Do you see all these cat litters that we have here? Today we are going to test the live.
But first I'm going to explain why do cats have the need to hide their feces in the sand.
In the wild, cat after they relieve themselves and they bury their feces.
Cat bury them, so that predators can't smell their body odor and their feces
and thus be safe.
It's true that domestic cats today are not in that danger,
there is no predator that wants to attack them.
It's something innate in them that doesn't change. They just do it.
And now I'm going to show you different cat litters that are in the market
so you know which one is the best for your cat.
Everything about your pet
CATS Cat litter comparison
The first thing I'm going to do is throw a little bit of water all over each one,
and at the end of the video we will see how each one of them reacts.
A little bit here...
And here...
First let's start with a little bit of history.
How did commercialization of the cat litters begin and how did they get popular?
In 1947 Edward Lowe, a man who had a factory
with different mineral substrates to absorb water or liquids,
he had a neighbor and one day this neighbor asked if he had some kind of litter for her cat.
Because she commonly used ash and after her cat used it,
ash in his paws was staining all the floor.
And he said: "Look, we don't have ash and we don't have a material similar,
but we do have the minerals that we are using in our company for absorption.
He gave it to his neighbor and she tried it.
It was a success and he decided to set up a company
only to produce cat litters from clay minerals.
From then they began to be commercialized
and these are the litters that we commonly know in supermarkets today.
The most common litter that we can find is the one that I have here,
which is sepiolite, it's the litter that we can find in any supermarket.
As an advantage, we can mention that it's the most economical.
However a disadvantage is that it releases vapors.
You can do this test at home, or just look when the cat pees.
When the liquid comes into contact with the sepiolite,
it's releasing a vapor during the reaction.
And that leads us to the next point which is that it doesn't absorb the odors at all.
This mean that we are going to feel the smell of the pee that cat just did
and also smell of the feces.
If we don't immediately remove the feces, our whole house will stink.
As I've said sepiolite is not absorbent, so to clean it, we have to remove the entire container,
because we will not be able to remove it little by little, only where cat peed or pooped.
We have to remove the entire litter and refill it.
Therefore what at the beginning was cheap, it turns out not to be
when we have to continuously buy the product.
The next litter that I'm going to show you is this one here called bentonite.
The first difference is, as you see, the color.
The second one is much redder than conventional litter
so in this way you can distinguish them if you can't see the name on the package.
If we look at the pros, I'll always compare with the previous litter, in this case to sepiolite.
This one is much more absorbent than the sepiolite and
therefore you don't not have to remove everything from the litterbox
as you do with the previous one.
The other advantage is that it better absorbs the odors.
There will not be a problem that the whole house smells like the pee or the poop.
As a disadventage, even if it's a little more absorbent, you will still have to remove a lot,
therefore at least half of the litter will have to be refilled.
And finally, the last litter that we have here. These little balls are called silica,
sometimes they are also called gel balls, but they aren't made of gel,
but because of their looks are called that way.
From these three that we have here, it's the best one.
It's much more absorbent, neutralizes odors and you can only remove the feces
and it's not necessary to change the entire litter box, like in previous ones.
So if you are looking for something economical, this is your best option among all of them.
What are the disadvantages? As you can see it's quite hard.
There are many cats that don't want to relieve themselves on it, because it bothers them.
There is another problem with these types of litters. All three of them stick to cat's paws.
It means, that when they finish relieving themselves and leave the litter box,
in whole house you'll find pieces of litter.
It's something you need to take into account with these types of litters.
Before I move on to the next segment about litters that I have on my left,
I would like to make one point that you must take into account
when you want to buy one of these types of litters for your cat and it's very important.
None of the litters that I have on my right:
nor silica, nor sepiolite nor bentonite are biodegradable and ecological.
None of them.
It's something to take into account. First they can't be thrown down the sink,
they always have to be thrown into the bin.
Second, if you throw it into the bin, you have to ask yourself, where is it going?
In the end we're going to produce mountains and mountains and mountains of litter.
And we shouldn't promote this vicious cycle.
Therefore we recommend that you look for something ecological,
like for example something that I have here, that I'm going to describe.
These two litters are totally biodegradable and ecological.
These two litters come from Cunipic and have just appeared on the market.
First thing I want to emphasize about them and it's very important,
is that they have the PEFC certificate.
It means that these products are eenvironmentally friendly.
They do not contribute to the felling of trees, they are made of recycled wood.
It's always important to buy and use products that are ecological and biodegradable.
First I'm going to talk what they have in common.
First characteristic, that they have in common is they are made of wood.
These are two types of wood presented in two different ways.
What are the properties of wood?
Wood is very very very absorbent.
It can't be compared with the other three.
Also cleaning the litter box is relatively easy.
You don't have to change the entire litter box,
you only have to remove the areas where cat peed or pooped.
Another very important thing that surely matters to you
especially if you live in small house or flat is that it produces no odor
and it even neutralizes the odor of the pee and poop of your cat.
It means that you can keep it in the litter box until you clean it and you won't smell it.
Another advantage that is also very important and significant,
is that these two types of litters can last up to two weeks in the litter box.
What does this mean?
You only have to remove the feces and pee and you can keep the part that is clean,
that wasn't used, you can keep it litter box for two weeks
without worrying about odor and that is a great advantage.
