What's the best natural kitty litter?

[patti-cake]

Hi all!

We will be brand spankin' new kitty parents to an 8 week ol' ball of energy. We want to do everything right, including getting the right kitty litter. We'd like to find something that is eco-friendly but also might help cut down on odors and easy to clean. Inexpensive would be a good goal too, but if it's a "get what you pay for" scenario we vote quality over economic.

So, what litter is the best? I've heard certain kinds can harbor bad buggies, other kinds can contribute to allergies and so forth.

 

[sharky]

For non clumpable = wood pellets they are about 3.50 for 40-50 lbs... control oder well

For clumable= worlds best but a 17 lb bag is 16-24 bucks

 

[purr]

I think they all have their pros & cons, so it's hard to get the "perfect" litter. At least it is for me. Of all the eco-friendly, flushable, natural litters, I like Swheat Scoop for it's odor-control, but it is too dusty and the clumps are sticky. I like World's Best for it's better clumps, but it stinks (albeit when I tried it, it was before they had the "multi-cat" formula, so that could be better, but I only had one cat...). Out of the non-flushable, I like Feline Pine but it's hard and not litter-ish enough. I've yet to find and try the Feline Pine Scoopable, though. If it clumps well, I think it'll be my favorite.

 

[jen]

For that young of a cat I think you should stick with non-clumpable for awhile. I really really like the Feline Pine. It smells good and, I mean, unless you let the box sit for an extremely looong time, it never really smells unless the cat JUST pooped in it. It is great. They make a similar one called Yesterdays News made with newspaper pellets instead of pine, but I always thought that smelled like a cow barn or something. I just flashback to when I had a job mucking out horse stalls and that is exactly what the smell reminds me of!

Anyways, you will want to use a non-clumping for a few months anyway so I recommend one of these. After that if you WANT to switch to a clumping litter or if your kitty isn't happy with Feline Pine, then I would go with Arm and Hammer. I never thought about it until recently but baking soda is used to kill odor for your fridge and otehr places so obviously it would be a good ingredient to put in a litterbox. I really like that kind.

 

[wellingtoncats]

The best natural kitty litter is definitly a recycled paper brand.

 

[jen]

Would a recycled paper brand be something like Yesterday's News? Because like I said, we use that at my shelter for each individual cat and it is dumped out every single day and man does that smell like a dirty barn! That is the only thing I can relate it too. It doesn't do much for absorbing the odor.