Go green, kitty!

The word is out that clumping cat litters, while convenient, may not be the greenest choice to meet your feline friend’s excretory needs. Besides the fact that much of the sodium-bentonite clay used to make clumping litters is strip-mined, ingestion of the litter—which expands to 15 to 18 times its size when wet—by a kitten that licks its feet after using the litter box may result in severe GI blockage, according to Vetinfo.com. Additionally, clumping-clay cat litter contains quartz silica, a known carcinogen that can cause respiratory disorders in both cats and their owners.

Supereco.com suggests a number of alternatives to clay cat litters:

• Recycled newspaper litters, such as Oregon-made Good Mews or Purina’s Yesterday’s News.

• Reclaimed sawdust litters, such as pine-fresh, chemical- and dust-free Feline Pine and Beauticat.

• Grain litters, such as World’s Best Cat Litter, a nonclay, clumping litter milled from whole-kernel corn, and Swheat Scoop, another nonclay, clumping litter made of wheat.