Cat litter, often known as kitty liter is one such material used in the litter boxes of your cat that helps in absorbing moisture from the cat’s urine and feces thus, reducing the foul odor of ammonia. This makes things quite comfortable at home.

There are different kinds of cat litter – kitty litter available in the market and it gives the pet owners a wide array of choice. Some pet owners prefer to use cat litters that would prevent litters from tracking throughout their house, while others might look for kitty litters that would be biodegradable. Some other factors influencing the choice of cat litter can be odor control, absorbency, texture, cost and safety.

The different types of cat litters or kitty litters are:

Normal Conventional Litter…

Cat litters were available for the first time in 1948 and was marketed by Ed Lowe. It is the first cat litter ever that was commercially available and was known as kitty litter. The absorbent material used in case of a kitty litter was clay and not the conventional sand. Clay was definitely more absorbent than sand. Kitty litter happens to be a brand name but it is now a generalized trademark and is used to denote any cat litter type.

Clumping Litter…

Clumping cat litters were found in the 1950s in UK by Fuller’s Earth Union and it later became a division of Laporte Industries Ltd. FEU’s clumping litter was made of calcium bentonite which causes lesser swelling and stickiness as compared to the American bentonite.

Clumping litters form huge and solid clumps as it meets with the moisture from the pet wastes. These clumps once formed, can further be scooped out of the litter box and then disposed. This does not disturb the cat litter. A fresh cat litter can then be used as a replacement. These types of cat litters are very convenient to use but there might be some problems as well. Clumping litters, if ingested can cause stomach upset.

Biodegradable cat litter…

The materials used for biodegradable cat litters are usually pellets that can be obtained from certain renewable plant resources such as recycled newspapers, wood pellets, saw dust, orange peel (dried), corn cobs or even wheat bran.

These cat litters are environment friendly and can also be disposed in landfills. This type of kitty litters can even be eliminated by just composing the used cat litter safely at home. Biodegradable cat litters are also preferred because of its flushability and deodorizing property. These cat litters can be very costly compared to the rest.

Silica gel litter or Crystal litter…

Silica gel based cat litters use sodium silicate in porous and granular form and has the highest probable absorbency than any other kitty litter. These cat litters have excellent control over odor and moisture.

These kitty litters are highly praised due to its absorbency, which is about 4 to 5 lbs and odor control for more than 30 days for a healthy and normal cat. While scooping the waste, stir it regularly so that urine doesn’t pool within the box. As the cat litter gets saturated it releases foul smell and it is not possible to determine the saturation period.

Crystal cat litters are extremely light weight and convenient to use.

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