What are your experiences trying to be thrifty/frugal with stuff for your cats?

We got this lovely girl at an animal shelter. She had been a feral cat, was around two years old, and was extremely shy and wary of humans. We also picked up a pre-owned litter box from the shelter, a basic one without enclosure or roof. Once she had settled in and felt comfortable with us, we got a kitten as a companion for her.

Litter boxes - Penny wise and pound foolish
We quickly realized that cheap, low litterboxes meant twice daily cleaning of the floor around it. We also learned that enclosed litter boxes are better, but some cats don’t like them with flaps and will sometimes prefer to do their deeds outside the box. We went through five different models of litter boxes before settling for the top-entry ModKat (thrifted for half price at the cat shelter), and then we also upcycled a toy chest into an enclosed cat litter box. So all in all, we tried to save money on cheap litter boxes, but the one that was by far the easiest to clean and got the least amount of litter outside of it was the ModKat and the upcycled toy chest ranked second.

For the ModKat we first used liners (pricey!) that we bought from pet stores. But we soon discovered there was no point in having the liners, one of the cats just pulled them down and did their deeds between the liner and the wall. Instead it’s just easier to just clean out the whole box regularily.

In summary: We wasted way too much money on finding good litter boxes.

Litter - The cheaper options tend to cost more money or labour in the long run

  • Shredded paper cat litter, and shredded paper litter pellets, are very economical, but the whole house eventually reeks of ammonia and wet newspapers unless you change them out very frequently. So while the packs are cheap, you use more and the bags tend to take up space. Plus, the soggy paper sticks to their paws and tends to get around the house.
  • Clumping clay litter is a bit more expensive, but the cheaper varieties are fairly dusty. We tried all kinds of varieties.
  • Wood pellets (with special litter boxes), was about as cheap as the paper litter. It required once-or-twice-daily sifting, and twice weekly emptying. It did cover up the cat urine smell better than the paper, but as our cats didn’t like stepping on them when it was freshly changed, they did their nr 2 outside the box. Also, there seemed to fly wood chips all over the room when we sifted. I used the wood pellets for our gardens instead.
  • Crystal litter is more expensive, but it absorbs the urine smell very well and lasts for quite a long time with daily emptying. Alas, our cats didn’t like the normal crystal litter (it seemed to hurt their paws or butts), so they did their deeds outside the box. So while I thought I had made a bargain when I bought 30 kg of crystal litter from an online pet store, I ended up having to give the majority away as it wasn’t feasible for us at all.
  • Clumping crystal litter was even more expensive, but the crystals were smaller and the cats tolerated it. But I noticed that it eventually formed a lot of dust, and both mine and the cats noses were runny whenever we went anywhere near the space where the litter boxes were. Plus, if they managed to track any crystals outside of the box, they hurt to step on for us.

In summary: We failed being frugal or thrifty, and spent too much on different brands of litter to find out which one was accepted by the cats. The litter we’re using now is one of the more expensive clumping clay varieties, EverClean. But it lasts for longer, is less dusty, is well accepted by the cats (less boo boo’s), there is much less cleaning needed and one month’s supply takes up fairly little space compared to most of the other options.

    • RegnaOPM
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      41 year ago

      Interesting, I had never heard of or seen stainless steel litter boxes before.

        • RegnaOPM
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          21 year ago

          From the ones we looked at, we would still have to vacuum/sweep twice daily and mop daily as it’s still a relatively low litter box. It’s probably a great idea for those who don’t have cats that love to eject litter material all over, as it’s supposedly good for containing and not reacting to ammonia.

          But for some weird reason… If there were enclosed stainless steel litter boxes it would seem dystopic. Maybe just me.

  • @DpwnShift
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    51 year ago

    Thanks for sharing your findings, the toy chest idea is very cool! I also want to say you are clearly very good humans for trying so many different solutions for your whiskered friends! I wish you all happy times together…

  • tjhart85
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    41 year ago

    For us with two cats, two sifting litterboxes with the wood pellets and one litter box with pretty litter works well.

    They seem to prefer to piss in the wood pellets and poop in the pretty litter (overall) which is funny because the pretty litter is supposed to turn colors in reaction to their urine, but whatcha gonna a do‽

    • RegnaOPM
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      31 year ago

      It’s so funny that kitties have such different personalities and preferences, before we got our cats I thought they’d be more predictable, but alas, they are individuals. Good thing that you got them to like wood pellets for peeing, even though it defeats the purpose of the colour changing crystals. But the average cost will be fairly decent in the long run compared to crystal only.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      We can’t use silica based crystals in my house because my cat will not use them for bathrooming purposes but will stick her tongue in them and come running to us to help her get them off her tongue (they stick firmly and quickly) them as soon as she is free of them, runs back for another tonguefull. 🤷‍♀️