BEST Eco-friendly Cat Litter — Wood Pellets

Next to food, cat litter is the most important supply you will buy for your cat. Having a litter box that works for you and your cat is priceless. I’ve researched and tried many different kinds and I am so happy with what I’ve found and is working for my cat.

A breakdown of litter options:

Crystal Litter

Sound attractive – It looks nice, it absorbs liquids quickly. You need less of it than Clay. The downside is that it is more expensive, can pose health risks if ingested, some cats do not like walking on it and like clay litters is not good for the environment.

But overall Clay clumping litters seem to be the most popular form of cat litter. Due to the following reasons:

  1. Most conveniently available
  2. It’s cheap
  3. It has decent performance and cats will use it
  4. Most owners are unaware of the dangers both to the cat and the environment.

I personally do not like using clay litter because the dust, smell, tracking, potential health risks but most importantly for environmental reasons.

Clay based litter must be mined and in the US 2.54 million tons of clay are mined each year. The process of mining creates has many environmental impacts. Then there is the disposal of this litter each year. Clay litter will sit in the landfill for an entirety as it is non-degradable. It is estimated that about 4 million tons of clay litter enter US landfills each year.

So what is the eco-friendly option?

Plant Based

SwHeat Scoop  – Made from ground wheat which is suppose  to eliminate orders as well as clumps. Unfortunately I have not tried this but have read many good reviews.

Newspaper Pellets – This was the first litter a tried with my kitten. I only used it for the first week. I found that the pellets became soggy, wet and sticky and there wasn’t much of a way to sift through to remove the soiled pellets. There fore many of the clean pellets were wasted. There was also almost no order control. But I did appreciate not having the strong clay smell.

Feline Pine Litter – Feline pine is a wood pellet cat litter. The order control is excellent. No chemical or clay smells, rather a nice wood smell. Some say that this litter works well for pee but not poop. I feed my cat a strictly raw diet therefore he has almost zero poop smell (its truly amazing!) There is no tracking, perhaps only a couple full size pellets that fall out that you can easily throw back in. Zero litter sticks to the bottom or the feed of my long haired Persian. I could go on and on about the advantages of this litter.

The only downside could be the price. And that is when I discovered wood burning pellets. I am now convinced I found the single best litter for my home. I couldn’t be more happy. The cost is about $5 for a 15kg bag. In one year I have spent $10 on two bags and have not finished the second bag. That is less than $10 a year on litter for one cat. While the price alone is amazing, the benefits of order elimination, ease of use, and Eco-friendly just top the cake.

The disposal. Because my cat is raw fed his poop is very small and once a day at the max. I easily scoop  his poop every day and flush it without flushing any of the pellets. Then filter the soiled pellets which will now be sawdust into a container. Then once a week I put this sawdust in the compost bin. This is a huge advantage for me because in Switzerland we are charged for every thing we throw away. We pay about $2 for each 17 liter bag. So you can imagine the added cost if I had to throw away used litter each week.

wood pellet cat litter
Wood Burning Pellets

You can buy wood pellets at most home improvement or gardening stores. As well as large animal farm supply stores sell them as horse bedding. At 4 months old my cat took to it right away with no issues. Changing the litter for a stubborn adult cat could cause issues and patience would be required.

wood burning pellets

Using this new system I needed to develop a new litter box system that would optimize the litter. See my DIY wood pellet litter system.

DIY Wood Pellet Litter Box

Are any of you using Eco-friendly litter? Please share your experiences, I’d love to hear. And I’m happy to answer any of your questions. :-)

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5 Comments

  1. Rossella
    March 25, 2017 / 5:40 am

    I have used wood pellets for our two cats for over five years. It’s easy to clean their boxes: I remove the solids (into the toilet) and then after a few days will empty the now fluffed-up (from urine) wood pellets into the garden area. You need very little pellets (so it barely covers the bottom of the box). Wood pellets are inexpensive and environmentally friendly and most of all the cats are happy (and clean)

    • March 25, 2017 / 1:46 pm

      Agreed! I feel like its one of the best-kept secrets in the pet world. It’s such a game changer. When I had one cat, I spent less than $15 a year on cat litter. And the best part is it is all compostable! Just too good!

  2. cornma
    September 19, 2015 / 7:09 pm

    I finally had the chance to buy wood pellets like shown in the pic after using
    the respectable Feline Pine for many years. 5$ for a 40 lbs bag! I don’t think
    my cat will have problem with it this year. Mine too is fed on a raw diet
    after too many years on that bs dry then cans with raw, now 100% raw!

    • September 19, 2015 / 7:14 pm

      I would love to know what differences you notice between the two? Feline Pine pellets may be smaller in size?

      • cornma
        September 19, 2015 / 10:49 pm

        With FP, you have the choice of pellets or sawdust. I tried both and either works good. The pellets sawdust themselves. The FP pellets seem to be of the same size as my wood ones.

        The sawdust might be the best as it supposedly is softer on our friends’ cute round paws but again, not confirmed.

        FP was effectively expensive. With one 20 lbs of FP bag, I could’ve bought 3 bags of wood pellets at the hardware store! I wish the hardware store would home deliver, they only have store pickup, grrr. 5$ for a 40 lbs, I still cannot believe it! I’m pretty sure I’ll be good until summer 2016!