Choosing the Right Litter for Your Ragdoll Kitten: What We Use and Recommend

When welcoming a new kitten into your home, one of the most important things to consider is the type of litter you’ll be using. Not all litters are created equal, and each kitten reacts differently depending on the texture, smell, and dust level. At AquaMarine Kittens, we raise our Ragdoll babies to be clean, confident litter box users, and we gradually introduce them to different types of litter based on their age and developmental stage.

🍼 Baby Kittens (3–8 weeks): Soft Paper Pellets

When kittens first start exploring the litter box around 3 to 4 weeks of age, safety is our number one priority. At this stage, kittens are curious and often try to taste or chew on the litter, so we use unscented paper pellets. These are gentle, non-clumping, and safe if accidentally ingested. Paper litter is soft on their tiny paws, low in dust, and easy to clean. It’s a great first step in building healthy litter box habits from the very beginning.

🌲 Older Kittens (9+ weeks): Pine Pellets – Our Favorite!

By the time our kittens are about 9 to 10 weeks old, we begin introducing them to pine wood pellets—our absolute favorite type of litter! These natural pellets are made from compressed sawdust and are completely biodegradable. We love them for many reasons:

Low odor – Pine has a natural fresh scent that controls smells exceptionally well, even in multi-cat households.
Minimal tracking – Unlike dusty clay litters or lightweight crystals, pine pellets stay in the box. You won’t find litter scattered around your floors.
Affordable & accessible – Pine pellets can be purchased from farm feed stores, pet supply stores, and even hardware stores. We get ours from Tractor Supply Co.—it's typically sold as horse bedding, but there's a cat printed right on the bag! A 40 lb bag costs around $7 and can last a single cat more than a month.
Eco-friendly – If you’re looking for a more sustainable choice, pine is a great option. It breaks down naturally and doesn’t harm the environment. You can even toss used litter (without solid waste) into the woods or compost pile, where it will decompose over time.

How it works:
When a kitten pees on the pine pellets, the moisture causes the pellets to break down into soft sawdust. This sawdust naturally absorbs odor and moisture, keeping the litter box fresh.

We use the 3-piece sifting litter box from Walmart. It includes two solid trays and one sifting tray that fits between them. Here’s how we use it:

1. Place one of the solid trays at the bottom and put the sifter tray on top of it.

2. Pour the pine pellets into the sifter tray (which sits inside the solid one).

3. As your cat uses the box, the wet pellets turn into sawdust and fall through the sifter.

4. Every couple of days, you can clean it by shaking the sifter tray side to side so the sawdust drops into the bottom tray.

   • Or, for faster sifting, you can use a dustpan and gently move it in an up-and-down motion over the pellets to separate the sawdust.

5. Dump out the sawdust from the bottom tray and reuse the unbroken pellets from the sifter tray.

6. Once most of the pellets have broken down, we simply dump everything out and refill with fresh litter.

This may sound like a lot at first, but trust me—it’s super easy once you get the hang of it! If you're a visual learner, I’d be happy to send you a quick video showing exactly how we do it.

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