It's definitely something to consider, which is why I don't use it on veggies that come into contact with the soil. After leaving for a year or two and used on fruit trees or natives will be fine as most potential pathogens won't survive that long.
Though I don't have a resource specifically for composting, the CDC says that cooking food to 67C will kill off any toxoplasmosis - if you hot compost and let it cook for a year then it should be fine!
Thanks for the info! Just moved to our new property on a few acres and was trying to figure out what to do with it. I compost my dog waste and was gonna do the same with my litter. However we've been using clay litter, which works great, however after your video now I know there's paper and pine litter. I didn't even know these existed but going from what an Amazon comment said on the arm & hammer litter page I seen that people are using pine bedding for horses because it's way cheaper and not formulated with chemicals to reduce the life. Dude said he got 4, 40lb bags for $21! Thanks, and enjoy your day!
Thank you Robyn. I’ve been looking for a long-term solution. I will try this. Up until now, my cats usually use a dedicated area I. The front garden and 2 dedicated areas in the back garden. I clean these weekly to make sure my cats keep that at home. Up until now, I have filled about 12 plant pots. Grass, greenery and eggshells on the bottom, cat poop coated in garden soil, and then about 5cm of good topsoil on top. I water with water from my wormers and I let them sit in a shady place in the garden for a few months. Then I plant flowers. I think it’s a good practice, but I’m running out of pots. So thanks for this idea. It’ll be the next thing I try
Thank you so much for this video. I have been composting my cat litter for about 4 years now and like you I just don't want to smell it when transporting it with the garbage or have to deal with bagging it up. I spread the composted soil in the woods beyond my bin.
My cat litter goes into double baged shopping bags (paper) the bags spend 3 months in the porch windows.after 3 months the stuff smells like potting soil.I use pine based litter
The stuff thats 6 months old goes back into the empty litter and catfood bags (40 pound bags is 20 gallons? ) I mix in potting soil and next I am going to add in earhworms.
G'day Robyn, I don't have cats but I do compost the dog's droppings in a similar way. Thanks for sharing have a great weekend stay safe and God bless you guys.
My mother uses wood shavings as kitty litter. At the end of a week, she dumps that whole basin of litter onto a pile of "dirty shavings", and get fresh ones. This pile of "dirty shavings" becomes a raised vegetable patch. She lets it sit for several months before she plants in them. Her vegetables are gigantic. She has spinach 2x the size of a hand, and string beans 1 m long.
I hope this finds you well. First of all, thank you for sharing. I have a question about the setup of compost bin. Do you bury bin 1/2 in ground? Do you remove or poke holes on the bottom of bin? Thank you 😊
Hi Robyn, I wondered whether you have started up a cat waste compost now that you have moved to a smaller garden? Is it hard to keep it separated from your kitchen garden patches, and what plans do u have for using the finished compost in your smaller garden? Cheers, Jive
Have you ever thought of using the compost as "litter box medium"? I accidentally using soil that used to be plant medium for litter box because I just moved to a new house and found out it doesn't have any open garden space. Back then cats always used soil as their litter box. So far, it works quite well, but there was an incident where I sprayed some pesticide on reflex to kill some maggots. Ever since, the soil look drier than before, and I assume the feces will not break down in that kind of soil. I haven't figured out how to recycle it, so I end up collecting them inside a dedicated bin before dumping it with other garbage. I plan on buying another sack of healthy soil to help recycle waste from cats and definitely not planning on using it for garden. I find it too much work to memorize whether it's already half of year or not, and besides, I don't have many spaces in my house, the composting bin will fill up the space. And so I just thought to myself, if the texture is similar to normal soil, can it be used as litter box medium?
If you figure out a method to safely and efficiently accomplish this, please share! I’m currently researching ways to help an elderly family member who hosts a feral cat colony in her backyard and fosters many kittens. She lives in the desert so I’m hoping to figure out a hot composting system that will be simple for her to use.
