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A recipe for homemade kitty litter (and it's nearly free)

Posted Feb 28 2008, 10:41 PM by Karen Datko
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Allie at Allie's Answers was looking for an alternative to store-bought kitty litter. She writes: "I've read horrible things about the chemicals that go into conventional clumping litters and the damaging effects of clay mining on the environment, so I'm not about to go back to clay litter."

More eco-friendly pellet litter didn't suit her either. They're too big for her Dirt Devil to pick up after the cat kicks them out of the box. So this creative blogger came up with her own recipe, and it's essentially free.

She started out with shredded newspaper in the box, but that didn't work very well. Her cat "tracked strips of paper everywhere like she was constantly throwing a kitty ticker-tape parade," Allie writes.

Then she came up with this idea (this is an abbreviated version -- read her post to get the full recipe and see the handy photos): Soak the shredded paper, drain, knead in baking soda, crumble and dry.

She says, "It takes about a half an hour to 45 minutes to make a two- to three-week supply of litter, and it's kind of fun, in an elementary school art project way."

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Comments

 

Interesting idea, but I think it is more time effective to just use kitty litter :)

John Smith (Posted 02.29.08 1:42 AM ) Report Abuse

Thanks so much for linking to my site!  I'm glad you like the kitty litter "recipe."

Allie (Posted 02.29.08 9:25 AM ) Report Abuse

Another great idea from Allies Answers!

mickey (Posted 02.29.08 2:08 PM ) Report Abuse

yeah or if you live by a creek get buckets of creek sand and let it dry out on land for a while

m (Posted 03.01.08 10:50 PM ) Report Abuse

Does this work with glossy paper too, or newsprint?

melissa (Posted 04.01.08 12:48 PM ) Report Abuse

thank you i am low income this helped a lot !

Laura (Posted 08.17.08 10:42 PM ) Report Abuse

I use sawdust that I get free from a local sawmill. It works better than any other cat litter out there. It also keeps the odor down. I take the lumps out and throw them away and then put the used sawdust on my compost pile.

Jody (Posted 08.22.08 10:09 AM ) Report Abuse

if i put my kitty's litter anywhere in the hous will he find it. and i think the sawdust idea is more practical.

serrantk@yahoo.com (Posted 08.24.08 10:50 PM ) Report Abuse

Ok..thought the newspaper litter recipe was neat and stil wil try it. But now this sawdust thing has got me. Questions

odor?

frequency of changing with scooping??

most of all tracking??

Problems I am having now are

really wet on the bottom of box regardlessof changing every other day and that is hurting financially

tracking of litter

can't use platic to put in the box as she claws right through it.

kali (Posted 09.15.08 11:01 AM ) Report Abuse

I've been really annoyed and stymied trying to find a way to recycle all those papers we have to shred because the credit card companies etc can't be bothered to stop sending us unwanted preprinted stuff ... and Waste Management refuses to take shredded paper anymore.  Thank you thank you thank you for a fantastic solution to both problems in one.  I'm now hoping to see Biobags  come with enough tensile strength to hold the contents of a box of used shredded paper litter :)

I've had great luck with all the typical kitty litter problems by using The World's Best, and S'Wheat Scoop, but one of my cats is allergic to wheat and corn.  One cat is a side-pee-er as well, so I ended up with this arrangement:  Use an 8" or 10" deep Sterilite storage bin, clear (brand up to you).  Put about a 1" layer of some kind of odor-mitigating clumping litter (wheat, corn, pine, whatever you prefer), mixed with a little baking soda, on the bottom of the pan.  Then add around 4" of the recycled paper litter pellets.  This top layer will absorb the majority of both kinds of waste, but the small amount that makes it through will clump in the odor-mitigating bottom layer.  This way, if you scoop daily, you'll get a couple weeks or more out of a change of the box.

To do a complete clean, empty all the box into a biodegradable bag to put into the garbage, then set the pan to soak with about a cup of white vinegar and a little dish soap in hot water for about 15 mins.  Give it a scrub (toilet brush works wonders for this), rinse, then let sit to dry in the sun.  (It should not smell of vinegar when you add more litter).  Between the vinegar and the sunlight, you'll eliminate both the bacteria and the odors that get caught in the plastic.

Heather (Posted 09.28.08 6:49 AM ) Report Abuse

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