At an economic level these two substrates may seem more expensive at first,
but if you calculate the cost, you will see that it's much cheaper, because it lasts much longer.
Now let's talk about the differences between these two products, that are made of wood.
The first one you see here is called "aglomerante"which means binder.
Which means that when your cat pees, it absorbs it
and make a ball that you can easily remove.
You don't have to dig to find more humid parts, as in other types of litters.
Thanks to this it's very easy to clean.
Also because it has a great absorption capacity, you will see that at the end of the day or
when you normally clean the litter boxes, there will be less to clean, because it absorbs a lot.
It's very convenient.
And here we have the wood pellet.
First difference is visible. As you see this one looks like small pebbles
and this one, looks like pellets, they're long fibers of wood.
There is a big difference between a normal pellet made of wood and this ultra pellet.
Let's see it.
In my hand I have a very common pellet that you can find anywhere, made of wood,
the common one that you can find in all places.
And this is the ultra pellet.
Now let's take a closer to look to see the differences.
As you see ultra pellet is much more compact than common pellet,
and you almost can't see the wood fibers in it.
So ultra pellet has twice as much material as common one.
It means that it absorbs twice as much as common pellets,
that you can find in specialized pet stores.
Therefore ultra pellet absorbs much more than other types of wood pellets.
If these products are so good, how to decide which one to take?
Which one is perfect for you?
Well, it's very simple because it depends on the cat you have.
"Aglomerante", binder is perfect for short haired cats.
And ultra pellet is perfect for long-haired cats.
Why?
This one contains smaller pebbles, so it's possible that your long-haired cat
when standing here will get these small pebbles attached to the body,
and drag them around the house.
However this one doesn't.
That's why we recommend this one for short haired cats and this one for long haired cats
thanks to this there will no longer be any problem.
Now we're going to see the results of the test that I've done at the beginning.
I've put a little bit of water in each of the litter boxes and now let's see what happend,
it's like simulation of cat peeing.
I'm going to use shovel from Nayeco, this one is a little serrated.
I'm going to use utensils that you normally use at home. Let's see.
Let's start with the sepiolite and see the reaction it has had.
Imagine that the water is the cat's pee.
As you see I'm digging and trying to remove all of it, but it got very deep, it reaches the bottom.
Each time I remove more and more.
The same would happen if a cat peed here.
Do you see this mountain that I had to remove?
You have to remove a large amount of product and then refill it, only because of a small pee.
Now let's see the reaction with bentonite.
As I said before it's much harder, more compact.
Look how compact is it.
Look at it, it does agglomerate, it's easy to remove, but nevertheless
I had to remove a lot of it just for a small amount of liquid.
So you are wasting a lot of product.
Here I have some more.
Still you have to refill it, but compared to sepiolite it's a better option.
First, look at the crystals, they've changed color.
They are much more transparent and here in the center they've become white.
This will also happen with the cat's pee, but then it will change to yellow.
Let's remove it.
It doesn't agglomerate, you simply have to remove the crystals that changed their color.
I continue removing the white, used parts. to create another mountain.
The white crystals I have here, would be a yellow colored pee.
In the end it doesn't agglomerate like the bentonite, that we've seen before,
we can't remove it so easily, but it's true that each of the crystals absorbs the liquid.
However it's difficult to clean it, because in the end it does mix with the rest of the product
and it's hard to remove only the yellow crystals, to clean only the place where cat peed.
Now, let's see the ecological and biodegradable litters, and I'll start with the binder one.
First look at this. Do you see a ball?
The difference between the others is very noticeable.
I'll remove it.
Let's take a look at this ball. I will take it.
This ball is much smaller than the other that I've removed before,
therefore you don't waste as much product.
I'll put it here...
And the litter box is now clean.
As you see there is no type of residue.
Another important thing is that it's completely dry.
When the bonded part is removed, rest is completely dry and
therefore you don't need more quantity here.
And finally ultra pellet.
First look at it and tell me where is the liquid.
When you just look at it, you can't tell where is it wet.
The same will happen with pee.
Pellets have so big capacity to absorb, that you will be able to see, that it's wet,
after it absorb huge quantity of water or other liquid.
Pellet isn't wet, therefore it won't be necessary to change it.
I'm going to use my hand, because this is just water.
The most wet part, which in fact is almost dry, is where I added the water.
Of course I could try to remove it, but as you can see, since it has a great absorption capacity,
it's hard to do because water has not affected the pellet.
I'm going to dig a little, so you can see that it's not wet
and that there is no difference between the rest of the box.
Pellet needs a significant amount of liquid to swell
and then you have to remove the excess of it.
Cuniadvice
In today's Cuniadvice I'm going to explain how to dispose cat's pee and feces in the sink,
if you have that type of litters, like I've shown you, that are ecological and biodegradable.
When I say that it can be disposed in the sink,
I mean that you can dispose more or less this amount.
It's the amount of feces that a cat can make in a day.
You can throw these little balls in the sink or the toilet and flush it.
If you decide to throw the entire litter box to the toilet, you're going to clog it.
You can't do this with any other type of litter, it has to be special.
Therefore you have to be very careful and follow these guidelines to be able to dispose of it properly.