Hi Robyn, thank you for this fantastic video. My daughter is in 6th grade and for her final project she wants to do a presentation on zero waste in raising cats. We use wood pellet for our cat litters and as she saw how it disintegrated after in contact with cat droppings, she had the idea of composting it and hence brought us to your channel. Do you mind if my daughter contact you to ask more about it? Thank you before.
I use purchased garden compost as cat litter. I remove the faeces, discard the wet urine at the bottoms and use the earth in my garden. Once the Earth has been used by the plants / flowers I use it again as cat litter and the cycle continues...
This sounds dangerous though, because it doesn't give harmful bacteria or pathogens like toxoplasmosis a chance to break down before putting them in the soil. It's like putting soiled toilet paper in your garden.
@@moontapes8131 All of outdoors is "contaminated" if there are any stray or feral cats around. Also lizards carry salmonella, and they run free everywhere. and birds poop from the sky so, and coyote run free and don't have anyone to pick up their poop, And deer carry covid, so just never leave the house or touch soll and you'll be safe.
@@moontapes8131 I know your comment is old, but I think the TS meant they bought a compost, using it as cat litter, once it's done being used by the cat, they use it for plants or flowers. So they don't mean they bought compost that contains feces and urine. The problem is if this used soil is used on edible plants, so I hope they don't. Once it's been used by plants, then it's used as cat litter again.
Great idea, and I've considered it for my dog Buckshot. I make just about all his food (I give him a little bit of dry kibble every day so if I have to leave him with my parents, they can feed him the dry food they already feed their dog. That said, I had hoped his manure would be better for composting and the plants than the terrible dry food they offer here in the US. My question to you is, if you are only using it after a year, do you have several compost bins? Two cats "do business" every day and that doesn't give you any time differential to stop composting and start using it. Anyway... cheers and God bless! Hope you'll stop by my channel some time and see how my journey is going.
Hey there! First, thanks for watching! We have two bins set up yes! I’ve also started to just bury their business as I’m trying not to start another bin before we move house ☺️ definitely would have a few on the go though 👍🏻
I plan on starting a compost for my cat waste in my backyard. I plan on using a large plastic trash bin with a lid... so I need to add any holes in the sides for oxygen to flow?? Thank you!
Hi Sarah! I don't have any holes on the sides of mine and they seem to break down okay. The more airflow, the quicker it would break down so it's up to you! As long as it's got a lot of holes at the base, should be fine :)
Hey there! Yep, that's correct! Once the bin is full I just move on to the next bin. With two cats it took about 5 months to fill the bin (we've got a pretty large compost bin). They fill up surprisingly quickly! Ideally a three bin system would be perfect but you can always dispose of it around in the garden/bury it if you don't have the room :)
This video was really helpful ,just to clarify for myself, litter is only dangerous near gardens before it breaks down , and the finished compost is safe to use on crops? Right:)
I love you talked about the impact of traditional cat litter! Also have been thinking about composting my kitty litter (in pine). I just don’t have enough space to do another compost bin. I just have a porch. But now I am determined to add yet another compost bin somehow! 😂
Thank you so much for watching! Yeah, unfortunately kitty litter does tend to take up a bit of space - but even if you only have space for one bin you're already making a MASSIVE difference in waste reduction :) Have a lovely day!
Wow what a cool channel. I was searching for a cat waste composting solution as where I live in Thailand we don't have any rubbish collection and I have bags of cat poop and litter in a large bin not sure what to do with it. I have just subbed to your channel and hit the bell as I can see other videos you do are just as useful.
