While less than 60 years ago there was only one brand of Letter on the market today there are shelves lined with it in your grocery store. The original clay solution is still used in very popular today but now manufactures mix it up by adding different absorbing an older controlling elements. More natural litters are becoming more popular and you’re seeing more and more of them entering the market.

Here are the different kinds of materials you might find in your cat litter:

Clay

Most cat litters contain clay or sodium bentonite as it is highly absorbent. This is what makes the cat litter clump and be easy to scoop out. This type of cat litter can be dusty and can clump off on your cat’s paws and coat and also has a tendency to be trapped all over the house. Some manufacturers add silicon particles to help keep the dust down. While this does work, it may not be your best choice as silicon has been shown to be carcinogenic and humans. If you cat is using the litter box and pawing around in it he’s probably getting a lot of silicon particles in his lungs, not to mention your exposure when you are cleaning it out!

If you’re worried about this, read the labels on your cat letterbox carefully to be sure silicon is not a part of it.

Wheat And Plant Based

I use a wheat-based cat litter and I love it because the dust from other cat litters bothers my asthma. the wheat-based litter is not dusty at all and is really quite absorbent and controls over well.

These types of litter can be made from beet pulp, wheat grass, corncobs, corn kernel and wheat and are the most natural comes around.

Silica Gel

Yep, is little packets that you find in all kinds of manufactured products which are supposed to keep moisture out there now being made into cat litter to. This product is actually more natural than you think it is made from oxygen, water and silica dioxide sand. The result is little crystals or spheres that are extremely absorbent - absorbing over 40 times its weight. This type of cat litter is not dusty and won’t track all over your house. This litter is non-toxic and due to the fact that the moisture is absorbed into the gel balls the actual litter can be used for over a month without changing up the whole box.

Newspaper

Recycled newspapers made into pellets can work as a good cat litter which is just free and non-tracking as well as biodegradable.

Sawdust

Pine and cedar sawdust that is compressed and made into little pellets can also be used as a cat litter. These pellets retain the natural ammonia neutralizing components of the trees and are actually quite absorb. They smell like pine or cedar which you may or may not like.