Daniel Rotman had an orange tabby, Gingi, who died from an illness that had gone months without being detected. It led him to wonder whether cat litter could flag an illness before other symptoms appeared. PrettyLitter, which Rotman launched as a DTC brand in 2016, is made from white silica gel crystals containing color-changing health indicators that respond to atypical pH levels or traces of blood. When Garfield’s box has spots of blue, orange, or red, it may mean a health issue and prompt a vet appointment. Normally a DTC model for cat litter could be a heavy lift…because it is a heavy lift in terms of significant shipping costs. But silica is considerably lighter than typical clay litter, with a six-pound bag of PrettyLitter lasting about as long as a 20- to 30-pound bag of conventional litter, per the brand. Today PrettyLitter, which Rotman sold to Mars in 2021, has more than 1 million customers who purchase the product on a recurring subscription basis. “Once people know us and they try us, they stick with us,” Jess Hauff, CEO of PrettyLitter, told Retail Brew. In September, it launched in 1,300 Publix locations, bringing its total physical store count to more than 13,000 across the US and Canada. That’s about double its 2022 footprint. The brand was entirely DTC until 2021; now about half its business comes from online and physical retail partners. Keep reading here.—AAN | 