Hi Carla. The worms make their way in through the bottom of the compost bins as the base is in contact with the ground. They make their way over from my other compost piles and garden beds :)
Pine chips are not suitable for cat litter. If you look it up it is very toxic to cats and allergic to humans. I tried this for my cat litter and now i have respiratory issue because of this
Cat feces takes at least two years to break down in any compost pile to be usable and only your flowers never anything you eat!! And I rather disturb how you people talk about cat feces like it something you can scoop up out of your front yard like I do by the 5 gallon bucket full from The Ferrell cats that the neighbors feed!! Why don't you just go ahead and say yes you can keep a husky in the Mojave desert
Hi Tedi, absolutely I don’t use the compost on anything edible, as I cover in this video. Like many, our cats are indoor cats so everything is done in the litter boxes. Sorry to hear you have a feral cat problem! Haha no huskies in the desert here 😂😂
Dear lord in heaven you are absolutely beautiful! Apologies, I know that comment had absolutely nothing to do with this video. However, I do have 🐈's and my channel is centered around gardening!👍
hmm but what about toxoplamosis? will it be safe to use cat fecal output?
It's definitely something to consider, which is why I don't use it on veggies that come into contact with the soil. After leaving for a year or two and used on fruit trees or natives will be fine as most potential pathogens won't survive that long.
Though I don't have a resource specifically for composting, the CDC says that cooking food to 67C will kill off any toxoplasmosis - if you hot compost and let it cook for a year then it should be fine!
Composting a year or more definitely will break down most if not all of the bad stuff. Plants are nature's best filters.
Finally we have a video that tells us about cat litter compost. Thank you thank you thank you very much..
You’re welcome! Hope it was helpful ☺️
Thanks for the info! Just moved to our new property on a few acres and was trying to figure out what to do with it. I compost my dog waste and was gonna do the same with my litter.
However we've been using clay litter, which works great, however after your video now I know there's paper and pine litter.
I didn't even know these existed but going from what an Amazon comment said on the arm & hammer litter page I seen that people are using pine bedding for horses because it's way cheaper and not formulated with chemicals to reduce the life.
Dude said he got 4, 40lb bags for $21!
Thanks, and enjoy your day!
the equestrian stuff is as cheap as it gets!
Thank you Robyn. I’ve been looking for a long-term solution. I will try this. Up until now, my cats usually use a dedicated area I. The front garden and 2 dedicated areas in the back garden. I clean these weekly to make sure my cats keep that at home. Up until now, I have filled about 12 plant pots. Grass, greenery and eggshells on the bottom, cat poop coated in garden soil, and then about 5cm of good topsoil on top. I water with water from my wormers and I let them sit in a shady place in the garden for a few months. Then I plant flowers. I think it’s a good practice, but I’m running out of pots. So thanks for this idea. It’ll be the next thing I try
Thank you so much for this video. I have been composting my cat litter for about 4 years now and like you I just don't want to smell it when transporting it with the garbage or have to deal with bagging it up. I spread the composted soil in the woods beyond my bin.
THANK YOU! I've been thinking about this for a long time.
My cat litter goes into double baged shopping bags (paper) the bags spend 3 months in the porch windows.after 3 months the stuff smells like potting soil.I use pine based litter
The stuff thats 6 months old goes back into the empty litter and catfood bags (40 pound bags is 20 gallons? ) I mix in potting soil and next I am going to add in earhworms.
my paper shopping bags from the last 90 days have junk mail and shipping box cardboard mixed in and this might be future earthworm food?
G'day Robyn, I don't have cats but I do compost the dog's droppings in a similar way. Thanks for sharing have a great weekend stay safe and God bless you guys.
Thanks for watching Josh! Yeah we’ll probably keep going the same when we get a dog. Enjoy the rest of your weekend ☺️
Thank you fot the best video about this topic all over youtube. Great job.
Have a great time
🤩
My mother uses wood shavings as kitty litter. At the end of a week, she dumps that whole basin of litter onto a pile of "dirty shavings", and get fresh ones.
This pile of "dirty shavings" becomes a raised vegetable patch. She lets it sit for several months before she plants in them. Her vegetables are gigantic. She has spinach 2x the size of a hand, and string beans 1 m long.
