Kitty litter success!

I seem to have finally found an environmentally-friendly cat litter that my cat approves of, phew!

There are a large number of environmentally-friendly products on the market now, which is great. They include the commercially available Breeders Choice and the Light & Easy cat litters made from recycled paper, the Natty Cat lucerne pellets and the Wonder Wheat litter made from 100% organic wheat grain (sadly only available only in WA at the moment). There are also other bulk alternatives such as "Pony pellets" or chicken layer pellets (lucerne pellets from the feed store), wood shavings or sawdust, or shredded paper, amongst other things.

Unfortunately for me, my cat is ultra-picky in the litter department and will poo around the house in preference to using something with pellets! Eeuuww - not pretty. I have now found a product called Max's Cat Litter, which is made in Australia from the byproduct of rice milling. It is still in pellet form, but the pellets are about half the size of the other brands we have tried, so he hasn't had any problems in transitioning him from the clay litter to the pellets. He's now been on just the pellets for a week, and seems fine, yay!

So what's so good about it? Like other litters made from organic materials (like those listed above), it can be composted, which lessens the load on landfill. It might not be much that we were consigning to the tip on a weekly basis before, but over the lifespan of the cat, it all adds up. Multiply that by the number of domestic kitties around the country, and wow! Compared to the clay-type litters, it is also lighter per volume (and the recycled paper litters are even lighter again), which saves on transport costs. It doesn't have any extra chemicals added to it like fragrances (saves petrochemicals) and these types of litters are generally made from waste products so they are limiting the amount of production waste from other processes. In addition, they generally use less energy and water in their production than do conventional litters. All good :-)

Conversely, what's so bad about clumping (clay) litter and silica litter crystals? Clay litters are made primarily from sodium bentonite clay, which swells and absorbs liquids. There is some debate at the moment as to whether sodium bentonite is a potential health hazard for cats - it may stick to their fur and they lick it off when grooming and ingest it, or they may breathe the dust and it then expands in their stomach or lungs when moist - but I haven't found any clinical studies about it, and to be honest, if it had some truth to it I would think there's be a lot of sick kitties around.

My main issue with sodium bentonite is that it is a naturally occuring mineral, which is harvested by strip-mining. I'm personally not fussed on either the environmental impacts of open-cut mining, or the associated energy consumption. The US Bureau of Mines estimated that, in 1994, 1.5 million tonnes of clay were mined in the US just for kitty litter production! A LOT of work is required to extract it, crush it, dry it and seive it, transport it to a factory for processing and packaging in plastic bags, and then transport it around the world just so your cat can whizz in it and you can throw it into landfill.

And silica crystals? I used them a few times myself and they work really well, but they were expensive so we ditched them. The silica "gel" (which is actually a solid) is the same as the beads in those moisture-absorbing packets you get in your food packages or shoes sometimes. It is manufactured synthetically from sodium silicate - a derivative of silica. Pretty inert (unless you or kitty ingest or inhale large quantites of it over time), but when stacked up against the more environmentally-friendly options I've already outlined, it's heavy (so it costs more to transport) and it is much more energy intensive to produce.

As a side note, I have ordered some vegan dry cat food and a sample pack of Vets All Natural Complete Cat Mix, a mix of various grains, vegetables and vitamins that you add to fresh mince, as an alternative to commercial pet food. If he likes it, I will use fresh 'roo mince and freeze it in portions for him. I have to buy the small individual size tins for him at the moment (of one particular brand ONLY, he's so picky), so being able to make up a bulk mix would not only save on all those preservatives and things in the commercial food, but also decrease the amount of aluminium cans we are sticking in the recycling bin each week :-) Er, and yes, the irony of ordering vegan pet food and a meat mix together is not lost on me, LOL.