In case you were wondering where Boba got the cool white fur pad that he is lounging on in the moderncat gallery, it is a member of the Bastis Blond family at IKEA. The pad can be purchased by itself and used alone or on your cat’s favorite lounger (as Boba demonstrates with his Fatboy), or you can pair it with the Bastis Blond rattan cat bed/house.
As if the SunSpa weren’t enough, you can also provide your moderncat with the soothing relief of far infrared heat with the Fauna Sauna. This device soothes your cat with deep penetrating, healing warmth without overheating. Apparently years of research and testing have gone into perfecting the Fauna Sauna and the manufacturer claims that it is extremely safe for pets. This technology is used in many medical applications for its positive healing effects and is said to reduce pain, stiffness, skin irritations, stress, and anxiety in pets.
Read more at the Fauna Sauna website.
via crave
Every cat needs a little sunshine in their life, right? Well if you live in an overcast climate, here’s the perfect thing for kitty, the SunSpa for pets. Simulating sunlight shining through a window, the 150-watt bulb keeps the bed between 80 and 85 degrees and lasts for 5000 hours. The bed’s foam pad is covered in stain-, odor-, and water-resistant Crypton Fabric. If kitty can’t curl-up in a sunny window, this might be the next best thing.
via crave | born rich | trend hunter | ubergizmo
Thanks to Ruth for the tip
The new Moderncat Gallery is ready for your viewing pleasure! Please visit the gallery page to see all the beautiful moderncats submitted by readers. Thank you to everyone who sent in photos! Please keep them coming!
(Note: The gallery requires the latest Flash plugin.)
Big giveaway this month! One lucky winner will have the chance to try something that many of us are interested in learning more about, the Litter Robot automatic self-cleaning litter box. The winner will get to choose black or beige.
Check out the original post that I wrote on the Litter Robot. I still plan on getting one myself and posting a first-hand review. Hopefully I can do that soon and we’ll see how well it does with the natural litters.
Sign-up now and enter to win! This giveaway is limited to addresses in the continental U.S.
Congratulations to Kerry from Rapid City, South Dakota, winner of the April Moderncat giveaway! Kerry’s Siberian will love her new beige small cat condo from Modern Cat Designs.
Looking for a unique way to give your moderncat a little style? Check out these adorable cat collars from Nashville-based Pattern & Paw. These handmade collars have breakaway buckles for safety and come in a huge assortment of colorful ribbon designs. Available in three adjustable sizes.
Here are a couple of brand new items from Modern Cat Designs, makers of the ultra-mod cat condo. These two new designs can both be used for either a litter box or a bed. Choose from the covered model or the open one. Both are made from durable high-pressure laminate with chrome-plated steel accents. Very sleek and mod!
And don’t forget to sign-up for this month’s giveaway, and enter to win a small cat condo from Modern Cat Designs.
My natural litter comparison real-world tests have not been going so well — changing so many variables all at once has caused some protesting and a lot of spot-botting. So, in order to really compare apples to apples, I conducted some controlled tests using clean samples and water. Here are my findings:
Arm & Hammer High Performance
The package says that this litter uses “natural clumping ingredients instead of clay,” but it does not specify what it is made from. I did find a mention of the litter in a news release that says it is corn-based. This litter contains Arm & Hammer baking soda to help control odor.
Swheat Scoop
Swheat Scoop is made from naturally processed wheat, which has both natural enzymes for odor control and natural starches for clumping.
World’s Best Cat Litter
World’s Best Cat Litter, or WBCL, is another corn-based litter made from whole kernel corn.
Nature’s Miracle
Nature’s Miracle is also corn-based, however it is made from corn cob granules instead of kernels.
As I poured clean samples into the bowls, I checked each litter for it’s natural scent. The Arm & Hammer litter has a very strong, perfume-y scent that I can’t quite identify. It might be cedar. I find the scent to be a bit overpowering. Swheat Scoop has a very light scent of wheat or wheat flour, as you would expect. WBCL smells like a farm to me. The package says that “the extra strength formula contains a plant derived, natural scent that helps keep litter fresh for multiple cat use,” but I can’t stand the smell and it gets even stronger when wet. Nature’s Miracle has a light pine scent that is not too offensive.
