So being a Mad Catter (that's the gender neurtal term for "crazy cat lady"), I have tried many, many cat products, and I thought I would review some of them here! Of course, every cat has their own preferences, but sometimes it helps to hear what other cats (and humans) thought of a thing before you try it.
Maggie's new litter is called Ökocat. Maggie and Yuan use different litters because years ago, Maggie was avoiding the box because Somekitty Bullycat would come to harass her as soon as he heard her go in the box (clay litter is kinda noisy, and we're in a small apartment, so he could hear her no matter where he was in relation to her box). During this time, I tried MULTIPLE litters, and also puppy piddle pads. I still put out piddle pads and she uses them - but she also uses the box again (thank the Gods!). I'm telling you, during the Very Smelly Time, I should have owned stock in Nature's Miracle (side note: Nature's Miracle cleaner is expensive but really works. Alternatively and much cheaper, hydrogen peroxide also gets rid of cat pee smells, but there's a chance it will bleach fabric).
The winners, as far as alterna-litters go, were:
Cat Attract. It's still clay litter, but it has attracting herbs in it that drew her to the box. It's about twice as expensive as your typical clay litter, though - but if it's the only thing that works, it's totally worth it.
Feline Pine clumping (NOT "original"). The "original" is pellets, and Maggie cannot be bothered with pellet-shaped litters. I tried two of those (one newspaper - Yesterday's News - and one pine, a different brand that I don't remember) and both times, she just was like, "WTF am I supposed to do with this?" and avoided it. The clumping Feline Pine, however, is the consistency of hamster shavings, so it's QUIET, which was what made it attractive to her (probably also that it's soft, and she's declawed in the front - no, I didn't do that, she came to me from the shelter that way). But basically, Yuan didn't hear her using it, so she could pee in peace, and that was a win.
OTOH, years ago I had tried this same litter with Deidre (my kitty who has since crossed the rainbow bridge), and she hated it. She used it - because she was such a considerate kitty - but she did not like it, which I found out one day when I turned the corner to see her perched with three paws on the edge of her litterbox and only one standing in the litter, hovering her little butt over the box to do her business, and then flying out of there like she had just been playing The Floor Is Lava. I felt so bad. I switched back to clay for her.
The things I put up with, I tell you. -Deidre
Feline Fresh is honestly probably my favorite, and Maggie likes it just as well as Feline Pine (or at least, she used it just as much, perhaps even a bit more frequently, over the piddle pads). It scoops better than Feline Pine did, in that the clumps didn't fall apart so easily. The texture was somewhere between hamster shavings and clay, but it was still quieter than regular clay so it was fine with Mags. The only issue is that it's hard to find - I could only get it at one Mom and Pop pet shop that is a long bus ride away, and sometimes they would run out - or online, for twice the price as the Mom and Pop shop! Maybe some other online outlets have it, to be perfectly honest I didn't look THAT hard - but Amazon charged the same price for a bag half the size of what I got at the pet shop, sooooo I imagine that's probably the going rate.
I decided to try this one because the mom and pop shop was out of the Feline Fresh again when I went, and this one is availabe at Petco AND Sprouts, which are both within walking distance of my apartment. It's loads easier to stroll over with my cart, than to try and finagle it on the bus, or wait until I'm able to hitch a ride with someone. It's made of wood - the box says it's either fallen wood or scraps from lumber mills, so it's reclaiming it, which is good, environmentally speaking - and the texture is kiiiiiinda pellet-like, but not? It's almost like if Nerds candy was made of wood, lol.
Maggie likes it - started using it within a day, and has kept doing so since. It's a little awkward to scoop because the bits are juuuust small enough to sift, but almost too big, but it works, and the clumps are pretty solid, so I don't fuss it too much. Maggie is what I call a "glacier peer," in that she pees in the same spot in the box over and over and over again, so I'm left with one big litter glacier to scoop out, so it's not like Yuan's box, where I'm fishing out a half dozen little clumps. So it's nbd on the sifting front, since I don't much have to sift her Giant Glacier Of Pee Litter anyway. It handles smells well - really well, actually - it and Feline Fresh rank the tops in this department. And the price is comparable to Feline Pine or Feline Fresh (and cheaper than Cat Attract).
