Homemade cat cleanliness products: litter boxes, flea and tick removal

Whether your cat has been plagued with ticks or you're looking for an eco-friendly kitty litter solution, this is your guide to keeping your feline friend happy and healthy.

• Why clean a smelly plastic litter box when you can get bio-friendly ones for free and toss them, dirty litter and all?
• Make a habit of stopping by your local convenience or beverage store and asking for empty plastic-wrapped, shallow soda boxes — the kind that hold a dozen cans of soda pop.
• Keep the plastic on the box while in use, pull it off and toss in the recycle bin before dumping the litter-filled box into the trash.
• They also make convenient toss-and-go litter boxes for travelling with your cat.

Cats can be sensitive to any flea treatment, particularly toxic commercial flea powders. So try this mixture on a small patch of skin on the cat's stomach and wait for a day to see if there is a reaction. You must also wash the cat's bedding and vacuum the house thoroughly to get rid of flea eggs.

Makes one treatment

• 6 drops lavender essential oil
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) mineral oil

  1. Drop the lavender essential oil and the mineral oil into a small bottle and shake to combine.
  2. Warm the oil by holding the bottle in your hands for a few minutes.
  3. Massage the warm oil into the neck area and the base of the tail where fleas congregate, then all parts of the cat, being careful to avoid contact with the cat's ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Repeat treatment when the scent is no longer detectable.

Cats are sensitive to many kinds of medications and herbal treatments, including tick repellents that are safe to use on dogs. Your best bet is to watch for ticks, especially around the face, ears and neck, and remove them according to the following recipe. It will save you a trip to the vet.

Makes one treatment

• Petroleum jelly
• Hydrogen peroxide

  1. Coat the tick and surrounding skin with petroleum jelly applied with a cotton swab.
  2. After the tick smothers, gently pull it, with the head intact, from the cat's skin.
  3. Swab the area with hydrogen peroxide to disinfect it.
  4. If you remove a tiny deer tick (a potential transmitter of Lyme disease), seal it in a plastic container, such as a film canister, and take it and the cat to a veterinarian for testing.