I'm Monetizing My Cats' Poop

[sui generis]

I'm not sure if this opportunity would be available in other communities (even ones with these specific kinds of labs) or how to find out if so.  So apologies in advance if I can't give other cat owners tips on how to replicate this. But in a pretty awesome turn of events, I finally got my cats to pull their own weight around the house and they'll be earning more income than me (I'm FIREd) from now on!

I saw the post on NextDoor - a local was soliciting cat poop "donations" for her business, which helps animals (including other cats) with GI issues get fecal transplants/repair their gut biome.  For this, they need healthy poop.  I offered and figured it would be a one-time thing and that it was truly a donation.

What I found out was that they apparently need it on an ongoing basis...like indefinitely.  And they need it every day.  So they are willing to pay for it and instead of putting the cat poop in the trash like we usually do, we put it in a cooler they provide for us and they pick it up outside our home daily on weekdays.  That's literally all we have to do.  And each cat gets paid...more than enough to cover their food, litter, treats and toys each month!

I thought this seemed a little too good to be true.  How could they need that much poop?  How do they not have volunteers coming out of their ears?  Well, apparently, only 10% of cats qualify for their standards.  We had to send in samples and it took them a couple weeks to get them completely tested for unwanted parasites and pathogens and wanted bacteria.  Our cats both qualify (and all cats have to qualify if a multi-cat household, since it's hard to separate poop by its source if only one is good enough) but it makes a little more sense now why they are willing to pay.

So I got my (their?) first payment today!  In addition to pulling their own weight, we'll be putting money in their "Feline 401(k)s" for old age.  My last sweet best friend had lots of medical issues as she got older that were very costly.  At the time I was making a ridiculous amount of money and decided I didn't want to know how much it was costing me overall.  I should be more careful now.  But also, I kinda don't expect this to last for a long time so no big plans for the money.  I'll take it for however long it does last, though!

[Linea_Norway]

Brilliant new concept for making money. Your cats financing their own food and making more money than you do. :-)

[StarBright]

That is delightful!

Way to help people and their pets and get a little extra at the same time.

[Kris]

Funny you should say this... my husband just read about a program doing the same thing for humans.

The only difference is that the local program he read about requires you to drive the poop to them. Still, except for that, it’s money for nothing — for doing something you would be doing anyway. And, it essentially pays for the raw materials you would be consuming. Your food budget would be paid!

I was trying to convince him to do it, but for some reason, he’s balking.

[thesis]

In response to Kris's comment, I'm laughing at the thought of putting your poop in a cooler and having it picked up daily :-)

Cool way to make money, hopefully the demand stays high and cats stay qualified!

[sui generis]

Yeah, I was thinking about this for humans, too, since of course humans have many gut problems too.  It would be slightly more gross and complicated to save one's own poop than a cat's.  I'm sure this exists for dogs as well, but the solicitation I saw was only for cat poop. 

We can only hope that other new and currently unknown uses for poop will be discovered - it would be great for the environment and our pocketbooks!  I'm sure I would have thought this idea was crazy if you told me 10 years ago, so who knows what we will see in the future?

All I know is, getting cats to be *useful* and pitch in for the household is like one of the major coups of my life, as I'm sure all other cat people will agree. 

[Secret Stache]

Ha!  This is great.  Can't wait to share!

[FamilyGuy]

Wow. Never heard of it.

[frugledoc]

Only 5 - 10% of humans meet the criteria for human faecal donation so if you’re lucky enough to have a desirable microbiome you can make a decent amount in America’s crazy private health care system.

[Weisass]

Only 5 - 10% of humans meet the criteria for human faecal donation so if you’re lucky enough to have a desirable microbiome you can make a decent amount in America’s crazy private health care system.

I wonder what qualifies one as part of the “lucky” 5 to 10%.....

[ilsy]

Only 5 - 10% of humans meet the criteria for human faecal donation so if you’re lucky enough to have a desirable microbiome you can make a decent amount in America’s crazy private health care system.

I wonder what qualifies one as part of the “lucky” 5 to 10%.....

Mostly no C.Diff. Many people have C.Diff as their natural flora. For some reason, I'm convinced I don't have it.

- I've read about human poop for payment 3-4 years ago, but unfortunately those places are too far from me, not a drive-able distance. Still waiting for them to expand closer to me.

[Tabitha]

I had to check the date of the original post to make sure it wasn’t an April 1 post.
Congratulations on recognizing and acting on opportunity when it knocked.

[frugalnacho]

Is it encrusted with kitty litter?  Or do you have to have them poop on something else so it's not contaminated with litter?

[LifeHappens]

My last vet had brochures for companies that paid for cat hair as well. Seems it is needed to formulate allergy shots? I never pursued it. Maybe I should look into it again since cat hair is my household's most abundant natural resource!

[sui generis]

Is it encrusted with kitty litter?  Or do you have to have them poop on something else so it's not contaminated with litter?

They told us not to bother trying to remove any cat litter, that they'd take care of it!

@LifeHappens you should totally look into it!

[DeniseNJ]

What's the organization that does this or where do I get info on how to do this?  I tried googling it but lots of stuff came up, including how to donate your own and I stopped reading after that.

[meatgrinder]

My dog sometimes gets to the litter box and eats the cat turds. Saves money on dog treats. Now I'm going to have to do a financial analysis to see if it should be donated instead.

[LifeHappens]

So, I actually did a little searching around to try to find the company that buys cat hair. No luck. The best I found was a forum for pet groomers where people were saying the going rate was $50 for 10(!!!) pounds. My two cats are quite hairy, but 10 pounds is most of a cat :)

If anyone else finds a buyer for cat hair please share it.

[Chris Pascale]

In response to Kris's comment, I'm laughing at the thought of putting your poop in a cooler and having it picked up daily :-)

Cool way to make money, hopefully the demand stays high and cats stay qualified!

I'm picturing a porch bandit getting more than they bargained for.

[BicycleB]

Pardon the pun, but - holy shit!

[jpdx]

Sign me up. Seriously, where do you sign up?

[sui generis]

Well, like I said in my OP...I pretty much just got lucky by seeing a post on NextDoor about it because the business owner lives near me.  So I don't have a clue how others could proactively find one like that.  Maybe asking your vet, on the assumption that your local vet might know if there are labs like that in the neighborhood/town?

[Omy]

Gives new meaning to "passive" income!

[BicycleB]

^LOL

OP, thanks for pass-ing the information to us all

[HPstache]

Gives new meaning to "passive" income!

Winning

[sui generis]

Gives new meaning to "passive" income!

Yessssss, love this!

[aetheldrea]

401(k) is only for earned income, so you would have to declare your income from your self-employed cat poop harvesting business, pay self-employment taxes and get an EIN to open a solo 401(k) :-)

[Northern gal]

This made my day. Thank you for sharing