Ethical Indoor Cat Food & Litter

moonrakerz

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Something to do with tiny fragments of wood getting in their eyes, plus some cats are allergic to the oils in the wood. Litter gets on their feet so they will obviously try to clean that off with their tongue ...

My moggy uses wood based litter, it isn't like wood at all, it's compressed wood dust. Any cat might be allergic to anything.
Have you seen where else a cat cleans with its tongue .........:D

I do know that some small animals must not be given wood shaving bedding - I think that cedar wood is very poisonous to hamsters.

Belisarius

Volcano wrote: »

You could flush cat poo down the toilet at the same time as you would normally flush the toilet, meaning no extra flushing. But I wouldn't personally flush the cat litter itself as there's too much chance of a blockage.

Is flushing cat poo down the toilet okay environmentally? I read somewhere that it was really harmful to water life, as it carries lots of harmful pathogens. Perhaps I'm misinformed, though. It'd be great if it was safe as I'd be saved a lot of hassle & a fortune in biodegradable nappy bags!

Volcano

Belisarius wrote: »

Is flushing cat poo down the toilet okay environmentally? I read somewhere that it was really harmful to water life, as it carries lots of harmful pathogens.

Perfectly ok. Certainly if it was dumped directly into watercourses then there could be problems, but if excrement is treated by your local sewage plant (as it is when you flush it) then pathogens are neutralised effectively.

foxgloves

Have had no problems using the compressed wood dust pellet cat litter, tho' our cat mostly has access to outdoors so it's only used when he has to be kept inside for whatever reason. If only peed on, we put the used litter in our compost bins. We then dispose of the poo in our green cone, tho' I don't know how a green cone would cope with loads & loads of it..............and of course having a green cone is dependent on having some sort of a garden.

Fire_Fox

Thanks all for your replies.

Here in Bradford city centre we aren't advanced enough to have ANY recycling collection, let alone green waste. :mad: Also no outside space for composting, but at least if I purchase something biodegradable I know it won't be endure in landfill forever.

Noah arrives Saturday :j and I have ordered some Cats Best OkoPlus (wood-based litter) which he is using in his foster home. He is an indoor only cat due to previous paw damage (see link) so I now need to consider the paws as well as the ethics!
http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,24283.50.html
I'm keen to try Friendly Natural cat litter which is made with British straw, as it claims to be more absorbent than wood and is both locally produced and sustainable.

Food-wise Noah is presently eating Felix pouches (Nestle) and James Wellbeloved dry (Mars) which both need changing. Felix is first on the hit-list as it's not even a good quality food! Hoping to move onto small tins/ foil trays which can be recycled, as I am guessing the pouches can't?

foxgloves

We can't think of any way to recycle the pouches. Tins can either go in the can bank or recycling bin & I've occaionally used them for plants. The foil trays are aluminium so we do recycle those. Pouches are deceiving really, as they can be folded down to a small piece of waste whereas a tin (espcially the size our huge moggy gets through) looks so much bigger, but if the pouches are plasticised, it's landfill for ever for them, isn't it? Our big ginger lad is currently eating Aldi & Co-op ownbrand tins. He likes Royal Canin dry food too but only gets it when it's on offer. I hope they are not owned by Nestle. It's surprised me that James Wellbeloved is owned by Mars. Is there nothing independent any more? Our old cat would sometimes have a bowl of whatever we were having.....beef stew, chicken, poached fish or we'd cook the giblets for him, but our current rescue cat (despite being a long term stray surviving on his wits & charm) only likes bought cat food.

Freddie_Snowbits

foxgloves wrote: »

We can't think of any way to recycle the pouches.

Best ethical way of recylcing these items.
Don't be a punter and refuse to buy them!

Ethical Cat Food - Birds and Mice

Ethical Cat Litter - Next Doors Yard

Fire_Fox

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

Best ethical way of recylcing these items.
Don't be a punter and refuse to buy them!

Ethical Cat Food - Birds and Mice

Ethical Cat Litter - Next Doors Yard

Noah is an indoor cat, and I live in a flat so next door doesn't have a yard ....

Fire_Fox

foxgloves wrote: »

Our big ginger lad is currently eating Aldi & Co-op ownbrand tins. He likes Royal Canin dry food too but only gets it when it's on offer. I hope they are not owned by Nestle. It's surprised me that James Wellbeloved is owned by Mars. Is there nothing independent any more? Our old cat would sometimes have a bowl of whatever we were having.....beef stew, chicken, poached fish or we'd cook the giblets for him, but our current rescue cat (despite being a long term stray surviving on his wits & charm) only likes bought cat food.

Royal Canin is pretty unethical and the food really isn't the best quality: they refused to divulge the percentage of actual meat in their dry food ... I tried to find out who their parent company is and I am pretty sure it's Mars. Hills Science is Colgate-Palmolive and Eukanuba is Proctor and Gamble. The Burns website is pretty impressive; Trophy and Arden Grange claim ethical policies too. Some of the Hi-Life kibble is made with organic meat.

http://www.burnspet.co.uk/cat/environment.asp
http://www.ardengrange.com/arden-grange-philosophy-ethics.asp
http://www.trophypetfoods.co.uk/news/10.html
All these three will post out free samples if your cat want to 'taste test'!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Ethical is a good way to go (and providing cats with an occasional chopped chicken liver or saucer of mince makes me a very, very popular person with mine), but there is also sheer practicality to consider, even if you were to choose the most ethical in the end...

Sawdust/wood pellet litter - great until you realise the pale dusting throughout the flat has actually come from the litter and been walked/floated everywhere. Not sure if breathing in dust has health elements, but the smell is pretty low.

Fullers Earth/Clumping - makes cleaning the tray - which you will have to do lots with this stuff - like carrying cement bags down the stairs. Oh, and the pawprints are welded to your furnishings.

Non clumping - Ok, as long as your cat doesn't have white paws/legs, or he'll either come out wearing pink or very Posh Spice Orange socks/wellies.

White ones. I have a cat who has managed to nearly blind himself twice by kicking it into his eyes. I didn't expect it to be small enough, but it embedded in his tearduct and he howled until I had to retrieve it, having become near enough invisible inside his eye.

Paper stuff. Smell horrendous, weighs lots and have to remove stinky papier mache from between the claws after every visit.

Crystal stuff. Lasts quite a long time without smells and relatively simple to clean tray after emptying (just rinse into toilet). Dust is not ideal and bags designed for small litter tray, so unsuitable for Maine Coons or small mob of moggies.

Corn stuff. I can't comment, but it sounds good, depending upon how well it deals with stinky cat fluids.

As you live in a flat, you need to consider the number of times you will be carrying bags of soiled litter down the stairs (oh, and never rely on just one flimsy bag, hoping it'll be alright down the stairs - trust me, it won't be), how much litter attached to the solids going down the loo will affect flushing (because there will always be a couple of bits and fullers earth is immovable once it hits water - are you OK with 'panning for gold' every five minutes?), and the cat itself:

He might be one who feels his whole mission in life is to dig down another level. He could think hanging his butt over the side of the tray is the right way to do it. He could be a clean freak who will refuse to use it until you search for the tiny pea sized lump in it.

Have fun!