New Wellness Aid for Cat Owners: Pretty Litter

Alana by Claire Clayton

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I'm a huge proponent of Wellness for pets. It's a medical concept that moved from human medicine to veterinary medicine. If you keep your pet healthy with regular check-ups, plenty of fresh water, good food and exercise as well as knowing the signals to look for to tell if your pet isn't feeling well, you can find problems sooner, before they become progressed, and take you pet to the veterinarian.  Cats, unlike most dogs, are incredibly stoic and masterful at hiding illness. 

There is a new litter on the market that will help you keep even better tabs on your feline companion.

Photo Courtesy of Nancy Ross

Pretty Litter changes color when your cat urinates if there is a possible illness brewing. This product came about out of a terrible loss of a beloved companion.

Daniel Rotman, the CEO of Pretty Litter lost his little orange tabby to an illness.  "It was one of the toughest thing to go through. She was my family member and she was healthy until she began to show aggressive signs of illness," Rotman told me.  "Many cat owners relate to this; cats hide illness until the symptoms begin to show through odd behavior." 

"I wanted to create a tool to empower cat owners, to have another tool to monitor their cat's health before the illness spirals out of control."

From this came a litter that is made using a safe silica microgels that turns color if there is a sign of illness. The litter itself is yellow, so it matches the color of urine. Once the cat urinates in the box, if the urine turns color (and one of four, indicating possibly illnesses), watch your cat for 24 to 48 hours. If the urine continues to turn color, take your cat to your veterinarian. The reason for the wait and monitoring your cat during that time is that a new food, a change in the environment, or if the cat is stressed, can cause the urine to change color. You want to be sure that this is a consistent change. If you have more than one cat and see a color change, isolate them and give each a separate litterbox so you can tell which one might be having the problem.

Photo of Tribble Courtesy of Frank Incremona

Scoop the feces out of the box as soon as you can each day, allowing the litter to drop back into the box. Cat's often urinate in the same section of the box. There is no need to scoop out the pretty litter whether or not it has turned color. Just mix the litter through the box so there will be different litter in each part of the box. Pretty Litter does not have to be scooped because it doesn't clump and isn't meant to. The urine is captured by the little pieces of silica that may, or may not, turn color. The color does not escape so even if your cat tracks a piece of litter out of the box and it lands on your carpet, it won't stain. It's safe to use and eco-friendly. Here's look at the colors and what they can mean:

Pretty Litter color changes may indicate a host of potential health issues.

Orange or Brown: detection of bilirubin which may indicate liver issues such as bile duct obstruction (cholestasis), gallstones, liver inflammation or pancreatitis.

Red: detection of blood which may indicate Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorder (FLUTD), Crystals (Crystalluria) or Interstitial Cystitis. In rarer cases it can also mean bladder cancer, an internal injury, poison ingestion, and/or if it's a female cat over four months old who hasn't been spayed, she may be in heat.

Blue: high alkaline which may indicate either FLUTD, Struvite Crystal formations or kidney issues.

Green: abnormal acidity which may indicate either FLUTD, calcium oxalate crystals, urinary blockage in males or kidney issues.

Any color other than a golden yellow or olive green may mean you need to take your cat to your Veterinarian. 

Clearly this can be a game changer for cat owners. A three-pound bag will last for a month How? You're not throwing out clumped urine. Nor does this litter smell. It doesn't require artificial additives to keep it odor-free all month. While it can be purchased in stores, it can also be purchased online, either by the single bag to try it (you'll need to buy 2 bags and use a bag-and-a-half for a large litterbox) or order autoship which can be cancelled at any time. Information is on the website under FAQ's.

Pretty litter is growing by double-digit percentages every month and is now expanding to Asia, Canada and Australia.

Want to know more?  Here's a video to show you more. And check out both the video introduction and the FAQ's on the website: 

NOTE: I was sent a bag of Pretty Litter to test.  I received no monetary compensation for this post. I share it for information only.