What Is The Best Cat Litter?

Rosepud

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I've been looking at cat litters and read a series of threads on here about which ones people like. I am interested in swheatscoop but am afraid of the bug factor. I am interested in okocat but saw it may be dusty? Weruva has cat litter now too has anyone tried it? I read a lot of people like the grass seed, but I'm very allergic to grass so not my best bet. I just want something that isn't dusty and doesn't track terribly, clumping is a must though no crystals. Preferably environementally friendly. I feel like in the world of cat litter this is far too much to ask....
 

Furballsmom

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Hi!
I am using a mixture of clumping litter and littermaid's walnut, which gives me the clumping while being quite a lot less dusty.

You could try something like that :)
 

shadowsrescue

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I really liked World's Best Cat litter. The corn scent I didn't mind and it was easy to clean. Yet my cats hated it.

I use Dr. Elsey's Precious multi cat litter. It's not very dusty and clumps and reduces odors well.
 

Cat Grrl

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I settled on World’s Best Cat Litter, clumping. Expensive, though. The clay litters I tried caused a lot of dust. The corn does not seem to be as dusty, however, there is still some dust. The kitty tolerates it. That is the main thing.
 

RainBoots

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I really liked World's Best Cat litter. The corn scent I didn't mind and it was easy to clean. Yet my cats hated it.

I use Dr. Elsey's Precious multi cat litter. It's not very dusty and clumps and reduces odors well.
We do a mix of these two; Dr. Elsey multicat has gotten dustier than it was but it clumps and deodorizes better than most. Worlds Best is fabulous but expensive!
 

1 bruce 1

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We have two colonies under one roof. One uses wood pellets (not ideal because it doesn't clump and some cats don't like the feel of them in their paws, but these cats don't mind. The good news is it's inexpensive, the bad news is you have to dump and refill the boxes about every other day because the urine doesn't clump, and the ammonia smell can take hold quick if you have more than one cat.)
The other colony is using chick feed starter. It clumps pretty well and is cheaper than a lot of litters out there. We add baking soda because when we re-fill boxes, they like to take a taste (it won't hurt them, but the toilet isn't a buffet :lol:) and the baking soda stops this.
It all boils down to what your cats prefer. We used Swheat scoop for awhile. We loved it, but our asthmatic cat had other ideas, it really bothered him as did the corn litter which is why he is back on the pellets.
If you can, get a few of the smallest bags of litter and some cheap litter trays (Some are disposable), and fill up the trays with different types of litter and leave them out and see what they seem to use the most.
Our asthmatic cat also has IBD. When he was having some bowel problems he wasn't using the litter box, so we separated him from the others, with a few boxes with a few different types of litter and left him there overnight. The next morning, he had used one box, and the others had paw prints but no deposits. That's how we found out he prefers pellets to clumping litter.
Sometimes this is the best way to determine what their preference is :wave3:
 
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Rosepud

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I seriously considered worlds best, but I have a mild corn allergy, and just wasn't up for it. I currently use Dr. Elsey's but it tracks everywhere, I use the ultra. I have a litter robot so pellets are out of the question unfortunately. I've been intrigued by okocat, as it is supposed to be good. Cost isn't a huge issue as I only have one cat so as long as litter is less than $40 a month I'm good with it.:flail:
Honestly I bought a roomba recently which seems to be the easiest solution to tracking litter....
 

Tobermory

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I've been intrigued by okocat
I’m currently using Smart Cat clumping grass litter, but I’ve used Okocat (the super soft with the red coloring on the box) and like it. I’ve also mixed the two which works as well. In fact, I bought some a couple of months ago because it was on sale. I have four litter boxes so I just incorporated it into the existing Smart Cat. The boxes were still 90% Smart Cat.

They’re both very lightweight so my two long-haired cats will track it out a bit because of their toe floof, but I notice that it tracks a lot less with the short-haired cat. I keep an inexpensive vacuum by the boxes and run it around quickly when I do the morning scooping.
 

maggiedemi

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chick feed starter.
Demi tried to eat that when we had chickens, plus we have so many bugs living out in the country that I bet would be attracted to it.
I'm interested in the Pine litter pellets, but I don't know much about them.
I love clay clumping litter, but they need to take the dust out of it before selling it!
 

GaryT

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I am not so sure about clumping clay cat litter. I have afluffy cat who could potentially eat it while grooming so I steer clear of this stuff. Bentonite clay is used on dams to seal leaks because of it's expanding properties. This is what I have heard and found about it:
Clumping clay litter is bad for cats and kittens who eat their litter.

