So I got wood stove pellets…

[Beka27]

But… they weren’t exactly what I was expecting.

Scarlet said she got hers at Lowe’s, so I decided that I’d drive to my local store (anytime I call, no one knows what the heck I’m talking about so it was worth the 10 minute drive to me!)  I go there, first thing I see are a big line of wood stoves, those outdoor ceramic firepit things, and tons of logs.  I wander the aisles for a few minutes.  An employee asks if I need anything, I tell him what I’m looking for.  I prepare mentally for the blank stare of confusion.  BUT HE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE!  Of course tho… they carried them last year but they don’t this year.  I get ready to thank him and walk away.  He offers to check other stores.  He comes back with some stores 30 minutes south (where the Tractor Supply is that my husband doesn’t want me driving to) and then with a store 15-20 minutes west.  Hmmm… I can do 15-20 minutes.  I ask “they have NO ACCELLERANT right?”  He says, no accellerant.  I ask the price… he says $5.97 a bag.  I thank him and skip out the door.  In my car I call directory assistance to double (triple) check my local Home Depot before I drive out to the farther away Lowe’s.  Same thing… their store does not carry them, but the stores 30 minutes south do (it must be by location and my location is not their target market?)

So I get on the highway.  I am GIDDY with excitement.  Excitement over BUNNY LITTER.

I get to the store, run in the wrong doors (EXIT only) b/c I was in such a blur… I run to the seasonal area and sitting on a pallet in a ray of sunshine were a bunch of bags of pellets.  I resist the urge to dance.  I pick up a bag, first feeling the pellet shapes thru the bag, and then flip it over to read the back over thoroughly.  All natural, combustible, not for ingestion.  I get ready to heave it on my shoulder (in my excitement, I didn’t grab a shopping cart) and I notice a bag sitting on top of the pallet that has a slit on the side.  I didn’t cut the bag… it just happned to be there, so I thought I’d take advantage of that and look at the product.

I open the bag a bit further and they look… different than i thought they would.  I was expecting small, roundish pellets.  But they are long and kind of shiny with a coating.  I pick one up and break it in half, it crumbles in my fingers.  I smell the pellets.  (I am now imagining security being called to the Seasonal department… lol.)  I can’t smell much of anything, they are faintly “woody”, but definitely not an overpowering scent.  They do not smell “chemical”.

My first thought is to take a picture of the pellets (again… Beka = “Crazy Lady” in Lowe’s) and send it to a BB’er… but then I think… I don’t have anyone’s cell phone # so that won’t work.  And I can’t connect to BB on my phone. 

My second thought is to “borrow” a few of the open pellets, buy an overpriced bottle of  water, and experiment in the parking lot with absorbency.  Probably not the ideal situation tho.  I didn’t bring my goggles, lab coat or a beaker… ;o)

I finally decide to buy a bag (originally I had planned on buying… um, a pallet?)  They’re only 6 bucks so even if they don’t work, not a huge loss.

I drive home slightly deflated in my excitement.  I get the bag in the door, immediately make a small cut and scoop a few out.  I put a bit of water in a cup with a few pellets and nothing happens for a few seconds.  Then there is a bit of bubbling and I notice the water level begins to decrease slowly.  Within a minute, all the water is soaked up.  The pellets are ballooned up, and when I pick one up, it crumbles easily in my hand.  I decide that this is good enough for me, and I proceed to fill the boxes with them and some leftover cell-sorb litter on top, just a very thin layer.

So far this morning, all is well.  The buns have been using the boxes like normal.  I can see a few spots where the pellets have crumbled due to being wet.

I think this is going to work out okay after all.  I am going to drive back and get some more bags either this week or next.

[Ruffles&Daisy]

You are a lucky duck. My stupid home improvement stores (pick one, they’re all the same), don’t have them. But what you describe sounds like Feline Pine which I like best of all the litters. Ruffles likes it best too. I bought some YN the other day because it was on sale, thinking great! Yesterday’s News for cheaper than FP. But he doesn’t like it and sort of scatters it around in his box (luckily my box is huge so he can’t get it out of the box). And I think the pine pellets absorb the smell better (they sort of crumble like sawdust when they are wet). I’m jealous, litter is my biggest expense.

