apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The kittypod products are nice looking (well, I've never seen one in person), but are quite expensive for cardboard. The model shown above is $320.

great Top 10 list.... though I have to admit, I am not much of a cat person nor a Green type of guy, I love my dog and believe Al Gore is the least deserving Nobel Peace Prize winner ever... but anyway great list!

if you like lists like this, check out ListAfterList... there are thousands of lists just like this there. And maybe you can spread your love for cats

Oh, I am soooo glad that I'm not the only person who uses the biodegredable bags for kitty litter. My husband nearly had a stroke last night when I used one! Those are for the dog, he told me... :)

i don't understand the need for the bags for the scoopings. i scoop the litterbox offerings into an empty coffee can, then dump it in the toilet--could just as easily dump it in the wastebasket.

i also don't understand why people buy cat beds. my cats invent beds all over the place. (i should perhaps admit that i am extremely tolerant of their choices.)

re balls of aluminum foil -- you mean they don't shred and eat them??? how civilized...

I've heard many folks state that they flush their kitty litter. There are reasons not to do so, especially if you live along a coast or river way with otters (my favorite animal--and I have 2 dogs and 2 cats). The main reason is that most waste treatment facilities can not eliminate toxoplasmosis--this is fatal to otters and other aquatic species. Here are some articles that may help:

http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/21976

http://www.research.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_otter.html

Although, I kind of want to reject any research that University of California-Davis Vet school does, as they still perform vivisection on primates....

Best green cat toy...

plastic rings from milk jugs!

HOURS of entertainment!

supafunk - yes! my roger kitty LOVES them! they have that little nub on the end that sticks out which he loves to put in his mouth - he hurls the ring in the air that way. :-)

Ack, I just lost an entire post

- http://www.marmaladepets.com/owners/download_jak.html
Which can be made out of your excess scraps of cardboard and then recycled

@ quercus: If I'm not mistaken the Kittypod stuff is mfg in the US (laser-cut?) and is not modular, which makes more expensive to mfg and ship (if not store as well since it takes up more space). on the US mfg, - on not being modular or easier to ship.

- World's Best: but it's frustrating to know you can't compost cat feces due to risk of toxo (also what's affecting the otters by flushing)

- Hare Today: semi-local humanely raised and least-violently killed rabbit, shipped frozen in 5lb logs (plastic involved) but they eat much less of it than of wet and I don't have 100 cans to recycle (which I imagine are heavier to ship, and come from farther away). My major MO is really to find the most humanely treated (alive/dead) animal for my cats to eat but the other stuff is a . Thanks to a woman local to me organizing a raw food co-op, I can buy with 2-5 other people to reduce shipping packaging.

- cardboard scratchers vs sisal b/c they can be recycled

- organic catnip cigars, carrots, apples, bananas, rainbows:
http://www.amazon.com/Yeowww-100%25-Organic-Catnip-Cigar/dp/B000HHS5D0/ref=pd_sim_k_shvl_title_3/002-0999841-1927236

- growing catgrass/nip: haven't done this in a while but it's easy and pretty green (seeds are really light to ship and you can use compost and almost any container)

That should have read ( ) on the US-mfg, (-) on the larger space to pack/ship.

That's strange - symbols seem to be disappearing. I swear I'm not just typing spaces!

This is such a great post! I just got two kittens and had been stressing about using plastic bags to dump the litter. I really like the suggestion of the biodegredable bags and I hadn't heard of the World's Best Kitty litter.

I've been feeding my guys Aunt Jenni's, which is also raw. But the Hare Today sounds cheaper, so maybe I'll make the switch, and I hadn't even thought of the benefit of not using cans.

What about air purifiers? Does anyone have any recommendations?

Oh and I'm totally making those cardboard toys!

I've got an unopened stack of Expedit parts and four Jarpen shelf boxes stacked in my office from last week's Ikea run, and the makeshift skyscraper has been a big hit with my 20-pound baby. He's completely ignoring his scratching corner (which is wrapped in catnip-spiked low-pile carpet leftover from the building's hallway revamp) and has abandoned all of his other favorite naptime haunts. The whole thing has made me seriously reconsider investing in a Kittypod.

I'm a fan of feline pine litter, 100% pine- I think scrap. I have a friend who occasionally takes the broken down sawdust as compost. I scoop into the doggie biodegradable [sp?] bags. I recycle junk mail by cutting it into pieces and crumpling it into balls for Boethius to play with. He's a fan of paper balls, toilet paper tubes, tea bags wrappers [when I don't make a cuppa from loose leaf], and leaves that he or his bunkmate Abelard rip off my plants. I bought them a cat bed and the only use it gets in when Boethius drags it around by the tag! I'm not sure about feeding the boys raw meat, and because of some food issues that I have not managed to break them of [which if I could, I'd just use dry food], I do feel guilty about the cans from the canned food.

AmyE- try some baking soda in a bowl or directly on the litter if smell is a problem.

