Cat Litter Confusion

I find that, for my uses, feline pine clumping is the best one. If I miss a day scooping, it doesn't seem to matter. It does track some, but I like the way it clumps a lot. My Leo is a five year old male and he's literally obsessive about digging in the litter pan and then burying his waste--and making sure everyone else's is properly buried, as well. He sometimes goes on half-hour burying fits which, with any of the clumping clay litters I've used, has resulted in the clumps being broken up so that I have to just change the entire tray. The feline pine, I find, doesn't break up as badly. Because of that, for my circumstances the feline pine, despite the higher cost per bag, is actually the most cost-effective litter for my babies. All of our cats accept it very well, even the new babies that we just got (we did have a very small tray of clumping clay for the babies when they first came home, but we moved it closer and closer to the feline pine box and then the kitties started using it, without even mixing the litters together).

In the past, the silica crystal style has worked for Leo, my big baby, but a) it wasn't very cost effective and b) I'd rather scoop out ALL the waste regularly. I also had good results with clumping clay and Leo, aside from the previous issue mentioned with him breaking up the clumps. When he was an only cat, the breaking up of the clumps wasn't really much of an issue. With two cats, it became an issue because, without changing the litter completely at least twice a week, I couldn't keep the litter clean enough to keep Leo from going outside the box (he's picky and we basically came down to the choice of paying exorbitant amounts for cat-attract litter and changing it multiple times a week, even with multiple boxes or trying the pine). I also like that the feline pine is flushable and it smells really, really good. It eliminates the odours of cat waste very effectively and releases the scent of fresh sawdust into my flat when we scoop.

With the feline pine, I put in about 3 or slightly more inches because of Leo and his need to dig constantly. For our smaller babies, who are still in quarantine, I only put in about 1 inch, largely to keep it cost effective since we have to switch the litter out regularly to avoid re-infecting with their giardia.

With kittens, though, you very much might want to avoid clumping in case they ingest it, which can lead to blockages. If you have a cat with asthma, you'll need something low-or-no dust. If you have a cat with pica (eats inappropriate things) clumping can also lead to blockages. With a healthy, adult cat, I don't, personally, see a reason not to use clumping.

Overall, I guess I just think that litter is a very individual choice based upon the needs of your animal(s). What works for my cats and my lifestyle and my household might not work for yours and what works for your cats very well might not work for mine because of Leo.

I use chicken feed ( egg layer pellets) .. mixed with about 15% wood pellets for two boxes

the other box has either special kitty or the all natural pet store clay

The odur control with wood seems good but doing some research thanks to a memeber on here I am likely going back to just the feed... it clumps and at 13-15 $ for 50lbs that lasts 4-8 weeks for 2-3 10-18 gallon boxes it is very reasonable

My semi feral s like 2-3 inches ... the domestics do not care but I find 3 inches to work , not too deep and not to shallow

You will find everyone has their own opinions - humans & cats alike!

I use Dr. Esley's Precious Cat Ultra or Arm & Hammer (non-scented multi cat, I believe). Two of my cats will use Feline pine pellets, so I offer them that.

I didn't like Feline Pine scoopable, as it ios so light/dusty - it left my white cats with tan paws! I thought that it left a fine dusting all over everything. I also didn't like A&H double duty, as it smells too scented to me. Fresh Step & ScoopAway IMO are too scented/dusty, too.

So basically what it comes down to is what your cat & you like.

My cats use World's Best Cat Litter (WBCL) and love it.

They adjusted with no problems. It is made of corn and is not dusty. I think the odor control and clumping are comparable to any mainstream litter. i buy it at safeway grocery stores when its onsale for about 6.50$ and buy maybe one bag a month.

My cats are not picky, so the box starts out with 3 or so inches and gets down to about 1 inch befoe i refill it. not sure if its really recomendable, but i hardly ever completly change the litter. it just doesnt need it.

in the past they have use Fresh step which is ok but dusty, and i hated feline pine!

I've tried both pine pellets and World's Best litter and my cats won't touch either of them. They seem to prefer the clay clumping litter that has the texture of coarse sand. I use 4-5 inches in the litter boxes because that works best to keep the clumps of pee from sticking to the bottom. It's suspended in the litter before it ever gets that far.

I can't use litter with perfumes or high dust because I can't breathe with them around. The last couple of years I've stuck with Special Kitty (Walmart brand) and it's working very well for me. I get the kind in the green box. It's very low dust, no scent, excellent odor control for six cats.

I've also used the Tidy Cats Multiple Cats litter, which works almost as well but the kitties don't like it as much.

You may have to try a number of different litters before you find one (or more) that work for you. How many cats do you have? How old are they?

