Greening your Kitty Litter

Shredded paper kitty litter

Today I want to write about something near and dear to my heart. If you have cats, please consider reading this! I know it is a little long, but I feel it is important! First a little background info:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that I have returned to being at home with the kids, our income has had a bit of an adjustment. I’m (ever so) slowly acquiring kids for my home childcare, but I plan to stop at 4 full-time or 6-ish part-time (or a combination therein) so that I am not overwhelmed with kids and can give my own kids the attention that caused me to come home to be with them in the first place.

My income may increase beyond what I USED to actually bring home (in great part because I had to give so much of my paycheck away to put my son in daycare each week, and would obviously have to pay twice that if I had returned to working outside the home after the birth of my daughter 4 months ago), but it is unlikely to rise to an amount that would put us on the list of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous! LOL!

So, I consider the shopping, bill paying, and majority of the housework to be pretty much in my domain right now. My hubby works long hours outside the home, so it makes sense for me to do the bulk of these chores. Because of that, it is also my job (in my mind) to save our family as much money as possible and find ways to make our money stretch as far as possible. At the same time, I want us to enjoy our lives, so I do allow for some recreational spending.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One area that I started saving money in several years ago was the area of cat litter. I had heard this wild idea that shredded paper is not only cheaper (actually, I got it for FREE and I’ll tell you how in a minute), but there is no toxic dust like you get from regular clay litter. It’s also much lighter, making it SO much easier to lift the box to clean it out. It is gentler on the cat’s paws AND (my favorite part…) it is biodegradable. You can literally go out back near your tree line or compost pile (make a separate pile for non-veggie-garden compost, where you'll dump the cat litter - What I mean is, the cat litter should not be dumped on compost used in veggie gardens or anything you'd eat, like berry bushes and fruit trees, but other foliage/shrubs are fine) and dump it right onto the ground or in the compost pile and let it rot. It’ll be gone in a couple weeks, especially if you have worms helping you.

So, how do I get enough shredded paper for FREE? I used to simply ask our school secretaries for their bags of shredded paper (they have to shred so many documents for confidentiality reasons). This saved them from disposing of them in the garbage and so they were always very happy to have me take it off their hands. I am sure ANY office that shreds paper would also be happy to accommodate you! You can also shred all your junk mail and old bills (you can scan a copy onto your computer if you need to – be sure to back up your documents onto a disc every couple of months, tho, just in case). You can use sales fliers from stores so long as it is not the laminated/glossy kind. Ask your neighbors for their junk mail and sales fliers if you can’t find an office or aren’t located close enough to one. Paper shredders are fairly inexpensive, and it's a good idea to shred your more sensitive mail anyway in my opinion.

So, here are the steps to the process of having shredded-paper cat litter:

1. Shred the paper. Put the shredded paper in a big garbage bag or store in a plastic tote or cardboard box, whatever you have on hand.  Either shred the paper yourself, or get it for free like I do!

2. Get yourself a good cat box. The picture above actually is not my box (my box is with my ex-husband at the moment, as are my cats). My box is the kind with the lid over the top, a so-called "privacy" box. What I like about the lidded one is that it traps some of the odors a little. Also, it has a handle on the top, so I can easily lift the box by the handle and bring it outside to empty it.

3. Make sure the box is clean and dry. Lay a layer or two of newspaper/sales flier on the bottom of the box without shredding it. This makes it easier to empty the box and also acts as a bit of an absorbent layer that will make cleaning the box out easier without cat feces sticking to the bottom of the box.

a) To get your cats weaned from the regular cat littler, start with your regular amount of regular cat litter in the box (without a layer of unshredded newspaper). Sprinkle a thin layer of shredded paper on top of their regular litter. The next time you clean their box, add a little less regular litter and a little more shredded paper. Continue doing this until you are using all paper and no litter (but with the layer of unshredded paper on the very bottom). Voila, your cats are using the paper and loving it!

4. On top of the unshredded paper you should add about 4-6 inches of shredded paper. No need to pack it in, just throw it in there! I also sprinkle a little bit of baking soda after the first 2 inches of shreds, just to help with odor.

5. After your cat uses the box, the simple fact is that it will smell a little more than you’re used to until the paper dries. See if you can find a closed-off or separated area for the box. I had mine in my linen closet, with a big towel or small blanket over the shelf that it sits under. The blanket then draped nearly down to the ground (I had mine about half an inch from the ground to make it easier for the cats to paw it out of the way to get behind the blanket and use the box. Also, this provides some air circulation to help the paper dry faster. After the litter dries, it should smell like a regular box.

6. I did find I had to change the litter box a little more frequently than before, but not as much as some people claim is needed. As I said in #5, it will smell immediately after they use the box, but it will fade. Also, you can sprinkle a handful or so of shredded paper over the soiled area, which will also help with the smell. I used to change our regular box once a week for 2 cats. With shredded paper, I changed our box (with 2 cats using it) once every 5 days. So, only a 2 day difference. Also, the more paper you use, the less often it needs to be changed.

7. When the box needs to be changed, take the whole box outside and dump it about 15- 20 feet from your house (or more, of course) – it will biodegrade! Give the box a quick rinse with the hose or in your tub, maybe a squirt of soap (but I didn’t find I needed to do that more than once a month) and let it air dry and use it again!



Be kind to your cat’s feet, your family’s respiratory system (due to dust in regular clay litter), your back (from having a less-heavy box to carry), the environment (no toxic clay in landfills that does NOT biodegrade well) and your POCKETBOOK (it can be virtually FREE).