My cat LOVES the Castor and Pollux dry food, which was a relief since he wasn't so fond of several other natural dry foods.

I use leftover fiber scraps from my spinning to make felt balls for my cat, which are always all over my floor. They are soft (so I don't trip ), grippy (so he can chase them and pick them up), and small- under 2", usually just over one.

I have 3 of these b/c I have a mini-pride and my gf is allergic.
http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/blueair-air-purifiers-airpod.html?CMP=KNC-pkgoap-030107&HBX_PK=air pod&HBX_OU=50

They were the only models at the $100 range, HEPA, it was the only cheaper model that got 4 stars on the sites I looked at (I started at about.com's cat allergy section) and they are lower energy than some of the other ones:

Environmental and Energy Consideration: AirPod runs on less than 5 watts of power where other units require 40 watts. No chemicals are used on the filter or elsewhere and no ozone by-products are released from the unit. In addition, all components and the packaging are 100% recyclable. The AirPod is setting a new standard that is higher than the stated requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s voluntary ENERGY STAR program.

They've helped my dust allergies as well.

$320!?! That's INsane (but, yes, very beautiful)

@lisajl: agreed. Of course, if I got that for my cat, she'd completely ignore it. She'd go right back to clawing her $10 scratching post, or, better yet, the custom living room sofa.

I love cats and green design. But honestly, some solutions are still better in theory than in practice.

Mr. Skitz adores the rings from milk jugs.

Do we really want to be
a) supporting the corn subsidies and takeover of American agriculture by corn (see Michael Pollan: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/rsl/michael-pollan.html )
AND
b) allowing cats to use food grade whole kernel corn in a litter box?? It seems even more ridiculous than our use of drinking water to flush our toilets.

It concerns me that this is our "greenest" option. Swheat scoop is also made from wheat, but their website says it is secondary growth and not food grade. Can anyone tell me if the world's best is made from a byproduct?

I found that Sweat scoop and my cat's pee were not a good combination. It turned into Sweat cement and was horrible to cleanup.

I've been using Feline Pine for awhile and really like it. My kitty loves tin foil balls. But her best play toy is my other cat!

Regarding toxoplasmosis being spread by flushing the waste products of indoor housecats, according to the Humane Society “it is extremely unlikely that a cat kept indoors will carry toxoplasmosis.”

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/the_hsus_reaches_out_to_obgyns_on_the_myths_and_facts_of_toxoplasmosis.html


The University of Illinois website provides good information also:

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/showarticle.cfm?id=402

Literally, my cat likes money. Dollar bills... he sneaks off with them whenever he sees them laying around...

:)

Speaking of kitty litter, do any of you use Purina's Yesterday's News?

I've been using it for a few months with my cat. It seems to be good. Low tracking, low dust, low scent, made from recycled paper...seems good to me.

And my cat's top 10 would include hair ties, zip ties, as well as balled up receipts that were just tossed into a bin.

Hair bands and cotton balls qualify as my cat's favorite things - it is great to see green products being made for felines too.

The KYJEN "Pooch Pick Up" bags that are marketed as biodegradable do not meet the specification for that claim in states like California. In fact, in one independent lab analysis, that bag was not only NOT biodegradable by any definition, there was no detectable evidence that they contained any Corn Starch as advertised.

my greatest splurge for my three cats (and, honestly, it's for me, too) has been the cat cocoon by one form design:

http://one-form.net/cocoon_main_image1.htm

it is made from cardboard and is simply gorgeous. my cats climb on it, sit inside it (for peaceful moments) and peek and poke through it. they even scratch on the outside edges of it. i've had mine for a year, and it wears beautifully.

I use nature's miracle cat litter. It's made from ground up corncobs.
Another tip is to re-use any container that enters your home... frozen veggie bags, cereal bags, then the actual cereal boxes, ziplocs that have been washed one too many times... if you have to throw it out anyway, might as well fill it first!

I agree with lorigami-- if you start using all the packaging bags that come in to your house, and FILL them (I keep mine in an old, plastic kitty litter box in the garage that keeps the smell in), you will be unlikely to run out. Then you don't have an excuse to get plastic bags at the store. Also, I like the idea of using biodegradable bags for cat/dog poo, but landfills are SO anoxic, that I question whether or not they WILL actually degrade-- and again, if you have bags you're already going to throw away, the biodegradable ones sound like a waste of manufacturing (and all the energy and pollution that goes into it) and your money.

Besides toxo, I've heard that flushing cat poo in any kind of kitty litter is really likely to, in the long run, hurt your pipes and cause problems... I don't know if that's true, but that's what I've heard from water system engineers...

Finally, I use Swheat Scoop and I haven't had any problems with it. I've heard others say that the pee turns it into cement, but I've never had that problem-- it just clumps nicely. Sometimes a bit sticks on the bottom, but not enough to bug me. Maybe it's a chemistry thing and depnds on the cat's pee?