Homemade Cat Litter

by Sue
(California)

I read somewhere that store bought cat litter is filled with chemicals that can be harmful to the environment. That made me wonder if it's doing my much-loved cat any good, so I wanted to try and find a way to make my own homemade cat litter.

There are several suggestions on the Internet from other people who make their own cat litter too. Unfortunately some of those suggestions made the smell worse and other suggestions just didn't work for my cat. He wouldn't use them!

Then I found the perfect cat litter recipe that works perfectly. The pieces are small enough to clean up easily. The smell is absorbed easily, it's great for the environment and it's good for my cat's health too.

The best part is that it saves me a lot of money, it's really easy and it only takes around 3/4 hour to make two week's worth of cat litter.

You will need:

- Old newspaper
- Dish detergent
- Baking Soda
- An old fly screen


Tear some old newspaper into strips and put it into a bucket. Drizzle a little bit of biodegradable dish detergent into the bucket and then cover the paper strips with warm water. Leave it to soak until the paper begins to break down and the water turns gray. This is the ink from the paper going into the water.

Drain the paper completely using a colander (I use an old fly screen stretched over a wooden frame).

Put the drained paper back into the bucket and add some more fresh water. Sprinkle plenty of baking soda into the paper mixture and mix it in with a wooden spoon or an old stick.

I wear gloves for this next part so I don't get any ink on my hands. Rub the paper together between your fingers so the baking soda gets right into everything. Then lift out some of the paper and squeeze out the moisture. Crumble the paper into small bits over the fly screen frame. This will help to drain it further and dry it out so it will work as good cat litter.

It takes a couple of weeks to dry properly when the humidity is high, but when the sun is shining, leave the screen out in the sun for a while. Once the paper bits are dried out, you have a couple of weeks of homemade cat litter supply.

So there's my favorite homemade cat litter recipe that's great for the environment, saves you plenty of money, controls odor very well, is healthy for your cat and only takes a little while to make. I hope you like it.