inhaled by cats (and humans while cleaning). I don't imagine clay dust to be good for your health.

You can try pine wood pellets. These pellets will break down into dust when exposed to poisture. And the dust is not as fine as clay dust so it doesn't get airborn as easily. Plus it's bio-degradable so you can flush it down the toilet. The pine dust also has natural wood smell which reduces odor. You can get a 40 lb bag of pine pellets for about $8.

Thanks, eelfliw, for the pine wood pellets suggestion; I'll look into that! :)

[felix]

I've tried pine wood and didn't like it as much as Yesterday's News (http://www.yesterdaysnews.com) (made with recycled newspapers).
They are often on sale at Petcetera. Their monthly flyer : http://www.petcetera.ca/?p2=modules/petcetera/flyers.jsp
They usually have on sale the bigger bags (too heavy for me to carry). Unfortunately no Petcetera locations within Toronto area.

Never tried silica though. But must be better than the clumping clay litter for sure (depending on the cat, if it's messy the stuff will go all over your home, your bed, etc). I see Petcetera selling litter gems .. i wonder if it's the same thing.

[Quadcats]

I used silica for awhile, its good absorbing.. although now with kids.. we found the pellets all over the house, it tends to stick in their fur and get transported.. so I didn't think it was safe for babies to eat urine soaked pellets that were left all over the house.

[Quadcats]

Ps.. it is much more expensive!!
Hence the two reasons for a switch

[Bullseye]

Anyone have more info about potenial health issues with normal litter 'dust'? I've always used that with my two cats, never occurred to me it might be an issue.

[hoob]

I use the Swheat Scoop stuff (natural, flushable, wheat-based) available from Petsmart and it works great.

Bigger dough-y clumps than the clay stuff, but it works fine, contains the smell properly, and most importantly is flushable. It hardly tracks at all either, unlike the clay stuff (where you find little grains all over the house.)

It's a bit costly though, so I keep an eye out for sales and coupons.

[hoob]

Anyone have more info about potenial health issues with normal litter 'dust'? I've always used that with my two cats, never occurred to me it might be an issue.

Swheat Scoop (see my post above) has a website which addresses some of this. Take what they say with a grain of salt though, since they are pushing their own product. Notice how it's the same author for a bunch of the "scientific" articles linked.

http://www.swheatscoop.com/sftyframe.html

[jande9]

Anyone have more info about potenial health issues with normal litter 'dust'? I've always used that with my two cats, never occurred to me it might be an issue.

Cat poop can contain a parasite that is very dangerous to pregnant women. That might be carried on the dust.

[guyarchangel]

Our cat uses Purina Maxx Multi-Cat Formula with HealthGuard, eventhough we only have one cat, and it's 99% dust free and way less smelly (= hopefully less bacteria growth) then other brands my cat has "tested."

Silica sounds like an interesting alternative ..... hopefully not too pricey.

[IronMac]

Cat poop can contain a parasite that is very dangerous to pregnant women. That might be carried on the dust.

Yes it can but I don't think it's carried on the dust. I would think that our sinus systems/nostrils contains enough "filters" to clean out the air enough. In the past few decades with people using clay-based cat litter, I have yet to hear of anyone dying from cat litter-related causes. :)

[IronMac]

Cat poop can contain a parasite that is very dangerous to pregnant women. That might be carried on the dust.

Yes it can but I don't think it's carried on the dust. I would think that our sinus systems/nostrils contains enough "filters" to clean out the air enough. In the past few decades with people using clay-based cat litter, I have yet to hear of anyone dying from cat litter-related causes. :)

I think that Silica is just too pricey for me. With multiple cats, I've stayed with the Petsmart heavy-duty clumping cat litter. Works very well!

[felix]

Cat poop can contain a parasite that is very dangerous to pregnant women. That might be carried on the dust.
Hey that's what we've heard too! Something about if you keep on breathing in cat poop smell you won't be able to make babies later on? My sister asked the vet this question before and he/she didn't know. Now that she herself is in vet school maybe she'll be able to find out eventually. :)

[Bullseye]

Cat crap definitely does have a parasite that is a (very small) risk to pregnant women, I knew about that one. Pregnant women are advised to not change the litter, but I hadn't heard about any concerns with the litter dust itself.

Ours is in the unfinished basement, and we've never seen it tracked upstairs before. I also have a ventilation system that sucks stale air out of the house and replaces it with fresh outdoor air, and one of the exhaust intakes is right above the litter, so I'm guess it won't be an issue for us.

My wife is currently pregnant again, though, so I would like to know for sure! Just to be safe. Or maybe I'll just switch litters to the Purina dust free stuff...

[IronMac]

Geez people, it's not that hard to Google this topic, especially if you're concerned about your wife and future progency:

http://www.catsplay.com/thedailycat/2003-11-17/bringing_habitat/cats_pregnant_women/cats_pregnant_women.html

[Bullseye]

Geez people, it's not that hard to Google this topic, especially if you're concerned about your wife and future progency:

http://www.catsplay.com/thedailycat/2003-11-17/bringing_habitat/cats_pregnant_women/cats_pregnant_women.html

Yeah, well I read all about it with my wife's first pregnancy, and knew that it was only a small risk, as I said in my post above. My concern was really only about the dust, which I haven't been able to find anything about on Google.

Thanks for the snide remark, though.

[Shiifty]

Anyone have more info about potenial health issues with normal litter 'dust'? I've always used that with my two cats, never occurred to me it might be an issue.
Not sure about litter dust, as most normal litter is clay. I don't think clay dust is harmful, but you'd have to check what other products are in the litter.

There are dangers with clumping cat litter however. The very small particles can be ingested and eventually clog the intestines of the cat. Shelters I've worked at have recommended owners stick with normal non-clumping litter at least until the cat is full grown. While the chances of a kitten dying from something like this is small, it can happen.