Dear Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,
This is another one of the most common questions I used to get when I worked at the pet store. It’s crazy how many folks have tried to flush cat litter down before knowing whether or not it was safe. I’ve even had customers try to convince me that certain brands were flushable even though the bags were clearly labelled do not flush. So why not do a mega post with the most popular litter brands and let you know if they are flushable or not.
Now, remember, even though a litter is flushable you’re going to want to break it down into smaller pieces to make sure that it doesn’t block your plumbing. (Just because something is flushable, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have the chance to clog your drains.)
Is your litter missing from this list? Still wondering if it’s flushable? Let me know so I can add it to the list!
We’re very careful with our plumbing, so we never flush any litter. Purrs
<3 It's a fair choice
What a great post! I’m so used to the litter genie that flushable litter doesn’t even register on my radar. I’d love to try some – and how great for the environment!
We have a septic system so I would never flush any kind of litter.
That’s an absolutely fair choice to make.
We’ve used litters that say they’re flushable. But the mom never did. She was too worried about the plumbing.
Completely understandable. We make sure to break down our litter by a lot before flushing so it’s a bit more powdery.
Good info! We use (and love) Swheat Scoop and have for about 15 years. While it is flushable, we don’t flush it. Part of that has to do with our ongoing drought and consequent efforts to conserve water, but the other part has to do with thinking about what folks *already* flush down the toilet! Yikes, people! Also, in the U.S,, not all states allow flushable litter to be flushed (California, for instance, is one.)
P.S. We tried toilet training a long time ago. Mom’s original cat eventually fell into the toilet during training, and their relationship was never the same. 🙁
Oh no! That’s the worst!! 🙁 <3
Completely understandable. Also, curious, what Swheat Scoop do you use? The blue bag we tried was TERRIBLE and we went through a huge bag in about a month because it didn’t clump properly. I heard that the green bag is much better, but at our local pet store it comes at quite a higher price. (Which would be fine if we could trust that it would clump well like World’s Best Cat Litter does.)
We usually use the blue bag but sometimes we’ll get the green if there’s a sale and it’s less $. We actually don’t see a difference in the regular versus multi-cat. Diggers will dig and kickers will kick! The regular clumps very nicely here, except during the monsoon season when it’s humid. Otherwise, at 5%-15% humidity, it’s fine. (We do live in the desert.)
Interesting to note. I’ve never thought of the humidity being a factor in the clumping. Up here in Canada-land, it’s pretty bad at clumping. I’ve heard similar things from people who use it who often recommend I use “World’s Best” (which is funny, because that’s what I use.)
I love World’s best cat litter. My vet recommended it. It was also necessary to use when I tried to train them to use the toilet with City Kitty since it is flushable. Two of my meows took to it . The third absolutely refused .
I’ve always debated training my cats to use the toilets, but I haven’t actually purchased that training product… I really should though and see how it goes with my kitties!
OMG, I would never flush litter, even if the package says so! I know well the horrors of stopped up sewer pipes, and I’ll never again try to flush or wash something down that the system wasn’t originally built for. Heck, we don’t even have a dishwasher! Although I’d like a scientist to figure out how to make cat pooplogs and peeballs compostable (right now, folks are advised to leave it out of compost piles), I’ll use the trusty garbage to take away our feline leavings. Just imho, but this is a great post!
I completely feel you. If our place didn’t have rules about throwing litter down the chute I think we’d be throwing out the pee at least (the poop doesn’t usually clump with the “organic litters” in my experience, so it should usually be safe for septic disposal.) We sadly don’t even have compost in my area (which shocks me, because this is the first place I live in that doesn’t have compost!) But it would be VERY nice to see a biodegradable litter. I wonder what it would take to make one!