Return to the Soil Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
kitty litter in compost
| | |
Posted by kumquat1 fl8b (My Page) on Sat, Jun 27, 09 at 15:08
| My friend got 2 silkie chicks. Wants to keep them in a pen on the porch with newspaper under the pen. Wants to put kitty litter under the pen to "keep down odor". Is that kitty litter mixed with chicken poop good in compost? I know, I know...I told her just to put newspaper underneath and wad the paper up with the poops and compost that, but she is a nurse and hypervigilant about germs, odor, etc. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| The cheap forms of kitty litter are mainly clay, not so great for the compost pile or what you want to add compost to. There are more expensive forms that are made from wood products that would work better but as said kind of expensive. I believe most people who keep chickens usually use wood shavings or straw bedding material. I think those would be better choices if you want to add it to the comost pile. Good gardening, Mary |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| That kind of depends on which type, clay or corn, litter is used although in the quantities that would be used neither would be harmful to a compost pile. The only reason someone would need to be concerned about "germs", disease pathogens, would be if where the chicks are penned was not cleaned regularly. The only reason someone would need be concerned about an offensive odor would, again, be if the pen was not cleaned regularly. |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| As long as there is no baking soda or other chemicals in the litter, I don't see a problem with using it in compost. |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| You know, I keep chickens and I think pine shavings work WAY better for keeping odor down with chicken poo than kitty litter would, and they are cheaper and more compostable. I don't really see how kitty litter would help with germs either. Pine shavings are fluffy, and allow to droppings to dry, this is what reduces odor and kills the germs. Chickens have different elimination habits that cats, and kitty litter is designed to work with solid turds and liquid urine, that it traps into clump for removal, chicken poo is softer, and if suspended in pine shavings, will dry out. |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| Not dealing with the what's best for the chickens--the kitty litter to me seems mostly like a volume/ratio thing. Put a big load in one place and it may get moist and make a clay wad or wads; sprinkled and mixed in with organic matter I suppose it will not be a problem. But again, how much clay litter weekly into how much volume of other compost materials? So then one can think, what is best for chicks AND compost if both are goals and one wants to have an easy/green way to dispose of chicken litter frequently? |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| I use pine pellet horse bedding for my cats' litter. It turns to sawdust when moisture hits it and sort of clumps-at least enough to make it easily scoopable. It composts more readily than the pine shavings too. I wouldn't recommend clumping clay cat litters, there is indication that these can create breathing problems. Maybe this would be useful to your friend, although I agree with the pine shavings suggestion for birds. Nearly everyone I know who works in medicine has the odd notion that if icky stuff falls into neat little clumps, it's more sanitary. There's no reason your friend can't use shavings and completely change them. Less convenient but more sanitary, since ALL the bedding is removed, instead of just the visible clumps. I do remove poo before composting since kitty dumplings are loaded with hard-to-reliably-compost pathogens. Why are carnivore and omnivore poops so dangerous but horse and cow and chicken are not? Don't they have pathogens too? |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| Try to convince your friend to use litter made from 100% recycled paper. I added some to my pile the other day after soaking in water for a while. |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
| If your friend has any access to a yard, I think the chickens would be much happier in a chicken tractor that allowed them contact with soil where they can scratch in the grass and find bugs, etc., to help balance their diets. If the tractor is moved on a daily basis, odors and flies aren't a problem. We raise broiler birds and keep our laying flock (6-10 hens at a time) in chicken tractors and we've never had odor problems. The droppings are scattered and fertilize the yard. You can even leave the tractor over one spot for a few days, add mulch materials until the layer is up to 8" deep before moving the chicken tractor--viola! Almost instant raised bed/lasagna garden space. |
RE: kitty litter in compost
| | |
- Posted by pt03 3 Southern Manitoba (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 9, 09 at 10:47
| I know it's was just a typo, but it struck my funny bone..."viola". Can't stop smiling! The family farm we buy our chickens from does the chicken tractor thingy, great tasting birds! Lloyd Sorry, off topic. |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Soil Forum
|
|
|