Sodium bentonite clay swells up to 15 times its volume when it comes into contact with liquid. That’s why you shouldn’t flush it down the toilet – that could cause some serious plumbing issues. Similarly, this non-biodegradable clay would expand in the same manner if your cat ingests it. And although few cats eat cat litter as a snack, they all could ingest it in varying quantities through regular grooming. Once within their body, the clay could expand and create a hard mass inside the digestive tract. This can be a very, very bad thing. While there is little in the way of formal research when it comes to this issue, there is a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that sodium bentonite litter can be deadly when ingested.

The clay forms a solid mass in the cat’s digestive tract, causing dehydration and malnutrition and eventually leading to death.

That said, non-clumping litter doesn’t expand when wet and, though you wouldn’t want your cat to eat it, won’t have the same effect in the digestive tract.

From Wiki:
Groundwater barrier
The property of swelling on contact with water makes sodium bentonite useful as a sealant, since it provides a self-sealing, low-permeability barrier. It is used to line the base of landfills to prevent migration of leachate, for quarantining metal pollutants of groundwater, and for the sealing of subsurface disposal systems for spent nuclear fuel.[10] Similar uses include making slurry walls, waterproofing of below-grade walls, and forming other impermeable barriers, e.g., to seal off the annulus of a water well, to plug old wells.
 

GaryT

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Myself, I use a version of Feline Pine. Tractor Supply Co has 40 pound bags of this stuff and they call it "Equine Bedding". It sells for less than $6 a bag. Feline Pine, if bought in a grocery store or Pet store costs about $20 or more for a much smaller amount. Less than half in the bag for a LOT more ( they must make money hand over fist!)
 

CHIKITTIES

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We've been using okocat feather weight clumping (sold at Petco) and happy with that! It does track but clump well. I've been interested in grass litter but did not have chance to try yet...

Prior to that we tried okocat pellet, petco brand pellet (discontinued), feline pine (something changed and we did not like since then), world's best (human did not like corn smell), swheatscoop (human did not like but reason forgot - possibly smell).
 

She's a witch

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I wish there was a perfect litter.. I didn't find one, I eventually chose a characteristic most important to me and my cats (dust free) and took it from there. The most dust free litter that we found is grass seed litter. I remember reading that it should be ok even for people allergic to grass as it's the seed that is used but you ( Rosepud Rosepud ) may want to verify if that's indeed the case for you. It tracks around the litter box but it doesn't stick to cats' paws and fur like the other types of litter (corn, walnut) so it stays on the floor rather than is being carried on couch etc. Honeycomb mat and small robot vacuum helps tremendously with tracking. It clumps perfectly. It's natural but not flushable due to how it clumps (which is better for environment anyway I guess).

I liked ococat wood litter but it has too much dust for my asthmatic cat and clumping was not that good imo. Back in Europe I used very good wood litter but it's not available in US, hopefully it will be or someone will come up with something similar.

Clay litters scare me to my bones and we'll never use this.
 

teejay89

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I currently use and love Okocat lightweight from Petco (chewy has it too) and it does track some, but my kitty has super fluffy paws and shakes when she gets out of the box so I can't really help it. It clumps really good, not too dusty, I have yet to find one thats 100% dust free. But I know Iris likes it too because she used to sneeze and lick her feet like crazy when we used clay litter but thats all stopped. I tried swheatscoop once and wasn't crazy about it, and my little fruitloop of a kitty tried to eat corn litter so I had to do away with that :lol:
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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Finding a good cat litter that is both healthier for your cat and one the cat will actually like and use isn't easy. It's hard, too, when you are trying to think of the effects on the environment, so sometimes how we each decide to prioritize of all of the above can vary depending on what we're going through at different times.

I understand people's wariness about clumping clay litters, but often it's the only thing that has success within some households.

So, a while ago this poster showed up for a few days then disappeared again:
Cat Litter Expert Here... Ask Me Anything.

I guess what I wrote there best describes what I've gone through or have to go through with Milly regarding her litter and health issues (post #26). You should read what that OP wrote first, though (post #5 especially), about fine dust in clay litters then read my long post (and lol, imagine me periodically sifting lots of clean Dr. Elsey's Respiratory Relief clay litter further to cut down on the fine dust prior to putting it in Milly's box for her use -- no one calls me a cat slave for nothing -- but it works for her). And since I sift out all the finer dust, there is less bentonite "debris" on her paws and hair, the heavier stuff falls to the floor for me to diligently sweep up.
 

EmersonandEvie

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I've been pretty impressed with the brand Frisco on Chewy. It seems to me like a less dusty version of Dr. Elsey's, which is what we used exclusively until (I reckon?) they changed the formula.

I just put in an order for Frisco's new kind of litter, though we have used the lavender scented and unscented multicat in the past. This is what we will try:

https://www.chewy.com/frisco-unscented-odor-defense/dp/169772

$12.34 for a 35lb bag.
 
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