I saw some discussion here lately about wood stove pellets and wanted to add
my $.02 worth on the subject of litter.  Thanks to someone on the FML, I
read an article by a cat breeder about why scoopable clay litter killed
three litters of kittens.  I immediately switched back to the old-fashioned
clay litter and was happy I did.  I had forgotten how much cleaner it is
than the scoopable.  However, I knew now that no clay litter is all that
safe for ferrets.  Someone began to talk about newspaper litter, so when the
pet supply began to carry some, I tried that next.  It was way cleaner than
the clay litter, and it was easy to scoop out what was used and leave the
rest -- a further improvement.  Next someone posted about pine litter and I
actively searched for that one.  I was instantly sold on the lack of odor
and the way it dissolves into sawdust.  Once I had figured out that I could
sift the litter in a collander over a plastic bag to avoid wasting the
unused litter, I thought I had found the best litter of all.  Until I read
about wood stove pellets.  I had to find a wood stove dealer to find the
pellets, but he carries them year round.  I pay almost $4 less for 40 lbs of
wood stove pellets than I did for 30 lbs of pine litter.  They don't have a
pine smell, but they still neutralize the urine odor.  They dissolve just as
thoroughly into sawdust, and they are just as clean.
 
So I'd recommend wood stove pellets to everyone who lives where people need
wood stoves, and pine litter to everyone else.  Newspaper litter would be my
third choice, and the large clay litter my last resort.  I would never,
never, never use scoopable again.
[Posted in FML issue 1992]