Almost all pet cats are inseparable from cat litter, so almost all cat owners are inseparable from choosing cat litter. With the continuous prosperity of the cat litter market, types of cat litter products emerge in an endless stream. And gimmicks such as adding probiotics and adding deodorant factors also follow, many cat owners are confused. Especially the new cat owners have no experience in choosing cat litter, and they are even more overwhelmed when faced with a dazzling array of cat litter products in the store. Maybe this article will give you some ideas when choosing cat litter.
At present, the most common cat litter on the market mainly includes bentonite cat litter, tofu cat litter, wood cat litter, crystal cat litter, and paper cat litter. Next, the author will give a brief introduction to these types of cat litter pellets and analyze the main pros and cons of these cat litter. Hope it will help you how to choose cat litter.
Types of cat litter pros and cons
| Types of cat litter | Pros | Cons |
| Bentonite cat litter | Most suitable cat litter. | Large dust. |
| Tofu cat litter | Relatively little dust. | The clumping ability in different products varies greatly. |
| Wood cat litter | Natural and pollution-free. | Non-clumping. |
| Crystal cat litter | Strong water absorption capacity. | Poor deodorizing effect. |
| Paper cat litter | Dust free. | The deodorizing ability is relatively weak. |
Bentonite cat litter
The bentonite cat litter belongs to the clumping cat litter and is a traditional cat litter with a long history. As the name suggests, bentonite cat litter is cat litter produced from bentonite clay. Bentonite is air-dried under natural conditions and then ground to a fine powder. Then add water and process the fine powder into cat litter particles with a diameter of 2-3mm.
Pros:
The shape and texture of bentonite cat litter make it the most suitable cat litter for cats' habits. Cater to the cat's nature of digging the soil to bury excrement. Therefore, cats are easy to adapt to and accept bentonite cat litter, and the use of bentonite cat litter generally does not cause cats to refuse to use cat litter.
Good clumping and strong deodorization. The bentonite cat litter is made of bentonite, which itself has excellent adsorption and water swelling properties. In addition, the appearance of soil sand is mostly ball-shaped small particles, which can wrap the cat's excrement more quickly and completely. This can reduce the escape of odor, so as to achieve the effect of easy cleaning and strong deodorization.
Cheap price. The bentonite cat litter is made of bentonite, which is rich in minerals and low in price. And the bentonite cat litter processing technology is simple and mature. This gives the bentonite cat litter an incomparable advantage over other cat litter in terms of price.
Cons:
Large dust. Although bentonite cat litter has undergone multiple dust removal processes before leaving the factory, in the long-term transportation and storage, the continuous extrusion and collision between the fine particles of the bentonite cat litter, can easily cause the particles to wear and break, thereby generating dust. This is determined by the texture of the bentonite cat litter itself, and it is inevitable.
Easy to take out. Small particles of bentonite cat litter can easily get caught in the cat's paws and be carried out of the cat litter box. This can be even worse if your cat likes to dig the cat litter. Not only around the cat litter box, but the whole room will have scattered cat litter particles, which is very troublesome to clean.
Eating by mistake. Bentonite cat litter is a typical mineral cat litter and non-biodegradable cat litter. If it is accidentally eaten by a cat, the bentonite cat litter will not be digested, which will easily cause damage to the cat's digestive system.
Can't flush into the toilet. The bentonite cat litter is insoluble in water and cannot be flushed into the toilet. Used cat litter, which is placed in the trash for a long time, is easy to breed bacteria and produce a peculiar smell. It needs to be discarded in time, which increases the workload of cat owners.
Tofu cat litter
Tofu cat litter also belongs to the clumping cat litter. Tofu cat litter is an environmentally-friendly cat litter made from natural fresh bean dregs or natural plant fibers. Generally, soybean fiber is used as the main raw material, supplemented by corn starch, guar gum, etc. Some high-end tofu cat litter uses pea fiber as the main raw material, and the finished product has a whiter color and stronger coagulation ability. There are many types of tofu cat litter on the market now, such as green tea cat litter, original cat litter, peach cat litter, etc. Although the fragrance is different, the effect is almost the same.
Pros:
Relatively little dust. Tofu cat litter is generally strip-shaped with smooth surfaces, and high-end tofu sand is vacuum-packed, which greatly reduces the friction between particles, thereby reducing damage during transportation and storage. But it is impossible to be completely dust-free. Don't believe the so-called "completely dust-free" advertised on the market.
Not easy to take out. Tofu cat litter is generally cylindrical with a diameter of 1.5mm or 2mm and a length of 15mm-20mm. Larger particles are not easy to get stuck on the cat's paw and be taken out.
It is safe to eat by mistake in small amounts. Tofu cat litter is made of food-grade raw materials. The bean dregs and cornstarch all are edible raw materials, and the guar gum is a food-grade additive, which is found in a variety of food ingredients. However, if the owner buys some cat litter made by black-hearted workshops, it may be somewhat toxic.
