Cat Litter, whats best???

I use chicken feed which is close to mixing swheet scoop and world s best ... work for my four cats well in two of the boxes ... the other box has special kitty clay clumping... Cant complain it is have the price of the other yet seems to work well...

It depends on your cats. Some cats won't use certain litters or litter box systems.

I'm another that uses chicken feed as I have a cat that cannot be around any clay dust. It works fairly well and is cheap, but many don't like the grainy smell (swheat and WBCL have that same issue). I prefer it to anything perfumed as the makes the humans in the house sick.

What have you tried so far that definitely doesn't work for you or the cats?

What is best is what works for you and the cats.

We use the wood stove pellets for litter and like that more then regular litter or even the scoopable litter. Have been using it now for more then 3 yrs. And its darn cheap too - $5 for 40 lb bag!

For me, hands Down Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra... Great clumping, great odor control, never had a problem with it... It rocks!

Chicken feed? Where do it get it. Sounds like a great solutions. I too have struggled with what clumps best and what's best for the cats.

I have 4 cats all using scoop away clumping litter. Works wonder in my opinion. My room doesn't smell and i can easily scoop out their urine balls lol. That's the only one they seem to like.

A feed store .. ie a store that sells horse, cow or pig feed

Wood pellets here too, very economical, lasts a long time, easy to clean, no dust, and no odour.

I won't use clumping or crystal litter.

I think it might be a matter of preference. To some people good value (price) is important. To others, odor control, regardless of price is the most important factor.

For me, convenience and odor control were the two most important. So, scoopable clay-based kind worked best for me. Easy to keep clean, and no smell. But not the cheapest.

Whatever works for both you and the kitties is the best. . .it takes some experimenting. Right now my current favorite is Tidy Cats for Small Spaces. It has a nice minty-citrus scent I like. Also Special Kitty clumping with Orange Magic (in the orange box). I don't like floral or perfume-y scents. And every time I've tried natural-type litters, my asthma kicks up. I think I'm allergic to that stuff. Or the litter didn't have any odor control and I couldn't stand it. So clumping clay is the best for us.

I've now switched most of my boxes to safflower seed and only one is still chicken feed in order to get rid of possible respiratory irritates in my home. There's no odor control from the seeds but so far the cats only urinate in them. With the way its set up the urine gets dumped a couple times a day causing no urine smell in the house at all. Plus I'm not making any sort of trash with it.

Commercial versions of this set up would be the smart cat box and tidy cat breeze if anyone wants a completely dust free option.

I won't use wood pellets in my house because abietic acid is a serious respiratory irritant - just as bad, if not worse than silica in clay.

Is that in aspen pellets (sold for horse stalls and small animals), or just in stove pellets? Because I tried the aspen pellets and they were the worst yet. I thought maybe I was allergic to aspen. . .but if they have abietic acid that would explain it.

Aspen is considered "safe" to use around animals. But other types of pellets will reuse sawdust from other woods, too.

And it's certainly possible that you're allergic. There are other resins in it that show some signs of toxicity. Does pine or cedar bother you? My DH and his father are very allergic to cedar, even cutting or chipping up just the wood makes them ill.

I use Arm & Hammer Multi Cat Extra Strength Clumping Litter for Kojak & Isabella's boxes (It is my favorite litter! Easy to use, low dust, coupons are easy to find, and it is amazing on litter box odors!). I use a different litter for my elderly kitty Velvet though because she can be forgetful at times (if you know what I mean)! For her, I use Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Litter (Odor Control)- for reference, it gets Velvet into her litter pan and she uses it which is wonderful! (She's been having some issues as she's gotten older) It is NOT good on odors though (even their multi-cat formula isn't good on odor control!); you have to scoop daily if not multiple times a day with it and I still add baking soda to the littler pan as well as air freshners to the room because of that one litter pan (the other two stay odor- free with the Arm & Hammer multi cat litter)!

I like both of those litters for differnt reasons (the first for odor control and that it clumps well which makes clean up a breeze....the second one because it gets my older kitty to use her litter pan!). I scoop all 3 litter boxes daily.

