cat litter- crazy idea?

Our grocery carries some very expensive cat litter, and I saw that is was made up mostly of perlite and vermiculite. I have very heavy clay soil that I'm slowly trying to ammend with compost, etc., and I hate throwing pounds of clay cat litter into the landfill every week, so I was wondering... if I got a bunch of bulk vermiculite and perlite, and used it as cat litter, after scooping out all the solid waste, could I then use it in the garden? or would the cat urine in it be bad for the plants?

I would worry about germs...you can have things in the litter like the germ that causes toxoplasmosis so I'm not sure I'd want to put that in my garden. Definitely wouldn't use it anywhere near veggies/edibles. The cat urine won't be good for the plants, but if you mix up the litter to distribute it evenly and spread it over the garden I'm not sure you'd have enough in any one place to cause problems. I'm also not sure how the perlite/vermiculite will work by themselves as cat litter--I don't know how absorbent they are, I have a feeling there are other ingredients in that litter that you saw which would make a difference in how it works as litter. As far as perlite and vermiculite for your garden beds, many people use them in containers but I don't hear about people using them to amend garden beds. Maybe it's just because of the cost, but maybe there's some other reason too. I think organic material like compost would be better for your beds in the long run.

I think ecrane got it all. I freak out when I see an animal has been by my plants and don't want to eat anything for the rest of the season! I immediately clean it up and try to rinse my plants, I've always been scared of the germs. Don't want anything to do with that near my garden!

Looked it up: vermiculite is a clay; typical perlite is around 3/4 silica (as in sand). Both are heat treated naturally occurring minerals.
Cat urine (high nitrogen concentration) can certainly kill a plant.
If the kitty litter isn't mix in well, might passing cats think you've opened a public washroom? Mind you other cats might use the garden anyway.
As said, working in lots of organic matter is a good approach to heavy clay.

It isn't worth the risks involved.

what if you composted the used litter? for a couple of garden seasons. After a while would it not be 'earth'?

I think you should add the used litter (soilds and all) to your compost heap. Like said above it would just become compost. You could also use the newspaper cat litter like that. We used to put horse manure in our compost. I don't see a diffrence really.

for toxoplasmosis most cats that spend all thier time indoors don't have it. And even if your cat has been outside or caught a mouse inside you can have your cat tested for it. And without a host I don't think it lives long anyway.

I agree with the posters who suggested that you compost the litter. Switch to something like Feline Pine (smells nicer anyway!) or Yesterday's News - they both compost very nicely, poop and all.

The heat generated by composting kills a lot of nasties. Even if you are still reluctant to use the resulting material on your veggies, it would make your ornamentals very happy!

Re "cat and dog manure"

http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h238manure-dog-cat.html

Need a well constructed compost heap to get a temperature inside that will kill weed seeds; evidently same for pathogens.

There are diseases that affect both cats and humans and dogs and humans. Why anyone would risk putting animal urine or feces in a compost heap is beyond me. Why not add more leaves or other vegetable matter to make up the bulk that the animal waste would contribute? One poster says to add compost that may contain disease organisms to ornamentals! There is a risk in handling the material and...if I have to explain, then no one is going to change his or her mind.

Well, i guess it does seem wise not to use it directly into the soil. I really hadn't thought about it attracting other cats! duh! I still might consider composting the pine or newspaper litter (w/ solids removed). I've heard that the solid waste of carnivores is NOT good for plants, so i wouldn't want to introduce that into the compost anyway. Thanks for all the input.

Every reference I've read on composting says NOT to use dog or cat litter in compost piles.

Love it monkapotamus
You certainly know how to get things going!
Could we say you are a s--- disturber?