Questions for cat servants

[firecat]

What, in your opinion, is the best un-scented clumping cat litter?

Why?

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

We use "Pet Valu" brand, but that's probably unuseful, since it's a local store brand. (Do you have Pet Valu there? Because of the missing 'e', we tend to pronounce it Pet Valoo.) Anyway, the criteria we used for selection wasn't that gruelling. Pet Valu just happens to be located conveniently on the way home from either of our workplaces and the cats don't object to it.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

trader joe's

but i find trader joe's pine litter pellets are even better!

[firecat]

Thanks! I like pine litter pellets too, but one of my cats doesn't seem to want to use them. :/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't have a *wide* variety of experience, but I've tried a handful, and my favorite is whatever is on sale at Safeway because it is often half the price of the others. So far I haven't found any one to be functionally better than others.

Warning: Scoop Away unscented (which I bought last time by this algorithm) HAS A SCENT. Whoo eee. I won't make that goof again.

[firecat]

Thanks!

Yes, I posted this question because I just bought an "unscented" litter with a scent.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Funny, I just noticed that that the "unscented" toilet paper I bought because our usual brand wasn't available does in fact have scent. What's going on there I wonder?

(We use "tidy cats" litter and are very happy with it, but I'd say it's not available in the USA)

[krasota.livejournal.com]

"unscented" does not mean fragrance-free. Unscented products often have a masking fragrance. Additionally, products in permeable containers can absorb scent from nearby products on the store shelf, from air freshener in the air at the store, and from the evil little stinky perfume gnomes.

[firecat]

"unscented" does not mean fragrance-free

AUGH. Rassn-frassn Humpty Dumpty marketing people.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation.

I guess as they stack up all the "unscented" toilet paper next to the lavendar and sea breeze and whatever the hell else then it becomes scented + masking fragrance.

Pardon me while I go beat my head on the bathroom sink...

[firecat]

I haven't checked recently but Tidy Cats used to be available in the US.

still is

[kyubi.livejournal.com]

...Or at least I've purchased some recently enough that I have an unexpired coupon that I pulled off of a jug of it. IIRC, it was "antimicrobial odor control" and was actually a substitution for something Safeway.com was out of. Not unscented, but our kitties are (blessedly) unpicky. And it was nowhere near as obnoxious as the Jonny Cat low-tracking multi-cat stuff.

Safeway's scoopable with baking soda isn't too bad. I just wish it were available in buckets...

I also seem to recall that Pet Gold scoopable (from Petco, which I have mixed feelings about) isn't too bad, and (discounting the PITA factor) the open bin that you refill litter jugs from might allow whatever neutralizing scents there are too off-gas a bit.

I've got a coupon for World's Best Cat Litter, but haven't tried it yet...

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Chris says the cats here have responded well
to something called, and I'm not making this
up, "World's Best Cat Litter". Would the marketing
guys ever lie to us?

[leback.livejournal.com]

We use this too, at the recommendation of my cat's vet. I can't say whether it's the best, having tried very few of the alternatives, but we like it. It's all-natural (made of corn), it masks odors well, and it's flushable. The only thing that's a bit odd about it is that it apparently smells pleasing enough to my cat that she tends to nibble on it when we put in a fresh batch. Perfectly safe and sanitary, but still disconcerting.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Heh. We liked that, unlike a couple previous litters, that one of our cats didn't sneeze with this one.

[firecat]

Why did the vet recommend it?

[leback.livejournal.com]

She cited a number of its virtues, natural odor-masking being the one I remember most clearly. (That one stands out in my mind because she actually pulled a clump of cat urine out of a litter box and encouraged me to sniff it--it indeed did not smell like cat urine.) I think she may also have noted that it was non-dusty, and I recall her being quite enamored of the fact that it was made out of corn, without weird chemical additives and such: nice and non-toxic, I guess.

[tedesson.livejournal.com]

We're currently using World's Best Cat Litter (flushable, scoopable). I like it, as it doesn't have a strong scent, and isn't dusty.

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

I can't vouch for the scent - it's mild, and they may make a scent-free variety, but I have had the best luck with Fresh Step. It clumps well and seems to control odor pretty well (although that may be due to scents you'd like to avoid). Maybe one of their other formulas would be good for you to try. The kind I use is small like sand.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Now, Boopsie is generally blase' about cat litter, and will go with anything. And we've been happy with just about everything we've used, but, right now, we're using "World's Best Cat Litter," which we got from the woman who was catsitting Boopsie. And Judy KNOWS cats and cat care, and if she thinks that "World's Best Cat Litter" is the world's best cat litter, then it probably is.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

We use the Arm&Hammer Super Scoop "fragrance free" stuff. Fairly fine-grained, but not esp. dusty, and doesn't seem to have a scent, really.

[femmediva.livejournal.com]

World's Best is the best food derived/organic scoopable litter I have found. Only problem I have with it is, it is lightweight so it tracks easily- but then, most scoopables do to one extent or another. It is a bit on the spendy side though.

I think the pine pellet litter is the best stuff in the world (and the only litter that could keep up with Ty and his diabetes/failing kidneys.)
I have found that misting the top layer of the pine pellets with some water to kind of pre-soften them helps some cats take to it a little better.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I'm currently using World's Best, which is very low-odor and flushable. Before that, I had another ground-grain litter, but I don't remember its name. It was wheat rather than corn, and worked nearly as well. My only problem with the grain litters is that I feel a little guilty for having the cats pee in food.