TEN Stars if I could (with a deduction for Environmental Impact)
The ONE FEATURE of this litter that concerns me is its ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: -- It's made of silica gel, same chemical composition as sand (SiO2)... -- But, because of how it's made... being super-energy-intensive to manufacture... -- Much more costly impact to the planet than biodgradable litters -- This will sit in a landfill indefinitely... tens of thousands of years or more -- (BUT: this WILL NOT leach anything harmful into ground water, soil etc. Just sit there) All that said... Let's look at the POSITIVES of this product, if you've already committed to using it. -- HEALTH TRACKING features are quite interesting, useful and as far as I can tell, function well. -- ABSORBENCY of this product is ASTOUNDING... We have two cats that put out a lot of otherwise odorous pee... but with this stuff, it's almost like NOT THERE at all. Stirring the sand shows it's there, but the odor? Hardly at all! -- CLUMPING of this is very different from clumping of clay or natural products. It "kind of clumps"... gets thicker.. but absorbs everything around it... without having to form giant clump clusters. Quite nice, actually! -- WEIGHT of the material itself... volume for volume, it's about 1/2 to 1/3 the weight, yet it continues to absorb for weeks. Not sure even how that's possible, but that's exactly what it does. -- DUST or blowback while raking or pouring it: NON-EXISTENT... totally PLACID. No problem at all. -- FREQUENCY of CLEANING ATTENTION: Wow! Completely off the charts (positively) different from "normal litter"... If I forget a day or two even... I'm not slammed in the nose with an odorous stench... and yet, I can go swoosh things around a bit, pick out the dry odorless clumps of poop on top, and get on with things. SUPER Nice that way. -- EFFECT on the cats? Completely positive. They just "do their business" and get on with it. If anything, tho, the effect is very positive. We have three boxes: two with silical and one with traditional litter... just to see their preferences. Turns out that since we've been using this, the third "other litter" box is hardly used AT ALL... the cats themselves are self-selcting the silica variety. Need I say more? Yes, of course I do have an environmental conscience, and realize the effect of the product on the planet is harder, just due to energy and manufacturing process. But when I factor in things like more transportation cost because of traditional litter being 2X or 3X heavier for the volume... along with the happiness of the cats and ease of support in the household... There are probably a lot of other things far worse in the long run than this... In fact, I have talked myself into leaving it a FULL FIVE STARS because feature by feature of the good sides of this stuff... it would be more like TEN STARS... So just realize I theoretically shaved off a bit for the environment, but STILL give it FIVE STARS!!! Yes, it will be sitting there in a landfill for thousands of years, or forever... But then, so would its chemical brother sand (which is also SiO2) Read more














