MAXX Litter discontinued in Canada. Need recommendation for replacement litter.

[rubysmama]

I've used Purina MAXX clumping litter ever since adopting Ruby 2 1/2 years ago.  Purina Canada suddenly discontinued the MAXX litter back in the spring.

I am down to my last container of MAXX and need to find a replacement soon.  It needs to be clumping, dust-free, and with odor-control. And available in Canadian stores.  

Any recommendations?

 

[mingking]

What about Precious Cat? It's dust-free and clumping, although I am not sure if it has odour control and I also know it's a little more on the expensive side. 

 

[rubysmama]

Thanks @mingking  - I will check the stores around here to see if they carry Precious Cat. 

 

[pinkdagger]

Ooh, I'm gonna watch this thread. I've been looking for something low dust and clumping too. Like mingking, a lot of people recommend Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat litter, which is a smidgen cheaper on Amazon than at Petsmart. I bought a bag but still have other litter to go through before I open the bag.

Pet Valu has a store brand called Fresh 4 Life and they seem to have two newer products I've never seen before - Odor Destroyer, which claims to be 99% dust-free (and it's currently on sale, but to get the sale price, you need to buy 80lbs of it

) and Eco Clump, which is actually made of grass and claims to be dust-free and clumps well. I would link the products themselves, but their website is conveniently down today.  I've only ever seen one review for the former, and one person who's posted the same shining review on the latter on whichever "dust-free litter recommendation" threads they can find. If I can get to the store before the sale ends, I might take the plunge and try buying both?

edit; Canadian website is down, US website is fine??

 

[pinkdagger]

Sorry for the double post, but I just dumped and cleaned the cat box and am transitioning to add Precious Cat to Kismet's box. Maybe I just got a bad batch, but that's bad news when a batch is 40lbs. I found it to be 75% as dusty as a cheap Canadian Tire litter, Purrfect Start ($8.99/40lb) or Fresh Start ($7.79/33lb) which I find unacceptable for the price paid, even if it clumps like mad (which I can't verify yet - box is still fresh). I understand it's impossible to expect 100% dust-free, much less from clay, but this was much more dust than I expected given the rave reviews. One of the rooms that has a box is carpeted and is my bedroom, and also where Kismet spends most of her time so this is not cool by me.

Since it's summer, I can sit outside and do this with my litter in hopes of decreasing the amount of dust left to kick about indoors, but come winter, this won't be practical. The time I spent outside in the garage and on my driveway just sifting cat litter must have made the neighbours think I was pretty simple minded:



(Sorry about this one, I didn't realize my hair was whipping around the camera.. but you can even see the dust as I'm lifting the cup out of the bag!)

 

[rubysmama]

Well that's discouraging, @pinkdagger   I'm so depressed that Purina discontinued the MAXX scoop litter. That's all I've ever used, and I loved it.  I've started the last containers, so need to buy something else soon, so I can transition the new stuff slowly.  Still don't know what to buy. 

 

[pinkdagger]

I bought two bags of Fresh 4 Life Odor Destroyer and a small bag of Fresh 4 Life Eco Clump. If I can find bins to transfer them to this week, I'll let you know how dusty I find them. Unfortunately if I can't find any more bins, it might have to wait a few weeks until I empty out another Maxx scoop bin... Go figure, I went the day after the sale ended and bought 2 bags anyway. I didn't check the receipt till after I got home, but by that time, I realized I wasn't lugging 40lbs of litter back to the store after work.

 

[pinkdagger]

Opened up the Fresh 4 Life Odor Destroyer and also got about the same level of dust.


This is wasting a lot of time and money. :\ I haven't opened the Fresh 4 Life grass litter because I want that to be in a sealable container for sure while it's being stored in the garage. I can't imagine it being too dusty, but it's also absurdly expensive, which is also how I feel about World's Best Cat Litter (and I did find some dust with that one too, albeit not as much).

Have you tried other non-clay alternatives like World's Best or Blue's walnut-based litter?

 

[rubysmama]

I was up to Petsmart today and they had a sign saying if you were looking for MAXX Scoop to try their own brand - Grreat Choice, so I bought a container.of the Long Lasting Multi Cat Unscented. (7 kg for $6.99)

http://www.petsmart.ca/cat/litter/g...-catid-200093?var_id=36-32453&_t=pfm=category

Since I still have a lot of the MAXX Scoop, I just added some of the Grreat Choice to the litter box. It seemed a bit dustier than the MAXX, but once I mixed it all together it blended in well. As I rarely dump all the litter and start fresh (I just add new litter as it gets low) it will be a long time before I can do a true test with just the new stuff.  But for now, it seems like it will be ok. 

I appreciate all your findings @pinkdagger  and will be curious to learn which one you end up liking the best.

Any other Canadians reading this thread, please jump in and let us know which litter you use.