What's the best kitty litter?

June 7, 2004 3:40 PM

KittyFilter: I was wondering if any other MeFites could give me some advice about kitty litter. I've been using a generic scoop-it brand, but today I ended looking at these weird crystals that promised increased freshness and less odor. Has anyone used the crystals? Has anyone used the clumping clay or some other "bio-friendly" litter?
posted by elwoodwiles to Pets & Animals (20 answers total)

I switched to a clumping wheat litter about 6 months ago and it's fantastic. You use a little bit more, but it's really good with odor (it tends to smell like bread if it smells at all) and it's flushable.

I've tried both the pine pellets and the crystals and the cat didn't care for either; I think they were a little to hard on his feet. Plus if he knocked any crystals out of the box it was like having invisible ball bearings on the floor.
posted by stefanie at 3:52 PM on June 7, 2004

The crystals can be messy, and you still have to throw them out in the garbage, but the water and smell absorption is phenomenal. When I lived in a tiny apartment with two healthy cats, it was a night and day difference between the crystals and regular litter (even special litter with activated charcoal). I've been using it ever since and the cats don't complain. A large expensive bag of it lasts about a month.
posted by mathowie at 4:00 PM on June 7, 2004

When we were toilet training our three cats, we used President's Choice Green clumping cat litter. I think it was made from corncobs. It worked awesome - smells weren't a problem - a bit pricey but when you're toilet training, you don't need much, so a small bag would last a long time. Totally flushable, too.

We had to give them back the litter box a few months ago since one of them decided to balk at the toilet after using it for a year. We bought a shredder and give them fresh newspaper shreds every day. Cheap as free and no more litter tracked all over the house (gray pawprints on the bathroom floor, though).
posted by Melinika at 4:45 PM on June 7, 2004

We've tried a couple different brands with our new kitty (previously discussed on AskMe). First we went with some cheap clumping stuff, but the clumps fell apart and it didn't really do anything about the smell. It left a layer of wet clay on the bottom of the pan that was a pain to remove. Then we tried some of the funky crystals since we'd seen them using it at the pet store. Turns out Dr. Amy Jones didn't like those too well. We finally went with Tidy Cat, which works really, really well. It's very fine, almost like sand, and it clumps phenomenally. We haven't had to clean the box since we started using it since all the waste lifts out so easily. No smell at all. The only problem is that it clumps so well that lifting out a couple softball-sized clumps of wee really reduces the litter in the pan, so we find ourselves using a bit more of it. (And it's not cheap.) But she likes it and I'm saving money on air freshener, so that's what we use. And I just noticed on their US site that they've supposedly got a new formula that "clumps harder" so maybe it results in smaller clumps. We haven't gotten that kind in Australia yet...
posted by web-goddess at 4:49 PM on June 7, 2004

Whatever you do, don't EVER flush the stuff down the toilet. It is baaaaaad juju for the environment.
posted by aacheson at 4:51 PM on June 7, 2004

The crystals work as advertised, though clumping litter lasts longer and costs a bit less. The thing to know about crystals is that all shapes are not equal. The "pearls" are eeeevil: the substance tends to stick to damp paws, and when that round shape lands on a smooth surface (linoleum, hardwood, tile, etc.) it ROLLS. FAR. That d**m stuff migrates everywhere. The asymmetrical crystals track too, but not appreciably more/farther than other litter types.

Clumping litter is considered "bio-friendly"? I hadn't heard that before. My cat tried the compacted newspaper litter, but was suspicious of the texture. I've had three use the crystals with no objections, from felines or humans.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 4:53 PM on June 7, 2004

I like Tidy Cats Crystal Blend clumping litter. It clumps well (as well as the regular kind) and the crystals really keep the odor down; it's pretty amazing, actually, especially compared to the kind without the crystals.
posted by kindall at 5:06 PM on June 7, 2004

I've been using cedar chips recently. They're really cheap--one or two months worth for two cats costs about $10. They sell them with guinea pig and rabbit supplies.

I probably only clean the box every week or so, and cedar does a good job at masking the smell.

If I cleaned the box more often and had a yard, I could probably dispose of the cedar in my lawn. Instead I throw it out in the garbage, but I know it's biodegradable.

The downside of cedar: When cats track dust out of the box you can't really tell it's there. Cedar chips are visible and rough on old vacuums.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 5:25 PM on June 7, 2004

Mrs. Bosatsu says:

Clumping cat litter can cause health problems for cats, especially kittens. The clumping litter sticks to their paws, and gets ingested during normal grooming activity. This can cause all manner of problems, including g-i obstructions, vomitting, depressed immune system, and many others. This is caused primarily by sodium bentonite, an absorption agent added to the clay that expands to absorb moisture. More information here.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:50 PM on June 7, 2004

Our cats hated, hated, hated the little plasticky bead crystal ball things. Wouldn't go near the stuff. I know other people have had excellent luck with it, but like so many things about pets, it depends on the animal.

I went through a bag of that compressed newspaper pellet stuff, but they didn't really like it much and the smell was atrocious.

I couldn't see using wood chips or anything like that. I'd wind up with horrible foot splinters as an extra vector for nasty infections. No thanks.

Plain old Johnny Cat works OK, but doesn't last long without being changed, so be prepared to go through a whole hell of a lot of it. When I was buying this, I bought four monster bags at a time and still seemed to run out all the time.

