At first, there was dirt. Cats meandered freely, scratching a "cat hole" wherever they pleased, then overlaying their business to elude discovery by predators. The really favored cats roamed near a house with children, where there was often a sandbox for the kids to play in. This sand was the high end dirt of the early days -- dirt that was simple to dig in, quick to scratch over, and relatively easy to shake from the paws.
Then cats relocated inside, and it was people who decided where they should do their digging and dumping, and what they should do that digging and dumping in. The first litter boxes held the typical well-known dirt or sand. The cats were content enough with the familiar materials, but people tended not to like the stink or disorder. It just didn't absorb very well and had to be adequately changed daily.
In 1948 Ed Lowe, a dealer in industrial absorbents furnished his neighbor some absorbent clay substance for use in her cat's litter box. It worked a lot better than sand, and before long more people wanted to try it. Lowe developed and perfected the product, offering it as Kitty Litter, a brand name that has become a generic reference to any cat litter. The commercial cat litter trade was born.
Clay Cat Litter
Clay litters have been common for a long time. They are very absorbent and present modest odor management. Clumping types produce a consolidated mass when wet, and are merely scooped out of the box for disposal, leaving the remaining litter for further use. A few people worry that clumping litters could provoke digestive troubles if a cat, especially a kitten, were to consume it, as the particles would swell and produce a mass in the digestive tract.
Clay cat litters are weighty and can be dusty. Disposal of the used litter can be a concern. The majority just bag it up and send it out with the garbage, but that adds a great deal of material to currently over-stressed landfills on a yearly basis. Criticisms of clay litters are that it is a strip-mined substance, and that it includes silica dust, which is viewed as a carcinogen in California.
Crystal Cat Litter
The new kid on the cat litter block is silica gel crystals, made from silicon dioxide sand. Crystal litter is very easy to carry, highly absorbent, and dust-free. It's more high priced than other litters, but it can last a long time; with a daily stirring to expose more of the porous granules to the urine, it can take in wetness for up to a month before needing to be changed out.
Crystal litters manage odors well, but do not produce good clumps. Many cats don't like the texture of crystal cat litter, and caretakers worry that as a super-absorbent, it could be a health hazard if consumed. And again, disposal of the used crystals comes down to the landfill.
Biodegradable Cat Litter
The concerns of clay and crystal cat litters are triumphed over with natural, biodegradable cat litters. The natural litters curb odors effectively and are non-toxic, absorbent, and mostly dust-free. Moreover, the degradable nature of natural litters assures they can be composted in the backyard to create a soil amendment for decorative plants in the landscape. If space for composting isn't accessible, these cat litters are safe to flush into the septic system, so there is no disposal dilemma. This is a type of cat litter that won't stack up in the landfill.
Biodegradable litters are created from renewable plant elements, such as grain, wood, or paper, usually recycled or produced from a by-product of other plant uses. They are entirely safe for both cats and humans.
Cat litter has come almost full-circle, from the original dirt in the garden to the newest biodegradable litters that break down back into the earth. It's the best of both worlds, and the environmentally concerned cat will want to use green cat litter to keep the world the best it can be.
Discriminating cats shop at Harry and Lloyd's Cat Supplies Online ( www.catsuppliesonline.net )
Article Source: http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Cat-Litter-Choices-For-Today-s-Cat/250300
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