-When I have foster kittens, I use normally use Nature's Miracle or Swheet Scoop litter for safety reasons. (swheet scoop is my prefered of the two) Neithor are the best on odor control, but I like the fact that if my foster babies try to ingest the litter, it won't harm them since it's mainly corn cob (For reference, I've tried regular chicken feed, but it isn't as good as the Swheet Scoop / Natures Miracle in my book, so I stick to that for my foster babies!) Chicken Feed is hard to come by since I live in a large city; the last bag I bought from a Tractor Supply store when I was visitng my oldest sister wound up having bugs in it, so I tossed it out. I'm a little leary of buying regular chicken feed after that (and it's not convient to drive soo far each time I need it), so I stick to what I can find on sale in the pet stores/etc and brands I trust.


As far as the WORST cat litters in my opinion go: Yesterday's News (pellet) takes the cake and not in a good way! It's a nightmare to attempt to scoop, and it has 0 odor control! In second place I'd put Feline Pine- it made me have an asthma attack because of the aweful smell (before my cats ever had a chance to use the littler pan!). In third place I would put Origional Fresh Step clay litter - hello high dust levels and crummy odor control!

I have almost all the boxes with Dr elseys litter(senior or long haired) LOVE it-scooping is very easy as the litter sifts right through and so light.
A few boxes with carefresh small pet bedding. Good odor control but a bit messy as cats some out with the paper and play(yeah) with it. I love it cause with the amount of litter I use it makes garbage day easier with the carefresh and even dr elseys is only 8lbs a bag plus kitty "interest"

Tried a few, and I find Swheat Scoop Multicat Formula (available at Petsmart in the 40lb bags with the green label) is my favorite.

The litter itself smells like wheat, as one would imagine, which is not as strong an odor as others like WBCL, and it has the best odor control I've tried so far.

Its low dust, safe even for kittens (and even recent declaws), and can be flushed down the toilet which is not only great for the environment that its biodegradable but convenient too.

I've converted from using clay litter and the best I have to say is Nature's Miracle Odor Control Clumping Cat Litter and SWheat Scoop. I can't say anything really on their odor control alone because I also use Arm & Hammer's Deodorizer so that helps a lot but as far as clumping and such, it's awesome.

^Don't overuse the baking soda. A little goes a long way, too much can cause burns on their feet and some health issues. Plus anything perfumed is bad. If you have to keep dumping that stuff in your litter may not be working for your cat as well as you hoped.


I'm now several days into using the safflower seeds and am a bit mystified by something. How can the safflower seeds that have zero odor control result in a litter box with no odor - even when one of them poops in it. Does draining the urine away really make that much of a difference in poop smells?

we use tidy cat scoopable. I use the one with a blue lid and has blue on the wrapper. My husband accidentally bought the package with a red lid and red on package tonight. I will see if that works as good. We like tidy cat, seems to clump and scoop good. It doesn't cause any odor, our home smells good even when she poops.

I use Tidy Cat as well... no issues, no smells. Clumps well. Can't complain.

I use Feline Pine, and I love the smell of pine, and I'm not allergic to it. So, assuming one is not allergic, or averse to the smell, what's wrong with it? As long as litter is the topic of this thread, I'm posing the question to the others, since no one even mentioned it. Opinions on Feline Pine please?

See my other posts in this thread : abietic acid is what is wrong with it. You run the risk of causing some lung damage with long term use of it.

Abietic Acid is not a "serious irritant"; it is a very mild skin or respiratory irritant IN IT'S PURE FORM. Wood pellots (particularly conifers) contain it in the resin only. Let's not get carried away here! Of course, if YOU are allergic to wood pellots, then end of story.

I use solely tractor supply brand clumping-paws and claws I think it the name. I believe is $5.99 for 25 lb bag. They will often run a sale as well. It's low dust and clumps great.

Leslie

Then why not go all the way and use the cedar cat litter they make? You could say the same thing about it to make it sound safe.

Simply put, once you have a cat with severe lung problems you start taking this stuff more seriously.

I don't know anything about "Cedar" cat litter. They don't sell it where I am. Besides, we were talking about Feline Pine.