found a new use for ashes

[lexybird]

well this may have been done before but heres my idea i stumbled on ,my 2 cats have their litter box fairly close to my Englander wood furnace in the basement ,unfotunatley often times they follow me down while im building a fire and decide that since they are down there it is a perfect opportunity to relieve themselves 5-6 feet from me lol ,one particular day it was especially pungent
and i get tired of that in the lower half of my house so i decided while i was doing the ash removal routine ill just toss a few shovel loads of spent wood ashes onto the litter to try and mask it for 5 minutes ,to my surprise that totally neutralized the smell indefinitly and the cats dont mind at all , its light and dry so it doesnt stick to their paws or make any mess on the carpet and seems to keep pretty much all the kitty odors at bay now for good ,something to think about

 

[mtarbert]

That is what happens when cats "Think out of the Box"



Great use but, make sure the embers are all cold......maybe three days outside.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I would NOT do this- the ash is very caustic (it's where we get lye) and could easily irritate the pads of their paws. You also don't want them breathing it in when they scratch it up.

That's just me though. I don't own cats, but I have handled a lot of ash.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree. It's time to get your ash out of there!

 

[lexybird]

caustic to their feet pads ,LMAO thatsa new one .remeber they eat their own feces off their fur , lick their gentials and consume the guts of local varments all day long i think they will be just fine if they get their feet a light dusting ,its less dust than the litter has in it actually and of coarse its a bad idea to use ashes directly out of the stove and it should only be done once cooled for extened periods of time from a non cumbsutable steel container

 

[burntime]

I would NOT do this- the ash is very caustic (it's where we get lye) and could easily irritate the pads of their paws. You also don't want them breathing it in when they scratch it up.

That's just me though. I don't own cats, but I have handled a lot of ash.

I agree with you Adios. No ash for the cats, save it for the garden!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

caustic to their feet pads ,LMAO thatsa new one .remeber they eat their own feces off their fur , lick their gentials and consume the guts of local varments all day long i think they will be just fine if they get their feet a light dusting ,its less dust than the litter has in it actually and of coarse its a bad idea to use ashes directly out of the stove and it should only be done once cooled for extened periods of time from a non cumbsutable steel container

This is the functional equivalent of saying "I eat junk food all day, so I should be able to walk barefoot through caustic material".

Eating feces, fur, germs- not the same problem as wading through wood ash by a long stretch. Rock salt is known to cause irritation to paws (on dogs), and ash is far nastier.

 

[meathead]

I'd much sooner eat fur and lick my own genitals (...actually sounds like a not half bad friday night) than dip my feet in lye. I'd be pretty concerned about the dust getting in their lungs too. If you have found a way to keep ash dust from going airborn - there's something to write about.

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

caustic to their feet pads ,LMAO thatsa new one .remeber they eat their own feces off their fur , lick their gentials and consume the guts of local varments all day long i think they will be just fine if they get their feet a light dusting ,its less dust than the litter has in it actually and of coarse its a bad idea to use ashes directly out of the stove and it should only be done once cooled for extened periods of time from a non cumbsutable steel container

In days long gone pouring water through wood ash yielded Potassium Hydroxide, as has been said already, LYE! Very, very caustic. If it will corrode metal in no time flat, it certainly won't be good for the animals paws or lungs. Not a good idea.

 

[WidowMaker]

He77, their just cats...

 

[Dix]

He77, their just cats…

Yeah, they're just cats.

Just cats, just dogs (Micheal Vick ring a bell?), just chickens, just cows, just horses (captive dead bolt and strung up for a throat slash), I could go on and on.

I'd save the ash in a can, and put it out in a flower bed, or the compost pile.

Better to sleep at night

 

[lexybird]

hahaha i guess differnet strokes for different folks ,but to me thats a ludacris analogy Adios(maybe you should have a cat as a pet then type so your knowledgable on the subject ) ,lets keep it in prespective.. A its a cat and B its not lye yet C they are stepping on a very small trace amount of it for like 10 seconds its been a while guess what? their paws havent fallen off yet and they arent bothered i nthe least D. theres no giant dust plume they kick up and breathe in and gag/choke and fall over lol E .its obviously not a replacement for litter, just asmall amount on top to neutrulize the alkaline of urine ,to each his own

 

[Dix]

They clean their feet by licking them.

Hence, ingest.

 

[RobinJoe]

hahaha i guess differnet strokes for different folks ,but to me thats a ludacris analogy Adios(maybe you should have a cat as a pet then type so your knowledgable on the subject ) ,lets keep it in prespective.. A its a cat and B its not lye yet C they are stepping on a very small trace amount of it for like 10 seconds its been a while guess what? their paws havent fallen off yet and they arent bothered i nthe least D. theres no giant dust plume they kick up and breathe in and gag/choke and fall over lol E .its obviously not a replacement for litter, just asmall amount on top to neutrulize the alkaline of urine ,to each his own

Sounds like a topic for a cat/pet discussion forum. Maybe even ask your vet.

 

[wolfkiller]

If you want some great fertilizer grind up the ash with the cats and spread it on the garden. It is the only good use I have found for either.