My name is Maggie, and I approve these litters.
I could only find this tiny picture when I searched - sorry!
SoPhresh clay litter from Petco. It's the kind that you can refill your bucket from a big bin in the store. He's happy with it, I'm happy with it, there's less waste because no packaging, it's cheaper than any other litter when you refill it - totally a win. It's just too noisy for Maggie and Pouncy mcWhiskerface comes running when he hears her in it. And yeah - he'll still do that, because when I couldn't find the Feline Fresh at the mom and pop shop, I was out, so I filled her box with a little of Yuan's until I could get to another store, and she actually DID use it, but I heard it, and Yuan heard it, and came running and caused a scene.
Don't worry too much when I say he harasses her - we're not talking catfights and blood, it's more like he comes bumrushing in making Big Scary Arched Cat Poses, and she freaks out and yells and hisses a lot. There's almost never any contact at all, but it's enough that if it keeps happening, she'll find somewhere else to pee, and we don't want that.
I am the picture of innocence. -Yuan
Yesterday's News, and aforementioned pine pellets, for the same reason - Maggie hates pellet types. That being said, my very first cat, Butterscotch, used Yesterday's News toward the end of his life because he was old and arthritic and it was kinder to his paws precisely because of the pellet texture. So again, to each cat their own.
Senior Butterscotch approves this litter
It was either "senior" or "long hair," but I think senior - of the Dr. Elsey's that I had to put the human veto on. Maggie LOVED it - she actually covered up her business, which she never does normally, so that was a good sign - and I held out for six months trying to endure it for her sake, but HOLY COW IT WAS THE DUSTIEST LITTER I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN MY LIFE. I've had cats for nearly 30 years now, and it was the worst. I would top off the box or even just scoop, and there would be a cloud that took over the whole bedroom. I'd have the windows open and still choke. I couldn't handle it.
Swheat Scoop made my entire apartment smell like a zoo enclosure. Pass. Deidre, who was the test kitty on this one, used it just fine, but ...human veto.
World's Best Cat Litter (false advertising! LOL). Honestly, I can't remember if this was a human veto or a kitty veto, but one of us vetoed it, because I only ever bought one bag, and decided never to do that again. LOL
Clump and Seal by Arm and Hammer. Regular, unscented Arm and Hammer litters were FINE - we used those for a while. But Clump and Seal, while it did indeed clump and seal - smelled like cotton candy cat piss when they used it. Hard pass.
I've tried different boxes, of different sizes, with and without lids (they tend to prefer them without lids), and the major note I have to say on this score is:
Just say no to the auto-raking boxes.
Maggie and Deidre (this is back when three of them were in this apartment at once) wouldn't even touch it. It was loud and THE FUCKING LITTERBOX MOVES ON ITS OWN WHAT DEMONIC POSSESSION IS THIS SHIT AAAAAAHHHHH! Yuan - The Bold One - would use it, but Yuan poops chemical warfare, and the thing raking his poops out of the litter which was absorbing the smells after only five minutes was just evil. In the end, I donated it to the cat shelter in the hopes that some of their cats might use it (they have a big free roaming room), and it might save some workers some work (it was donated to me in the first place from my aunt, whose remaining cat after one died wouldn't use it, either, so thankfully I didn't spend $150 to find out that it didn't work for us).
That being said, an elderly neighbor has a cat who uses a different model of auto-box just fine, and that neighbor wouldn't be able to scoop a box every day, so I recognize that again, different circumstances may merit it. But just know, if you're physically able to scoop, and if your cat is not the type to look the vacuum in the eye and dare it to fuck with them, the auto-box may be a loss, and you might have to just suck it up and scoop. You have been warned.
...I hope you found this information valuable! Have a good day and ...scoop on! ;)
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