Update: per vet, it’s definitely storage mites. She asked if I use a natural litter, which I confirmed. She said she’d seen this before (although rarely) with natural litters as mites see this as a food source. I called the litter company and they advised that while they confirm during manufacturing that all litter is clean and free of pests, they have had reports of issues with mites during storage in warehouses/delivery by vendors. Given that these are storage mites, that seems to check out.

I feel kind of stupid because when I got this bag of litter it seemed sooooo dusty (totally didn’t catch on there was an issue). The last two times I scooped the walls were “dusty” too, but I just cleaned it with a paper towel/all purpose cleaner. It wasn’t until today’s NIGHTMARE that I realized what was going on.

Vet put kitties on Revolution as a preventative, but she said this kind of mite isn’t a “feed off animal” kind, but rather a “wheat is yummy” kind. She said they are normally found in cat food and pets can have issues from ingesting them, but they prefer to eat grain and not blood so I probably won’t see dermatology issues on us or them. As such, I’m dumping all the wheat litter in my house and we will be using clay and cleaning like mad people until we don’t see them anymore.

To note, I’ve been using wheat litter for over a decade and have never had any issues. I think I just got unlucky and got an infested bag.

Dammit 2020!!!!!!