Litter box
The litter box (or cat toilet ) is a container, usually made of plastic, for domestic cats , in which it in a cat litter ( substrate according to choice) their urine and feces can store and buried.
description
The litter box is part of the basic equipment of many cat owners and is particularly indispensable for indoor cats. However, it is used both by cats that live exclusively in the apartment and sometimes by outdoor cats who are only occasionally in the apartment.
The litter box filled with cat litter helps the cat to bury its excrement and thus hide it from fellow cats and enemies. Once adopted sites for the deposition of feces and urine are visited permanently at best, so the animal housebroken can be. A cat uses the litter box from the third week of life when it is led by its mother. House training is given after about eight weeks.
Litter boxes usually consist of a plastic tub into which litter is poured. Models with a removable plastic hood and a swing door are also on offer. The cover is intended to counteract the development of odors and litter thrown out when they are buried, but not all cats will accept it.
The care and cleaning of the litter box essentially depends on the litter used.
cat litter
history
The invention of modern cat litter is attributed to the American Edward (Ed) Lowe , who in 1947 gave a neighbor a sack of Fullers's Earth as a replacement for the sand, sawdust or ash filling that was common at the time. Fuller's Earth is usually made of palygorskite ( attapulgite ) or bentonite , as are many of today's conventional and clump litter varieties.
materials
Conventional mineral litter (not clumping)
Like Edward Lowe's variant, conventional litter consists of clay minerals , usually zeolites , diatomite and sepiolite . They are characterized by a higher absorption capacity for water compared to the sand that was originally often used. Forming them into grains or balls reduces the buildup on the cat's paws and reduces the spread of litter in the household. Conventional non-clumping litter binds odors only moderately and requires frequent changes of the entire litter. For this reason it is hardly widespread today.
Mineral clumping litter
In the early 1980s, the biochemist (and cat owner) Thomas Nelson discovered that using bentonite (clay minerals) for cat litter brought about a decisive improvement: this material clumps to a clay-solid consistency when it comes into contact with liquids, so that urine is bound and the resulting lump can be removed from the litter box. Since most of the contaminated litter can be removed in a targeted manner in this way, it is less necessary to change the entire litter, usually every 2–6 weeks. Mineral clumping litter is one of the most common types of litter for litter boxes today. Mineral clumping litter usually also contains silicon compounds such as quartz or kieselguhr , which leads to confusion with silica litter (also called silica gel litter).
Silica gel litter / Silica crystal litter
There are also litter products based on silica gel (also known as silica gel). The spheres have a large number of fine pores so that liquids can be easily absorbed. While the odor-intensive substances in cat urine, especially ammonium ions, remain bound in the litter, the water it contains can slowly evaporate again, so that the litter box can remain dry and odor-free for a longer period of time. With a shovel, you only have to remove faeces, while water does not lead to clumping.
The litter is comparatively light. In long-haired cats in particular, it can therefore get caught in the fur and is more easily distributed. Silica gel rustles a lot, which frightens some cats.
Modern organic litter
Cat litter made from organic materials such as wood , straw or grain (especially maize) are biodegradable. Cat litter made of wood fibers or wood pellets, which swell and crumble when absorbing moisture, are characterized by their lower level of dust development in contrast to mineral litter. The so-called fibrils of the plant fibers bind the liquid.
Additives, environmental and health aspects
Some manufacturers rely on the addition of fragrances for more effective odor binding or neutralization of unpleasant odors.
The raw materials for mineral litter are often mined in opencast mines , which has been criticized from an ecological point of view.
Conventional mineral litter and mineral clumping litter (e.g. clay mineral bentonite ) develop fine dust when handled , which can be inhaled by humans and animals. A carcinogenic and asthma-promoting effect ( feline asthma ) cannot be ruled out.
disposal
Basically, contaminated litter, i. H. with feces or urine, to be disposed of with household waste.
Plant litter residues that have already been used can be composted, although in garden composters the temperatures required to kill any pathogens (especially toxoplasmosis ) cannot be reached and over-fertilization of the soil can occur if the soil is used excessively. Disposal of such residues via the organic waste bin is mostly not allowed.
Mineral litter, like plant-based litter, must be disposed of with the residual waste if it is not permitted to dispose of them via organic waste (as is usually the case). Disposal via the sewage system is not permitted in the German-speaking area and, at least in the case of mineral litter, can lead to buildup in the pipes and, in the long term, to blockage of the drainage pipes.
Trivia
The litter box is in the published 1993 song Katzeklo of Helge Schneider addressed humorous. The song became very well known in German-speaking countries, made it into the charts and received an Echo Award.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christine Church: House Cat: How to Keep Your Indoor Cat Sane and Sound . John Wiley & Sons, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7645-7741-3 , pp. 90-.
- ↑ John W. Hosterman: Bentonite and Fuller's Earth Resources of the United States . In: US Government Printing Office (Ed.): US Geological Survey Professional Paper 1522 . 1992.
- ↑ a b c Chemical and Engineering News: Kitty Litter: Clay, silica, and plant-derived alternatives compete to keep your cat's box clean , April 26, 2004, Volume 82, Number 17, page 26.
- ↑ a b Digging Deeper: The Scoop on Cat Litter , eco advice @ stanford.edu.
- ↑ vdtt.org: Serious Disease: Feline Asthma , accessed on January 21, 2017.
- ↑ oekotest.de: Test report Katzenstreu 2012 , accessed on January 21, 2017.
- ↑ cf. Information on small animal litter from the Bergischer Waste Management Association.
- ↑ Stiftung Warentest: cat litter: The best for business , summary of a test of consumers .
- ↑ see e.g. manufacturer's instructions for disposal at Catsan ; so also the waste information of Erbenschwanger Verwertungs- und Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft mbH ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Weilheim-Schongau district). In some cases, only the disposal of completely unused litter is permitted, cf. Waste information from the city of Aachen .
