Litter - Which One To Buy!
These days, cat litter comes in about as many varieties as paint colors. If you've had to choose a paint color recently, you know how dizzy that can make you. Hundreds of shades of even WHITE from which to choose!
Choosing the right material to put in your cat's box from all of the many available types can make you dizzy also. There's scented, unscented, clumping, clay-based, flushable, silica-based, pine, recycled newspaper, wheat or corn ....and combinations of these. How can one keep it straight?
In the natural (biodegradable) category, you can find litters made from pine, corn, wheat, paper, and others. They can be clumping or non-clumping, and as you might expect, are biodegradable and flushable and non-toxic. I personally love these litters. I love knowing that if my cat eats a bit off his paw, it is absolutely safe. I also like the eco-friendliness of them. My personal favorite is Yesterday's News. However as mentioned above, not all cats like them, but then not all cats agree unanimously about anything. They also tend to be more expensive than many other types of litter.
The final category is the clumping clay-based litter. It's hard not to like a litter that lets you scoop out the urine each day in addition to the feces. It makes for a tidier situation, less odor, more cat-friendly (they like it clean!) and is less expensive than some of the other alternatives.
My biggest concern about this type of litter is the fact that it is so absorbent that it can potentially create problems in the GI tract if a cat ingests it. I haven't seen this happen, to my knowledge, but there have been reports of GI obstructions from the litter, especially in young kittens. I have seen large clumps of it between the toes of cats. It can be difficult to get off.
Fresh Step, Tidy Cat, and many others make this type of litter. Clumping litter has become a huge favorite of many cat owners.