For the past couple of years I've been favoring the Arm & Hammer scoopy stuff. If scooped daily, it goes ages without stinking. It's much finer and more sandy than plain old kitty litter -- which means it tracks a little more but doesn't hurt as much to step on. I just keep a dustpan and brush nearby.

I wasn't aware of potential health problems until a few minutes ago, and haven't observed any, but it's good to know about.

All I know is if you use the scooping stuff, you actually get rid of the cat pee instead of having it sink to the bottom in a stinky mess, and that means you use up less cat sand. We can go a month on one box of this stuff instead of a week or two on a giant mongo sack of Johnny.
posted by majick at 7:10 PM on June 7, 2004

The "pearls" are eeeevil: the substance tends to stick to damp paws, and when that round shape lands on a smooth surface (linoleum, hardwood, tile, etc.) it ROLLS. FAR.

We stopped using those pearls over a year ago and I'm still finding them in the house. Not only do we have wood floors but they're all uneven, so those pearls have rolled everywhere.

World's Best Cat Litter (made from corn) really is the world's best cat litter -- it's amazing. Absorbs odor like nothing else. Sadly one of our cats simply refused to use it. Moki would crap next to the litter box, but not in it. I think it smells too much like food to him -- he was fed Iams when he was young, which has a corn-meal base, and I think that has stuck with him. (He loves tortilla chips, too -- begs for them like a dog.) We feed him this crazy stuff now.

We're back to using the scoopable litter now but after reading monju_bosatsu's link I think I'm going to try introducting the corn-based stuff gradually by mixing it in with the scoopable (we were lazy and didn't do this last time).
posted by boredomjockey at 7:30 PM on June 7, 2004

I use World's Best cat litter too, and it really is pretty good. I am not fantastic about scooping but it generally doesn't become problematic. I tried the crystals for a little while, and they were kind of interesting (you don't have to scoop pee, just kind of mix it in; you get to know your cat's, uh, regularity pretty quickly since that's all you're dealing with.) The crystals do get tracked around.

I would go with the world's best option. It clumps nicely, absorbs odor, and for the most part doesn't make a mess, and it's meant to be environmentally friendly etc. My cat is very happy with it, as far as I can tell - she likes it better than those weird crystals for sure (which she got used to but initially had issues with).
posted by mdn at 9:35 PM on June 7, 2004

monju_bosatsu and this_crazy_stuff, thanks for the links. We're going to give WBCL a try. I like the idea of litter particles that can be digested or passed harmlessly.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:26 PM on June 7, 2004

I've had the same experience with the crystal-ball-bearing stuff. It's nice effective litter but really annoying as it gets tracked around.

Similar to WBCL is a wheat-based litter called Swheat. It also works very well. My SO used it until it became hard to find around here, then switched to WBCL.
posted by hattifattener at 10:42 PM on June 7, 2004

Another vote for the silica crystals. We saw the "Space"-brand litter at Trader Joes. It claimed that one box lasted a month for one cat, was completely odorless, and cost just seven bucks. So we said "why not?" even though we were skeptical.

The stuff is amazing! It doesn't quite last a month for our cat, but it is odorless. The silica is so absorbent that it makes the solid stuff dry out, too, so it's easier to scoop. Cheap and effective.
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:26 AM on June 8, 2004

we use the pine stuff that's basically pine dust (left over from saw mills or something like that) that's compacted into pellets. We really like it, as the pellets absorb the pee and disintegrate. We only scoop poo once a day, then clean out the litter once a week.

The broken down pellets do sometimes come out of the box, but I imagine that's going to happen with just about anything. Plus this stuff is cheap - 20 lb bag for 10 USD. oh, and you only need to line the bottom of the box - doesn't have to be inches deep like clay - so that 20 lb bag lasts a long time.

whatever you decide to use, transition slowly, with the old litter on top of the new litter, so your cat(s) can get used to the new texture.
posted by evening at 6:09 AM on June 8, 2004

I used the silica pellets for a long time, and they were better than the standard grocery store brands (they're right, though, about the rolling!). When I was dating my husband he convinced me to try the pine pellets and they're really great - it only smells if it's way past due for a change -- and even then, one good thing is that the stuff is super-light and won't rip your liner bag, like heavy, clay, Tidy Cat. Which, believe me, is a drag when that happens.
posted by mimi at 6:57 AM on June 8, 2004

The best odor control is cleaning the cat box daily.
posted by agregoli at 7:13 AM on June 8, 2004

I've had horrific luck with the pine pellets. P-U.

We're another WBCL house, although with three cats, I find that it tracks quite a bit more than the literature and marketing would have you believe.

I talked about our cats' eliminatory functions previously here.

Yes and yes. Really, frequent cleaning is the key to any successful litter choice. This box makes frequent cleaning a little easier.
posted by jennyb at 7:27 AM on June 8, 2004

The corn (WBCL) and wheat alternatives are super-great. Low smell (no nasty perfumes!), environmentally friendly, and cat loved. I actually have a hard time getting it at PetCo because the employees buy it whenever it comes in! Pine is not nearly as good - it smells nice, but strong. Until it gets used, and then it smells bad, and still strong.
posted by whatzit at 3:44 PM on June 8, 2004