Furball and I are lucky to live in an area where we literally have at least a dozen choices of eco-friendly litter available to us at the local pet stores.  If you don’t have this assortment available to you, it might be worthwhile to consider online options.  As with most decisions, nothing is black and white, or in this case green and white.  The carbon cost of having a heavy bag of litter shipped to you needs to be weighed against the environmental destruction caused by stripmining clay litter.

If you do decide in favour of ordering litter online, the Only Natural Pet Store is having a cat litter sale on for the month of September.  They’re located in Boulder, CO, so if you don’t live halfway across the country, you may want to check in to see what they’re offering.

To save 10%, enter the code: LITTER when checking out.

Visit the Only Natural Pet Store

Just got wind of a free sample offer from Wysong for their newest cat food, Epigen. I’m not sure how long the samples will be offered, but if you’re looking for a high protein, starch-free kibble for your cat, it might be worthwhile to give this a try.

Epigen gets some green points since it’s made in the USA from USDA and FDA approved domestic sources. It also contains 60+% meat and organs with over 60% protein, plus probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, phytonutrients, nutraceuticals, natural form antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

This is probably rather facetious of me, but I don’t get the name.  Sounds too close to “EpiPen”, which is used for allergic reactions.  In medical terminology, “epi” means “on top of”.  Maybe they meant that this food is on the cutting edge of a new generation of cat food.  Being facetious again, the marketing-unfriendly name and the lack of cartoony packaging suggest that Wysong is still a ma/pop company that hasn’t sold out to a major conglomerate.  More green points.  The website is not slickety-slick either.  I particularly like the categories: dog, cat, ferret, horse, and human.

If anyone tries the sample, please send me an email (address in footer) and let me know how your cat likes it.

Click here for the Wysong Epigen sample offer.

The kind folks over at Cafe Press were in touch a few months ago to offer me an organic t-shirt and baby T (not a baby doll T, a T for a baby!). In case you’re not familiar with Cafe Press, they’re an online site that enables you to create your own personalized gifts such as tees, mugs, bags and more. They also offer storefronts for you to sell your products.

There were thousands of designs to choose from, almost too many, so I decided rather than spend hours trying to choose just one, I’d take the opportunity to design a Green Little Cat t-shirt.

It was actually a very easy process. Well, you do need some sort of basic skills in Photoshop or Illustrator. Once your design is complete, all you need to do is upload your image. Using the Cafe Press WYSIWYG designer was a breeze.

When the shirts arrived, I was quite delighted to see my design come to life.  The ink isn’t as bright as a screen-printed shirt, but the plus side is that the shirt is nice and soft without that rubbery feel.

Here are a couple of pics of me and my son and Furball, in our Green Little Cat organic t-shirts from Cafe Press. Furball is the one who is not wearing a t-shirt.

I’ve been sharing eco-friendly cat advice for the past couple of years and hope that you’ve found this blog to be helpful, informative, funny and entertaining.  From the Natural Cat Food Throwdown, to the 30 Day Green Cat Makeover and everything in between, I try to share simple advice to help your cat go green and improve the planet for everyone.

While you may notice some ads on this site, they basically cover my web hosting costs.  This blog is a labour of love.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and have gotten any value from it, would you be so kind as to do a small favour for me and my family?

My family was chosen as a finalist in a $10,000 Living Room Makeover Contest. We were one of 20 finalists selected from over 800 entries. The winner is chosen by popular vote. Could you please take 2 seconds to vote for us.? There’s no need to register or vote daily. It’s simply one vote per person by clicking the button. Could you please vote now as the contest ends on August 25th?

In the contest entry, you’ll also get a glimpse of where Furball lives and how he the poor cat is being tormented by my baby. Yes, the room does look quite nice, but we really really really need a new couch. The one we have is over 7 years old and sags majorly. If we win, I will of course be giving away my old furnishings to a deserving family. Also, the sponsor of the contest, Room & Board, believes in sustainable design and sources their furniture from small local American suppliers.

Thank you for voting! Wish us luck.

Please vote here:
http://new.dwell.com/contests/room-for-improvement/submissions/a-cavern-of-chaos-and-vacuity-when-mish-mash-meets-baby-mush

A big big thank you if you share this post with friends or on your blog.

