Ideal Bite

Thanks Amanda & Chrissy for the kidney tips! I'll give them a try...

Our favorite is PaPurr litter made by Kadant. We loved it so much that we bought their stocks! They are available at Petsmart and PETCO. http://www.grantekinc.com/papurr_main.html

Thank you! Thank you! Kitty litter was not even something I had thought about. I am happy to say adding the daily bite to my life has opened my eyes to new and innovative ways to live the green life.

Potty Training cats is really quite easy, and they take to it quickly. I would never go back to litter boxes (my dogs seem to think they are buffets anyway!).

I like the comment from Jim regarding the clay litter. I have been wondering how bad the clay really is. I have heard that it is not good for the cats to inhale, but I am not sure if this is true. I was using the World's Greatest Cat litter for years, until I realized that it is made from genetically modified corn. I do everything I can not to support GM crops. Also, one has to wonder about the pesticide and fertilizer residue levels in wheat litters. I am not using a pine litter, but I don't know it I like it yet. Has anyone every just filled their litter boxes with soil??

My husband and I recently potty trained our two cats, and it is amazing to just flush instead of all that scooping and hauling bags of litter home from the store. I recommend the CitiKitty potty taining kit (we bought it online) to help ease them through the transition!

The advantage of using a special clay like fuller's earth or attapulgite for litter vs regular soil, sawdust, or something else is that it can hold a very large volume of liquid waste through adsorption of the liquid onto clay particle faces and into the clay lattice. Also, some undesireable organic molecules and cations (ammonium) are held by the negatively charged clay surfaces. I'm not saying clay litter is always the best, just explaining how it works. One of the other uses for these clays is filtering putrescible material from vegetable oils. Ever wondered why your olive oil sits on a shelf for months without going bad? It has been filtered through more of less the same type of clay the goes into cat litter.

Thanks for the info Jim. I may just take the advice of AK and try to toilet train my cats and get rid of litter.

YOU CAN NOT COMPOST CAT LITTER. Cat urine and feces kills most plants. Any garden guru will tell you NOT to use cat & dog manure for any type of gardening.

Since the tip of the day is about Organic Milk, and therefore Organic Cows, I wanted to share with you an alert from the Organic Consumers Association (www.organicconsumers.org), which sends out a weekly newsletter about all things organic. This report came 2 weeks ago, and is disturbing because many of those who produce and provide organic milk are lobbying to undermine the standards, so we won't be enjoying the same organic milk and other products that the word "organic" originally implied. Also, this announcement ties in directly with Benefit # 1 that this newsletter lists for drinking organic: Pasture fed is better for you. Read on: ALERT OF THE WEEK: USDA & LEADING ORGANIC DAIRIES CONSPIRING TO DEGRADE ORGANIC DAIRY STANDARDS BY NOT REQUIRING PASTURE FEEDING As Organic Bytes has reported, the most serious threat to U.S. organic standards since 1998 is in the dairy sector. Two rapidly growing and profit-obsessed corporations, Horizon and Aurora Organic, are sourcing much of their milk from intensive confinement dairy feedlots, where the cows have little or no access to pasture. Now, in a secret letter obtained by the Cornucopia Institute, OCA has learned that three other major organic dairies, Stonyfield Farm, Organic Valley, and Humboldt Creamery have joined forces with Horizon and Aurora to lobby the USDA to keep dairy standards vague and unenforceable, by not requiring any specific percentage of the cow's feed to come from pasture. The National Organic Standards Board and the overwhelming majority of the nation's dairy farmers have repeatedly stated that at least 30% of an organic cow's feed during the growing season should be coming from pasture. Scientific studies have shown that milk and meat from pastured animals are qualitatively healthier than milk and meat derived from animals kept in unhealthy and inhumane concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4549.cfm To make your voice heard, learn more and take action at OCA's "Safeguard Organic Standards website: http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm