Biodegradeable cat litter

Shewhomustbe...

Why oh why can you not get biodegradeable cat litter in this country?

I have two house rabbits and have to use the clay litters on the market (I use Thomas as I find it has the least amount of dust)

Apart from the fact that its enviromentally friendly, it's a far more healthy choice for pets, especially rabbits who can sometimes eat the litter by mistake.

The govt really piss me off as now they decide to let us know how bad the waste problem is when there are fu*k all recycling centres in this country and I'm sure this is just one of the many things not available here that would help the problem.

It makes my blood boil...

http://www.greenchoice.com/litter_1.html

Falkorre

A lot of pet shops do compressed paper litter, as well as corncob litter.
I know (even tho i dont like them) petstop in blanchardstown do.

And actually, being a natural mineral clay, I would assume thomas cat litter would be eco-friendly, as it can to my knowledge, be mixed with your garden compost and used for topsoil dressing etc as long as the fecal matter is given the appropriate time to decompose in a composter?

However, it is not flushable, so dont make that mistake, even the paper pellets are no suitable for flushing in this country, but that is because of our system for dealing with "waste" and not the litter itself.

B

watty

Very little is flushable. I lived a year in a country where it was almost a crime to put loo paper in the bowl. A bin beside was provided!


I have a LOT of waste (too much for us to compost) from the soiled hay used as "cavey litter" / bedding of our Nine Guinea Pigs. We have to put it out for binman in plastic sacks although is is a very degradeable / compostable material.

Falkorre

maybe you could ask around locally and see if there is anyone growing organically or who has a composter, they might really appreciate it!
so many people have composters in city dwellings you would be amazed, specially now with the bin charges, we have sold more of them (i work in a v v large store), in the past few months than we did in a year 3 years ago apparently.

B

watty

We live in village at edge of countryside. Does seem mad!

Our own composter would be overloaded in a week!

The local farmers arn't interested.

"Guinea Pig poo on my vegetables!" She paused "No thanks!"

Yet they spread stinking slurry. Ah the fresh country smells!

Shewhomustbe...

Originally posted by Dawntreader
And actually, being a natural mineral clay, I would assume thomas cat litter would be eco-friendly, as it can to my knowledge, be mixed with your garden compost and used for topsoil dressing etc as long as the fecal matter is given the appropriate time to decompose in a composter?B

If I can put the Thomas cat litter into a composter you've made me a happy woman.
There isn't a huge amount of it anyway and I'm trying to make my house as eco-friendly as I can.

RainyDay

Originally posted by Shewhomustbe...
Why oh why can you not get biodegradeable cat litter in this country?

Presumably because either

a) There is no commercial market for such a product in this country, or
b) No-one has ever thought of importing the product

Originally posted by Shewhomustbe...
The govt really piss me off as now they decide to let us know how bad the waste problem is when there are fu*k all recycling centres in this country and I'm sure this is just one of the many things not available here that would help the problem.

It makes my blood boil...

Ah Jaysus - Give the Govt a break. It's not as if the product is banned or anything. What role do you really expect the Govt to play in providing biodegradeable cat litter? Do you really expect Bertie to interrupt his chairmanship of Europe to create a chain of Govt-backed biodegradeable cat litter shops?

Have you tried doing anything constructive to get this sorted, like asking your local pet shop to starting importing this, or getting a group of like-minded cat owners together to create the critical mass that would be required to make this commercially viable?

I admire your enviromentally-sound intentions, but you can't expect to be spoon-fed on this one - Get out there & make it happen.

Shewhomustbe...

RainyDay, while I appreciate your candor I'm not sure you actually read what I posted.

The govt really piss me off as now they decide to let us know how bad the waste problem is when there are fu*k all recycling centres in this country and I'm sure this is just one of the many things not available here that would help the problem.

I'm not ASKING for them to provide biodegradable cat litter for me, and if I did want

Bertie to interrupt his chairmanship of Europe to create a chain of Govt-backed biodegradeable cat litter shops?

I would expect him to since his job is to serve ME not the other way around.

Have you tried doing anything constructive to get this sorted, like asking your local pet shop to starting importing this

The cat litter costs more than $10 in the States, care to render a guess as to how much it will cost when it gets here?

I have two house rabbits

so I'm afraid I don't know where the cat owners hang out so I can't start the revolution just yet.

And I certainly don't expect

to be spoon-fed on this one

or any issue I may have. I've been making the effort for nearly twenty years but its a bit rich when one hand grants planning permission for incinerators and the other tells me the horror of our waste problem. We are too far behind in our thinking and if I could speak to the masses about this I would.

Care to tell me how???

Capt'n Midnight

Could you try sand or peat moss perhaps, you can also get sawdust / straw in some places probably less use.

RainyDay

So what was the point of your original post then? Was it just a whinge/rant to get something off your chest - or are you asking for some action to be taken? If the latter, please be specific as to what you want.

Shewhomustbe...

I guess it started as a bit of a rant, but as you pointed out it's only cat litter and not going to be that high on anyone's agenda.

Shewhomustbe...

"Despite the huge growth in recycling practise by our European partners, Ireland trails many years behind the rest of the EU. in terms of facilities and infrastructure for major resource recycling. In Germany, for example, its pretty much possible to recycle any domestic waste. Almost every street corner in most urban areas have a recycling 'cluster' for glass, plastics, steel and aluminium tins and paper. Indeed many cities also pick up this separated waste and organic compost as part of their routine refuse collection. "

quoted from
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/ireland22/recycle.htm