Cat Litter

[lute]

Now I'm freaking out about cat litter. What is a good kind? I'm using my hamster bedding right now until we can get to the pet store. What is a good cat litter? Are there dangerous cat litters? What is best to reduce smell in a small area? I clean the litterbox several times a day. What is the best for not tracking it around? I've never had an inside only cat before.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I've tried pretty much everything under the sun. I'm very sensitive to the scented litters and so are my cats so I have to use unscented litters. I've also found that the clumping litters are best because they remove all of urine. I've been using Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Clumping Litter for several years now and it clumps very hard and is pretty good with odor control too. You can buy it at Petsmart. Since my cats eat a high protein diet they do make very stinky stools so when it's fresh it does smell a bit so I always keep some Oust on hand to help clean the air. I also scoop 2 times a day.

Many people here love Fresh Step or Arm & Hammer. Yes, they clump well but they are just too heavily scented for my nose and my cat Sky is also very sensitive to this too. Just try a brand and see what works for you. Do you know what kind of litter your cat was using before? Good luck.

[aTailOf2Kitties]

I use Tidy Cats. It's the least dusty that I've found. There are several varieties for different levels of odor control. I'm sure others here use some of the more eco-friendly type litters like Yesterday's News or the pine pellet kind.

I haven't had any luck with keeping them from tracking any brand of litter though. I've put mats and such in front of the boxes, but they just jump over them.

[moosmom]

I've been using Feline Pine for years and love it. I have 5 cats and 3 LARGE, LONG Rubbermaid bins, instead of litterboxes. Much more cost effective and there's no silica dust that can affect my cats respiratory system. I've tried every single cat litter on the market and have always gone back to FP.

[Freedom]

I use Tidy Cats. Target will have the 35 lb box on sale every 6 weeks or so. Way back when, my first kitty, Mr. Amber Cat, refused to use anything BUT Tidy Cats, and even though he's been gone 8 years I still stick with it.

[Craftlady]

I've used Fresh Step, Cats Pride and Special Kitty.

Special Kitty is my go to choice. Less dusty then all rest and comes in pretty good size boxes, price is good. It tracks but just couple steps from the litter box itself, which I can deal.

[Freedom]

Oh BTW, one kitty, one box, you should be able to scoop once every 24 hours with no problems for either smell or cleanliness for the cat.

Once you have her on a good food, she will have less "waste," too.

[Freedom]

Hmm, Special Kitty is a clay litter, not a scoopable one? Not sure I would like that.

[mrspunkysmom]

I've been using Feline Pine for years and love it. I have 5 cats and 3 LARGE, LONG Rubbermaid bins, instead of litterboxes. Much more cost effective and there's no silica dust that can affect my cats respiratory system. I've tried every single cat litter on the market and have always gone back to FP.

Same here. for Feline Pine. As I am gone all day, the scoopable litter is not an option. Spunky also pees in a corner of box, so the clumps adhere to the plastic. Feline Pine is the way to go.

I have 4 litter boxes, 2 are very large, 1 with high back and one large box.

[catmandu]

We are using Green Kitty which was on at the Food Basics at 15.4 pounds for two dollars.
It is 70 percent more bio degrable and we like that and it is a good litter too, and thatwas a great price. Sad to say it was a one time deal and I am not sure where I can find any more.

[lute]

Thanks for all the great options. I'm really leaning toward the feline pine and clumping litters. I think her previous owner said she was using just clay litter. I was on catchannel.com last night and was reading that clay litters were bad for their respitory system. That's what got me all freaked out about the litter. I've always had primarily outside cats that would come in to visit sometimes. They hardly had to use a litter box. I never thought much of "what" the litter was made of.

I almost always have the box clean as soon as she gets done as my fiance and I have a very small place and her "gifts" smell up the place quite quickly. I'd like a flushable litter since her box is right by the toilet and i just scoop it drop it in the toilet and im done cleaning.

[moosmom]

I switched to FP when my RB Mollie Rose was diagnosed with kitty asthma, kitty allergies. It helped alot.

Because my living space is so limited, it's alot easier than 1 litterbox per cat. 3 large bins equals 1 box per cat.

[luckies4me]

If you want clumping litter my recommendation to you would be either Swheat Scoop or World's Best. These are natural, green cat litters. You can also flush them down the toilet which makes scooping litter simple if your pan is located in the bathroom. Swheat Scoop smells just like bread when your cats pee, since it's made out of wheat. Feline Pine also makes a scoopable formula as well which works very nice. All of these are a lot better on our environment than other litters as they are naturally biodegradable and don't harm our environment. They also form very solid waste nuggets that are easily scooped out of the box. They don't crumble etc.

[lute]

A litter that smells like bread...that's awesome! Now they need to make a litter that smells like fresh baked cookies when they poo.

[cassiesmom]

I like Tidy Cats clay. I don't like the supermarket generic-- too dusty. I'd use Feline Pine or Yesterday's News regularly if I could afford it.