[xParadise]

I thought the same thing Beka, the woodstove pellets were not what I expected. They still work really well (especially for the price) but I find them to be quite sharp and I don’t think Nixon likes standing on them. So I put a layer of hay over top of them and he seems to like that better. I do still like them though, they are cheap, absorb well and seem to control the odor well. The only thing is I find they swell A LOT, even with just a thin layer of WSP in the litterbox, after about three days it’s almost overflowing. Does anyone else find this? Maybe Nixon just pees a lot..

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL Beka!!!! You went to try out NEW bunny litter and DIDN’T bring your LABCOAT??!?!? My goodness-talk about unprepared!! So is Mike worried your going to stock up on bunnies since you have so much litter now?

Ruffles-that’s my thought exactly-they are totally feline pine! But much cheaper…and heavier!!

Any thoughts on how to bribe Dave to carry up the four bags I just bought?

xParaidse-I’ve found they do swell and are a bit tough to rinse out of the litter box. I generally dump in the garbage then fill up with water and dump in the toilet-I’ve found that works best for me

[Beka27]

Honestly… I didn’t tell Mike I trekked out to buy them. He knew I was getting litter yesterday, but he thought I was going to the pet supply store. The bags are not as large sizewise as the recycled paper cell-sorb I’ve been using. I’m already thinking about possible hiding places in the house. He didn’t even notice that the litter was brownish, so… I don’t know. He didn’t notice.

[jerseygirl]

I run to the seasonal area and sitting on a pallet in a ray of sunshine were a bunch of bags of pellets

Oh Beka love, I think you need help! – lol.

I can imagine having logged on to the BB.com and reading a thread titled:

“Emergency! I don’t know if these are THE WSP? Please help ~ Beka27

Anyway, welcome to the WSP community.

Ruffles, are you going to step into Beka’s shoes as the resident Desperatly Seeking WSP member? Have you ever looked into sourcing Woody Pet? Same type of thing & cheap. I’ve begun using them…just takes a bit of getting used to the smell. Not unpleasant, just present. I found the paper type products had no smell until saturated and time to change it.

[RabbitPam]

First – Beka I love your description of your adventure. Reminds me of me. We need to buy pith helmets with a BB logo on it. (hint-BB. Like silly club hats.)

And B – (sorry. Old joke.) I am really not at all pleased with this year’s Care Fresh original. Maybe it’s because she’s a baby still, but she soaks it so fast!
I mixed in a little amount of YN (got a small bag to try) in the out-of-cage litter pan she never uses, just sits in on occasion, and she mistook them for pellets and ate a few. Is that OK? So now I don’t know how she’ll react to pellet-style litter. I will try YN in the outer box by itself and watch her.

WSP sounds nice, but it has a smell? I am the allergic one to smells, so that’s why I keep coming back to Care Fresh. (Better in the hypo-allergenic department.) Just that retail bag of CF I bought was dusty. I’m at the end now.

So, why do I keep thinking Pine and Cedar are the two woods they shouldn’t have? Cedar is not recommended, but am I wrong about Pine? Because I love pine wood in general and if it’s a good litter, I can try WSP too.

Boy – rambling more than usual today – I guess it’s not so bad to change litter on them. I had thought it was like changing their diet, ie. had to be gradual. But if they like the new, they adjust immediately?

[wendyzski]

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 02/04/2009 10:13 AM
xParaidse-I’ve found they do swell and are a bit tough to rinse out of the litter box. I generally dump in the garbage then fill up with water and dump in the toilet-I’ve found that works best for me

I put a paper towel in the bottom and then add about an inch of litter.  That way even when it swells the box doesn’t overflow (you need a lot less than if you are used to paper litters) and the paper towel helps everything dump easier at emptying time.

