Paper pellet cat litter is a popular choice for cat owners because of its environmentally friendly properties. It’s made of recycled paper materials, it’s hypoallergenic, lightweight, soft on your cat’s paws, and won’t end up in a landfill like clay-based cat litters. One key difference between paper litter and more traditional litter is that paper litter functions differently and paper litter comes in a long pellet shape. With these differences, you will have to change your scooping techniques to effectively clean the cat litter box.
How To Scoop Paper Pellet Cat Litter
There are several techniques for scooping paper cat litter, but here is our step-by-step guide.
Step 1:
Locate the solid waste in the litter box. This will be easy to find in the litter box as solid waste and paper pellets look vastly different. Scoop up the solid waste with the litter scooper.
Step 2:
With the cat poop and the pellets you scooped up, try to identify any pellets that were not touched by the poop. You want to try to get these back in the litter box. This can be done by wiggling the scoop back and forth to allow the pellets to go in between the holes of the litter scoop.
Step 3:
Dump the solid waste and affected pellets from the scoop in the trash.
Step 4:
With the solid waste taken care of it, it is time to scoop up the pellets that soaked up your cat’s pee. In order to scoop them, we must identify them. These pellets are going to look differently than the normal pellets. Soiled pellets will be a bit bigger than the normal pellets because the pellets grow in size when they soak up the urine. They will also be colored slightly differently. Some brands of paper pellet litter change to a black color while other brands will change to a blue or red. It is most common for the pellets to turn black. Another difference is that soiled pellets will appear worn and rough compared to the unused litter which will be nice looking and neat. The pee will likely go all the way to the deepest litter in the the litter box, so you will want to dig around to find what to scoop.
Step 5:
With your scoop, scoop up the pellets that absorbed the pee, and dump these pellets into the trash.
Step 6:
Fill the litter box back up with litter to replace the pellets that were taken out in the scooping process. The litter box should be a few inches deep.
How Paper Pellet Litter Works
The main material in paper pellet litter is postconsumer recycled paper. Postconsumer recycled paper is paper that is recycled after someone no longer needs it anymore. The benefit of this is that you know this litter is better for the environment than other kinds of cat litter.
This litter comes in pellets hence the name. Most paper pellet cat litter brands are non-clumping. The pellets will not clump around your cat’s waste. Pellets may stick to the solid waste, but they will not clump around it.
Other kinds of pellet litter will dissolve when they come in contact with liquid but that is not the case for paper pellets. For your cat’s urine, when paper pellets get wet, they grow in size from the liquid that they soaked up and they change to a dark color.
How To Dispose Of Paper Pellet Litter
There are the two methods to dispose of this litter. The first method is to throw it away, and the other is to compost it. Some litters will claim that they are flushable but it is not a good idea to flush used litter. Flushing cat litter can mess up your plumbing system. It can also introduce Toxoplasma into the sewer system which can hurt the environment. We cover the topic of flushing litter further in the article. Throwing away the used litter is by far the easiest thing to do. Composting is also an option but you have to be careful with this. Most litter brands advise against composting the litter. If you are going to use the litter as compost, do not put the compost into the soil of any plants that you are considering eating.
How Often To Scoop Paper Pellet Litter
How often you need to scoop paper pellet cat litter depends on how many cats you have, how many litter boxes you have, and if you have any cats who have medical conditions where they need to use the litter box regularly. Most owners should scoop the litter at a minimum of one time per day, and more frequently if it is needed. It is best to scoop out the solid waste as soon as you notice it to give your cat a better litter box experience, and to get rid of the smell.
How Often To Completely Replace Paper Pellet Ltiter
As far as replacing the cat litter, it also depends on your circumstances. On average the litter will need to be completely changed out once a week.
FAQ
Can You Flush Paper Pellet Cat Litter?
Paper pellet litter should not be flushed. This litter grows in size when it comes in contact with water. Pipes and plumbing systems can become clogged which can lead to serious problems. Also, cat litter sometimes contains a parasite called Toxoplasma that should not be further spread by flushing litter into the sewer system. The parasite can get into the water we use, and it can also infect other animals.
What is the best litter scoop for paper pellets?
Paper pellets are surprisingly big. The problem that arises with paper pellets is that this can make scooping harder and when you are scooping you are more likely to throw out pellets that did not need to be thrown out. A common set up is to have two different litter scoops. One litter scoop is used specifically for solid waste while the other scoop is used for scooping up the pellets soaked in pee. The scoop for solid waste has holes that are large enough to allow the pellets to fall through. The scoop used for soiled pellets have smaller holes that will prevent the soiled pellets from falling out when you are trying to scoop them up.
What is the best kind of litter box for paper pellets?
For paper pellets, the best litter box to get is just a simple litter box. 
You do not need a sifting litter box or anything like that.
A sifting litter box would not work for this kind of litter because paper pellets do not dissolve.
Conclusion
Although paper pellet litter is a bit different from other litter, if you follow the tips and steps mentioned above, you’ll find that scooping paper cat litter is not that much harder than than scooping regular litter.
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.