Cat Litter

In the olden days, cats were like dogs - when they needed to 'go', they went to the door and the homeowner noticed their meowing and let them outside. Later, they would meow to be let back in, and in some cultures, cats are considered entirely 'outdoor' animals, relegated to the barn and outbuildings where they are supposed to keep the rodent population under control. These cats clearly don't need litter.

Some people, however, noticed that cats would dig a hole to 'do their business' in, and then neatly cover it up. They also discovered that a pan of sand indoors would soon be appropriated by the cat for this use, and that cats could be kept entirely indoors, as long as you provided them a place to 'litter'.

After boxes of sand, the first innovation in cat litter was the development of clay litter. This is simply dried pulverized clay, which absorbs urine and gives the cat something to bury feces with. A slotted spoon allows the pet owner to fish out the feces periodically to keep the odor down - eventually clay litter must be replaced with new litter. First generation clay litter did nothing to remove urine odors. Clay litter is also 'high-tracking' - that is, cats can track clay crumbs around on their paws, making sweeping up after them a constant chore.

Clay litter was the standard for decades, but when clumping cat litter came out, it seemed to set off a competitive race for innovating this product line. Clumping litter was a major advance, in that when wet, the litter forms a cohesive ball that sticks together in clumps. Cat owners can remove not only the feces, but the odor-causing urine, since it's all bound up in the clumps, which are easily separated from clean litter with the ubiquitous slotted spoon.

Clumping litters are also easy for cats to track outside the box. Placing the litterbox on a bathmat so the cat has to 'wipe his feet' when he emerges might help reduce litter-track throughout the house.

At about the same time that clumping litter was introduced, both clumping and non-clumping cat litters began to feature some sort of odor control. Some advertised that they contained baking soda, which would 'neutralize' odor. Some experimented with enzymes. Today a number of litters advertise that they have controlled the odor problem; they all work with various degrees of success.

These silicon based litters are super-absorbent, so don't put as much in the pan. When the crystals' absorption capacity has been exceeded, cat urine will start to pool and it's time to change the cat litter.

Some litters are a combination of clumping, crystals and deodorizing. Deodorant and crystal litters vary in how much tracking litter they create for cleanup, depending on grainsize and 'paw adherence'. Once again, a bathmat on the floor can help.

One product type actually does neutralize urine odor in the litterbox - the pine pellet cat litters. These are pellets of compressed pine sawdust that, when wet, disintegrate into sawdust again and expand to 3-4 times their original size as they absorb the liquid. Pine litter must be literally sodden with urine before you can smell it - otherwise all you smell is a pine-wood scent.

Pine litter is also preferred for cats with respiratory problems, since the clay litters are dusty, and cats with breathing issues shouldn't be inhaling a lot of dust. While the pine litters produce sawdust, it is less likely to be airborn as the clay dust particles.

Pine litter must be scooped for solid wastes and entirely changed when it becomes saturated with urine. The sawdust is slightly less 'trackable' than the clay type litters.

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