Shades of green: green pets - cat litter

The dangers of clay-based kitty litter for little Fluffy extend beyond the "green" realm.  These litters can make your furry friends quite ill as a result of ingestion and inhalation.  But wait - your cat doesn't eat kitty litter?  I beg to differ.

When cats enter into the litter box and scratch around, the fine dust particles cling to their fur and paws.  They then lick themselves clean and ingest some amount of that dust.  The dust can become an insoluble mass in the intestines, causing dehydration and intestinal problems.  The dust is also inhaled by little Fluffy and any other animals (and humans) in the house and can lead to respiratory problems, especially for our little furry friends.  Furthermore, natural clay-based clumping cat litter contains silica dust, which is a carcinogen.  Environmentally, clay-based cat litters are derived by strip-mining, a destructive process that has demolished thousands upon thousands of acres.

There are natural products on the market that absorb just as well as the clumping cat litter and are compostable.  A majority of natural litters fall under two different categories: recycled newspaper and reclaimed sawdust or cellulose fiber.  One popular brand of recycled newspaper litter is Yesterday's News by Purina.  You can print out a coupon by visiting their website.  A popular, easy-to-find brand of pressed sawdust is Feline Pine.  Other alternatives included Swheat Scoop (made from wheat); World's Best Cat Litter (made from corn); and CareFRESH (made from wood pulp).  This short lists reperesents a sampling of some of the products on the market today. 

In addition to being healthier, all of the aforementioned cat litters are compostable after the solid is removed.  They can be tossed in a compost bin or simply buried right in the garden.

To bump this green meter up to dark green, you can skip purchasing cat litter all together.  Simply shread the daily newspaper and line your cat's box thickly.  Newspaper is very absobant and a covered box with some baking soda will do wonders for keeping odors down.  Or, believe it or not, toilet train your cat!  A quick web search for "toilet training cats" garnered me hundreds of results.