Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-02-27 Origin: Site
It’s almost second nature—you walk into a department store or browse online for essentials, and cat litter is on the receipt. It’s an essential product every cat owner knows—as crucial as the food they eat while in the home. After all, the smell is enough to knock out the whole house in a single swoop.
There are all kinds of different cat litters claiming to be the best, touting slightly different areas of strength. But when did the idea of cat litter really catch on since feline domestication? The answer might surprise you.
Cats have been domesticated for an unknown amount of time, but it’s suspected they befriended humans around 7500 BC. That makes them a truly ancient pet among humans. Since then, keepers kept cats mostly outdoors or with access both in and out.
For the most part, even though man and kitty have coexisted for millennia, our cat friends have been eliminating anywhere they want to in the wilderness. In the old days, cats always had pretty much direct access to the outside.
But when you share your home with a cat, it’s no secret that they need a place to do their business. It might seem like because we’ve intermeshed with these creatures for so long, cat litter has been around just as long as they have been living with us. However, that is not the case. Actually, it celebrated its 70th birthday in 2017, being officially invented in 1947.
It wasn’t until we started creeping into the 1900s that cats became indoor living companions. By the time we got to the 1940s, people were beginning to look for alternate solutions as ash, paper, and other semi-absorbent substances just weren’t cutting it in the home.
Since people used disposable and often biodegradable substances for cat litter in the home, it didn’t really need a market at first. However, owners began to suffer from extreme odors and constant cleaning in the home over time.
But it did take some time before absorbent clay really caught on.
A man by the name of Edward Lowe worked in the perfect industry to create the world’s first cat litters. The genius of cat litter was discovered by mere happenstance. Edward Lowe worked with his family in Michigan, working with sand, ice, clay, and other naturally occurring materials.
Sometimes, he would have leftover materials with him at home when he wasn’t at work. Typically, he sold to companies that wanted absorbent materials to soak up oil and other waste.
As the story goes, his neighbor asked for some sand to put in her cat litter box, since she was tired of using ash. He did not have any that wasn’t frozen, so he gave her absorbing clay granules instead. She later reported that these granules did a superb job controlling odors and soaking up cat urine.
This sparked a genius and business-savvy idea in the head of Edward Lowe. He later decided to invent the first clay cat litter on the market, Kitty Litter, which was coincidentally not easy.
Even though it might seem like a no-brainer, it took him several years to convince cat owners that his product beat out anything that they were using, even sand. However, once it caught on, this market has flourished ever since.
Ed became a hit with pet stores despite his many obstacles, eventually developing the brand Tidy Cats, which we still enjoy today. It seems he really left a legacy behind him—quite the entrepreneur to admire.
Even though clay had the spotlight for several years, new materials are starting to threaten its number one spot due to their environmental friendliness or odor control. There are several types of cat litter these days. It seems like if it’s absorbent, you can find it on the shelves.
