Cat litter and litter trays

Tomorrow you are taking the cat home. You are shopping vigorously, checking off a list that includes cat food, toys, a scratching post, and a host of other items.

And at the top of the list are all the necessary things for the toilet. You head to the nearest pet store and are faced with many shelves filled with this product. Pastel clumping litter, good old clay litter, something made of pine or newspaper… What, what to choose? Regardless of whether you are an experienced owner or a newbie, the variety of choices can be discouraging. But it was not always so.

History of the issue

Before World War II, most cats lived both indoors and outdoors, and relieved themselves in neighborhood backyards and gardens. Some families kept boxes of sand or stove ashes in their basements for their cats. Housewives in the 1940s weren't too fond of cats that left trails of ashes and sand all over the house. So a former sailor named Ed Lowe suggested to his neighbor that they try absorbent clay, a popular product for cleaning up industrial emissions from wartime factories that his father's company manufactured. Kitty litter was born.

Pelletized clay litter held the odor better than ash or sand, completely absorbing urine and containing the ammonia odor until the litter reached saturation point, usually within a week for a single cat. Today, most people either scoop out solid waste daily and completely replace the litter once a week, or put less litter in the box and throw it out and clean the litter box daily. The pellets in traditional litter are large enough that they don't usually stick to a cat's paws, so there's little residue outside the litter box.

Clumping or non-clumping litter

Clay pellet litters had little competition for about 40 years, with only minor improvements in cleaning, until Thomas Nelson, Ph.D., needed a way to supplement his income while in graduate school. The biochemist started by raising Persian cats and eventually created clumping litter. Dr. Nelson was quoted in an October 1996 Cat Fancy article: “I looked for and found a clay that dried but didn’t harden. It absorbed moisture very well and formed a clumping litter when a cat urinated on it. The litter could then be removed, thus eliminating the urine. I had a litter box that I hadn’t changed for 10 years—I just added more litter and it was completely odorless.”

Cleaning up most of the urine and feces does improve the smell of the litter box area within a few weeks. You don't have to throw out all the old litter and put in new litter. But we must point out that if more than one cat uses the litter box, a fairly strong odor usually develops after 4 to 6 weeks, even if you remove and add litter. You should add about the same amount of fresh clumping litter as you removed, because if you don't add enough, urine will collect and dry in the corners, causing an odor.

There are several options for clumping litters other than the traditional scented and unscented pellets. Most cats prefer unscented litter, which is especially important for owners who plan to use covered litter boxes. There are litters designed for a large number of cats that form cement-like clumps that hold their shape even when repeatedly trampled. This type of litter is definitely not flushable! There are also litters that leave less marks, with slightly larger pellets that are more likely to fall off when the cat leaves the litter box. There are also clumping litters that are specifically designed to be flushable, a quality that most clumping litters do not have due to their ability to expand. The list of litters is growing every year.

Several years after clumping litter was introduced, an article published in the now-defunct cat magazine Tiger Tribe raised questions about the safety of ingesting clumping litter, especially for newborn kittens who frequently eat the litter they are introduced to during the weaning stage. Until scientific literature shows a problem, owners may want to wait until their kittens are 3 to 4 months old to eat clumping litter. If you notice a cat over 3 to 4 months old eating litter, take her to the vet, as this behavior often indicates anemia and other nutritional deficiencies.

Clumping litter remains a hot topic on the Internet, with some claiming it is toxic and causes respiratory problems in cats. Many clumping litters contain bentonite clay, a naturally occurring clay mineral that is considered biologically inert if ingested, and/or silica. Silica is also physically and chemically inert, and is the main component of regular sand. Silica is also used as a moisture absorbent in the little packets found in shoe boxes, medications, and some foods. According to experts at the Animal Toxic Substance Control Center at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, animals that ingest small amounts of silica gel may develop only mild gastrointestinal upset, if any symptoms at all.

Cats may ingest small amounts of litter when grooming themselves after using the litter box, and this amount passes through the digestive tract easily. However, if the animal ingests very large amounts of litter (as can happen when a dog cleans the litter box), gastrointestinal upset, constipation, or, in rare cases, intestinal obstruction may occur.

Alternative filler

Cat litters aren’t just made of granular or clumping clay. Pet store shelves also feature a range of litters made from eco-friendly materials, including recycled newspaper, corn cobs, peanut hull meal, recycled orange peel, wheat, pine shavings and sawdust, and hardwood and cedar chips. All promise excellent odor control, long-lasting durability, and are kind to the environment. Which, which should you choose…?

In 1990, Dr. Peter Borchelt, an animal behaviorist, conducted three 10-day studies to determine which litters cats preferred. He compared 14 types of commercial litter, as well as topsoil mixed with clay litter and sand. Each cat had a choice of six litter boxes. Halfway through the study, the boxes were moved to prevent litter location preference from outweighing litter type preference. In study after study, fine-grained clumping litter was used twice as often as its nearest competitor, while wood shavings, grain, and recycled paper litter boxes were not used at all. Borchelt concluded, "These data support the clinical observation that an important factor in cat litter material preference is its texture, granularity, and coarseness. Everclean, a fine-grained clay, was preferred over the coarse-grained clay. But sand, which also has a fine texture, was not preferred over coarse clay, perhaps because of the weight of the particles.

What to choose? You focus on the price, but the final choice is up to your pet. After all, if he doesn’t like the smell and texture of the filler, he can do his business anywhere else.

Did you know?

Many clumping cat litters are formulated to remove as much fine dust as possible. If you find that you or your cat is particularly sensitive to airborne dust particles, you may want to try a modified form of litter.

Past the tray

One in ten cats misses a litter box during their lifetime. Here are the 20 most common reasons:

• The cat suffers from a disease associated with the urinary tract.
• Cats have periods of constipation in old age.
• The owner does not clean the litter box as the cat would like.
• The owner changes the brand or type of filler.
• The owner changes the location of the litter box.
• The owner has switched to deodorized or scented litter.
• The owner bought a new tray and threw out the old one.
• The owner cleans the litter box with too harsh a detergent.
• The location of the litter box is too noisy or not private enough for the cat.
• The house is too big to accommodate just one litter box.
• The cat can't get to the litter box.
• Another animal in the house prevents the cat from using the litter box.
• Too many cats and not enough litter boxes.
• Too many cats and not enough space.
• A cat in its territory sees or hears the smell of other cats.
• An uncastrated male is mature and marking his territory.
• An unspayed female is in heat and is warning the male cats about it.
• Over time, the cat developed an aversion to the texture of the litter.
• At the old place, the cat was not taught to use the litter box properly.
• The cat is stressed due to a change in routine or environment, including a new baby, new furniture, changes in work schedule, vacation, overnight guests, or moving.