Cat Litter

Hello, I'm Greg Foote and welcome to Slice Bread, the show that investigates the wonder product. promising to make you happier, healthier, or greener. Each episode we follow the crumbs of evidence to find out if one of your suggested wonder products is indeed the best thing since sliced bread or marketing BA. And today's suggestion comes from Ella Wolsworth Bell, who is in Falmouth. Welcome Ella! Bye, guys. Who's this with you? This is Mr Big, our new Sphinx cat.

Now hang on, that is the same breed of cat and name of cat as Doctor Evil has in Austin Powers. That's absolutely right. Yep. And what wonder product would you and Mr Big like us to investigate today? Well, we have never had an indoor cat before, so that has opened up a whole new world of cat litter. Right.

Like to know a bit more about cat litter, the different types, what are the benefits of each, both environmental, and which is going to be the easiest to use? The clay stuff, the stuff that looks like little rocks. is definitely one of the cheaper options, but I've heard that it's not so great for the planet. Right.

What I want and what Mr Big wants may be something slightly different. I would like less smelly cat litter and I don't really like the way it tracks across my really nice wooden floors. I'd rather it stayed in the litter tray. Some of the cat litter claims to be gentler or the Wars. I'm not really sure what all that's about. And clumping and non clumping. Clumping and non clumping, yes. What are you using right now, Ella?

I am now using the wood pellets. It doesn't seem to last. It just turns to wet sod. Well, we have had lots of cat owners send in emails to sliced.bread at bbc.co.uk asking us to investigate this. Listener Andrew wrote that cat litter is doing his head in because there are so many aspects to consider.

Like you, he wants to know about the environmental impact and about clumping, but also how cat litter should be disposed of, particularly whether it is indeed okay to flush it down the toilet, something that some products suggest you can do, but he is not sure.

Listener Terry also emailed in with similar concerns after listening to our episode on dog poo bags, which of course you can listen to over on BBC Sounds if you haven't already. Let me introduce Ella the two experts who are going to give us the inside scoop. Thank you.

Don't worry, I I've checked that they are both real. They are not AI. There is no cat GPT today. First up, joining me from London is a cat expert, veterinary surgeon and author of the book What's My Cat Thinking, Dr. Joe Lewis. Welcome, Joe. Hey Greg, how are you? Hi, Ella. And Mr. Big. Yeah. The star of the show. And my second expert who is here in the studio with me, an engineer and former managing director at the pet care company Bob Martin, Savvy Madden. Welcome, Savvy. Thank you very much.

Savvy, your previous job was to design and to make cat litter. Yeah, over the last thirty years I've developed, sold, made, marketed cat litters. So I have quite a lot of experience in the area. And are you currently working on anything related to cat litter? I have one project and I'm advising one brand on Carletter, but it's not one of the brands we're talking about today. Okay. And Joe, any conflicts of interest that we should know about in your work?

No, I pride myself on giving kind of independent advice. The cats come first. Okay, great. Well, Ella, as we've discussed, Mr Big is an indoor cat, so unless you were okay with him weeing and pooing on your kitchen floor, he needs a litter tray inside to relieve himself on. Joe, will you always need a little tray indoors, even if you've got an outdoor cat?

All cats are different as anyone who has a cat knows. And some will exclusively toilet outside because that's their comfort zone. But I would always say they need the option of an inside. Access to a toilet, so i.e., a litter box. How do you work out how many you need? The rule of thumb tends to be one tray per cat plus one extra. And there's another sort of rule of thumb where you have one liter tray per floor.

Got ya. So the question today is what litter should you put in your litter tray? Savi, broadly, what does cat litter need to do? Do. So essential is that it absorbs and it absorbs relatively quickly. So the cat P doesn't go through to the bottom of the tray and you get sticky mess on the bottom of the tray. The second is

generally odour control. I think Ella's spoken a little bit about the dust and the tracking. And then the other one is it has to be pore friendly. Some cat litters are actually not that pore friendly because they're quite sharp. There's also potentially an issue with scent, so something that smells nice to us. Might not smell very nice to your cat. Because Joe, I guess, just as Ellis said, there's kind of what the owner wants and there's what the cat wants.