Years ago I bought the old alfalfa-based Litter Green cat litter, which I thought was far and away the best cat litter available then. When they stopped making that I tried both clumping and clay litters, wasn't happy with either, and finally discovered that alfalfa-based rabbit food in pellet form, which looks very much like the old Litter Green, was a good substitute. The clerks at the store where I get this have told me they sell a lot of it for cat litter. I get Manna Pro, which is about $15 for a 50 lb bag, but there are other brands. The chlorophyll in the alfalfa is a good natural deodorizer. The pellets clump enough after they've been wet to make the clumps easy to remove if you tilt the pan (the clumps stick to the bottom), and it's completely flushable since the pellets break up into shreds in water. I can flush feces immediately, and I clean the clumps out every day or two, tilting the pan since they stick to the bottom (I scoop them out, wipe the pan with a damp tissue, and add fresh litter as needed). If I'm flushing a clump of litter, I'll give it a few seconds to dissolve before flushing it. And I leave the bathroom fan on then because breaking the clumps up can bring some of the smell back into the bathroom, but the fan clears out the odor right away when I'm getting rid of the clumps. I don't know if this would be a good idea if you have a septic tank, so I wouldn't recommend it then. But I've never had a plumbing problem result from flushing the used cat litter when I use alfalfa pellets. I'm wary of clumping litters because they can cause health problems. I never liked clay litters, and I don't want to have to add baking soda to cat litter to control odor. It isn't necessary when these alfalfa pellets are used and the clumps removed every day or two.

I'm a loyal follower of the Tidy Cats line, mainly the non-clumping formulas. A little harder to work with, but I find the odor control is better than the clumping types. Tidy Cats has lots of formulas and some are stinkers in my opinion, so I pretty much stick to the original non-clumping (red/yellow label). I also think Scoop Away is pretty darn good and easy to work with because it's clumping. And the kitties don't mind it.

I like scoop away and fresh step clumping (scoop away just a bit more). They smell nice and and the dust isn't that bad to me, my cats always smell nice like powder and is affordable. This last time that the litter ran out, my BF and I did an experiment to see how the BJ's brand was comparable, and omg it is horrible. The litter is dustier, the smell is weird and you can smell the boxes way earlier, even with spreading deodorizer in the pan (and I clean them once a day or every other day at the latest too). We learned that for litter, make sure you get the BEST stuff you can.

The best, most cost effective litter is the one your cat likes - no never mind to what you like!!! Seriously, if a cat hates the litter, you're going to have problems - so don't get too focused on brand and price til you find out what they like.

Some cats adapt to any litter - other cats have very specific likes and dislikes - and that includes how much litter in the box. The general rule of thumb is one box for each cat, plus one - and with more than one, you can experiment a bit on level of litter. You can also get a couple of boxes and a couple of different litters and see if any get more use than the others.

I use Cat Attract because my boy had litter box issues at one point - I highly recommend that litter for any 'problem' cats, and I think the whole Elsey/Precious Cat line is great.

I have to wonder if people are using the same scoop away I tried a little over seven years ago. Unless they drastically changed the scent strength of it, that stuff was horrible and extremely dusty. I have items that were in the same room as Sho's litter box back then that I can still smell the scoop away perfume on.

I can't even tell you how many different kinds and brands of litter I've tried. The way I finally chose what I'm using was to put different kinds in each litter box and see what the kitties used. I'm pretty sure it was unanimous since all of them used only ONE of the four boxes for several days.

I did eliminate several that I couldn't stand before I gave the furkids a choice. Anything with a strong scent (Fresh Step was the worst); anything that was really dusty (mostly the scented ones); anything with poor odor control (regular non-clumping clay and Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat were the worst there, and yes I know a lot of people recommend it).

thankfully my cats don't care either way what is in their box, they are always diligent about using it

My girl apparently has never met a litter box style, or litter, that she won't use...my boy is quite the opposite - very very picky. I went through a number of litters and boxes before we, crossing fingers, found the right stuff.

As long as there is litter in his box Nuts is happy but I have only tried clumping clay. Right now I'm using Tidy Cats, I like the crystal blend or the 24/7. It controls odor better than others I've tried and it clumps well, thus it doesn't break apart as easy and stink because you have nasty pieces of dirty broken litter mixed in with the clean litter.

So for me, it's what I like because Nuts doesn't care, as long as it's there he'll use it. Attitude and Maude were the same, as long as it was there they'd use it.

I also like to make it around 3 in deep so Nuts can dig to China and not have clumps stick to the bottom of the box.

Taryn

Maybe you tried it before they came out with Scoop Away Free. Free as in free of perfumes/dyes