I hope this finds you well. First of all, thank you for sharing. I have a question about the setup of compost bin. Do you bury bin 1/2 in ground? Do you remove or poke holes on the bottom of bin? Thank you 😊
We use the same litter 😌 it's so good! I've tried all the other types of litter and that's been my favourite
Hi Robyn, I wondered whether you have started up a cat waste compost now that you have moved to a smaller garden? Is it hard to keep it separated from your kitchen garden patches, and what plans do u have for using the finished compost in your smaller garden? Cheers, Jive
Have you ever thought of using the compost as "litter box medium"? I accidentally using soil that used to be plant medium for litter box because I just moved to a new house and found out it doesn't have any open garden space. Back then cats always used soil as their litter box. So far, it works quite well, but there was an incident where I sprayed some pesticide on reflex to kill some maggots. Ever since, the soil look drier than before, and I assume the feces will not break down in that kind of soil. I haven't figured out how to recycle it, so I end up collecting them inside a dedicated bin before dumping it with other garbage.
I plan on buying another sack of healthy soil to help recycle waste from cats and definitely not planning on using it for garden. I find it too much work to memorize whether it's already half of year or not, and besides, I don't have many spaces in my house, the composting bin will fill up the space. And so I just thought to myself, if the texture is similar to normal soil, can it be used as litter box medium?
If you figure out a method to safely and efficiently accomplish this, please share! I’m currently researching ways to help an elderly family member who hosts a feral cat colony in her backyard and fosters many kittens. She lives in the desert so I’m hoping to figure out a hot composting system that will be simple for her to use.
Hi Robyn, thank you for this fantastic video. My daughter is in 6th grade and for her final project she wants to do a presentation on zero waste in raising cats. We use wood pellet for our cat litters and as she saw how it disintegrated after in contact with cat droppings, she had the idea of composting it and hence brought us to your channel. Do you mind if my daughter contact you to ask more about it? Thank you before.
I use purchased garden compost as cat litter. I remove the faeces, discard the wet urine at the bottoms and use the earth in my garden. Once the Earth has been used by the plants / flowers I use it again as cat litter and the cycle continues...
This sounds dangerous though, because it doesn't give harmful bacteria or pathogens like toxoplasmosis a chance to break down before putting them in the soil. It's like putting soiled toilet paper in your garden.
It sounds like you need to re read my comments. I discard the faces and don’t put it in the soil so whats dangerous about that?
@@pps076reviews2 I would consider the compost contaminated if faeces and urine had been in it. Please stay safe.
@@moontapes8131 All of outdoors is "contaminated" if there are any stray or feral cats around. Also lizards carry salmonella, and they run free everywhere. and birds poop from the sky so, and coyote run free and don't have anyone to pick up their poop, And deer carry covid, so just never leave the house or touch soll and you'll be safe.
@@moontapes8131 I know your comment is old, but I think the TS meant they bought a compost, using it as cat litter, once it's done being used by the cat, they use it for plants or flowers. So they don't mean they bought compost that contains feces and urine. The problem is if this used soil is used on edible plants, so I hope they don't. Once it's been used by plants, then it's used as cat litter again.
Ty for the video, I'm trying to switch over to a near-zero wate system for my cat boxes.
Is there something that one could add to speed up decomposition?
can you please show the results?
Thank youuuu ❤this is exactly what I needed
Great idea, and I've considered it for my dog Buckshot. I make just about all his food (I give him a little bit of dry kibble every day so if I have to leave him with my parents, they can feed him the dry food they already feed their dog. That said, I had hoped his manure would be better for composting and the plants than the terrible dry food they offer here in the US. My question to you is, if you are only using it after a year, do you have several compost bins? Two cats "do business" every day and that doesn't give you any time differential to stop composting and start using it. Anyway... cheers and God bless! Hope you'll stop by my channel some time and see how my journey is going.
Hey there! First, thanks for watching! We have two bins set up yes! I’ve also started to just bury their business as I’m trying not to start another bin before we move house ☺️ definitely would have a few on the go though 👍🏻
the kitty litter I use is ground coconut shells. i will be composting it and putting it around some trees.
