TL;DR: For a single cat household with a single litter box using a standard sized litter box, a 20 lb bag of pine pellet can probably last a month.
The amount of pine pellets you should use for cat litter will depend on the size of the litter box and number of cats in your home. A good rule of thumb is to keep about 2-3 inches of litter in the litter box. That’s a measurement for conventional clay litter. You might get away with slightly less when using pine pellets, that’s because pine pellets can be slippery on the paws. And having too much pellet in the litter box will make it grippy for your cat. They tend to slip and slide, and that’s not exactly a pleasant experience for them. Pine pellets are great cat litter option, we have a guide on how to use pine pellets with a sifting litter box.
Quick calculation: How much pine pellets for cat litter do you need.
Let’s do some quick calculation on how much pine pellets for cat litter you’ll need.
Typically, 1 litre of pine pellet weighs about 500g, or 61 cubic inch of pine pellet weighs about 1.1 lb. We need this calculation because pine pellet cat litter are typically sold by weight, not volume.
The brand and type of pellets may affect the weight. This is based on 100% pine wood pellets. Some manufacturers have a mix of wood or other composite material.
Let’s take a few examples:
The Luuup Litter Box: It measures 20.2″ L x 15.4″ W x 7.5″ H.
- A 3 inches fill will require 933 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 16.8 lbs.
- A 2 inches fill will require 622 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 11.2 lbs.
- A 1 inch fill will require 311 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 5.6 lbs.
The popular Arm & Hammer Feline Pine Platinum comes in 18 lb bags. The Small Pet Select Premium Pine Pelleted Cat Litter comes in 20 lb, 25 lb and 40 lb bags.
How often you need to change the litter depends on how frequented your litter box is (i.e. are there other litter boxes available?) and how many cats are using them. Pine pellets tend to last longer than conventional clay litter.
For a single cat household with a single litter box, using a litter box of similar size to the Luuup Litter Box, we can quite comfortably say a 20 lb bag can last more than a month.
Here’s another popular sifting litter box for pine pellets.
So Phresh Petco Brand Lift-to-Sift Cat Litter Pan: It measures: 22.5″ L X 17.25″ W X 10.5″ H.
- A 3 inches fill will require 1164 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 20.9 lbs.
- A 2 inches fill will require 776 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 13.9 lbs.
- A 1 inch fill will require 388 cu.in. of pine pellet. That is equivalent to approximately 6.9 lbs.
Again, for a single cat household with a single litter box using this size of litter box, the 20 lb bag can probably last a month. If you have more than one cat, or multiple litter boxes, then your calculation should be adjusted accordingly.
We hope this quick guide will help you to determine how much pine pellets for cat litter you need in order to keep your cats’ happy.
