Hi fellow cat-owners,
I have recently brought my orange tabby to Switzerland and started using the silica gel litter. On the packaging of the new one I bought from Aldi, it says "The used cat litter is Bio-abfall and can go in the Biotonne bins."
I am not sure I understand this. Does that mean I can put it in the Green bins? And if the answer is yes, do I use a Züri-Sack for this?
Another question: Scooping out cat poo everyday from the litter causes a slight problem as it takes me at least 2-3 days to even fill a small Züri-Sack and take out the rubbish.
What do you do about this? Do you flush it down the toilet? One thing that occurred to me is the Robidogs. Do you think we can dump the cat-poo in the Robidogs? Any ideas?
I can't answer this, I don't know if bio needs to be bagged.
My used litter goes into my equivalent of a Zuri-sack and gets binned. What I do is help myself to a roll of small plastic bags from coop or migros when needed. I can scoop poop, tie and stash, no fuss no smell. I keep my trashcan outside, so there's no problem with the stench of 3 day old bagged cat **** fermenting in the sunshine.
You can use the robidog. I thought about that once, but I felt kind of weird steeling robidog bags just to bin my cat ****. I felt like an even bigger dick taking bags of cat **** with me in the morning to dump in the robidog on my way to work in the morning. So, I decided not to be such a tight-wad and just buy bin bags like everyone else.
I did consider teaching the cats to use the toilet, but my GF vetoed that saying she was not prepared to share the toilet with a cat. We don't **** in their box, why should they **** in ours? I can see her point.
I would not flush it. That'll block the drains.
There is a special cat litter bin, which is sealed and ties the bags.
It looks something like this and can be bought at Qualipet, it's called a litter-locker.
Thanks Traubert for this very useful advice.
I might look for a litter-locker. At the moment I bag the scooped poo and keep it in the bathroom bin and it doesn't smell when the lid is on but still I'd prefer to get rid of it everyday.
I tried toilet-training my cat when he was about 8 months old and we had a second toilet. He wasn't doing badly but unfortunately it coincided with his "puberty" and caused problems as he wasn't neutered at the time. When my parents took care of him for a year before I brought him here, they kept the litter box in the unused extra squat toilet. After a time, they started feeling a very pungent smell around the area but couldn't figure it out as they were changing the litter frequently. Then it dawned on them that, the kitty was actually peeing in the squat toilet and since he couldn't flush and the toilet was never used, the pee had started smelling very badly. Funny isn't it?
By the way when I was toilet training him, I used a regular seating toilet and I would hear him flushing regularly.
Waou
your cat is amazing he was flushing the toilet !
i also have a cat,and i throw the used litter in
the garbage bag,i have to say cat litter here don t work great ,i miss so much the cat litter in the usa,one of our friend came from there and i ask him for a box of arm$hammer cat deodorant.
Anything that goes in the green bins for composting must be biodegradeable. You can buy special bags for this in Migros. They are white with green writing and come in roll in a plastic bag.
You only need Zürich-sacks for your normal household waste
I've been flushing my silica cat litter down the toilet for two years, with no problems whatsoever. I prefer it to clay based litter for precisely this reason i.e. its flushable
I recently discovered World's best cat litter. It's entirely natural, made from corn and is bio-degradable and can be flushed down the loo. I also like that it's not as dusty as the other scoopable type litters (which affects my sinuses) . But the price difference is VERY noticable!!
I am having a REALLY hard time with Swiss cat litter! I have tried several types and don't like any of them. None seem to actually be scoopable! I have yet to try the crystals or World's best. Are these both scoopable? Do they control the odor? Any advice is appreciated.
I've tried various ones for ours and find the best ones for our and the cats dust sensitive noses are either in Denner (non clumping) 10 litres for 4.95 chfs and Fatto forest from Migros (clumps well ) 10 litres for 8.90 chfs.
The fatto forest,
our first preference, is made from wood waste and has (to me) a very pleasant pine odour and isn't as dusty as the clay based ones. Also not as heavy to dispose of.
Our cats like it fine as well, it also doesn't get tracked around the flat as much as some others, very pleased with it.
Migros also has a very similar one to the Bio catolet also from fatto, for approx 5.95 chfs, they are both made from recycled paper and textile.
I know of someone else who uses the fatto natural stuff and is quite pleased with it, so I am planning to switch to that as well. [In small amounts] it is flushable so that you avoid having to 'keep around' the waste until it's time to put out your trash bag.
In two of the three leases I've signed since I've been here, as they also contained a separate contract about for the cats, it specifically stated that cat litter could not be flushed. In addition, for those litters that are not meant to be flushable (e.g. the clay stuff) it is printed on the packaging that it should not be flushed...
I did consider the silica cat litter and the possibility of being able to flush it away, but after reading various websites, I came to the conclusion that, while that is convenient for the cat owner, the cons outweigh the pros for me.
Here is just one of the many sites that offer a lot of useful information on the disposal of cat litter and tips on which type to choose.
I did consider toilet training the cat, especially as we are fortunate enough to have a guest toilet which I wouldn't have to use after him
I've had a number of cats which "learned" to use the toilet. It was quite nice to have less worries about the litter box.
Also though, about the potential for mess when the cat uses it, I seriously do not recall ever having a problem with having to wipe the seat after my cat... unlike my experiences sharing a bathroom with some (human) men.
I'm curious about the folks mentioning how bad the "litter" is for the plumbing. Is it the clay / sand / silica or is it the cat feces itself which you are saying is so bad?
I can see clay and sand being bad, particularly if you are dumping it straight in but "proper scooping" to separate the box filler from what you want to actually dump into the toilet should take care of that, shouldn't it?
Copied and pasted from the site I mentioned above;
The Environmental Impact of Used Litter
As noted above, the volume of used cat litter produced by U.S. cats annually is significant. Clay-based litters don’t biodegrade, so they will sit in a landfill for a long time. Even litters that are advertised as biodegradable don’t have the opportunity to break down in most landfills because they are disposed of in plastic bags that prevent decomposition from occurring.
On a larger scale, cat litter disposal can affect the health of wildlife. The state of California has limited the flushing of cat litter after sea otters in Monterey Bay began contracting toxoplasmosis. Wastewater facilities in the state are not designed to remove the toxoplasma parasite from the water supply, and the parasite enters the otter’s food chain via mussels and other shellfish. Cat litter sold in the state must carry a warning label explaining the dangers of toxoplasmosis to otters, and cat owners caught flushing litter are subject to fines of up to $25,000.
Some natural-based cat litters (those made of corn, wheat or other plant products) can be composted, but it may not be possible to use these litters as compost because your community may have restrictions against it. Additionally, it’s not recommended to use cat litter as compost for vegetable gardens (composting doesn’t kill parasite eggs that may be present in cat feces) to keep the harvest disease-free.
While this is a US site, I have read the same on Swiss and German sites, I used this one for ease of English.
Thanks, I'd not read that ( ) and was only thinking about the plumbing (after being told not to flush certain other things I'm accustomed to flushing as well).
Hubby's job is dealing with the litter as I don't want to increase my own risk of toxoplasmosis in case I get pregnant.
I'd been thinking to get the automatic litter boxes along with clumping litter. That still doesn't do much for the (lack of) degrading once disposed but as I think those automatic ones seal as they go, hopefully it would help so far as the potential of spreading disease goes.
I has a sad, my cat got killed on the road Saturday.
And here I am.. still browsing in the pet corner looking for little somethings for her.
Stupid cat.
CK
Aww, CK, I'm so sorry to hear that!
The green bins are only for garden waste. Kitchen waste, even if biodegradable, must be Zuri-Sacked.