Wheat-Based Cat Litter - Paw Talk

<-Steve-> · #1 07-23-2007, 05:05 PM

I recently found a coupon for a dollar off a brand of wheat-based cat litter. Is it worth using? The clay based stuff is quite a bit less expensive (even with the coupon) and I've never really had any problems with it; but I was wondering if there were any advantages to using the wheat. Any opinions? Thanks. <-Steve->

millie121 · #2 07-23-2007, 07:48 PM

I tried a wheat-based litter once, and it was a disaster. Then again, I have weird cats

. Despite doing a gradual change-over, one of the cats started eating the litter as soon as I got to 100% wheat litter

. It got in her belly and swelled up, causing her to vomit. I was not willing to keep trying to see if she would stop as I was afraid to risk doing any real damage if it were to really swell up, or get in her intestines and cause a blockage (apparently there are cases of this in rabbits, not sure about cats).

Her cat food doesn't have any wheat in it, but I guess she still recognized the wheat smell as food?? Dunno, the other cat didn't do it.

So, that was my short adventure with the wheat based litter. I use recycled paper litter now (PaPurr, for a funny play on words).

<-Steve-> · #3 07-23-2007, 08:51 PM

Thanks millie, I never even thought about the cats confusing the litter for food. I'm quite sure that at least one of mine would start munching. Dealing with the swelling cat stomach situation is an experience I can live without. Clay-based and recycled paper litters have always worked fine, so I'll stick with them. Thanks so much. <-Steve->

halfwaynowhere · #4 07-29-2007, 10:09 PM

I was planning on using a wheat based litter before I got my cat, but it turns out, Radar is allergic to wheat, and I didn't want him to lick any litter from his paws and get sick. So we use paper based litter. I don't like clay litter because its a non-renewable source, and i don't like depleting our natural resources. I've had a lot of luck with Papurr, and yesterday's news.

<-Steve-> · #5 07-29-2007, 11:08 PM

I've started going the recycled paper route as well. We'll see how it goes. There are four cats sharing two litter-boxes... so that should be a pretty good test.

<-Steve->