 

[mayor mcheese]

I will ask my vet tomorrow for you guys as he is my in-law, and my shooting range buddy. But I could venture a guess as to his answer, I ask him plenty of wierd questions, He will probably say althoough this may be harmful to humans during regular long term exsposure, it would be less likely harmful to animals as to thier much shorter lifespan. Or his other usual answer to my questions is :where do you come up with this crap" and then laughs either way I will ask him.

 

[tickbitty]

this discussion is too funny... I have to agree with the "ash is caustic" people though I imagine small amts wouldn't kill them... however, one more point is that many cat foods actually contain some ash and it's considered a bad thing that they do, ultimately very bad for their kidneys. Carry on.

 

[meathead]

lets keep it in perspective.. A its a cat and B its not lye yet

As far as point A goes - "It's a cat" as in "It's just a cat so who cares if its pads get messed up and it gets black lung from breathing ash dust"? If that's the train of thought involved there is a 100% foolproof solution - get rid of the dayum cats. People who don't own them can make the "who cares it's a cat" argument all they want, but if you own it you oughta' want to do what's best for it - even though "it's a cat".

And point B...right...it wouldn't be lye until you filtered water (urine?) through it.

It probably won't be a problem. Then again maybe your cats will have irritated foot pads and die of respiratory disorders. Only one way to find out that I can think of.

A little baking soda mixed into the litter box might help mask odor and your cats can lick it off their paws all day long without burning tongue or foot pad.

A trash can with a good tight sealing lid next to the litter box and you could just scoop the issue up and dispose of it to eliminate odor problems.

Or...if you insist that the best way to solve the problem is to bury the perpetrating deposit with a scoop of something, how about...oh I don't know...cat litter?

Why risk it?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

hahaha i guess differnet strokes for different folks ,but to me thats a ludacris analogy Adios(maybe you should have a cat as a pet then type so your knowledgable on the subject ) ,lets keep it in prespective.. A its a cat and B its not lye yet C they are stepping on a very small trace amount of it for like 10 seconds its been a while guess what? their paws havent fallen off yet and they arent bothered i nthe least D. theres no giant dust plume they kick up and breathe in and gag/choke and fall over lol E .its obviously not a replacement for litter, just asmall amount on top to neutrulize the alkaline of urine ,to each his own

The analogy is EXACTLY correct. Ash is alkaline. It will not neutralize an alkaline material. It may reduce smell, but that does not mean that it was an acid base reaction.

I have 2 dogs and had cats when I was a kid. Do as you like, but I would not do the same or take any chance (Yes, I am an animal lover, and a chemist).

edit: I looked up the pH of cat pee. it's actually slightly acidic, not alkaline. Ash generally reduces smell on anything you put it on though, so I don't know that it's a neutralization reaction that kills the smell. (Have seen it for outhouse pits as well- it clearly is not reacting with the bulk of whatever it's covering).

 

[karri0n]

I think the small amount of ash in the litter pan is about as harmful as the amount of CO that comes off the leftover coals in the ash pan. Use that as your guide. If you're truly worried about getting CO poisoning off the small amount of CO being released by a few embers, worry about the damage the ash might cause to the cats. I sincerely hope you aren't using a CRT style monitor and thereby exposing yourself to dangerous x-rays...

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I'm not sure how this relates to the simple statement that it may irritate their paws, or how much CO you think is being liberated from dead coals.

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

I would be less concerned about the paws and more about very sensitive lung tissue & the eyes which both happen to have the moisture necessary to allow the dust to become caustic. The damage won't be immediately and easily apparent, six months from now, different story.

This reminds me of several years ago when a good friend was pouring footings for a new garage. Not knowing any better he worked all day standing in wet cement a foot deep wearing nothing but an old pair of Timberland boots. Later that day he was at the hospital having his socks surgically removed from his legs & feet which had severe 3rd degree chemical burns. Took more than six months to heal. He said he felt nothing but a kind of itchy sensation...

To me the ashes in the litter box is a matter of plain common sense but as they say, ignorance is bliss.

 

[cityevader]

I have no negative opinion unless you're doing it to your dog!

 

[karri0n]

It's related in that not everything is scary and dangerous. You need to do quite a bit of processing to the potash you get from ash to make it caustic enough to cause skin irritation, and your cat probably inhales just as much particulate from the cat litter that it would be romping through otherwise, not to mention all the chemical perfumes and other nasty stuff that goes into kitty litter. If someone found a way to help conceal the terrible smell from the catbox with a natural sustainable material, more power to them. That smell is horrendous. Show me the study that correlates a small scoop of wood ash in a catbox to respiratory problems and skin irritation.


You're hurting the cat a lot more by feeding it kibble(usually around 60% ash) or canned cat food instead of fresh raw meat.

 

[meathead]

There isn't a study that shows said coorelation because most anyone who has taken a scoup of ash out of their stove and thought for a second "cat box?..." has almost immediately followed that thought with "nah, that's obviously a bad idea". Quite a bit of processing? You put it in a container and pour water over it and what comes out is so caustic that it will eat through metal and severely burn skin on contact.

Natural sustainable material that masks odor...how about cedar chips.

edit - just looked it up - ph of ash commonly ranges up to 13 - a ph that could easily irritate skin, particularly sensitive foot pads.