Yeah, absolutely. In some ways they're very similar because you know what a cat wants, they're very clean animals. They spend so much of their day, other than sleeping, cleaning themselves and having unwanted scents on them, particularly the scent of urine or feces.

is really unpleasant for them. Really the key with the cat litter is getting it right so that you can keep the tray clean as far as possible at all times. So I'd add to Savvy's list from a veterinary angle and from a cat behaviour angle, I would say The priority is getting a cat litter that you can keep in tip top condition. Yeah, gotcha. Mr Big is behaving wonderfully on the camera. What a performer.

What sweetie. Right, let's get into the different materials that are offered then. You know, as listener Andrew lamented, there is a lot of choice when it comes to cat litter. So again, zooming out, Savi, what general types of cat litter are on offer? There are three main categories, the first being the natural clays, the second being manufactured cat litters, and then the third are the natural cat litters, which are generally made from organic matters.

Let's go through them one by one, starting with the natural clay cat litters. These are the traditional cat litters, aren't they, Savvy? So the little grey granules. Are they different types? Yep, there are essentially two types of natural clay. One is bentonite, it's the one that clumps. The other is atapolgite. And why are those two particular clays used?

They are natural absorbers, but so they have to be dried before they become absorbent, and you have to reduce that moisture content down to about ten percent. And Joe, is clay soft for a cat's point? It depends on how it's formulated. What's soft on cat's pores tends to be finer. So if the reference point is sand, I suppose. Any clays that are bigger than that are gonna be more awkward for their pores.

We've heard about clumping and not clumping. Let's explain what that is. What is clumping, Savvy? clumping cat later if the cat weeds on the clay it actually forms a discrete clump and it gels together so the clump can be removed and then the rest of the tray remains. And you said bentonite clumps. Does atapolgite not clump? Does not clump. Why? Bentonite it has a different structure, and the sodium in the product creates the gelling action. At a pull guide.

a different mineral structure which doesn't enable that to happen. So we looked at Tesco's and Sainsbury's own brand cat litters. They say that they are both non clumping. They don't actually say what material they're made of, but I'm going to assume it's atopolgite, in which case. The bentonite cat litters have clearer labelling of what is inside and they advertise the benefits of clumping. Petex's premium clumping cat litter, for example, say that the granules form a solid clump

that can be removed effortlessly with a cat litter scoop. Joe, it's this ease of removal that might encourage someone to use a clumping cat litter, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. If it comes down to clumping versus non-clumping, every time I'd go with clumping, except with the caveat with young kittens or cats that eat stupid stuff, for one of a better phrase, that clumping action can also happen in the gut if they eat it.

And can cause an obstruction. So with that aside, I'd always go for a clumping cat litter because that ability to form one solid lump sort of replicates the other solid lumps that you're getting out the cats produce. So you can keep the cat tray so much. Cleaner. How often should the cat litter be changed out completely?

If you've got a non-clumping tray, you wouldn't want to be keeping that full tray of litter for more than a couple of days. Whereas with a clumping cat litter, because you're able to remove so much of the solid waste. And the rest of the tray is relatively good and it can last many weeks, but they often pee up the sides slightly and things like that. So you need to kind of make sure you're cleaning the rim, like you would a toilet pole, I suppose.

So Ella, listening to this, are you thinking clumping or not clumping? I'm thinking clumping that sounds much easier. Yeah, yeah. Let's go on to the dust and the tracking. So I saw one bentonite cat litter, Sani cat, claim to be no dust and low tracking. So Savi, how dusty or messy are these natural clay litters? And are the clumping bentonite ones less dusty?

Not necessarily, much depends on the packing process and how well they sieve out the cat litters. The fine grained bentonite cat litters, which are called ultras, they tend to be less dusty. But some of the cheaper products that we'll buy in the supermarkets they actually contain quite a lot of dust.

Oh interesting. And Joe said earlier that the finer the litter, the softer it could be for pores, so perhaps ultra could be something to look out for, Ella. Is Mr Big pretty messy with the litter tray? He kicks it everywhere. Honestly. Yeah. And then you said that gets ground into the floor, right? So this brings us on to tracking nicely. Savvy, does one track less than the other? The more dusty it is, the more it'll track. Joe, is dust and tracking an issue for the cat?