Two other important characteristics are the texture of the litter and the amount of dust that it creates. The texture affects whether or not the cats will like it and how much it will track out of the box and onto the floor. The dust factor affects how much airborne dust is created when pouring fresh litter into the box and when cats dig around in it. Arm & Hammer and Nature’s Miracle have almost exactly the same texture. Both can be described as light and fluffy, meaning that they are more likely to stick to paws and be tracked around. This does also mean that the bag is much lighter to carry, which is a benefit, however if your cats are used to a heavy clay litter, they may need some transition time to get used to this lighter texture. Both of these litters produce very little dust. WBCL is very coarse with large granules, similar in size to many clay litters. It produces a fair amount of dust. Swheat Scoop has a variable mixture of coarse granules with some lighter pieces. Unfortunately, Swheat Scoop produces a ton of dust. I found this to be the worst by far, which worries me since I am gluten intolerant, although I have not been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, but I have read that some people with this problem can get sick if they inhale airborne flour particles, and I imagine that Swheat Scoop dust is similar. I have no concrete information about this, so if you know anything about it, please leave a comment.
Clumping is one of the most important factors in a good litter. You want solid clumps to make scooping easier. If the clumps break apart, you wind-up changing the entire contents of the box more often and scooping is just a pain. Arm & Hammer and Nature’s Miracle performed similarly, with only semi-hard clumping. You can see in the images above that both fell apart when scooped. WBCL had the best clumping ability, with solid, easily scoopable clumps. Swheat Scoop had the worst performance with clumps that fell apart into small pieces, making it very difficult to scoop. Note: I performed these tests with the regular Swheat Scoop. There is a multi-cat strength formula that claims to clump faster and firmer. It may have better results.
All of these litters are made of renewable, natural materials that do not require strip mining like clay litters. Also, all of them are completely biodegradable, meaning if they go into the landfill in a paper bag (not plastic), they will eventually breakdown, unlike clay litters that will stay in the landfills forever. Swheat Scoop and WBCL both say that they are flushable, but please be aware, flushing cat waste is strongly discouraged in order to maintain water quality and protect wildlife.
After looking closely at these four litters, it is clear that there is no perfect litter. In terms of clumping, it appears that Swheat Scoop has the worst performance and WBCL has the best. However, I dislike the farm smell of WBCL. The light and fluffy litters are very low dust, but their clumping is poor. I’m not exactly sure what to do. Perhaps try WBCL with some baking soda or other natural odor control product? Maybe try mixing some of these litters? In addition to these natural litters, there are also several pellet-type litters like Feline Pine and Yesterday’s News, but I have tried these before and they were immediately rejected by my crew. Many people swear by them, though, so I encourage you to try them for yourself. Also, you may feel quite differently about some of the litters tested here, so please feel free to share your comments. There are already quite a few comments on the original post, so be sure to check them out as you decide which litter is best for you.
I obviously don’t have one of everything that I write about–otherwise there would be no room for human furniture in my rather small condo–but I do have a few select items, including the Moderncritter bent wood scratcher. I have to say, it is one of the most beautiful pieces of furniture that I own. The quality was immediately obvious the minute I opened the box. This is not a toy or another throw-away cat item. It is actually a piece of furniture that will last for many, many years.
When I ordered it, it was unclear exactly how it attaches to the wall. It turns out that the mechanism is fabulous! It has a unique wall mounting system with a two-part bracket that is incredibly easy to install and even comes with its own level to help you hang it perfectly. It’s brilliant!
As you can see above, Mackenzie has claimed the scratcher. He likes to hop up on it whenever I’m sitting on the sofa–precisely why I positioned it there. The craftsmanship is excellent and I love that you can replace the FLOR carpet tiles if they get worn or just to change the color and pattern to match your decor. If you’re looking for a very special item that your cats will love–and you will, too–the Moderncritter scratcher is the perfect thing.
Available directly from Moderncritter.
