De-Hamsterfying New Cat Litter

September 10, 2023 1:19 PM

I recently switched my cat's litter over to this one because she wouldn't stop pooping outside her box. It's been a great success but my apartment smells like a giant hamster cage and it's awful. I've tried mixing the new stuff with regular litter, which helps and sort of creates a substrate situation in her box which is nice, but the overall odor is just extreme. What can I do to cancel out the wood fiber smell? (Cat Tax)
posted by The Adventure Begins to Pets & Animals (23 answers total)

Response by poster: More cat tax because I feel like sharing how cute she is.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 1:23 PM on September 10, 2023 [28 favorites]

Try contacting the manufacturer? Possibly they've received similar complaints before and, knowing the nature of the substances that makeup the litter, may have some recommendations.

Thanks for the pics btw. :-)
posted by armoir from antproof case at 1:29 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

no advice, but thanks for sharing the pics—she's a lovely lady
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 1:58 PM on September 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

What did you use before? are you open to other alternative litters?
posted by itesser at 2:39 PM on September 10, 2023

Response by poster: I've tried...

Dr. Elsey's Classic, Ultra, Clean, and Sensitive Litters
BoxieCat
Pretty Litter
SoPhresh
Breeze Litter Pellets
Fresh Step
World's Best

Softness is the key since that's what I believe was prompting her to poop on my living room carpet. Microbead/crystal formulas get stuck in her paw pads which causes overgrooming and vomiting, and pellets freak her out now even though that's what she used for the first 5+ years of her life. We're both sensitive to anything with Febreze in it, and should probably stay away from the new tofu type litters because we're VERY allergic to soy and I don't want to take any chances.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 2:51 PM on September 10, 2023

As long as you are not married to my husband, toilet training could be an option. (He thinks it's gross and weird and somehow bad for cats. )
posted by Lesser Shrew at 3:00 PM on September 10, 2023

Maybe baking soda would help absorb the smell?
posted by scratch at 3:09 PM on September 10, 2023

Do you have porch, yard, or balcony? If so, maybe you could open the box of litter (while keeping the elements out) before putting it the cat box. That might help hamster cage smell dissipate before you have to actually use it. Other than that, I would look at some litterbox deodorizers.

I've used Roxie & Rocco before and it has a minty/menthol smell, but not super strong and just mixes in with the litter. Or you could try an odor absorber near the box like this one or this one.
posted by brookeb at 3:32 PM on September 10, 2023

Odor neutralizers in each room (activated bamboo charcoal bags, gels in canisters), enclosed litter box with uahpet neutralizer
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:34 PM on September 10, 2023

Hmm, I don't mind the smell of wood but perhaps Sweet PDZ would work on wood odor as well as poop odor. It's clinoptilolite zeolite which is basically a porous mineral with a lot of cation exchange capacity, so molecules tend to be adsorbed by it. It has no scent of its own and we use it in our litterboxes to keep the smell down.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:40 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wild question but is it just the wood shavings smell, or is the problem that combined with urine/feces? And are you using a plastic litter box? Bc once plastic litter boxes get scratched up, they stink forever. We switched to stainless steel litter boxes and it totally and permanently got rid of the litter box funk.
posted by toodleydoodley at 4:39 PM on September 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

Hi, I use pine pellets for our cats and have some opinions about this. First, the same pellets that okocat sells for $16/11oz can be had for $7/40lbs at Tractor Supply or a similar agricultural vendor. They do still smell of pine, however. Less stinky, but less deodorizing, are the hardwood pellets from Lowe's ($7.48/40lb). Both of these seem to absorb liquid by falling apart into sawdust and drying out the solid waste, but they benefit from frequent changes. Echoing scratch's comment that a dusting of baking soda wouldn't hurt.
posted by zachxman at 5:23 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had good luck with Pioneer Pet Smart Cat grass based litter, and I don't notice any smells, and my boys seem to like and use it without issue.

Some of the locally owned pet shops in my area often have samples of each litter type out so they can be looked over and touched - perhaps a store near you may have something similar?
posted by tacopasta at 6:41 PM on September 10, 2023

I've used this litter and it's not pellets. It's like 9 grain cereal in size. Try putting a little bit of that weird crystal silica litter in with the Okocat. I've found it doesn't take much to help absorb smells.

