Confused about kitty litter

HI there! Congrats on adopting! I'm looking forward to seeing pics of your new baby!! This is a great forum for sharing all your cat stories with!

Personally I swear by Scoop Away, amazing odor control and clumps great. But I have usually more then 6 cats in the house, so I need some serious odor control But you CAN'T flush it.

I know a lot of people on here use and swear by World's Best Cat Litter. It clumps well and is flushable and long lasting from the great things I hear about it.

Please if you have any questions regarding your new girl, don't hesitate to ask!

Everyone has their favourites (so do the cats!). Narrow it down - clumping or non-clumping? There are advantages both ways. Many cats don't like clumping, but you can more easily get rid of everything. Perfumed or not? Clay or crystal? I find the crystal ones better for odour control but they are more expensive. Organic or not? Try some small bags of different sorts before you stick with one and also try different box liners (or none) till you find what you and your cat are happiest with. You will soon know - if your cat starts peeing outside the box sometimes it is because s/he doesn't like the litter or it is not clean enough for fussy tastes. And some cats who dig deeply may let lighter kinds of litter or dust fly all over the room.

I find clumping litter to be best. Easy to use to scoop up and finish the job quickly.
Also, make sure to keep the box in one place and try not to move it to diffrent spots, they could get confused.
Good luck on your new baby and dont hesitate to ask anything. Everyone here is great with giving advice.

Young kittens tend to eat litter. I prefer natural ones. Swheat scoop, World's Best, etc. Many kitties do not adjust to the large pellet litters like Yesterday's news & Feline Pine easily.

Clumping clay litter is great....but kitetns always eat it. I try to keep them on clumping natural litters until at least 12 weeks when I foster.

I've never had a problem with a kitten eating litter, but I imagine all cats ingest a certain amount of it, just as they would dirt outdoors.

A little point of trivia, something I know as a truck driver. Virtually all clay cat litter is produced by one company, Oil Dri. It started out as an unintended use of their oil absorbent, used in garages, gas stations, truck stops, stuff like that. They bag up a lot of different brands. I've been to their factories and carried out as many as five or six different brands on my truck.

What...you thought Tidy Cat and all the rest actually mined and processed this stuff themselves?

I have found that a grocery store brand, Giant Eagle, which is in the eastern part of US, seems to be the best I've used. It clumps, doesn't crumble, is almost dust free and a good price. I've tried all of them and this one is ok for my kitties.

I believe this is true of freezers as well. One company makes all the internal parts and just adds the different brand names on the outer casings.

My thoughts on the ones I have tried:

Crystal Litter (any/all brands): This would be ok for 1 cat if you can afford it. With 2 cats, the scent was too much (even with regular/daily stirring) and it would have been too expensive. The crystals absorb urine so you are only scooping out solid waste. I tried the Tidy Cats crystals and Dr. Elsey's crystal litter (Precious Cat I think is the name, it's marketed for long-haired cats). Out of those 2, I prefer the Precious Cat. Crystal cat litters are not very heavy. I like the way that crystals look in a litter box if you have an open box (I guess that's kind of a silly reason to use it though).

Clumping Clay Litters: These are nice because they are inexpensive and you can easily scoop out urine clumps and solid waste. The only reason I don't use them is because most are very dusty! I hated pouring litter in to the box. I tried a few brands: Arm & Hammer Super Clumping, PetCo Store Brand, & I think the Safeway store brand. Out of those, the A&H clumped the best by far. I liked the PetCo brand a lot because you can re-fill the jugs and you don't have to keep adding plastic jugs to the landfill. If you want clay, go with unscented. If I went back to clay litter, I would probably use the PetCo stuff.

Nature's Miracle Cat Litter: loved this EXCEPT I had serious tracking issues with it. It has a pleasant scent, it clumps well, and no dust. Also very light.

World's Best Cat Litter: this is what I use. It's like Nature's Miracle sort of and it's made from corn. It has a pleasant scent and no dust. Plus I like that it's light, because it's not such a pain to haul in from the car. Expensive but worth it.

Article about natural cat litters:
http://cats.about.com/od/accessories...miumlitter.htm

Article about controversy over clumping clay litter:
http://cats.about.com/cs/litterbox/a/clumpingclay.htm

My suggestion would be ask the shelter what they're using right now, and get a bag of that, at least to start. At least that will be one less change for your baby to deal with when she goes home (same for food actually) - you can gradually change out both as you go along.

And, if for any reason there's a problem with her using the litter box, try the kitten attract litter from Petsmart. It's Dr. Elsey again, maker of Cat Attract. Honestly, I know from experience that Cat Attract works, and I'd give the kitten formula a shot if my kitten had any qualms about a litter box.

And, congratulations on your adoption!!!

I just use clumping clay litter. Whatever is cheapest..it all works the same to me and Trout doesn't notice a difference.