If you’ve wanted to switch to an all natural cat litter rather than use a clay cat litter or some other generic clumping cat litter, but have hesitated because of the extra cost for a premium cat litter, learn how you can save money on eco-friendly cat litters. Even if you’re already green, read on to learn a few tips on how you might save some green.
First off, if you’re currently using a clay cat litter, I’ll be straight with you. Yes, natural cat litters cost more. How much more? Obviously it varies depending on what type of kitty litter you’re currently using and what type of litter you want to switch to, but a general ballpark would be twice as much. For example, a 20 lb bag of Fresh Step clay cat litter costs $5.99 whereas a 20 lb bag of Feline Pine is $9.99. If you were to buy Feline Pine’s uber premium clumping cat litter, Feline Pine Scoop, a 10 lb bag would set you back by $13.99.
Don’t be discouraged. There are ways to save money on eco-friendly cat litters so that they cost the same or even less than using a regular litter. Here are a few tips to on saving money so that you can switch from your clumping clay litter to a green cat litter.
1. Free Cat Litter
Like it or not, most natural cat litters are now made by huge conglomerates. The ma/pop kitty litter brands have sold out to the Purinas of the world. While the ideals of the original company founder are probably long lost, the benefit is that their products are now available at more stores making it more convenient for more people to use them.
With the big business, comes big promotions. The marketers working for these companies want you to switch cat litters, but they know that they have some huge obstacles to overcome to get you to switch to a different brand of cat litter. Thus, many premium cat litter companies regularly have special offers for free cat litter.
I’ve noticed it myself on my blog in the Google ad on my site. Every once in a while, I’ll see a link advertising free cat litter for one of the premium brands of all natural cat litter. You don’t need to visit cat blogs and scour random ads. Just search the web for free cat litter. Right now, I just ran a quick search for “free cat litter” and found rebates for free bags of World’s Best cat litter and Feline Pine.
2. Cat Litter Coupons
Searching for cat litter coupons is not nearly as productive as searching for free cat litter. However, I did find a cat litter coupon for Yesterday’s News to save $1.50, and you can currently eta-i.org/tramadol.html find a printable coupon for $2 off World’s Best Cat Litter through Coupon Sherpa. You also see the occasional special offer for free cat litter before. However, many of the cat litter coupons that come up are for the un-green litters such as Fresh Step.
3. Compare Prices for Natural Cat Litters
Free cat litter and cat litter coupons will help you get started, but the savings need to continue with your regular day-to-day usage of kitty litter. This is a pretty obvious tip, but shop around to compare the prices of natural cat litters. In general, natural cat litters cost more, but how much more depends on the litter you choose, the size of the bag and where you purchase it.
Furball uses Cat Country, a cat litter made from wheatgrass. Being a wheatgrass cat litter, you might expect it to cost more, but we pay about $7 for a 20 lb bag at a local ma/pop pet supply store. That’s a dollar more than Fresh Step, but steps ahead in eco-friendliness.
4. Use Less Litter
This may seem like an oxymoron, but using less litter can actually reduce litter box odors and you’ll also save hundreds of dollars on cat litter. In the past, I always added more litter to reduce the smell from the litter box. It wasn’t until I tried toilet training Furball (enter “toilet train” in the search if you want to read how this went) that I discovered that I could significantly reduce the amount of litter we used and also cut down on litter box odors.
During the toilet training, I had to reduce the litter to less than a half inch layer on a small tray sitting on the toilet seat. Furball was just as happy doing his business on a third of an inch of litter as two inches worth.
When we stopped the toilet training experiment, I started putting a third of an inch of litter in his box. I did have to scoop every day, but I was practically scooping daily before, so it wasn’t much of a change. With less litter in the box, it was actually much easier to scoop.
During the past five months, we’ve used only one 40 lb bag of cat litter. We used to go through a 40 lb bag of litter every other month. Now, we’re down to just over two bags a year, bringing the cost of using an organic cat litter to about $30 a year, a savings of 65%. If you could reduce the cost of using a natural cat litter by 65%, that would bring it on par with clay cat litter. So, now there’s no excuse not to switch to a natural cat litter!