Machond That sounds great!! ☺️
I plan on starting a compost for my cat waste in my backyard. I plan on using a large plastic trash bin with a lid... so I need to add any holes in the sides for oxygen to flow?? Thank you!
Hi Sarah! I don't have any holes on the sides of mine and they seem to break down okay. The more airflow, the quicker it would break down so it's up to you! As long as it's got a lot of holes at the base, should be fine :)
Dumb question: when it's full do you just get another bin until the first bin has sat for a year?
How long goes it take to fill a bin with 2 cats?
Hey there! Yep, that's correct! Once the bin is full I just move on to the next bin. With two cats it took about 5 months to fill the bin (we've got a pretty large compost bin). They fill up surprisingly quickly! Ideally a three bin system would be perfect but you can always dispose of it around in the garden/bury it if you don't have the room :)
If you're in an apartment how would you eventually dispose of the composted waste? Also, add new bins?
Is this including old clumping litter ? (i dont use it anymore but still have some to dispose of. ) how to train not to use flower beds?
This video was really helpful ,just to clarify for myself, litter is only dangerous near gardens before it breaks down , and the finished compost is safe to use on crops? Right:)
I use corn litter. Would this work?
I love you talked about the impact of traditional cat litter! Also have been thinking about composting my kitty litter (in pine). I just don’t have enough space to do another compost bin. I just have a porch. But now I am determined to add yet another compost bin somehow! 😂
Thank you so much for watching! Yeah, unfortunately kitty litter does tend to take up a bit of space - but even if you only have space for one bin you're already making a MASSIVE difference in waste reduction :) Have a lovely day!
Some people compost pet wastes using a bokashi system which can be diy inexpensive.
Poop is part of the Chain Of Life. Without poop there is no 🥑 food. No life. No 🌞, no 🌝.
Only death. A vacuum. An intergalactic Black Hole without 💩.
Wow what a cool channel. I was searching for a cat waste composting solution as where I live in Thailand we don't have any rubbish collection and I have bags of cat poop and litter in a large bin not sure what to do with it. I have just subbed to your channel and hit the bell as I can see other videos you do are just as useful.
Duncan Bradford Thank you so much for your kind words! Hope you enjoy the videos ☺️
Hey - thank you for this! So, you put the cat poo in there as well right?
Yep! That's right :) otherwise composting their waste in a worm farm is another great option.
Great video
if human manure can be composted (check humanure), why shouldn't cat and dog poop be composted? i compost my cat poop and pee.
Love this idea! What are the specifications of a compost bin to compost the kitty litter??
How did worms get in there if you didnt put them in?
Hi Carla. The worms make their way in through the bottom of the compost bins as the base is in contact with the ground. They make their way over from my other compost piles and garden beds :)
@@thenaturepatch oh i see lol😊
I made the mistake of watching this while eating lunch, blech 8)
Thanks. It is ok to say pee and pooh. Appreciated the comment on clay based litter.
شكرا
Such a useful video! ♡🐱
Thank you for watching! 💕
Sprinkle with food grade diatomaceous earth. Add worms
Pine chips are not suitable for cat litter. If you look it up it is very toxic to cats and allergic to humans. I tried this for my cat litter and now i have respiratory issue because of this
Cat feces takes at least two years to break down in any compost pile to be usable and only your flowers never anything you eat!! And I rather disturb how you people talk about cat feces like it something you can scoop up out of your front yard like I do by the 5 gallon bucket full from The Ferrell cats that the neighbors feed!! Why don't you just go ahead and say yes you can keep a husky in the Mojave desert
Hi Tedi, absolutely I don’t use the compost on anything edible, as I cover in this video. Like many, our cats are indoor cats so everything is done in the litter boxes. Sorry to hear you have a feral cat problem! Haha no huskies in the desert here 😂😂
Dear lord in heaven you are absolutely beautiful! Apologies, I know that comment had absolutely nothing to do with this video. However, I do have 🐈's and my channel is centered around gardening!👍