Low density pet litters and methods of making such pet litters
Compacting expanded perlite fines in the presence of a clay and water, followed by drying, produces particles with low density, good integrity, and surprisingly higher absorption by volume than non-compacted expanded perlite or non-swelling clay. Furthermore, addition of a clumping agent to the compacted granules results in a clumping litter with low density, good integrity and comparable clumping ability to traditional clay clumping litter.
1. A method of making a pet litter comprising:
compacting a material comprising clay and expanded perlite fines to form a compacted material comprising expanded perlite fines, wherein the compacting is performed at a pressure from about 500 to about 1,300 psi;
breaking the compacted material comprising expanded perlite fines to form particles of the compacted material comprising expanded perlite fines;
separating the particles which have a size within a predetermined size range from a remainder of the particles;
drying the particles which have the size within the predetermined size range; and
using the dried particles as at least a portion of the pet litter, wherein the method does not contain activated carbon.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the expanded perlite fines have a size not greater than about 600 microns.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises about 20 wt % to about 85 wt % of the clay.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the clay is selected from the group consisting of (i) a swelling clay, (ii) a non-swelling clay, and (iii) a mixture of a swelling and a non-swelling clay.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least a portion of the clay is added to the expanded perlite fines as a dry mix before the compacting of the material.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least a portion of the clay is pre-blended with water and then added to the expanded perlite fines before the compacting of the material.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises about 5.0 wt % to about 10.0 wt % of water.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises about 5 wt % about 15 wt % of the expanded perlite fines.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined size range is about 595 microns to about 2,380 microns.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particles are dried to a moisture content of about 0.25 wt % to about 10.0 wt %.
11. A pet litter made by the method of claim 1 .