Tomorrow, I’ll be giving a presentation at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley on how to have an eco-friendly cat!  I’ll be giving eco-friendly tips about cat litter, cat food, cat toys and more. Plus, I’ll be leading participants through a hands-on cat toy making workshop.

I’m putting the final touches on my presentation this evening.  Tomorrow’s presentation is for HSSV volunteers and foster parents.  The plan is to offer the presentation to the general public as well in the upcoming months.

I’ll let you know how it goes and will also upload my presentation materials so that those of you who don’t live nearby can get some handy tips on how to green your cat.

Wish me luck!

After spending weeks investigating low-grain natural cat food in the Natural Cat Food Throwdown, I was rather dismayed to learn that the winning company, Natura Pet Products, is being SOLD to Procter & Gamble.

I got the press release hot off the press, but completely forgot to blog about it since I went on vacation for a few weeks. This is rather unfortunate since Natura was one of the largest natural pet food suppliers that was really walking the walk when it came to being eco-friendly.

EVO, a low-carb natural cat food, was one of the winners of my Natural Cat Food Throwdown. I contacted a number of natural cat food companies and asked about their green policies. I got answers as dismal as, “Yes, we’re eco-frendly because our cans are recyclable.” to some fantastic answers from Don Scott, the president of Natura Pet Products. Natura was introducing hybrid cars for its sales team and building an eco-friendly new office.

Now that P&G is taking over, I wonder what will happen to these green initiatives. Unfortunately, I have a good idea what will happen.

Anyway, in light of this news, I’m revoking the championship title from EVO, which leaves Tiki Cat as the most eco-friendly natural cat food company in the Natural Cat Food Throwdown.

Despite the title of this post, I’m actually neutral about raw meat diets for cats as I haven’t actually tried it. About the time I heard about a convenient way to feed Furball raw food (see post on The Honest Kitchen), it was no longer an option since I had a baby. It’s pretty disturbing when your child reaches under the TV stand and triumphantly raises his hand up in the air with a piece of cat litter held perfectly between his forefinger and thumb. I certainly don’t want to see him picking up raw cat food too.

Nevertheless, I’ve heard from people who swear by raw meat diets for their cats, citing that it’s much more natural and it helped their cats overcome a slew of health problems.

If you are interested in learning more, The Conscious Cat is hosting a free teleseminar on feline nutrition. Margaret Gates, the Executive Director of the Feline Nutrition Education Society, will talk about the Benefits of a Raw Diet for Cats and answer questions about feline nutrition in general and raw feeding in particular.

Time and Date: Thursday, July 22, at 8pm Eastern Daylight Time

The seminar is free, but long distance phone charges may apply. To participate in the conference, dial 1-712-432-3100. When prompted, enter conference code 674470.

I recently visited the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and was told about an eco-friendly cat litter that smells like ice cream.  I had to see (smell) this for myself so HSSV’s Director of Customer Service was kind enough to lead me the their pet store and held up a bag for me to sniff.

Normally, I wouldn’t get up close to a bag of cat litter, but I had to smell this ice cream cat litter for myself.  I bent down, took a tentative sniff and the litter did indeed smell like a mint ice cream cone.

The Director of Customer Service said that she tried using this litter at home, but stopped when her cat wanted to eat it.  I had a similar experience with Swheat Scoop, where Furball wasn’t sure whether to eat the litter or pee in it.  But then again, my cat will eat anything and inhales every last crumb of food.

If your cat is the normal type when it comes to food, you may want to consider Healthy Pet P-POD litter.  It’s reportedly excellent for odour control and also clumps well.

P-POD is made from reclaimed cellulose fiber and is processed to remove potentially harmful aromatic hydrocarbons that exist in pine and cedar oils. It’s made by International Absorbents Inc.

I haven’t done any investigating into this company, so I’m not sure if they’re fake green or real green, but their website says that they are “engaged in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of proprietary, cost-effective absorbent products derived from waste wood fiber (cellulose), a by-product of the pulp and paper manufacturing process.” Apparently, they started making pet bedding for small rodents and moved into cat litter from there.

If you want to learn more, check out their website.