[wendyzski]

Posted By rabbitpam on 02/05/2009 4:16 AM
So, why do I keep thinking Pine and Cedar are the two woods they shouldn’t have? Cedar is not recommended, but am I wrong about Pine?

Pine shavings are not recommended because of the phenols and other volatiles, but those are “baked out” in processing of the pellets into Feline Pine and/or WSP.

[Beka27]

Wendy’s got it, it’s all in the way they are processed. I am not an expert on the process, I just know that it’s different, therefore making pellets safe, shavings not safe…

I think she’ll be okay for tasting a few… but if she were to continue to eat them, I would be more concerned. Like babies, they have to explore things with their mouths. When we had cell-sorb litter, Max would occasionally pick one up in his mouth and chew on it, most of it would fall back out as it broke apart.

When I smelled the pellets (LOL!) I barely smelled anything. It was very, very faint. When I got home I stuck my nose in the bag and I could smell wood, but in the open room in the litterbox, I didn’t smell anything. I think I have a pretty good sense of smell, but your nose might be more sensitive than mine.

SOME BUNS would need a gradual change, or mixtures of the old and new litter. It depends on how your bun is. Meadow had been on the Cell-Sorb (recycled paper pellets) since we brought her home over 1.5 years ago… Max has been on them since we brought him home last June. Both of them have adjusted to the WSP without an issue, as far as I can tell. Someone (I believe Pryzm?) said that their bun required a mixture of a couple types. It’s not something that they ingest… so it won’t cause an upset stomach or anything to make the switch suddenly. The only thing that might happen is a revolt and a loss of litter habits if the bun did not approve.

[RabbitPam]

Thanks, Wendy & Beka.
I used to love the smell of the pig’s cedar chips, but that was before the onset of the adult allergies. I’m up for trying Pine pellets that smell like wood.

I am sitting down after a shower – after a MAJOR house cleaning, mostly Sammy’s.
Isn’t the baking soda/vinegar fizzing fun? Well, I have put the CFresh into her pan until I use it up. I may not open my other bag after that. I put a pan of just YN out, and I think when she tasted it, she spit at least one out. She forraged then, but she’s used to my hiding treats.

I read on a website that the hay holders that hang outside the cage are not as good as one inside. I’m noticing she’s not eating anywhere near enough hay, so I just ordered the wicker one from BB. (It was on sale from Busy Bunny, but I like getting BB’s secret surprise in every order. )

Hopefully she’ll try, and like, the YN. (While I do local reconnaissance for WSP at Lowe’s.) I put in a fresh alfalfa cube on her cleaned platform – I hear chewing…

P.S.  Beka, what’s the brand name of the pellets you bought? I can search on line first. Do you still like them, or is it too soon to tell?

[Beka27]

They’re “Pennington Nature’s Heat Pellets”.

They seem to be holding up well. I might have put too many pellets in the boxes, they do seem to be swelling up. It’s now been about 48 hours since they’ve been in there and they are soaking up wonderfully. I change boxes out every 2 or 3 days, so I’ll see tomorrow how they are when I clean the boxes.

I wonder if being in FL you’ll have much luck finding them tho. You could also try searching for horse bedding. I might still end up going to Tractor Supply and getitng the horse bedding pellets instead. These are fine, but I am concerned about not being able to get them year-round. I already had to drive 20 minutes to get these, so what’s another 10? Maybe one day I’ll have my friend take a trip out there with me (roadtrips with friends are much better than roadtrips alone… LOL! Plus another pair of hands!)

[pryzmkess]

Posted By xParadise on 02/04/2009 10:05 AM
The only thing is I find they swell A LOT, even with just a thin layer of WSP in the litterbox, after about three days it’s almost overflowing. Does anyone else find this? Maybe Nixon just pees a lot..

 

xParadise, I don’t have that issue; my box overflows because Chloe pulls her hay down, tramples it into the pee/pooh, and the level goes up steadily.  They do swell up, but the ones I use power pretty nicely.  I was going to try WSP, but I may stick with the Feline Pine for now.  Lots more expensive, but it seems easier to use based on what I’ve heard here!

