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Is it bad if kittens eat cat litter?
Well, you know, babies put everything in their mouths at least once.
I’m talking about kittens.
Fortunately, kittens grow up a lot more quickly than toddlers. It is rare for kittens over
eight weeks old to eat cat litter.
Why are they eating it now? And can it hurt them?
Theoretically, if a kitten ate too much, it would block his digestive tract. The clumping
effect would create a major blockage in the intestines.
What can I do to avoid that problem?
Use newspapers instead of clumping cat litter. Or switch to non-clumping litter.
I wonder if older cats ever eat cat litter.
Sometimes, but it is a sign of anemia. The equivalent condition in humans is called pica.
I’ve heard of that. Pregnant women sometimes eat clay and mud.
It is usually a sign of malnutrition, and ironically, eating the mud actually makes
things worse.
Unless you were eating kaolin clay, the basis of kaopectate.
If your cat is eating kitty litter made with bentonite clay, they’ll get just as stopped
up or even more so than if you drank several bottles of kaopectate.
Kitty litter also contains quartz silica.
And that’s not good for them either. Even eating a little can make the kitten have an
upset stomach.
Throwing up in the litter box would be ideal.
If the kitten is getting litter box trained, it is normal to have a taste.
It’s like a baby taste testing diaper rash cream.
More than a taste is a problem, and it could endanger his health well before he learns
not to eat it.
And a kitten doesn’t know better.
Neither does a baby, but the kitten will grow up faster.
That’s the advantage of cats over kids.
Yeah, but you’ll outlive cats and cats won’t grow up to visit you in old age.
Or crash your car test driving it.