Wood pellet cat litter is a different from your typical clay litter that clumps. This litter is made from wood that has been made into a pellet shape. When the pellets get soaked, they break down into little sawdust particles. The wood pellet cat litter has recently become more popular as people started caring about finding more eco-friendly alternatives to products they previously used.
Advantages With Wood Pellet Litter
Since wood pellets are very different from regular litter, they have some unique benefits that some cat owners might find very appealing.
Wood Pellets Are Light.
Most cat litter is very fine and is highly dense, which makes for heavy bags that have to be picked up and poured into the litter box. Also, it is more taxing to empty out the litter box once the time has come to replace the litter completely. With wood pellet cat litter, a bag of the pellets is a lot lighter.
An Environmentally Friendly Alternative
Being made from wood, this product is more environmentally friendly than most litters. It also biodegrades pretty quickly leaving less of an impact than other litters.
Wood Pellets Don’t Track As Much
When this litter stays in it’s large pellet form, it doesn’t track that much. The reason for this is that the pieces are too big to get stuck to the paws of your cat. But, when the litter transforms into it’s sawdust form after getting wet, it can get tracked around quite a bit.
Natural
Since wood pellet litter is usually only made from wood, this litter can be safer for your cat’s since there is no toxic additives. This kind of litter also has a nice natural aroma.
How Often To Change Wood Pellet Cat Litter?
The general recommendation for the frequency one should completely change out the wood pellet cat litter is every 2 weeks. During those two weeks, you should be scooping out solids and sawdust everyday to maintain a relatively clean litter box.
In some situations, the litter will need to be changed more often and in other situations it is less often. There are a few factors that directly influence the frequency at which the litter box needs to be changed. These factors include the number of cats in the home, how big the litter box is, and how many litter boxes there are in the home.
There are several indications to know that the litter is ready to be changed. The first is excessive smell. If the litter box is getting smelly, even though you have done a good job at scooping when necessary, its time to clean out the litter box and get a fresh batch of litter in there.
Another one is if the litter box has gotten overwhelmed with dust from the pellets breaking down. Also, if the pellets all look worn and darker, this is a sign that they have seen enough action and need to be thrown out.
Is Wood Pellet Cat Litter Biodegradable?
Yes, wood pellet cat litter is biodegradable. This is a great aspect of this litter and it can be nice to know that the litter one is using is having less of a negative impact on the earth. Even if you throw this litter out, you can know that pretty soon the litter will break down back into the earth.
Or you can choose to compost it. If you go down that route, it is important to remember that you should never consume any of the plants that are grown using the compost of the wood pellet litter. If you do this, there is a chance you catch a nasty parasite known to be in cat litter.
How To Maintain a Litter Box Used for Wood Pellet Cat Litter:
Scooping a litter box that is filled with wood pellets is not the same as scooping other types of litter. The process is actually almost the opposite. When scooping wood pellet litter, you have to remember that this litter breaks down into dust particles when it is urinated on.
So, the goal of scooping is to remove the solid waste and also the dust. In order to accomplish these two goals, there are two methods that you can use. You could do it entirely by hand with a scooper or use a sifting litter box to assist you with separating the clean litter from the dust that has soaked up the urine.
If you are only using a scoop, then first start by scooping out the solid waste. Then, move onto the sawdust and scoop it out. Undoubtedly during this process, you will pick up some clean pellets. Do your best to get these back in the litter box without putting the dust back in as well. With this kind of litter, the scoop usually becomes dirtier. This will need to be cleaned. To learn how to do that, check our post on the topic.
An easier way of doing this is using the sifting litter box. The process starts the same with a sifting litter box. You need to first scoop out the poop. Then, you will essentially shake the litter box to allow all of the dust to fall through the slits at the bottom. This is a great example of a DIY sifting litter box if you want to make one for your home.
Carol is a veterinary technician and has 15 plus years of experience working in the veterinary medicine field. In her free time, she likes to write about pets.