The quest to find the perfect litter - Yesterdays News?

This is what I want from litter:

Dust free
Clumpable
Excellent odor control
And of course something the kitties like

Fresh Step was good at everything except for dust - DH and I would be sneezing and coughing from changing and scooping the litter. I hate to think how much the kitties ingested from using it. They seemed to like using it though.

Feline Pine smelt horrible once it had been used

Swheat Scoop also smelt horrible, and the kitties tracked everywhere

Worlds Best Cat Litter we find has a yucky smell if the house has been closed up for a few hours. The cats don't like it either - they took a while to get used to it, and they never cover anything up - I assume because they hate scratching in it. Little Smudge also constantly has white paws up to her "ankles" from the dust when she gets out - I think she sinks into it when she's in there.

I'm thinking about trying Yesterday's News next. It looks clumpable, dust free and apparently has good odor control. Anyone got opinions on it?

The litter trays are in our living room (only place for them), so odor control is REALLY important. Both odor of the litter itself and keeping the pee smell in. And I guess also whether the kitties like it because if they don't, they won't cover it, and therefore more smell.

Ooh or another option - Dr Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra Scoopable litter - the same people who make Cat Attract.

It's not clumpable. No odor. Fun to play with if you're PJ or Punky. I've got the Feline Pine scoops & it was low maitenance. Not much for odor coverage, but IMO odor was less of an issue with YN than with clay litters. Covers odor better than WBCL!

I use Dr. Elsey precious cat ultra. As far as my cats are concern, it's da bomb! They love that stuff so much other litter won't do. I tried switching to a more earth friendly litter, but my cats won't hear of it. They peed on the floor when I tried WBCL. Dr. Elsey is dust free and clumps really well. Other than being clay, it's perfect

YN isn't clumpable, it turns to dust when in contact with liquid....

Don't worry, white cat lover, PJ and Punky aren't the only ones who play with it... so did Hennessy and the dog.

What Forensic said, but with more detail...

I've just recently started using Yesterday's News, specifically to cut down on dust. The pellets do disintegrate when they get wet. So, either you scoop out the "urine areas" before they dry, or you've got a bunch of pieces of disintegrated pellets. But the pieces stay on the bottom of the litter box or they sift through the pellets to the bottom, and they are large enough that they don't get very airborne. When the cats are kicking around, no dust is flying. Also, my asthmatic cat doesn't roll in Yesterday's News like she rolled in fine clay litter (it doesn't feel like dirt to roll in, I guess), so I'm sticking with YN at the moment. In otherwords, it's "dusty", but the dust doesn't seem to act like dust in the important sense of getting into the air the cats are breathing (you can manage to get some airborne when you change the litter).

My cats also played with it, but now, about a month and a half after I started to switch the litter, they've completely stopped playing with it.

It does "track" (or get kicked or maybe they just play with it when I'm not looking) out of the litter box, but it doesn't go nearly as far, and is much easier to sweep up than conventional clumping clay litter). It's less gritty but much more lumpy to step on when it's been tracked out of the box.

Here's the thread I made when I started the switch.

But, yeah, as everyone has said it's emphatically not clumping.

Originally Posted by sarahp

Ooh or another option - Dr Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra Scoopable litter - the same people who make Cat Attract.

Click to expand...

Well, you know how much Steve likes Cat Attract. And he covers everything up, too! So I'm still using that one for now.

I've used Worlds Best, but with everyone else's rave reviews, it didn't go well over here. When we brought Gigi and Steve home, our whole upstairs smelled like a litter box. It was horrible. It didn't do anything for odour control and the yellow dust prints were everywhere. I even bought 4 different bags with 3 different cats. First tried it with Nakita and then with Steve/Gigi - Steve wouldn't cover anything up when he used it.

I used Swheat Scoop in the past, but didn't like the sticky texture of the 'pee balls', a little hard to scoop.

I haven't tried Dr Elsey's Precious yet, but the Cat Attract is excellent in odour control. There is some dust, not sure how much compared with other clay litters. I'm still looking for the perfect litter as well, and am still searching for a non-clay alternative because of the silica dust.

I didn't think that Dr. Elsey's anything clumps as good as say the arm and hammer....but the dust is better with dr. e.

I'm sticking with arm and hammer - the other stuff just doesn't clump as good and they don't like the texture -

now if there was a superior odor control and clumping clay litter with dust free - I'd be there.

I would give a thumbs down for yesterdays news. When I used it for some fostered kittens it was probably the worst smelling stuff I have ever experienced.

Dr Esleys Precious cat is pretty good though...was using it at one point and would still be using it if I liked clay enough to do so. found it could use some odor control too though...baking soda seemed to do the trick nicely.

i too, am on this endless quest!

i need something that's got as little tracking as possible (hardwood floors really really make it show!) and as little dust as possible (it makes me and the cats wheeze, cough and sneeze.)

my favorite in terms of odor and actual functionality has been world's best lavender. however.... it's the WORST for dust, just awful. when i switched from it to something else my asthma dropped immediately. 

however, everything i've tried since has been just as bad for tracking or just not really worked. 

i'm thinking of trying yesterdays news but the idea of wet newspaper mush just kind of sitting there doesn't really appeal - i'm not always home all day so i don't know how that would work in terms of odor.

in terms of clay stuff, i've tried precious cat (way too much tracking,) and tidy cat (ditto,) and boxiecat (marginally less)

i've also tried the blue buffalo walnut stuff which actually did a great job and had almost no dust but tracked like a monster.

my cats loathe and despise pine and refuse to go anywhere near it.

i've recently heard about bamboo litter - any thoughts?

or any other suggestions? 

Fresh Step Unscented.

Atticus and Thirteen and I love it.

Check it out here.

nice graphic! and definitely all the things to consider. so i guess going through them...

i don't mind about flushable

clumping/scoopable i'm relatively flexible on 

economical... well it'd be nice but again, flexible 

eco-friendly, definitely nice but probably something of a pipe dream. 

odor control is important, and i have 2 cats but it seems that everything i've tried so far has been able to cope with both of those so i'm good on those scores. 

dust and track free, however.... those are my biggest issues, because of aforementioned allergy problems. sadly, i have several trapping mats, and none of them seem to make the blindest bit of difference. so.... back to the drawing board i suppose. 

LavishSqualor said:

 
Fresh Step Unscented.

Atticus and Thirteen and I love it.

Check it out here.

Click to expand...

i've tried this one and it just didn't work out - thanks for the tip tho