Gardens are a potential landmine when it comes to chemicals.  To me, it seems obvious that if you are going to eat the stuff that grows in your garden, you don’t want to be spraying chemical pesticides on it.  However, I can relate to the “ick factor” of creepy crawlies taking over your garden and also the helplessness of watching your hard work get eaten up by little critters.

And, if you’re sitting out there at night and it’s a bad mosquito season, the temptation to slather yourself with DEET is high.  Let’s face it, citronella is a fabulous bug repellent for 15 seconds, then it’s completely useless.  So, what to do?

I recently discovered the EcoSMART line of products which includes an organic insect repellent.  They contacted me about doing a giveaway of their products on my blog, but before I did so, I wanted to make sure the stuff really works.  So, they sent me their “Safe Plant and Garden Bundle” which includes their Garden Insect Killer, Garden Fungicide, Weed and Grass Killer, and Insect Repellent.

Their products use a blend of essential oils as their active ingredients to keep bugs and fungus in check.  The ingredient list almost reads like dinner.  For example, the fungicide includes rosemary, thyme and clove oils.  Their website states that you can spray and harvest on the same day.

One caveat about essential oils.  On a Natural Resources Defense Council website (http://www.simplesteps.org/greenpaws-products), they state that many essential oils are very toxic for cats.  One thing to note is that they are speaking specifically about flea and tick control products which come into very close contact with pets.

However, just to be on the safe side, I wouldn’t recommend any essential oil products for inside the home if you have cats.  With the great outdoors, I feel that the contact would be minimal and essential oils are a lot better than chemicals for you, the neighbourhood cats and the environment.

So far, I’ve tried the insect killer and fungicide on the miniature orange tree in our backyard.  Our little tree was suffering from spider webs, unknown little bugs and black spots on its leaves, but I’m happy to report that the leaves have gone from a sorry-looking yellow to a vibrant green and we’ve got 6 teeny oranges growing!  Yay!

Next to get field tested will be the organic mosquito repellent.  My husband is going camping deep in the backwoods of British Columbia.  He’s going to take the EcoSMART insect repellent with him and nothing else.

There’s a town in B.C. called “Malakwa” which is Chinook Jargon word for mosquito.  I’ve been there and the mosquitoes in B.C. are somethng fierce, although I’d name Northern Ontario as the no-contest winner of the most ferocious mosquitoes in the world.

I’ll keep you posted of how it goes.

Here’s a fun way to give to your local animal shelter and you’ll know the cats will directly benefit from your gift.  How?  Give the gift of eco-friendly cat scratchers made by Imperial Cat.

You may know Imperial Cat for their fanciful cat scratchers such as this Orca Cat Scratch n Shape, but they recently came out with a new line specifically for shelter cats.  Scratch ‘n Bits feature the same durable scratching surface as the higher end Scratch ‘n  Shapes, but at a significantly lower price.  And for the month of June, you can donate a case  of 20 Scratch ‘n Bits directly to your favourite animal shelter for only $20.

Imperial Cat generously sent me a Scratch ‘n Bit for Furball to test drive.  When the parcel arrived, Furball was interested even before I opened the box.  Once I took out the Scratch ‘n Bit, he began rubbing his cheek against the corner and purring loudly.

The honeycomb surface felt really durable.  I expected it to be more like corrugated cardboard in feel, but instead, it’s got a real toughness to it.   Furball enjoys using the corners for a nice scratch on his chin, but I haven’t seen him try scratching it with his claws.  I think it’s a little small for him, but if you think about it, most shelter cats are kept in small enclosures so they wouldn’t have the option of a bigger scratching post.

This little scratcher makes a lot of sense for shelter cats as it gives them somewhere to stretch their claws and hopefully feel a little more at home.  And, when they get adopted, the Scratch ‘n Bit can go home with them, giving them somewhere to scratch other than their new owner’s couch.

Scratch ‘n Bits come in several shapes and are available in both vertical and horizontal styles – to fit a variety of shelter spaces.  They’re made in the USA, from 68% post consumer recycled materials, and are also 100% recyclable.

If you’d like to donate a case of Scratch ‘n Bits to your local shelter, please call 1-800-783-0977 and ask for Kristie or Kim.  OR, email kim [AT] imperialcat.com.

To learn more about the donation program or Imperial Cat’s eco-friendly  products, visit www.ImperialCat.com.