I absolutely love hearing from readers! I am thrilled that so many people enjoy reading Moderncat. It is my pleasure to share my findings with you all!
You have seen glimpses of my moderncats, and I would love to see yours. Please send in photos of your cats showing their modern side, like Haley here, lounging in her classic Eames chair. Thank you to Melissa for sending in this beautiful image. I will put together a gallery with everyone’s photos and post it here on the site for the moderncat-loving world to enjoy. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I can look at cat pictures all day. They are the most beautiful creatures on earth!
Email photos to kate [at] moderncat [dot] net and please be sure to tell me your cat’s name, your first name, and your location.
This marvelous moderncat was spotted in one of the entries in Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool 2008, AT’s annual contest for the smallest, coolest apartment. Check out the photos of Uma’s Minimal Chic Studio over at AT New York. Lucky cat!
Thanks to Brandy for this sighting!
Introducing Angora, the newest feline addition to the MyPetLamp line from Offi. She is available in two colors, light chocolate and warm milk. Just like her Siamese sister, the Angora lamp is made of non-toxic plastic and gives off a warm glow from her low voltage bulb.
Available at Amazon.
Thanks to Maia for spotting this one!
This is Climb, a super-cool cat condo from Otis and Claude. These stackable cubes are covered in cotton fabric and come in two awesome color combos: WARM - black, white, orange, pink and yellow, and COOL - brown, white, green, blue and beige. The modular pieces let you stack them however you like, and all the cubes nest in one another for easy storage.
Both color combos are available at Amazon.
Beauty and creativity come together in this incredible line of products for living with cats by Dutch designer Marly Gommans. The collection, called ‘Cats in Style,’ includes a scratching post, a covered litter box, a pillow bed, and a concept for a cat door.
Made using natural materials like wool felt and sisal rope, these pieces are eco-conscious in addition to being beautiful and functional.
I’m still working on my natural litter comparison test, but in order to carryout my experiment, I needed to get another litter box, so I finally sprang for the Booda Dome Cleanstep covered cat litter box. If you’ve shopped for covered litter boxes anytime in the past several years, you have no doubt seen the Booda Dome line. I’ve had other covered litter boxes and I’ve always looked right past this one, thinking, “Oh, it’s just another covered litter box.” I had no idea how popular it would be! EVERYONE loves it (all the cats, and me, too.)
I think it has some features that make it a very well-designed product. First, I have a couple of “deep diggers.” The area for the litter is quite deep, allowing you to fill it up with a lot of litter to accommodate the digging, plus the top fits perfectly and prevents flying litter from escaping. Another issue with deep diggers is that they tend to deposit liquids on the very bottom of the box. The inner shape of the box has curved edges and no sharp corners (similar to its cousin, the Booda Swift Scoop) making it very easy to scoop away the deposits on the bottom of the box.
I chose the Cleanstep model which has a covered walkway/ramp leading into the box. The ramp is designed to remove litter from paws and reduce tracking. It does remove some of the litter, but plenty still exits the box trapped between furry toes. I’m not sure if there will ever be a great solution to this problem, but I think the ramp helps.
It does have a built-in air filter which is supposed to remove 99 percent of odor. That may be more like 10 percent. It’s still pretty stinky. I do like the handle on the top and think that it is quite easy to remove and replace the top for cleaning. It is a nice big box, so even my Maine Coon is comfortable using it. The form is actually quite attractive and it comes in some excellent colors, like gold, titanium, and silver.
I got mine at PetSmart, but it is also available at Amazon.
This very architectural form is the Necobaco cat tree, new from Japanese pet furniture design company Clavo. The tree is apparently customizable and is resin treated to protect it from scratching. The combination of carpeted cantilevered shelves and hollow boxes offer a variety of spots for cats to climb around on and snuggle into.
It looks like the company offers a smaller matching cat bed, however both seem to only be available in Japan.
Congratulations to Karla from Walnut Creek, CA, winner of the TrendyCat bamboo cat tree. Karla chose a natural finish with brown cushions. I’m sure her kitties will enjoy it!
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