From the cat's perspective, they're obviously down at litter heights. So the more dusty it is, the more they're likely to get it in their eyes, on their faces, in their airways. The same sort of applies to humans, and every time you're tipping the bag out, if it's really dusty.

you do have to be mindful that you're not inhaling all that dust and some cat litters could potentially contain trace amounts of carcinogens on their own they're probably not going to cause a problem but if you're factoring that into your lifestyle choices in an ideal world you don't want to be exposing yourself to huge amounts of dust if you don't have to, or you can't really.

Yeah, I was reading about little particles of silica crystal uh that could be in the clay and that there are concerns around that. Crystalline silica is a thing to be aware of, and in the clumping bentonites there tends to be quite a few particles which are sub ten micron, which are the ones which lodge in your lungs and can cause problems. But the quantity in them is absolutely minute. It uh in small quantities and as long as you're careful not to be just breathing in the dust, it's fine.

Moving on to odour control, which was something you mentioned, Ella, you want a less smelly litter. We saw some of the clumping bentonite litters advertise odour control. For example, the PETEX bentonite litter say that it naturally quells unpleasant and unwanted odors without the addition of powerful scents. Helpful joke?

The biggest thing from an odor point of view for me is less about the properties of the cat litter itself and more about the cleaning regimen of the the human behind the litter tray. Ultimately, if you're scooping regularly, then that's the best odor control you can get. The other thing I'd say about odor is these scents like, you know, lavender and baby powder. It's quite off putting for a cat. They wouldn't naturally want to dig in something that's not of baby powder.

So these natural clay cat litters seem to be some of the cheapest that you can get. Atapolgite sometimes comes out a bit cheaper per litre than bentonite, but attapolgite is non clumping, so you're likely going to go through it quicker. What do you think, Ella? Would you be tempted to switch to one of these? Does sound like the simpler option, but I do have a big question about the environmental impact of those plays.

Well I w I'll put a pin in that. We'll get back to environmental impacts. Let's just go through all the different materials. That's natural clay litters done. Onto the manufactured cat litters. Your second category, Savvy. Can you explain a little bit more about what you mean by manufactured and what they can be made of? Essentially, two widely available manufactured catalytics. One is a product which is very similar to aerated concrete.

It's actually made in the same way. You create these sort of aerated granules, so you've got tiny little capillaries which are left in the structure and that absorbs liquid into them. I've seen these look like white, shiny, rounded pellets. Mm-hmm. Part of their marketing is to say it's white, it's clean and looks nice in your kitchen. You've then got silica gel, which is the same as the little sachets you might get in an electronics box or a telephone. Do not eat.

Do not eat, that's exactly right. Have you tried these, what what was your experience like? I have tried these and they were very effective. Well, one of the most important for the cat was how it feels on their paws. These manufactured litters, are they comfortable for cats? The silica gel is fine'cause it tends to be sort of round beads, quite soft, but in terms of the aerated concrete products they can be quite sharp on the pores.

Yeah, I think for the ones I'd tried years ago, that was one of the factors that turned me off them from the cat's perspective. Let's talk about how you would rate the odour control of these manufactured cat litters, shall we? They have additives in which will ensure that bacteria that grows in the urine doesn't keep growing and therefore will reduce. reduce odors related to urine, nothing reduces the odors related to cat poop.

Alright, well let's turn to Savvy's third type of cat litter, ones made of natural materials beyond clay. And let's see if you prefer one of these, Ellet. So you said you tried wood and paper litters before. We've seen cat litter made from corn, peas, olive pits, and many more. How are these being turned into cat litter, Savvy? They're essentially generally waste materials from other processes, so waste newspapers, sawdust coming out of sawmills, corn cobs and so on, so on.

Rydyn ni'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd. Yeah, it looks like some of these are clumping. Others are non clumping. How would you rate the absorbency of these natural based litters, Sorry? visit on on the natural products that clump is some sort of gelling agent that they've added into the natural product because none of those natural products would naturally clump. In terms of the absorbency, none of them are brilliant.

