Types of Kitty Litter

When I adopted my kitten, she was sent home with a bag of litter that they were using at the rescue shelter. The brand name was "swheat". I believe it was an organic-safe-for-the-cat-and-safe-for-the-universe type litter. It didn't have a scent (which I've learned cats don't like scents) and she used it without a problem. Unfortunely, when it came time to change her litter box, I couldn't find the "swheat" brand. I bought a box of Tidy Cats (for lack of better options) and when I opened it, I found it had a light scent to it. I was extremely dissapointed because there was nothing on the label indicating that it had a scent.

What types of kitty litters do ya'll use? I know it's up to cat preference, but I was curious if any of you have had better luck with certain brands over another? Does anyone know where to find this "Swheat" brand?

Another thing is that Swheat didn't use clay for clumping. Is clay bad? Tidy Cats brand uses the clay...

I don't know a lot about litters and if clay is bad or not I just let the kitties deside. They did a fine job doing that! I use one of the Tidy Cats litters, for one, the cats use it the best, for two, it works the best in our automatic litter box, three, it's just plan crazy to spend a lot of money for the stuff your cat poops in. I say, if the cat uses the litter just fine, it's good enough.

I tried an all natural litter but it had a really strong pine smell. I hated the smell and so did the poor kitties. It was really overwhelming. We love nature, but not that much!

If I didn't have the automatic litter I would use the little plastic/crystal balls litter. It sucks the urine into the little beads and you can scoupe the poop out. It worked great for us, doesn't have a scent, and was a decent price for how long the jug lasted.

Why spend a ton of money for a little ole bag of something that'll last you a month, that your cat just poops and urinates in? Whatever your cat goes in, is fine. It may be preferred by your cat to not have an odor, but it doesn't hurt anything. I use Fresh Step and it has a "clean" scent to it that kind of makes the idea of a litterbox with poo and pee in it less 'revolting', to some. Doesn't really bother me. Anyway, anything like Fresh Step, Tidy Cats, or Arm & Hammer all work fine. The clay doesn't neccessarily hurt anything, and the clumping litter makes the litter pan much easier to clean.

Lots of folks try to avoid clay clumping litters with kittens because the little tykes sometimes eat their litter . With very small kittens, it's usually recommended to use corn (mass marketed as "Worlds Best Cat Litter"), wheat (the "Swheat" stuff is Swheat Scoop, a wheat based litter, you can get it at Petsmart and in some supermarkets, Target now carries it too), or shredded newspaper. There are also paper based litters like "Yesterdays News".

Some also try to avoid clay due to the dust it creates (one of my kitties is known to sneeze a lot when we use clay litter). Some brands are dustier than others. IMHO I don't think clay is evil, but it's not the best either. If you're kitty doesn't eat their litter you're probably fine using the clay.

As far as scent goes, I do prefer non-scented, but my kitties have never had a problem with the clean scent of the clumping Tidy Cats in the blue or green package. They didn't like the red one --or rather I didn't like the way it made them smell. I've also used Fresh Step (the kind that's free of dyes and scents) and Scoop Away (mixed the scented and non-scented kind).

I use Target brand clumping litter. It's very similar to brands such as Tidy Cats, Scoop Away, and Fresh Step, and it's a lot cheaper!

I personally will not use any clay litter. The dust can settle in their tiny lungs and it draws moisture from their body which in turn can turn into clumps in their lungs. If they eat it, then the same goes for their tummies.

I prefer a natural litter (clumping of course) such as Swheat Scoop or World's Best. I used Swheat Scoop for a while but found it to be too dusty so switched to WBCL. A large bag lasts me easily 6 weeks with 2 litter boxes. I scoop at least once daily and about every 4-5 days I add about 4 - 6 cups new litter. Clean the litter box completely about every 6 weeks. Their litter is in our bedrooms and we have no odour problem.

I use the poor mans world best... chicken egg layer crumbles or swheet scoop ( when on sale)....

I would say wood pellets for those not needing clumping .. a 40-50 lb bag lasts two or three cats a month and runs under four bucks

I tried to get a dust free litter but there isn't much of a choice over here. I ended up getting clay litter but I'm going to look for some better stuff over the Internet.

I wonder if I'm being overly anal about cleaning the litter tray though; 20lbs only lasted me a week! I clean it out about 3 times a day, pretty much any time I see Harry poo.

