If the list of components of this litter are listed on the container please read it and tell me if there is perlite in there. – please leave a comment, thanks.
I have asked a direct, straightforward question in the title because of a comment written by Barbara Morrissey recently. Her comment is below:
“I recently tried Cat’s Pride because it was lightweight. Within a week I noticed my cat’s fur was ratty and felt rough. Didn’t make the connection until his bowels started acting up.
Poor guy, now almost $400 later he is still having problems, Vet found strong evidence of inflammation in his rectal mucosa.
His coat is much better since I switched to Wheatone, but my judgement is still out on that. The grooming behavior of zats can expose them to these sharp silica, and the stuff is hard to wash out of their fur.”
My research indicates three things about this clumping litter:
- This litter gets good reviews at around 4.5 out of 5. However one person asked how a cat litter can be both lightweight and low tracking. When you think about it that is a good point. The two are contradictory. Cat’s Pride did not have an answer to the question, incidentally.
- I found it impossible, online, to discover the list of components for this litter. Because Barbara’s cat had inflamed rectal mucosa I wanted to find out if this product was made of perlite or volcanic ash which is sharp and can damage the organs of cats when inhaled as is the case with Tidy Cats Lightweight litter. Do all lightweight cat litters contain perlite? I doubt it but I’d like some clear answers which I can’t find on the internet.
- We need to know if this product is made from perlite. And even if the product gets good reviews this is not conclusive of its quality because the deterioration of a cat’s health by ingesting lightweight litter made from dangerous substances such as perlite is a slow process. It can be a hidden process. And if a cat is harmed, is the harm put down to the cat litter used? How widespread is this problem?
General comment
The more I read about clumping cat litter the more I have doubts about it. There is always dust and cats inhale the dust. This must be something that should concern cat guardians. I feel that the vast majority of cat guardians are unaware of the dangers. They focus on how good it is from their perspective e.g. is it non-tracking, non-dust etc.. They don’t want their house covered in cat litter dust. I understand this, of course. But what about the cat breathing in a lot of litter and we don’t know what the substances are.
The environmental issues are also concerning. The clay for a lot of clumping cat litter is dug up out of the ground in strip mines which destroys the landscape and the habitat of wild species.
We need more research on Cat’s Pride Lightweight Litter simply on the basis of Barbara’s comment on this website. It is enough to raise that red flag of caution and concern.
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I’ve had similar concerns. To mitigate any mess and inhalation/ingestion problems from using standard clay litter, I locate my cat boxes where I can ventilate the area either with a small fan (blowing the dust away from the box toward an open window or door) and / or near an exhaust fan that sucks the air out of the house, in or near the bathroom. Usually when one of my cats uses the litter box they kind of announce it afterwards. I finally noticed that they do that, then I go turn on that fan. Another way to do that rather than leaving it on all day would be to connect one to a trigger device like an infra-red motion detector aimed at the box. Electronics stores like Fry’s have things like that. Probably the best thing would be to use an air filter on low right at the box, and change the filter as needed. I think as long as you don’t have a dust cloud hanging over the cat box, your cat isn’t in much danger, but you shouldn’t use silica, perlite or volcanic ash. My rule of thumb is if any product is “new and improved” with your convenience in mind, it’s probably bad for the cat.