[bunnytowne]

thats so funny rofl

IT has been 48 hours and they are soaking up wonderfully    rofl. 

The horse stuff here smells like pine so I skipped on it.   I haven’t tried real hard to find WSP around here in crazy florida.

Would be well worth it though for me to find some.

I am afraid to put paper at the bottom of their litterboxes  Cotton loves to chew newspaper or any paper for that matter.  Ruby too. 

I can see it now shredded paper and litter all over the bottom of the cage instead of in the litter box.

[RabbitPam]

I just did a search, and Feline Pine is at Walgreens and Petco here. I like the sound of it, so I may try a small bag. (Seems pretty cheap.)
There’s a wood stove pellet maker called Firemaster that makes LitterMaster. I think they’re Canadian, though, so may be a problem for you and me, Beka.

I’m wondering if CareFresh is messing with their formula this year? Bigger clumps, less absorbant. Well, the best time to try new things is on a new baby bunny. She isn’t old enough for strong habits yet. I want her to be comfortable though, especially after her spay later this month.

Off to shop now for Feline Pine. Where did I put my pith helmet?…(To get something good for Sammykins to pith into.)

[RabbitPam]

I’m back. Unexpected success. Walgreen’s did not have it on the shelves, so headed for Pet Supermarket. Stopped into Publix next door first, and there was a small bag of Feline Pine!!!

Have mixed some into the CF. Sammy tasted one. Then examined all her dishes for their content. Then came back to sniff pellets in litter pan.
I smell something different…but neighbors cook really stinky food, so not sure source…

BT – regular wood stove pellets are hard to find here in FL. That’s why I’m trying Feline Pine and Yesterday’s News instead. I’ll probably end up back with CF, but it would be nice to find something cheaper and more absorbent, & still hypo-allergenic.

[wendyzski]

I was the Feline Pine champion around here until recently because I couldn’t find WSP.  It’s what the shelter that Pepper came from had all the buns on so I kept it that way.  I only ever put an inch or two in the bottom and could go a week at a time without changing the box. 

If you find you like FP, it comes in small and large bags.  I only ever found the large ones at Target and once at Walgreens.  I just got into the habit of automatically grabbing a bag every time I was at the grocery store so I always had enough and never had too much to carry easily.

[Ang]

Beka,

I buy my pellets at the local walmart. do you have one closer than lowes or home depot? i also get them at my grocery store for about 5$ a bag sometimes less! i love woodstove pellets they are cheap and do the job better than any litter i have tried, especiall with odor control

[Scarlet_Rose]

Oh my freaking god. That is all I could think when I saw this! BEKA!!! WOOHOO GIRL!!! I was rolling on the floor in laughter about the water bottle bit! Yep that’s how the pellets are shaped because of the extrusion process and they do get “powdery” too. How funny with the Lowe’s, but at least you were prepared for the blank-eyed stare. Congrats!!!! How sad is it when we get excited over BUNNY LITTER…been there done that. We need another support group for that…KATE, do you want to start? LOL

[jerseygirl]

hehe! Sorry, will have to pass on that Scarlet, I’m too busy with Bunaholics Inallofus…

[FluffyBunny]

It was really easy for us to get wood stove pellets…We just walked in Wal-Mart, went to the back and there they were! I was a little surprised about the look of wood stove pellets too…I didn’t expect them to be shiny.

[Beka27]

That was EXACTLY it! I didn’t expect them to be SHINY! Shiny made me think… processed, which made me think chemicals.

I never updated again…

I cleaned the boxes out on Friday (normally I go 2-3 days), I went a full 3 days because I wanted to see how they held up. Honestly, I think I could have gone longer than that, probably 4 days, 5 days in a pinch. I use two separate medium size cat boxes for the buns. About half the pellets were still intact. The part that had turned to sawdust was crumbly, but it was dry (yes, I felt around in the dirty litterbox!) When I emptied the boxes out, I did not get any pee smell at all. With my old litter, when I turned out the boxes, a pee smell would rise up as the litter was disturbed. This litter smelled faintly like wet wood. I had put down a flat peice of newspaper under the litter, and that worked wonderfully. I was able to just peel up the paper and most all of the sawdust came up.

