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Re: kitty litter substrate
On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, David A Youngker wrote:
> We're not talking about a shelf of solid clay running a few feet thick here,
> either. What we *are* talking about, at least with the Hartz pH5 brand, is a
> product that remains solid, hard and unmalleable because it is a *baked and
> fracted* product - gee, that sounds a lot like Flourite, doesn't it?
I've worked with the stuff too. The first batch of kitty litter I used
broke down into a sticky paste very soon after contact with water. The
paste was not at all gritty. Out of curiosity I checked the brand that
our cats are using now and found that it works more like you describe. I
put a small amount in a glass, added water to the top of the litter and
let it sit for a few hours. What I had at the end was a thick, viscous
gel with some hard chips in it. The gel was of sufficient volume to fill
all pore space between the chips. In a substrate that would be
sufficient to block water circulation.
Clumping cat litter is worse, as it hydrates rather quickly, expands and
forms thick gels very easily.
Roger Miller