Right. So the wood pellets they tend to fall to pieces and the Just as Ella said. Yeah, exactly. And the P goes through to the bottom of the tray and then you get a sticky mess on the bottom of the tray. Paper again level of absorbency is not great. And we keep coming back to comfort because that sounds like that's very important. Joe, are some natural materials more comfortable for cats than others?

finer and closer to the more sand-like texture, not the paper or the wood pellet ones, because the the very nature of the hard pellets is I liken it to standing on little pieces of Lego. But the The corn based ones are more granular. Some of the nutshells and the olive pit ones are really quite fine. We talked about dust earlier and Saviou said finer grain is actually less dusty. How do these natural litters compare?

They tend to be pretty good when they're packed. They do have tendency to break during transport and being moved around, so they're not quite as robust if you like to do that. Odor because some natural material cat litters make claims about this. The RSPCA have a litter made from wood pellets that they say has natural odour control. What do you reckon, Savvy? Can natural materials provide good odour control?

In my experience, probably not. In terms of wood pellets, when they get wet they release a nice smell. But if it gets saturated it's gonna soon lose that nice smell. Sounds like just what you've experienced, Ella. Yeah. It seems like one of the main marketing hooks for lots of these natural material cat litters is that they are more environmentally friendly.

Many of them reference coming from sustainable sources, whether that be wood from sustainably managed forests or from food industry waste, as you mentioned, Savvy, like the pea and millet in Katkin's Scoop Planet. Katkin also specifically mentioned the environmental impact of the clay litters. They say that they are strip mined which causes pollution, loss of habitats, and erosion of natural landscapes. Is that the case with the

Yeah, so most clays are just under the ground. They are strip mine. But the big advantage of the clays is they tend to be mined in places which are hot. So they actually just lay the stuff on the ground and it just loses its moisture. So there's no drying process. So the environmental cost of drying is a significant chunk to consider. Mm-hmm. And also transport. How much does that contribute to its carbon footprint?

With the clays, a significant amount,'cause it's coming by ship from Cyprus, Turkey, Senegal. So on balance does that suggest that the natural materials, not the natural clays, could have a considerably lower eco impact? You have to look at the source and the processing because you've got to take the natural product, you've got to make it into pellets, you've got to dry it, and generally you're having to use power to dry. Also, the source of the materials is

extremely important. So you have to be very diligent to look at where the material's actually coming from originally. That is a tricky thing to know, isn't it, Ella, as a consumer? Yeah, that is not going to be clear from the packet necessarily. Agreed. Also, these natural materials were some of the most expensive cat litters out there, sometimes up to six times the price per litre of the cheapest bentonite clay, for example.

So, Joe, we've discussed their potential poor absorbency. We've discussed they could have better eco-credentials, but you need to do some research on that. Do you think a natural material is worth going for? Or or could a cheaper clay do the job? It's really tricky. If you can afford a a clumping plant-based cat litter, I would personally punt for that, bearing in mind what I said before about how clumping goes further. Yeah.

Well before we wrap this up, there are just a couple of other topics I want to tick off. We did see some of the litters made from natural materials, so you can compost them. Savvy, are some cat litters genuinely compostable? I would be very wary because of toxoplasmosis. Tell us what it is. It's a parasite. It's very common in cats.

which are often in the feces, can lay in a for a couple of years. So if you put it into your compost, then potentially the eggs are in there for a couple of years, and then you're putting it into your garden. So for me, I just wouldn't do it.

We did see a lot of warnings on the back of the packets about how to handle used cat litter. The cats at home litter say to wear gloves when handling soiled cat litter and to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Ella, do you do that? Do you wear gloves every time? I wear a poo bag over one hand. Right. Which seems to do the trick. That's gonna work. That's a good idea, isn't it, Joe? Yeah, absolutely. Dog poo bags, the lesser species, no, not really. I think so.

Yeah. Lover as well, don't you worry? And just aware those same instructions do say that nursing and pregnant women should avoid contact with used litter and trays, as should babies and young children, due to the infection risk. Finally then, to flush or not to flush, that is the question. Some of the natural clay and some of the manufactured litters say that you should not flush them down the loo. However, some natural litters do say that they are flushable.

