# Cat litter on floor



## Frank (Aug 3, 2007)

Has anyone used cat litter on the floor of their coop? It would really make things easier to clean up and keep things dry and less smelly. Is there any downside to using it?


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## ariaschreiber (Mar 28, 2009)

If you do I recommend no chemicals or deodorants, bet those are poisonous and they will eat it, why don t you choose other natural stuff, wood chips, even coarse sand (my less favorite) lava rock litter are my choice, supply stores sell them, check them out on the net in any of the pigeon supply stores


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## Jr Brown (May 22, 2012)

I have been using 100% clay kitty litter for years. I think it works really well. I am concerned about the fine dust but, I actually pour it from the bag into a bucket with a fan blowing across it to blow the fine dust away. Then I feel it is ready to spread on the floor. I get 7 pound bags at WalMart for about $1.07 for a bag.


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## pigeon george (Aug 7, 2003)

I was concerned about dust and went from daily scraping to oil absorbent, it keeps coop cleaner and drier but feel it absorbed oil better than water so tomorrow I'm switching to regular harts clay cat litter, the birds feet and tails stay cleaner with some sort of deep litter , especially the sires when they are showing off.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Scraping often keeps their feet and tails pretty clean too. Only takes minutes a day. And you don't have to worry about the dust.


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## jak2002003 (Jan 10, 2012)

I find the best is a deep layer of sand.. just cheap builders sand or river sand.

The poops dry out on it and raked up or sieved out (I use a large shallow plastic tray with mesh bottom to sieve out the poop once a week).

There is zero smell, so long as you keep it dry. I last all the time and never need replacing, I just add a couple sacks extra once a year.

I only have about 30 birds.

I used to dry scrape, but the loft never really looked 'clean' and the birds would step in any fresh poops and get them on then feet.. then fly up to the perches and spread it all over the place.

Also it was a lot more works that a quick round the coop with the big sieve.


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## OB One (Nov 5, 2016)

*I use PDZ instead of cat litter.*

In my Chicken coop, I use a layer of sand from Home Depot and lay a bag of PDZ on top of the sand. The PDZ is what the horse people use in the horse stalls to soak up the urine and kill the smell of the ammonia. It works great, no smell in my coop. I also use a small childs rake to rake up the dried poops and get em out of there.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Makes it hard to check the droppings.


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## jak2002003 (Jan 10, 2012)

Jay3 said:


> Makes it hard to check the droppings.


Why check the droppings unless you have sick birds?

I use a deep layer of sand and dirt. Works great. No smell, no mess. Simply pick up feathers that collect in the corners, sieve out dried droppings once a week. 

If the birds are performing well, acting normally, breeding well, etc, then no need to check the droppings.

You will see if there is a problem if the birds are sick, or in the nest boxes, on perches, if the droppings are wet or something like that.

If you use sand and dry litter this prevents a lot of infections from droppings getting ingested from the birds feet, feathers, then preening, or from droppings sticking to spilt feed. 

Parasites and bacteria quickly dry out and die on a dry sand bedding.. The sand dries out the droppings very quickly... not like the wet poops sitting about on the concrete or wooden floor where they get trampled on and ingested by the birds.


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