Pick of the Litter

  Posted on April 22, 2011  by Joy of Living  No comments

It’s Earth Day, and like us, our cats are interested in going green to help the environment.  One way to help cats go green is selecting an all-natural litter.

There are more and more natural litters now on the market made of ingredients like green tea, wheat, coconut husks, and dried green pea pods. These ingredients control odors as well as more traditional clay litters, but there are some drawbacks to the more natural approach:

• Natural ingredient litters are usually more expensive and often aren’t as readily available as traditional clay or crystal counterparts
• Cats can be very particular when it comes to their litterbox and some cats just won’t accept the different consistency of natural litters
• Natural litter can be pretty messy, often with a lot more tracking
• Even when buying a clumping version, natural litters don’t always clump as well as clay or crystal varieties

Natural litters are biodegradable, with leftover litter able to be used as compost for ornamental plants.  If your cat happens to swallow a bit of natural litter, most of them will not be harmful to your pet.

If you want to convert to natural litter, do so gradually, introducing a small amount at a time and replace with the new litter as you scoop out the old.  Once you’ve gone through an entire bag, if your cat(s) have accepted the new litter, it should be okay to convert solely to the new natural variety.

Natural Cat, Spring 2011 was a source for this post.