So Felite's Natural Corn Ultra Clumping Catlitter says it is flushable, but it does clarify that just refers to the clumps, and that you should only flush one or two clumps at a time. So Savvy, are they basically saying that it's safe to flush the odd clump of cat wee, but not cat poo?

I think actually you're better off binning it. Two reasons. One is th the sort of public health interest and the second is how do you know whether your plumbing's up to taking a lump of catalytic down it? I mean I to me it's not something Well, I think that's a good idea fill has spent some enjoyable time looking into this subject. Yes. Hi. Hi. Good to see you. What have you found? We saw some water companies have said you shouldn't flush any cat litter.

even clumps, even if it's supposed to be quote unquote flushable. They say that's because of the risk of spreading toxicara, slightly different from toxoplasma, which you just mentioned savvy, but it's still a a small type of parasitic worm. It can live in cat poo, it can't live in cat wee, but am I right, Joe, it might be quite easy to pick out a clump of cat poo by mistake? It can be. And the question then, Phil, is what happens if a clump gets into the sewage system?

So to find that out, producer Kate and I reached out to a previous guest, Dr. Pablo Campo Moreno from the Cranfield Water Science Institute. He was on our water filters episode. He told us that Toxicara, which the water companies mentioned, isn't Currently an issue in the UK. The risk is from the Toxicara eggs, and the eggs, he says, tend to attach to solid waste.

waste in sewage, which the treatment plants can easily remove. Okay. We also asked about the other parasite you mentioned, Savi, which is Toxoplasma, and he said that in that case the eggs are much smaller, they stay in the water rather than attaching to the solid waste, so that might be more of a risk.

on this question of whether you should flush pet waste, he agreed with you savvy. He gave a definite no. The only things that you should be putting in the toilet are the three peas, he said. P, Pooh, and paper. Toilet paper. Human pee. Human poo. I'm trying to fight for you. Thank you Phil, and thanks Pablo as well.

Experts, it is time for the final question. Savvy, I'm going to come to you first because you're next to me in the studio. Rather than asking whether cat litter itself is the best thing since sliced bread or marketing BS, I want to ask which type of cat litter you think is the most sliced bread. I would say probably an ultra-clumping bentonite, and to ensure that it comes from a responsible source. Joe, same question to you.

I would definitely say clumping, something that's finer, so softer on pause, no added scent, a low dart. Eco and I feel that the best litters in my experience for that are some of the newer plant-based products. Ella, final word goes to you. And Mr Big, of course. What do you think? Still there. Well Mr Big would surely say this as well, that it's very important what the owner does. So removing those clumps nice and swiftly and putting them straight in the bin.

I would be interested in trying some of the more expensive P and Millet style ones, but I can also see that I'm going to be going back to clay and using that but just checking if at all possible to see where it has come from. Good on ya. Jo, is is it relatively easy for someone listening to switch their cat litter? I would always say introduce it gradually, so mix it in with the existing one, or add another tray, because cats are so

Good tips. Well, with that I shall wrap up this episode of Sliced Bread. A big thank you to Savvy, Joe and Ella and Mr. Big for joining me. And if you're listening to this and thinking, Greg, I have a wonder product I would really like you to investigate. Please do send it over, either on email to sliced.bread at bbc.co.uk or as a message or a voice note on WhatsApp to 07543-306-807. Next time, what is the best type of food container to store your leftovers in? Plastic is the cheapest.

But there are concerns around microplastics and chemicals transferring from the plastic into our food. How about silicon or glass or steel? Are they healthier for us? And what about their environmental impacts? I'll be finding out. See ya. This episode of Slice Bread was researched by Phil Sansom and produced by Kate Holdsworth and me, Greg Foote. Our studio managers were Kelly Young and Ben Cuthbertson. Sliced Bread is an Audio North production for BBC Radio 4.

I'm Noel Titheridge and for BBC Radio 4 from Shadow World, this is Impulsive. and someone's personality changes completely. It was completely I've never done it before, never done it since And it's because of a prescription drug. I asked myself why would What will you think? I've been uncovering the shocking side effects linked to medications called dopamine agonists. For BBC Radio 4 from Shadow World, this is Impulsive. Subscribe to Shadow World Impulsive now on BBC Sounds.