Types of Cat Litter

Hi everyone - Sorry I haven't posted in a while - busy, busy. (I have been visiting everyday and keeping up with all the posts.) I have a question about cat litter. I currently have one cat, Muffy, who is pregnant (long story, please don't ask, and yes, she's getting spayed in August), and I'm not really satisfied with my cat litter. Right now, I'm using Tidy Cat Scoop, but I'm not too impressed with the odor control, and it tracks everywhere. I've tried a number of the clumping litters. Thankfully, Muffy is so laid back she doesn't even seem to notice all these changes. Also, since Muffy is having babies, I have to find a litter that is safe for babies, and I've read that these clumping litters are not safe.

I was browsing at Petsmart yesterday, and they had a couple of cat litter types that I haven't tried. I was wondering if I could get your opinion on these. I'm especially interested in a cat litter that is safe for new kittens and still scoops and has odor control (if this is all possible in one litter). The two types are cedar pellets and scoopable wheat litter. The wheat litter says it's scoopable and flushable and has odor control. Is this true? The cedar pellets seemed big to me; do cats actually like this? I'm still thinking about trying Nature's Best Cat litter, but didn't see it at this store. I'll have to shop around...

Thanks for your opinions!
Dawn

Yes, clumping is bad for wee ones. They tend to stick thier faces in it. As for the odor control. The pellets and natural litters work well for pee but do nothing for the poop. They dont track very much though. I did not like the smell of wood and poop, so I just went with the arm and hammer clay litter.

Here's my 2 cents. I use Feline Pine and find that it's the best I've ever used. Actually, we use it at our cat shows. My babies and many others use it exclusive and it's the only one that I know of that won't scratch a kitten's eye if it gets in there. Hope this helps.

Frannie

Until the kittens are gone or are older I agree with the Feline Pine, except we use Petsmart's version which has proved to be just as good as the name brand and a few dollars cheaper per bag. If you get down to just one cat again you might want to try the crystals. They work as well as they are advertised and there is no tracking or dust; just too darn expensive for multiple cats!

Pete

Thing with crystal litter: there IS dust and it does track, just not as much as with standard clay litter. And it says one box one cat one month, but they must have used small cats in the trial. My Satey needs 2 boxes, and one month is a stretch.

Here is my two cents as well. I use feline pine and I have 4 cats and am fostering one. You get a pretty big bag and the good thing is that you only need about an inch in the bottom of the pan. I have three litter boxes and believe me, the smell is cut down tremendously, especially if you add in some of the Arm and Hammer Litter box deoderizer. You put an inch in each litter box (enough for them to scratch around in) and then you scoop the poop every day. You can flush it or trash it. You only change the whole litter box when the whole thing turns to sawdust. Then you start over again. It is all biodegradable so I have seen people even dump it on their flower beds. It took my cats a bit to get used to it but I love it. Besides my 5 cats, I volunteer at a cat sanctuary that houses over 100 cats. It has really cut down on the smell. Good luck!

The drawback to dumping the litter in the flower beds would be the ammonia from the urine. I guess if you spread it around in different beds each time it would be all right but constant dumping in the same area would cause problems. As for flushing the pine, that may be fine for those of you on city sewage but with a septic tank we don't do that.
The crystals we used were virtually dust free but you were of the same opinion as we about the one box, one cat, one month deal. Ours didn't make it either and it was just too expensive for multiple cats.

Pete

I'm sorry. I am in the city so flushing has never caused any problems. I agree about the litter pearls. I love them but it turned out they were way to expensive for my 5 cats. Also, I have hard wood floors and stepping on a bead now barefoot, is not pleasant!

Originally posted by Ttapestry1
I'm sorry. I am in the city so flushing has never caused any problems. I agree about the litter pearls. I love them but it turned out they were way to expensive for my 5 cats. Also, I have hard wood floors and stepping on a bead now barefoot, is not pleasant!

Click to expand...

I agree about the barefoot part, too. It is also an excellent method of finding the lone excretion that "missed" the litterbox! VBG
Pete

This is a good topic, in all my years of owning cats, I have never found a satisfactory cat litter.
I will look for the feline pine & give that a try

I'm trying a different approach. I have been using a mix of scoopable and Fresh Step. This weekend I emptied all the boxes and put the usual stuff in three of them. The other three (I have 7 cats) I put in "Love My Kitty" which is the same as Feline Pine. I want to see if I can totally switch over to the LMK because it's easier than scooping 6 boxes every day. The last time I did ALL my boxes in LMK and my cat Casey peed in my bed. Turns out he had a UTI. I had also changed his food (Science Diet) to a cheaper brand to save money. That's what caused the UTI. They're now on S.D. again. I thought it might be because of the litter. So we're gonna give it one more try and see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed.

Well, I've tried the wheat litter, still mixing it with the existing litter. It's pretty good so far, but I haven't used it straight. I'm going to do that this week. If I don't like it, I'll try the pine stuff. I just thought Muffy would have an easier time with the wheat since it feels similar to her old stuff. The pine is really different. The wheat seems to clump ok, but the odor control still isn't great. I'll let you know...

Dawn

great topic - i never can figure out what the best kind of litter to
use is... i've tried a couple but the ones that seem to work best are
so incredibly expensive for just a little amount