Cat eating litter by accident - what type should I buy?

Kimia

Hi everyone,

My cat bless her heart is a beautiful indoor cat and is very well trained to use her litter tray. We changed litter recently from Pet Mania's 'Simplicity Plus' which is very good to one I bought on Zooplus called 'Classy Cat litter' which got fantastic reviews, so I thought it would be good.

Well it clumps great but it gets stuck in her paws so when she's grooming she's accidentally ingesting some of it and it's cutting her on the inside, making her have bloody stools etc. That was a frightening visit to the vets let me tell you.

So if this does happen, and I can't stop her from accidentally ingesting litter (bar giving her nightly foot baths which I will also do), what's the best type of litter to buy that will not harm her? The clumping, while brilliant to clean, might not be the best as it swells when wet so I don't even want to think about how damaging that might be inside her, no matter how small a piece she ingests.

Also, I will go back to using Simplicity Plus as it didn't happen with that, but we're moving soon so I may not be able to find that particular brand, so I need to know what type to look for, rather than brand, if that makes sense.

Anyone have similar stories and good solutions to litter?

Heroditas

I really hate the clumping litter.
We used to use it but got sick of it. I thought it was disgusting.
We use Catsan litter.
It's non clumping and the crystals do a really good job at absorbing urine.
Also, there isn't too much of a smell from it.
A large bag should last you three weeks and you can get it in Tesco and B&Q

CATSAN LITTER

Kimia

Thanks for your reply! I've never used non-clumping so how does the minerals work when you clean it? Do you have to replace the entire tray every second day or so? How do you scoop it out if it doesn't clump?

Also (sorry for all the questions) but would non-clumping litter, if ingested, have the same cutting effect on the cat's bowel?

Heroditas

You only have to change the entire tray once a week.
The urine gets soaked up by the crystals. Give the tray a gentle shake once a day and those crystals work their way to the bottom and the drier ones rise to the top.
Also, the crystals get mixed up when the cats dig in it anyway.
We have three cats and they all use a large tray between them. We clean it once a week and there is only a small amount of clumped urine soaked crystal stuckto the bottom of the tray when we empty it out.
All you need to do is scoop out the poo every day. The poo also dries really quickly in the tray because the crystals absorb the moisture from it.
I add a bit of litter about once a week as well because the cats have a habit of flicking a load of it out onto the floor.

I'd imagine the litter would still cut them if they ingested it but to be honest, because the crystals are not very fine like sand and because they're digging in dry crystals, they never get clumped in their claws.