What is cat litter made of? This is a frequent question that we often get asked.Cat litter is a necessity and fast-moving consumer good for raising cats. Cat owners are no strangers to cat litter, however, many cat owners do not really understand cat litter. They think that cat litter is just ordinary sand with better water absorption, but this is actually a wrong idea.
Depending on the type of cat litter, the materials used are also different. For example, bentonite cat litter is made of mineral clay such as montmorillonite and bentonite, and the crystal cat litter is made of silica gel. The raw materials used in cat litter are disinfected, processed, and dried before being put on the market. According to the characteristics of use, cat litter can be divided into clumping cat litter and non-clumping cat litter, let's take a look at what cat litter is made of.
What is clumping cat litter made of?
Clumping cat litter will form a block after absorbing urine or feces, and it can be easily cleaned with a cat litter shovel. At present, the main clumping cat litter on the market includes bentonite cat litter, tofu cat litter, and paper cat litter.
What is tofu cat litter made of？
Tofu cat litter is an environmentally-friendly cat litter made from natural fresh bean dregs or natural plant fibers. Generally, soybean fiber is used as the main raw material, supplemented by corn starch, guar gum, etc. Some high-end tofu cat litter uses pea fiber as the main raw material, and the finished product has a whiter color and stronger coagulation ability. There are many types of tofu cat litter on the market now, such as green tea cat litter, original cat litter, peach cat litter, etc. Although the fragrance is different, the effect is almost the same.
Since the tofu cat litter is made of natural materials, there is no big problem even if the cat accidentally eats it. Therefore, some cats with weak gastrointestinal function can choose to use tofu cat litter. Another advantage of tofu cat litter is that it is water-soluble, and the used cat litter can be thrown directly into the toilet or used as fertilizer. Tofu cat litter is not dusty and light in texture, it can keep the home environment clean, and it is not difficult to carry or replace cat litter, so tofu cat litter is a good choice for shoveling officers!
What is bentonite cat litter made of?
As the name suggests, bentonite cat litter uses bentonite as raw material. Bentonite is air-dried under natural conditions and then ground into fine powder. Then add water and process the fine powder into cat litter particles with a diameter of 2-3 mm.
Bentonite cat litter is the most commonly used cat litter, with strong hygroscopicity, but the dust is relatively large, so it is best to put the cat litter box in a well-ventilated place. Special attention should be paid to cat litter that can damage its respiratory and digestive systems if it ingests cat litter containing bentonite clay.
What is paper cat litter made of?
Paper cat litter takes paper as the basic raw material, some paper cat litter contains activated carbon, and some are made from waste newsprint. Paper cat litter is slightly weaker in coagulation, and some paper cat litter can coagulate when used, but it will turn into a paste.
What is non-clumping cat litter made of?
The non-clumping cat litter will not clump when it encounters urine. It needs to be shoveled out after the cat defecates. It needs to be replaced as a whole after use. At present, the main non-clumping cat litter on the market includes crystal cat litter and wood cat litter.
What is crystal cat litter made of?
Crystal cat litter is a translucent ball-shaped or irregular particle made of silica gel. Some brands of crystal cat litter will add beads of different colors to achieve anti-mildew, antibacterial, deodorant, and other effects. The advantage of crystal cat litter is its strong absorption. The particles will change color after absorbing urine. When about 80% of it changes color, you can replace them all. Of course, the stool will not disappear, it still needs to be cleaned every day.
But many cats will be interested in the colorful beads in the crystal cat litter, and they often play with them. Some cats will also eat it, which is more dangerous. In addition, the dust of crystal sand is also very large, and some cats will cough when they smell the newly changed sand.
What is wood cat litter made of?
Wood cat litter is made of wood chips as the main raw material, supplemented by a small amount of natural binder, and is an environmentally-friendly cat litter product. Wood cat litter will turn into powder after absorbing urine, so using a double-layer cat litter box will be a good choice, or discard it when it is almost powdery. But wood cat litter is susceptible to moisture and prone to fleas. Some cats don't like the smell of wood, and even refuse to use it.
Is cat litter toxic?
Regular cat litter is non-toxic, especially tofu cat litter, the bean dregs, and cornstarch all are edible raw materials, and the guar gum is a food-grade additive, which is found in a variety of food ingredients. However, if the owner buys some cat litter made by black-hearted workshops, it may be somewhat toxic. In order to reduce costs, they will use industrial adhesives instead of guar gum, so cat owners should be careful when choosing cat litter.
Except for tofu cat litter, bentonite cat litter, paper cat litter, wood cat litter, and crystal cat litter are also non-toxic. Recycled paper and wood chips all are common things in life. Bentonite is a non-metallic mineral with montmorillonite as the main mineral component. The main component of silica gel is silica. They are all non-toxic.
Does cat litter contain chemicals?
As for whether cat litter contains chemicals, chemical substances are a very broad concept. Strictly speaking, anything is essentially a chemical substance. What everyone is concerned about here should be whether there are industrial supplies added to the cat litter.
Bentonite cat litter and crystal cat litter, needless to say, bentonite and silica gel themselves are chemical substances. And for tofu cat litter, paper cat litter, and wood cat litter, all involve granulation or clumping, so they all need to add adhesive. Whether they contain chemicals, is mainly determined by the type of adhesive used. The most commonly used and safest adhesive available today is guar gum.
Is cat litter biodegradable? Is cat litter bad for the environment?
According to chemical properties, cat litter can be divided into organic cat litter and inorganic cat litter. Tofu cat litter, paper cat litter, and wood cat litter are organic cat litter; Bentonite cat litter, and crystal cat litter are inorganic cat litter.
Organic cat litter is biodegradable, while inorganic cat litter is non-biodegradable. But non-biodegradable is not mean bad for the environment. As a household item, cat litter does not pollute the environment. But that doesn't mean that the used cat litter can be thrown around. We still have to deal with the cat litter in time that cannot be flushed in the toilet.
Cat litter manufacturers
The vigorous development of the cat litter industry has made cat litter manufacturers grow rapidly like mushrooms after a spring rain. If you're interested in becoming a cat litter manufacturer, here are a few suggestions. The production of cat litter, especially the production of bentonite cat litter, is largely restricted by the origin of the raw materials.
Since the production process of bentonite cat litter is relatively simple, and most of the cost is invested in the procurement of bentonite raw materials, manufacturers are generally built near the mining area. Taking China as an example, most of them are concentrated in Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Liaoning, and other regions. In addition, the integration of industry and trade has become a major trend in the cat litter industry. Due to the consideration of foreign trade, the location of the factory must be close to the port.
Taking our company as an example, the following factors are mainly considered in the selection of the factory site: it is close to the high-quality bentonite mining area in Inner Mongolia of China; it is less than 200 kilometers away from Tianjin Xingang, the largest artificial port in China; the surrounding pet-related industries are developed, involving a variety of pet products production, product packaging production, and other fields, forming a one-stop procurement.