I tried some new litter - the pine pellet kind. I didn't just immediately switch, but did the slow thing a little of the pine pellets with plenty of their usual litter, then more pine pellets and less litter until it was all pine pellets. This was over maybe a two week time period. One cat was fine with it, he used it with no problems. But the other two hated it. One would not cover her business and one started using the bathroom on the rug. Should I just give up on using the pine pellets? It worked great at covering the smell, but if they aren't going to use it, well that's a whole other problem. Has anyone here ever made a major switch with their cat litters? If so did it work and how did you do it?
I've never tried the pine pellets, but I have used different brands and types of clumping litter. If there is a specific brand of litter on sale, I'll buy it, so I have used several brands and it seems like they all have a different fragrance. My cats have always used whatever I put in there, but it wasn't a totally different kind like the pellets.
One time I had to buy the regular litter, the kind that doesn't clump and after a few days, the ammonia smell was so bad that the cats would not go in their litter box. However, I didn't blame them because the odor was horrible. I immediately went back to the clumping litter and everything was fine.
Since I have never used pine pellets, I was wondering if they have a weird odor that your cat's do not particularly like? I would think that if a cat has something to dig in and cover it up with, they shouldn't mind the consistency. So maybe it's the smell of the pine pellets that's turning them off.
I'm very lucky with this issue, my cats aren't even slightly picky! I normally use a kind of litter that has very tiny pellets, clumps very easily and has no particular scent. But sometimes, when that particular kind of litter isn't available, I have to buy some other kind and I've tried a lot of different kinds over the years. Some were scented, had bigger pellets and one kind was of such low quality that it had a few pieces of wood in the bag! But neither of my cats had problems with any changes.
Introducing them to the new litter gradually was a very smart approach, but it seems that they just don't like it. It might be the pine scent, they might react better to a different scent.
We haven't switched the litter up on our cats since we got them. They are very much set in their ways, and it's kind of a "whatever works, don't change it" situation. They are not very receptive to changes at all.
However, the one thing with regards to litter that they *are* very particular about, is which one uses what litter box. One of my cats seems to think all the litter boxes in the house belong to her, and will attack the other cat when she is trying to go. The other cat has to try and sneak around the house and use a litter box that's farthest away from the mean one.
