Green my Pets!
What thelighthouseonline.com has to say about regular Kitty Litter:
Now... anyone who has a dog ends up scooping a few too few cat poops out of the litter box. Unless you baby gate the room with the box it is inevitable that puppy will clean up after the cat. It's natural: dogs seek out other animal's feces to eat, especially cat, because of the vitamins that are not digested and thus passed into the fecal matter. Think of cat poops as doggie vitamins. So now it's not just the cat licking clay and silica dust off her toes, it's also the dog eating clay and silica attached to the feces. Hmmm. Yea, time for a healthier litter.
So far, Pine and other woods (not containing cedar oil which is harmful if consumed) can track dust. No problem, so does Clay. Supposedly not very good at deodorizing, except for Feline Pine. Ok.
Newspaper based: "flushable", compostable, incineratable, non-toxic, messy (soft and light, so it'll get kicked everywhere) but easily sweepable. They'd be pretty soft, but how would they do on odor? Supposedly this was one of the first indoor cat litters!
Other plant based, like "Wonderwheat" or Orange peel based litters etc. Come of them deodorize nicely, some clump nicely. Mention has been made about the corn cob litter being made from corn cobs that had pesticides used on them.
Apparently it can be a tricky thing. Some cats just hate some litters, and the only way is to try until you find one you can both live with. I'd like to try the FelinePine. Here's a rebate form to make your first 7lb bag of FelinePine free!
So litter will be a work in progress that I'll update as I go.
Pet Food.. hard one too. We feed our lab Science Diet Lamb & Rice. Most pet foods are full of corn which cannot be digested.
Update 07/20/2010: Introducing the Feline Pine into the litter box. She sniffed it a bit and then went ahead and did her business on it. I'll add more and more as we go until her litter is completely Feline Pine. Cross your Fingers!
Update 02/01/2011: Been using Feline Pine for months now, took a while to get through the last of the clay I had. But in that time we added a cat to the house too! The box takes the same amount of time to clean, I'm simply scooping clean out instead of dirty. I'm not coughing and gagging the whole time. I... am very happy. The street kitty we adopted had NO trouble walking right into the box and using it like had all his life. GLEE!
Links to other people with Green Pet Concerns:
FelinePine accessory products
Green Little Cat - blog dedicated exclusively to greener living ideas for cats and cat lovers.
One Green Generation
Although regular clay litters do not pose the potential health hazards that clumping clay kitty litters do, they do have their own problems:If that's not enough reason to stop using clumping kitty litter (no really, I'm ready to return the 35lb bucket I just bought) then just look at the Feline Pine ad! This super-cute ad is honestly the reason I started to wonder about kitty litter.. I mean, they DO lick their toes alot... I wouldn't want to eat kitty litter either.
- Mining clay is hard on the environment.
- Clay litters contribute significantly to landfills. Unlike many of the litters on this page, they cannot be composted, nor do they biodegrade.
- Most, if not all, clay litters contain silica, which is potentially harmful. From (FIELDFresh): "This can cause incurable lesions on the lungs and throat, rendering that tissue useless for transferring oxygen."
So far, Pine and other woods (not containing cedar oil which is harmful if consumed) can track dust. No problem, so does Clay. Supposedly not very good at deodorizing, except for Feline Pine. Ok.
Newspaper based: "flushable", compostable, incineratable, non-toxic, messy (soft and light, so it'll get kicked everywhere) but easily sweepable. They'd be pretty soft, but how would they do on odor? Supposedly this was one of the first indoor cat litters!
Other plant based, like "Wonderwheat" or Orange peel based litters etc. Come of them deodorize nicely, some clump nicely. Mention has been made about the corn cob litter being made from corn cobs that had pesticides used on them.
Apparently it can be a tricky thing. Some cats just hate some litters, and the only way is to try until you find one you can both live with. I'd like to try the FelinePine. Here's a rebate form to make your first 7lb bag of FelinePine free!
So litter will be a work in progress that I'll update as I go.
Pet Food.. hard one too. We feed our lab Science Diet Lamb & Rice. Most pet foods are full of corn which cannot be digested.
Update 07/20/2010: Introducing the Feline Pine into the litter box. She sniffed it a bit and then went ahead and did her business on it. I'll add more and more as we go until her litter is completely Feline Pine. Cross your Fingers!
Update 02/01/2011: Been using Feline Pine for months now, took a while to get through the last of the clay I had. But in that time we added a cat to the house too! The box takes the same amount of time to clean, I'm simply scooping clean out instead of dirty. I'm not coughing and gagging the whole time. I... am very happy. The street kitty we adopted had NO trouble walking right into the box and using it like had all his life. GLEE!
Links to other people with Green Pet Concerns:
FelinePine accessory products
Green Little Cat - blog dedicated exclusively to greener living ideas for cats and cat lovers.
One Green Generation
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