I'm using the petco "pet gold" clumping clay litter for my cat Toby and it seems less dusty than others (the only other brand I have tried recently was exquisicat from petsmart). When you get a refill at the store (from the huge litter pile) it may be even less dusty due to sitting out in the open air. It seems to clump well and does not have an odor.

I've been using WBCL with the 2 feral kittens we found...I was using the extra strength kind, and it clumped well, flushed, didn't smell bad or have a strong odor. BUT, it goes for $7.99 for a 7lb bag here and even more (per pound) for the larger bags at petco, so I'm trying some chicken layer crumbles that I got at our local feedstore for $2.99 for a 10lb bag. Hopefully mixing in baking soda with the chicken feed will help with odors, for that low of a price, I can afford to buy some litter odor addatives if need be.

I've been using the WBCL and now the chicken feed in an omega paw (roll away) litter box and I've had no problems with the clumps breaking apart during the rolling (in case you're worried about clumping strength).

Art

Whew! Everyone's advice has been AWESOME!!!!! I've definitely noticed that this Tidy Cats litter that I bought (the blue kind) produces a LOT of dust. Puma likes to lay in her litter so I clean it EVERY TIME after she uses it and no one can tell that there's a kitty scent in my house--which is great. But it just has waaaaay too much dust. When I clean the litter or scoop it, i sneeze like crazy! I'm going to look into all the litters that ya'll have mentioned! Thanks so much!!!

There is a brand of Tidy Cat's that claims to have less dust, that's what I use. It gives off some dust but I just take a spray bottle and spray the litter when I put it in, it helps with the dust a bit more.

The Pet Gold stuff is what we use, purely for the convenience. It used to be cheaper, but a little over 6 months ago they raised the prices.. again.. so now it's about the same as the bagged litter. I love the tubs you buy for it, and how you fill it up yourself.

I'm thinking of seeing if the cats like something cheaper... *sigh* Our Petco just hates us.

Wal-mart sells a 28#bag of Special Kitty litter that clumps well, no odor and is almost dust free. Cost is under $7. Sams club has a generic version of Tidy Cat that clumps really well, no scent and almost dust free. I find that when putting new litter in the box if I pour it close to the bottom there isn't much dust.

Right now, I'm using Fresh Step. As far as I'm concered, it's scentless and works fine.

Originally Posted by deljo

Wal-mart sells a 28#bag of Special Kitty litter that clumps well, no odor and is almost dust free. Cost is under $7.

Click to expand...

We also use Target's Pet Essentials Scoop ($8 for 28 lbs). It just depends on which store i get to. I've been pleasantly surprised lately--the store brand litters have been less dusty than the name brands.

We used to use Tidy Cats, but once they changed to "Tidy Lock" formula my cats wouldn't use it.

I tried the World's Best and my cats weren't impressed but they got used to it. So I tried the chicken feed and while it is comparable to the WBCL, the cats (and me) still weren't impressed. The deal breaker was the fact that Beandip was allergic to the feed. So I ditched that and went with the Sam's Club clumping clay. It's $8 something for 35lbs, clumps hard as a rock and is super soft, not so chunky like the clumping Tidy Cat is now. The clumping tidy cat has those little round granules that track EVERYWHERE. The Sam's litter doesn't track that bad and isn't so dusty.

I got the World's Best Cat litter the other day. I find it so much better regarding dust etc, but OMG it cost a fortune!! I'm going to have to look for a safe, cheaper alternative or start getting the cat to go outside!!

I buy Swheat Scoop at Petco. I mix it with a little Arm & Hammer, partly because it's cheaper and partly because it helps control odors just a bit more.

I like the Swheat Scoop, only problem is that it sometimes sticks to the litter tray.. but the Arm & Hammer I put in with it seems to help with that issue. I also have the Booda Dome which helps mask odors too, plus I clean it every day and only have 1 cat, so my apartment doesn't smell like kitty at all (people say).

I have been agonizing a bit about this.
My two cats use Arm & Hammer. Which works ok. There's still some dust, which I'm sure they lick and inhale. But what are the alternatives?

The closest thing that would work is swheat scoop. But there's two problems with it. 1) People sometimes have worm issues because it is wheat (meal worms, etc). 2) It is wheat, so it can become a bacteria haven.

So what's a caring owner to do? sigh.
THe thought of using yesterday's news (from Purina, basically recycled newspaper) doesn't seem appealing. Gets soggy and icky fast.

Chicken feed sounds interesting.. but isn't the corn in it genetically modified and also contains herbicides and pesticides?