What organic cohesive subsatnce can be added to ground organic corn to
create a clumping cat litter. Currently using coarsely ground
"cornmeal" which clumps but breaks apart when picked up.What would the
ratio be?

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Request for Question Clarification by wayga-ga on 03 Nov 2002 17:09 PST

Hi rollee,

By "organic" do you mean "plant based," or "natural and non-polluting?"

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Clarification of Question by rollee-ga on 04 Nov 2002 04:36 PST

Would prefer the substance to be plant based. Would also need to know
the ratio of the cohesive material to the ground corn.Thank you.

Hi

How about this:
"Nochar's A600 Series products are non-toxic, non-hazardous,
non-corrosive, and environmentally friendly bonding agents (MSDS
available). They are designed to either solidify or gel a wide variety
of spills...."
http://www.nochar.com/Products/group5.htm

I searched extensively on google for this answer. Sodium bentonite is
generally used as the cohesive substance in clumping cat litter. An
organic alternative used in some cat litters is guar gum.

guar gum defined:
A hydrophilic polysaccharide from the seed of the guar plant. It is a
galactomannan type of saccharide that is highly dispersible into water
and brines of various types and salinity. Its water solutions are
non-Newtonian and also can be cross-linked by borax to give very high
gel strength for suspension. Such a structure is easily broken by
breakers in fracturing fluids, so it serves as a carrier for placing
sand far back into fractures. It is also used as a top-hole drilling
fluid. Disadvantages of using guar gum include its lack of thermal
stability and sensitivity to high pH and bacterial fermentation.

More infomation on guar gum
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/water/hygua.html

I discovered this reading an interesting article on suggested
alternatives to the dangerous-to-kitty clay clumping litters.
http://www.sonic.net/~marina/articles/natural.html

Specifically, it is used for the Glamour Kitty's Scooples brand cat
litter as indicated in the article.

Another natural clumping kitty litter alternative to corn is 100%
ground wheat.

I had a great deal of fun learning all about cat litters today. Thanks
for your question!