Green Living

I am always up for trying new things, whether it’s eco-friendly or not. If I can see past the gimmick, to a benefit for making the change, I’ll give it a whirl. My most recent attempt at trying something new bombed. Sometimes “green” isn’t always better, as I learned the hard way.

I am an animal lover to the core. A sucker for a furry face. It is often joked between friends a family that my pets get the best of care. I had recently read (although I already knew) that traditional cat litter is bad for your health – both yours and your pet’s. The clay gives off so much dust and particles into the air that we breath into our lungs and respiratory systems. The clay is also bad for the environment because it never breaks down or decomposes. It stays in landfills.

I had tried switching out my cat litter once before to a wheat based product. It smelled wonderful – until it was actually used. Yuck. So, I switched back to the basics. I recently decided to give green another try when I bought another eco-friendly cat litter that came highly recommended. The litter was not litter, rather fine pine chips. It was light weight, it clumped (or stuck together when moistened) like traditional clay litter, it was flushable and biodegradable, and it smelled fantastic! Like fresh wood….instead of a poopoo box. I thought I had found a winner. I was wrong.

I found out in a not so fun way, that cats are scent sensitive. They prefer odor-free (or as much as possible) areas to do their “business.” The pine was too overbearing to my cats. It was great for me, but the scent was overwhelming to them. It was so much so, they chose another spot to go to the bathroom, avoiding the litter box altogether. Fun, right? (enter sarcasm here) I didn’t know this was going on until I happend to catch one of them in the act! I suspected immediately that it was the litter, since the cats had never gone anywhere other than their box (even when neglected to be cleaned) before now and it was the only thing I had changed in their environment to correspond with their change in behavior. When I did some research, I found out it was a common occurrence that many other cat owners had experienced. As soon as I switched back to the traditional clay litter, they resumed using their box. Problem solved – kinda.

There is one other type of “eco-friendly” litter that I plan on trying (third time’s the charm right?) before I give up completely. It was recommended to me by my veterinarian after one of my cats had surgery. It is made out of newspaper that is formed into little pellets (like rabbit food). It’s called Yesterday’s News. I thought it was a clever name. This newspaper litter is not only three times more absorbent than regular litter, but it is also made out of a recycled newspapers – creating benefits all around.

We will see if it work. I’ll let you know if I have success!

Keywords: cats, eco-friendly, health, healthy living, landfill, litter

Both comments and pings are currently closed.