I am quite pleased with the WSP. I did end up telling Mike so I am going to need to take a trip out to that Lowe’s again soon.

[RabbitPam]

I’ll have to try the paper liner for the dust. Sammy seems to like the Feline Pine so far. I was trying to use up the CareFresh, so I put a lot of CF in her litter pan, then mixed in a bit of the FP. Well, she pushed out at least half of the CF all over her cage floor. When she did it again, I added more FP instead. The digging and throwing stopped immediately.

So maybe I’ll dump the last of the Carefresh open bag and try her on just the FP. If it weren’t so hard to get WSP, and easy to get FP, I would try to change to what you’re using Beka.

Do you ever have a situation where Meadow likes something and Max likes something else? I’m picturing them discussing the new litter over supper together.

[jerseygirl]

Have you tried looking for Woody Pet Pam? Similar product. Is care fresh a paper litter? If so, it’ll be good for soaking up excess cooking oil. I sometimes do this, pour out the oil onto paper litter. Good way to use it up

[RabbitPam]

lol – jerseygirl, you’re making the assumption that I actually cook.

[Beka27]

Max is very easy to please. Mead is the Diva… as long as she is happy, we are ALL HAPPY!

[Scarlet_Rose]

Beka – I was pleasantly surprised mysef when I went 4 whole days without changing the box and NO SMELL, even when I emptied it. It’s like a god-send!

[Beka27]

On friday we drove out to Lowe’s again and bought 7 more bags (yup… 280 pounds of WSP!) So the husband who was SOOOOO anti-WSP is finally in agreement. PLUS, I got a $10 off your $50 purchase coupon in the mail, so we got all those bags for about 40 bucks!!! They’re currently stacked in our mudroom, so there’s a lovely “piney smell” when you walk in the backdoor! LMAO! I am absolutely pleased. I wish I could have found them (and saved tons of money) earlier, but I guess better late than never…

Thanks everyone for your WSP assistance!

[jerseygirl]

lol^^ It’s official – you are now converts!  Right on Valentines day……….”Here you go Hon, 7 bags of WSP – that’s how much I love you!”

[RabbitPam]

I went to my local Lowes this afternoon and, as expected in FL, they never even heard of WSPs. I am having a stink problem, so am switching today to Yesterday’s News to see if that will work for Herself.

But I am excited because the smallest shop vac was still on sale and I got one. Just used it to snarf up all the Feline Pine dust.

She really seems to like the FP, so if she rejects YN, I’ll go back to it. And then I can use the shop vac to inhale all the YN she is about to scatter all over in protest. To be continued…

[jerseygirl]

Pam, you should be able to get woody pet in Florida. Also, there’s a product could Equine Fresh I think.
 

http://www.woodypet.com/dealer.html

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Pam bet you could get Equine pellets-they are the same deal but meant for horses! You buy them in a horse supply store-same price too!

[RabbitPam]

Did some online searching last night. There is only one place in my county that sells Woody Pets. It’s in Wellington, where all the horse farms and competitions are of course. It’s about a half hours drive from me, so that’s an option. Equine Fresh didn’t even list anywhere “locally”.

The good news is that last night and this morning Sammy has been fine on Yesterday’s News alone. The bad smell is gone, too. I think I will use it for a few days and see if it continues, but between that and the shop vac I am pleased right now. If it doesn’t matter, I’ll check out the Woody Pets and see if that’s odorless too. (I am sensitive/allergic to many smells in recent years, so maybe the FP was just too different in my apartment.) YN is sold only one block from my home.

[jerseygirl]

probably stick to that then rather than travel 1/2 hour away for something you’ve not used before. (I’ve learnt this lesson many times!) The woody pet does have a bit of a smell just in the bag. Then when it gets wet, not so much and seems to help with urine odor. I would say that the paper litter I used before was excellent for odor – it just kept creeping up in price! Another option is to mix the two…

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