One more option: Paper crumbles, like you use in small pet cages. I've also seen the white kind sold as post-surgery litter but the plain paper color is fine.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:43 PM on September 10, 2023

I only mention it because it’s not on your list but I settled on the Naturally Fresh walnut litter because I also didn’t like the pine smell; the texture and smell are pleasantly dirt-like.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:54 PM on September 10, 2023

She is totally cute.

OTOH, she knows she is in charge. Nothing else to add, I am a dog person. But I know that look.
posted by Windopaene at 8:03 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm using a kind made of wheat that is, I think, probably texturally somewhat like the wood ones and it doesn't smell much. Could be worth a try.
posted by less-of-course at 8:55 PM on September 10, 2023

Response by poster: It's definitely the smell of the litter itself. I have to open all my windows to let the room where her litterbox is air out once I do a refill. It's such a bummer because she loves it and isn't constipated anymore but I have a hyper sense of smell due to long COVID and I am just dying right now. I'll look into the walnut varieties and some of the other options you've all mentioned.

(And yes, she is a certified Bossy Pants in every way and just yelled at me for two minutes straight from across the house to come refill her ever so slightly empty water bowl. 🙄)
posted by The Adventure Begins at 8:55 PM on September 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, switching to generic horse pellet bedding would cut down on the smell but they are hard & some cats just don't like walking on them. IIRC though some of oxocat's other litters are not too hard, might be worth a try.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's cedar in the super soft type. I notice it's not "pine litter", it's "plant based" & "soft wood". Cedar essential oil smells straight up like hamster cage to me.

I was going to recommend unmedicated chick feed as a nice soft litter, but double checked and turns out the grains it's made from may include soybean. So big no on that. But Swheat Scoop seems to be made just from wheat, might be worth a try!

As a last resort: sand. It's heavy and sandy but soft.
posted by Baethan at 9:02 PM on September 10, 2023

They are suspiciously not identifying the wood species which along with the marketing blurb makes me suspect they don't actually know day to day what's in it because they are getting cabinet waste or something.

Most softwoods are pretty aromatic with pines and cedars being the strongest while hardwoods are less so (and different) so it is definitely worth trying a product made from hardwoods. Pine especially has that pinesol smell that many people find objectionable.
posted by Mitheral at 5:49 AM on September 11, 2023

I don't use pine shaving litter (World's Finest in my house) but I have found that a covered litter box (Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box) keeps the normal stinks down and may help with the litter scents. We have a small apartment and keep the litterbox by the bathroom and our building's always drawing air bathroom vent fan means any stray stink is drawn into bathroom and up the vent rather than permeating the whole apartment.

The Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box also makes it easy and less unpleasant to regularly clean the litter so smells don't build up and our cat has never fussed about using it.
posted by srboisvert at 7:40 AM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

My cats use this litter and it works fine and is stink free except on hot, humid days when it smells moldy. My solution is to move it where I can't smell it or turn down (up?) the air conditioning if that's appropriate for the rest of the house too. It also smells bad when the whole box needs changing out. My cats like it and I like it because it doesn't weigh a ton.
posted by gerygone at 2:36 PM on September 11, 2023

I use the same litter, and the four things I can recommend are:

1. I made this exact DIY covered litter box out of a big storage tote. It does a great job of containing all of the smells, and it's large enough that it serves as the only litter box for two cats and I can get away with occasionally missing a round of scooping. This was a serious upgrade from the big Nature's Miracle high-sided open-top box and, previously, the ModKat top-entry box. (And it was cheap and not difficult to make.)

2. I have a BlueAir air purifier that I got for pandemic reasons but have continued to use for odor and allergy reasons. I currently have it near the litter area as a guard against any... “overachieving” in the litterbox, and it also helps keep some dander out of the air.

3. I haven't needed this since implementing (1) and (2) and moving to a place where I can keep the litterbox in its own dedicated closet, but I previously added Dr. Elsey's Litter Attractant, which has an inoffensive herbal smell.

4. I put on a nose-and-mouth face mask when I scoop or refill the litter box. Cause man does that wood litter make me sneeze.
posted by D.Billy at 3:06 PM on September 11, 2023 [1 favorite]