Can flush into the toilet. Tofu cat litter is soluble in water, so it can flush into the toilet. This reduced the daily workload of cat owners.
Cons:
The clumping ability in different products varies greatly. Good tofu cat litter is comparable to bentonite cat litter in clumping ability, but poor quality tofu cat litter is a mess. There are certain requirements for the identification ability of cat owners.
The price is a little high. The raw material of tofu cat litter is expensive, and the production process is complicated. In order to reduce the risk of eating by mistake, guar gum is generally used as a binder, which increases the cost. However, with the continuous maturity of the production process, the price of tofu cat litter shows a downward trend. But the cost of raw materials accounts for a large proportion, and the prices of finished products are easily affected by the prices of raw materials and are prone to fluctuations.
Wood cat litter
Wooden cat litter is an environmentally-friendly cat litter product with wood chips as the main raw material. Wood cat litter will turn into powder after absorbing urine, so it belongs to non-clumping cat litter.
Pros:
Using natural wood chips as raw material is natural and pollution-free.
The raw materials are abundant and readily available, the production process is simple and the price is low.
Cons:
Wood cat litter generally has a strong smell of wood chips, which cats are naturally resistant to and have a hard time getting used to. Although some cats will use wood cat litter, they will hold it back until they can no longer hold then use it, which will cause health problems after a long time.
Wood cat litter does not clump and does not conform to the cat's excretion habits. Wood cat litter can't wrap poo, which makes them very ineffective at deodorizing.
Crystal cat litter
Crystal cat litter is a translucent ball-shaped or irregular particle made of silica gel. Some brands of crystal cat litter will add beads of different colors to achieve anti-mildew, antibacterial, deodorant, and other effects.
Pros:
Strong water absorption capacity. The basic ingredient of crystal cat litter is silicon dioxide, which is similar to the desiccant used in daily life, so it has a fast and strong water absorption capacity.
Cons:
Poor deodorizing effect. Crystal cat litter doesn't clump and doesn't wrap poop, which makes them very ineffective at deodorizing. In addition, the particles of crystal cat litter have a very strong smell after absorbing a large amount of cat's urine, so you need to replace the cat litter diligently.
Easy to take out and eat by mistake. Many cats will be interested in the colorful beads in the crystal cat litter, and they often play with them. Some cats will also eat it, which is more dangerous.
Large dust. The dust of crystal sand is also very large, and some cats will cough when they smell the newly changed sand.
Paper cat litter
Paper sand is a paper cat litter produced from recycled waste newspapers and recycled paper.
Pros
Environmental-friendly, safe and biodegradable, can be directly flushed into the toilet
Almost no dust, not easy to allergic to it.
Cons:
It is easy to become mushy when exposed to water, this causes inconvenience to clean the cat litter box.
The deodorizing ability is relatively weak, and it needs to be used together with a deodorizer.
How to choose the right cat litter?
We have learned about several major cat litter products on the market, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these cat litter. Which cat litter is suitable for our cats? How do we choose the right cat litter? We recommend that you choose from bentonite cat litter and tofu cat litter. Here's why.
We suggest that cat owners choose the clumping cat litter first. The clumping cat litter can wrap the cat's excrement well, so it will appear cleaner visually at first. Just imagine such a scene: there is a lot of cat excrement exposed in the cat litter box every day. Secondly, the clumping cat litter is more convenient to clean, and the cat owner can easily shovel out the used cat litter. This not only avoids the clean cat litter from continuous pollution but also is cleaner and more hygienic. The most important thing is that the clumping cat litter wraps the excrement is a good barrier to the smell, which can effectively prevent the smell from escaping and achieve the effect of deodorization. Cat owners who have used non-clumping cat litter, especially those who have used crystal cat litter, must be disgusted by the smell of crystal cat litter after absorbing a lot of cat urine.
As for paper sand, although it also belongs to clumping cat litter, the main reason we do not recommend choosing it is that the clumping ability of paper sand is generally poor. Some paper cat litter will turn into a paste after absorbing water, which is very difficult to clean. It loses the main advantage of clumping cat litter. As a relatively new product, the production process of paper cat litter is relatively immature, and there is still a long way to go in improving the clumping ability.
So how do we choose between bentonite cat litter and tofu cat litter?
The most essential difference between bentonite cat litter and tofu cat litter is that bentonite cat litter cannot flush into the toilet while tofu cat litter can flush into the toilet. If you don’t want to frequently throw cat litter outside, or it is inconvenient for you to throw cat litter, we recommended that you choose tofu cat litter.
The most direct difference between bentonite cat litter and tofu cat litter is that the price of bentonite cat litter is relatively cheap and the price of tofu cat litter is relatively high. If you use a large amount of cat litter or have strict requirements on the price of cat litter, we recommended that you choose bentonite cat litter.
If your cat likes to dig cat litter, or even has the habit of swallowing cat litter, it is best to choose tofu cat litter.
