this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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I've owned most of the common furry pets (except guinea pigs and rats) and there's unique challenges with taking care of each of them. What is burdensome is also different for each person.
I love cats but I don't think I'd adopt another. I don't want to catproof my shelves nor my plants. I don't want to smell kitty litter either.
I love rabbits but same thing. I don't want to rabbitproof my house. I don't want to clean litter boxes. And most importantly, I don't want the hassle of finding someone to take care of them when I'm gone.
I love dogs and will probably stick to dogs. I like going on walks and sitting in the yard. I don't mind drying his paws off when it rains or walking the yard weekly to pick up his turds.
All pets are great. Animal companionship is the best.
You’re not buying the right kitty litter.
Recommendation?
We use tidy cats stone pellets with the pee pads liner.
Not environmentally friendly, but it's the first time I've actually not minded dealing with the box.
We never used normal litter, it's terrible. We used to use the tidy cats brand scoop able stuff. And that worked... Fine. Solids came out easy enough. But urine was either too gummy if you tried scooping it too soon. Or it broke up into stinky little bits too small for the scoop, if you waited too long. And God forbid the cat dig to the bottom before peeing, so the clay glues itself to the bottom of the bin, amplifying the goo/break problem.
And eventually, no matter how well you scoop, the little bits of urine build up and start to stink like ammonia, until you have to throw all the litter away and wash the box. Which is extra unpleasant if it's winter.
But the stone pellets and pad? The solids are easily scooped. And the urine is trapped in the pad, locked in, never smell it.
And no matter what you do, cats will track litter around the house. But the stones are so big and heavy that they almost all fall off the paw before they make it 5 feet from the box, so the area to clean is much smaller. And the stones are surprisingly less annoying to step on.
My friend has the cedar pellets, and it's better than litter, yes, in some ways. But I still smell the ammonia.
I will say we've never tried the crystal cat litter, and some of our other friends swear by it.
Fresh Step cat litter.
Yeah, we buy an amazing blend of sand. Leaves no odors, no dust, and has great clumping.
Yeah but you don't know that until you get the cat. I have a ton of houseplants that would kill a curious cat, too.
My advice is to never get birds, it is very different from other types of pets. I love having them, but it honestly requires a certain level of insanity. Which means keeping them is absolutely not for most people
I don't think I'll get another pet that requires a cage after hamsters! (My rabbits were raised like cats, litter trained and no cage)
Perhaps "cage" was the wrong word - I meant pets I have to corral to a specific location....but I would prevent my cat from going outside so maybe that's not it either lol
So I guess it's just back to my original point: I find the space and care accomodations required for birds to be much too inconvenient
Oh that is an entirely valid point! And again, I definitely would not recommend birds to anyone, it's that type of thing where you kinda need to stumble into by yourself. It's just, like with rabbits, people still have misconceptions about keeping them in cages, and I'm always ready to correct facts about that... Since some people still get even those tiny round cages and put birds in them, it's truly awful
That's my friend's parents. They get little budgies and keep them in the worst cages which means they only get the worst parts of pet ownership
Heartbreaking! Poor birds :(
Cats are great, but they're nocturnal. Many will skitter around, scratch stuff, scream, or otherwise bother the heck out of you when you are trying to sleep. I get so little sleep as it is, I'm not willing to deal with that again.
Cats are crepuscular, meaning they're more active at dawn and dusk, but they may be somewhat active at any hour if they have slept enough.
6am I am sitting with my half-adopted stray by the heater cause I don't have a cat door and he panics if he wants to leave and I'm not there to open the door
It's -1°C outside so I have to do this... until I get the right gear
my cat isn't noctural. not all cats are the same.
That's possible, too. My cat wasn't like that but I know my friend's cat is banned from the bedroom
Huh, is it really that unusual for my cat to sleep through the night? She goes to bed around midnight and wakes up closer to dawn naturally, which tends to be a bit late this time of year. That's around when she gets a first meal.