shoestring gringa

Can you get kitty litter in Mexico? This is a question I worried about a lot before we moved here.

The good news is that kitty litter is fairly easily to find in Mexico, at least in towns of any decent size. The best place to get it is at Sams Club or Costco, where it comes in plastic bins of 15.9 kg (30-some pounds). Cost is ~$11. You can also get smaller quantities in some of the larger grocery stores, although not at such favorable prices, and it may not be the scoopable variety (rendered as agglutinante in Spanish).

Our litter box developed a leak after we got here, and that item was not so easy to find. However, as any plastic box will do, it was no real biggie. But if you hanker for one of those models with the rim on, or a little dome on top, you’ll probably just have to get over it, unless you can find a fancy pet store in a mall somewhere (The Gran Plaza in Merida, Yucatan had one).

Before I knew for sure that we could buy the stuff in Mexico, I did a bit of research on substitutes. My findings were not extensive, but I’ll share them for what it’s worth. All of these solutions, of course, would depend upon whether the cats in question are willing to use them.

• Shredded newspapers. This would be expensive in Mexico, with the daily paper selling at ~70 cents and Sunday editions ~$1.

• Beach sand. This was my choice back when we were moving to a beach town. The drawback being that beach sand is likely to contain sand fleas, which you wouldn’t want in the house or on the cats. Then I found some info on the internet from some folks who lived on a sailboat with their cat, who said that if you get WET sand and then dry it in the sun, it will be flea-free. They added that you could bake sand in the oven to kill the fleas, but that option seemed a little unappetizing to me. I’d want a special, dedicated oven just for the sand, which would be too expensive.

• In a pinch, I guess there’s plain old dirt, or non-beach sand, whatever’s available. It might not be the Ritz, but it’s better than having them use your shoes.

One house we rented had an interior patio which was wonderful because the cats could be outdoors and still protected at the same time. There was a large planter filled with dirt out there, where a previous occupant had been growing some green beans, and which one of our cats (the piggy one) appropriated as her own personal kitty box. So something like that might be another option.

That’s it! All the other suggestions I saw (cedar chips, etc.) would be WAY harder to find than kitty litter in Mexico. If you’re taking cats to Mexico, adult cats who are already set in their ways, it’s best not to get too far from civilization where supplies for them can be found.