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Not Your Same Dusty Litter

Traditional litters have a reputation for being dusty, but what does that mean? What is in that cloud of “dust’’ you see when you pour clay or silica litter into your litter box. To find the answers to these questions, first you have to understand what is in your cat litter.

Most cat owners use clay or crystalline cat litter made of silica. Silica dust is a known carcinogen. When silica dust is inhaled it scars the lungs, reducing lung capacity and the amount of oxygen someone can take into their lungs.

Most cat guardians also use clumping litters. A common binder in cat litters is an agent called sodium bentonite. Sodium bentonite is also used as a binder in some paper cat litter to make it clumpable. It works by acting like an expandable cement when it comes into contact with liquids. Most times the liquid is in the litter box, but when inhaled sodium bentonite dust can react to the moist environment of your lungs and affect your ability to breathe as well.

Next Gen Pet’s Fresh cat litters are all natural, wood based cat litters making our product an extremely low-dust litter. Our litter is made of wood flour which is larger particles made from organic, compostable material making it less likely to hang in the air to be inhaled.

Next Gen pet also uses a natural binder that is similar to corn starch which allows us to offer a clumping litter that is also flushable. Our binder forms clumps when it comes in contact with a moderate amount of liquid then totally dissolves when in contact with large amounts of liquid.

Cat owners facing feline asthma or allergy issues have found Next Gen litters provide a healthy alternative for their litter box. As an asthma and allergy patient myself, I have to say I do notice a difference when I am visiting a clay litter home and when I come home to my Fresh cat litter box.