How to Make Eco-Friendly Cat Litter
Is it possible to make your own cat litter? Yes, it is possible to make your own eco-friendly homemade cat litter. You’ll also know that it’s not only cheaper but more sustainable. It can make you more self-sufficient, and you will be helping the environment!
Making your own eco-friendly homemade cat litter is a great idea for any conscientious cat owner. As animal lovers, we also care about the natural world, so it is important to think about the environment with everything we use for our cats!
That’s easy enough when it comes to food, toys, or even beds. But what about those of us who want to make our cats toilet time a little more sustainable?
Traditional litter problems
Normal cat litter that you buy at the store has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. What was originally just a powdery substance designed to soak up water and keep the house clean now comes with all manner of added extras.
Store-bought cat litter now contains odor control and agents that clump the mixture around moisture.
Cat litter also contains a lot of dust. Not only does this affect owners with respiratory problems like asthma, but the dust itself can contain harmful particles such as silica.
Prolonged exposure to this can stimulate a condition called silicosis in humans, which can be cancerous in certain cases.
Now, How to Make Your Homemade Cat Litter
Making a simple cat litter is not as hard as it sounds. For this particular ‘recipe,’ you will need the following: newspaper, biodegradable dish soap, and baking soda.
1: Cut the newspaper into strips. If you have a paper shredder, this will be even easier for you!
2: Soak the paper in warm water with the dish soap. Drain it and re-soak, this will remove a lot of the dirt and most of the print.
3: Add the baking soda and massage it into the mixture. Be careful when doing this to avoid completely dissolving the paper, which will be very flimsy at this point. Baking soda is used because it is a natural odor control for the litter.
4: Drain the mixture and let it dry. You may need to squeeze it out to get rid of excess water. The paper will be grey and broken up into crumpled, soggy blocks. Let it completely dry before the next step (this may take a few hours).
5: When dry, crumble the litter into smaller pieces. This will turn it into the consistency more commonly associated with cat litter. Put it in your cat’s litter tray. Don’t forget to scoop regularly!
Making your own DIY eco-friendly cat litter out of upcycled newspaper might not be a long-term solution. It can take some extra effort. But you could consider this option when you’re literally out of cat litter, and you have nowhere else to turn. Recently, purchasing eco-friendly cat litter has gotten easier.