There are a lot of litter options out there, but the cat always gets the final vote
By Midge Raymond
At a party last summer, I saw friends I hadn’t seen in a while and, as we caught up with one another, we talked about travel, poetry — and cat litter. (Yes, this is what cat people do.) They’d recently found a kitty litter that both they and their cats liked, which is a rare find, as every cat person knows. This litter was low-dust and clumped well (for the humans), and it was soft and easy to dig into (for the cats). Plus, it was made with corn and cassava, natural ingredients that are safe for cats even if ingested.
However, even “natural” cat litter may not be as safe as we think it is. Billie Jo Vinson, who opened Ashland’s Wellness Pet Supplies on A Street with Doug Strain in 2017, says that among the corn, wheat and grass litters, “I’ve only found one so far that’s a grass litter that’s non-GMO.” Unlike this grass litter, called SmartCat, most products, Vinson says, come from crops treated with pesticides — including the popular corn litter World’s Best Cat Litter and the wheat-based sWheat Scoop.
And despite claims by various brands that their litters aren’t dusty (“they say they’re 99.9 percent dust free, and I don’t know who they’re fooling,” Vinson says), nearly every cat litter does produce a little dust — and cats inhale this as well as accumulate litter on their paws. “So they’re absorbing that in the air and through their feet. So every time they’re scratching, they’re breathing in this very toxic material.”
Cat behaviorist Mieshelle Nagelschneider, author of The Cat Whisperer and founder of The Cat Behavior Clinic, doesn’t recommend corn or wheat litter either, for different reasons: “Many cats eat these litters, which can be unhealthy while also conflicting with the elimination drive, but cats instinctively do not like to urinate or defecate in a food source … I’ve seen hundreds of cats develop an aversion to food-based litters,” she writes.
At Wellness Pet Supplies, Vinson listens to customer feedback and does research on every product she carries in the store. With a degree in herbalism, she is now working toward a degree in clinical animal nutrition from the Academy of Natural Sciences in New Jersey. “I’m so excited to be in this group,” she says. “For three generations, we have gone off the rails of how we care for our animals. We’ve trusted these high commercial brands that don’t have their interests at heart at all — they just want our money. As I started digging into ingredients, as I opened the store, I was like, ‘What have I been doing?’”
Vinson carries myriad types of kitty litter, from clay to pellets to coconut. Clay litters, she says, tend to be the most popular. “And that sometimes can be a problem — if cats walk in their pee and then go and clean their paws, they’re ingesting that litter, which can then grow and absorb and become a blockage and can absorb essential minerals. And of course, not all are created equal — some of them have other ingredients in there as well and not just straight bentonite clay. The Boxie Cat is just a straight bentonite clay. They have some with a probiotic added to it if you have an extra-stinky cat, and they have a gently pine-scented one, which I don’t carry.”
Indeed, as humans have learned the hard way, many cats dislike (and therefore won’t use) scented litters — and Vinson points out that they can also be harmful to cats. “Let’s say it’s an essential oil. Cats don’t produce the enzyme in their liver to break that down, so it can be very toxic. If they’re going in there multiple times a day, it’s probably not the smartest idea.”
Pellet litter is popular among humans for its low cost, as well as its very low dust and tracking outside the box — and it can be environmentally sustainable. “I have two styles of pellets,” Vinson says. “One is a hinoki wood and green tea pellet and one that’s a pine tree pellet. And they’re not cutting down trees for this — these are the trees that died of beetle death up in Canada. So these are all the things I take into consideration.”
Yet pellet litter isn’t a favorite among cats — and they will tell you this in no uncertain terms. One of my cats, who usually has good litter box manners, gave me a clear message by using my side of the bed instead of the pellet litter we offered. Vinson herself once tried out pellet litter with her cat Jack, “and he went and ruined three dog beds.”
“Most cats like it soft,” she says. “What you’re mimicking is them going out in the dirt. So how you can get some cats to use the pellets, I don’t know, but some do. I sell plenty of it. Some like it. And it’s mostly for the people — it’s less messy and less tracking.”
Nagelschneider writes that most cats prefer “an unscented, medium-grain clumping litter, or a very fine-grain silica (or sandlike) litter,” as she writes in “The Cat Whisperer.” “The silica sand litter looks and feels like white sand. It’s very light, nontoxic, absorbs urine instead of clumping, and absorbs smell very well.” There are myriad brands, such as Pretty Litter, and Nagelschneider advises checking ingredients to be sure there are no added chemicals.
Ashland resident Heather McKinley-Brown, co-owner of Ashland’s B’Inspired Studio, uses a silica litter from the Kitty Poo Club (more on this subscription service is coming in our next column, on litter boxes). “We mainly got that one because it’s low dust, and for Bella, our little Persian, it’s a texture thing — if she doesn’t like it, she won’t use it,” McKinley-Brown says with a laugh. “And it’s very soft on her little paws.”
While the silica litter doesn’t clump, McKinley-Brown says, “you can just pick up the solids and dump them in the toilet. And it’s low odor — it really keeps odors down.”
Vinson is a fan of the coconut litter she carries at Wellness Pet Supplies. Made of finely ground coconut shells, CatSpot is organic, biodegradable and flushable. “It is extremely fine and very lightweight, so I love it for people who can’t lift those big heavy litter bags. The downside is that it’s very dusty and it doesn’t clump at all, so you scoop the poop out and you can flush that down the toilet. And then you stir the pee in, and within one minute of it being stirred in the smell goes completely away. I tested this with my kitties, and it worked. And then you can take it out and put it out in your rose bushes and under your trees, and it helps your plants become more drought tolerant. Not your vegetables, of course — no one wants cat pee in their carrots,” she adds with a laugh.
Whether you’re litter-shopping for your first feline or making a change, “know what’s in your litter,” Vinson recommends. “Feet absorb things.” When her customers’ cats have cancer or lung issues, Vinson says, “that’s one of my top questions: What kind of litter are you using?”
What most cat people know (or will eventually learn) is that finding the right kitty litter is all about finding the balance between what works for us humans and what works for our cats. We also know that, in the end, the cats get the final vote.
Cat people: Do you have questions about kitty litter, or stories about what’s worked for you and the felines who own you? This is Part 1 of a 2-part column on cats and litter. If you’d like to share anything for future columns, send a note to CattyCornerAshland@gmail.com.
Ashland resident Midge Raymond is co-founder of Ashland Creek Press and author of the novels “Floreana” and “My Last Continent” and co-author of “Devils Island.” Email suggestions and questions for Catty Corner to her at CattyCornerAshland@gmail.com.
