Cat litter shortage

Foweva Awone

I'm reading a lot on Facebook about a nationwide shortage of cat litter. Haven't gone looking yet myself, but will try to stock up over the weekend. Has anyone had difficulty finding it? I hear Amazon is a good option, god knows how long it would take at the moment though. I usually go for Aldi or Lidl, but I've heard they've none at the moment and don't know when they'll get it back in.

loveisdivine

We use chick crumb from the location agri store. Clumps pretty well, odour control is better than any actual cat litter we've ever tried (and we've tried lots). It doesn't get dusty and stick to their paws. Its cheap too. It still tracks a bit like normal litter but I don't think that problem will ever be solved.

Stratvs

For several years we've been getting Tigerino non-scented clumping (12kg bag) from Zooplus.de. It seems to work best in the litter robot. But they have lots of other brands and types. They used to have free shipping over €50 but I think they charge now on all orders. They are pretty efficient, usually comes in about 10 days. Mind you the poor courier isn't often pleased with several 24kg cartons coming at once !

Foweva Awone

loveisdivine wrote: »

We use chick crumb from the location agri store. Clumps pretty well, odour control is better than any actual cat litter we've ever tried (and we've tried lots). It doesn't get dusty and stick to their paws. Its cheap too. It still tracks a bit like normal litter but I don't think that problem will ever be solved.

I had to get a basin recently as they were out of litter trays in Dealz, wasn't sure if the sides would be too tall for her but she's grand using it and it's dramatically reduced the tracking issue!!

FlubberJones

I've seen this in the local Tesco, normally we use the wood pellet stuff and that's been out for the last week.

Helgagirl

Same problem with wooden litter in Tescos, but find they will usually have it available for three weeks and maybe not for the next three in normal circumstances so last Thursday ordered it online from Petstop and received it yesterday. Cost a little more and the bottom of the bag was burst so some had spilled out into the cardboard box, but better than having none. Sometimes I try to take all the sawdust left over when wooden pellets get wet out of box,and reuse dry pellets but it can be time consuming, but you would be surprised how much can be left of the dry pellets when you do this, can be handy when you have none available.

Purple Mountain

I'm noticing a shortage for months now. Any body know why this is?
I was always dependent on Tesco recently because they seemed to not be falling short.
It might be my imagination too but I get Thomas litter in a local shop too and I notice the bag feels lighter the past few weeks.

Foweva Awone

Purple Mountain wrote: »

I'm noticing a shortage for months now. Any body know why this is?
I was always dependent on Tesco recently because they seemed to not be falling short.

I read that the company that supplies a lot of the cheaper brands like for Aldi, Tesco etc has shut down. So it looks like there'll be shortages for a while.

AndrewJRenko

I was in Maxizoo Leopardstown yesterday and they seemed to have decent stocks of all kinds.

Lesson learnt: Don't drop a 20kg bag of litter on the ground when you've gotten tired from carrying it - I'll be shoveling litter out of a burst bag for the next month.

Foweva Awone

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

I was in Maxizoo Leopardstown yesterday and they seemed to have decent stocks of all kinds.

Lesson learnt: Don't drop a 20kg bag of litter on the ground when you've gotten tired from carrying it - I'll be shoveling litter out of a burst bag for the next month.

Ugh that is THE WORST!!

I got a couple of bags in Equipet Tallaght yesterday. Think it was about €7 for 8L bags. Just irks me to pay that when I've been getting 10L bags for about €1.60 in Aldi for so long. The idea of paying so much for something that is literally to be shat on!

Foweva Awone

Cat litter was back in stock in Aldi on the Long Mile Road when I was there this evening. The usual brand.

Graces7

Foweva Awone wrote: »

I had to get a basin recently as they were out of litter trays in Dealz, wasn't sure if the sides would be too tall for her but she's grand using it and it's dramatically reduced the tracking issue!!

I have used a large washing up bowl for decades.

And I use the turf ash as litter. Mine are indoor/outdoor so that is fine.

BengaLover

Wood pellets for stove are cheap, biodegradable and smell great

FlubberJones

I see stock in tesco has returned to normal so at least that concern has gone

Meathcat

Short-term, you could use sand but it wouldn't be scented so you would have to clean out the tray fairly regularly! I'm lucky, my cats live outside in the shed (they are ex-ferals we adopted last year) but I do have a litter tray in there for nights they don't want to go outside. The charity I adopted them from managed to litter-train them before I got them.

Foweva Awone, could you use a paint tray instead? One of the deeper ones that they have in Woodies might be easier than a basin :-)

boomerang

Tigerino back in stock on Zooplus now, phew!

New Home

I have a recent adoptee. I always use potting compost instead of cat litter. I flush the solids down the loo and I put the wet soil in a composting bin with the lid open so the rain washes it out. I don't touch it from one year to the next, mind you, and I don't use it for growing vegetables. Doesn't get more biodegradable/recyclable than that, and the cat loves it. Wood pellets, which someone else mentioned, arevgreat, too, but they take much longer to break down, especially if you have a lot of them together.

Graces7

My oldest cat has his own solution now.. He stands by the door and wails and if I don't get there fast? Poor old lad.. but he is happy if there is eg cardboard by the door, so no fuss. Or cardboard anythere…

Old age is not for cissies in any living critter.