If you are a cat owner, you are intimately familiar with the joys of litter box duty. If you have just one cat, it isn’t as bad. Once you have two cats, it seems like a never ending battle between keeping it fresh smelling and feeling like your sole vocation in life is to scoop out the box lest kitty find it less than appealing and decide to do his business elsewhere. Unfortunately, our cats’ litter box is in our bathroom. It is the only room in the house our two year old doesn’t frequent often and since we have found a spot where our older cat can confidently find and use the box (if it is up to his high standards of cleanliness), we are loathe to move it on him. With the box in the bathroom, however, tracking is an annoyance since no one wants to shower and then walk across a floor covered in kitty litter. My cat, the younger of the two, he thoroughly enjoys playing in the litter box, throwing litter out the door and generally carousing inside it. Don’t ask me why, he has always been that way. So sweeping the floor immediately before a shower generally was not sufficient enough of a guarantee that I would not be getting clay litter caked on my just-clean feet.
Since I have been delegated to this noxious task of litter box maintenance, I decided it was worth it to me to find the best litter I could, with a reasonable price, that fulfilled my need for little to no tracking. I would be willing to pay more for a litter that doesn’t track, so long as it excelled at odor control as well. With these criteria, I began my year long search for the perfect litter.
At the beginning of this process, we used a scoopable multiple cat litter, Tidy Cat Multiple Cat. However, due to the humidity in our area over the summers, with many days reaching 100 degrees in heat, I found waste products grew mold almost overnight. Not only was this disgusting to me (and I am sure to the cats!) but no one wants mold growing in their home. I decided that I needed to try something else for the health of all in the house. Next, I tried Feline Pine after a friend online recommended it.
Feline Pine is touted as ecologically friendly, and I found it to be economically friendly as well, about $4 for a bag or about $8 per month in my case. Basically it consists of sawdust packed tightly into pellets. Urine then disintegrates the pellets into a pile of sawdust. Waste is easily scooped out and disposed of and you need only to scoop out the sawdust and replenish the box to an adequate level. It is very important to note here that sometimes kitty does not appreciate your efforts to make his box smell better. If kitty resists, start to introduce the litter slowly, building up from 25% new/75% old and increase the increments over a few weeks until they have transitioned to the new litter. In my case, it took a while for my cats to warm up to this new feel on their paws, but they eventually didn’t mind. I honestly think that this product significantly cut ammonia odor of urine significantly and I found it didn’t track nearly as much as the Tidy Cat. However, the product is called Feline Pine for a reason. An unfortunate Pine allergy caused me to need to discontinue the product. The Pine dust on kitties’ fur caused a contact allergy to my hands when I pet them. So it was either them or the litter that had to go, and I am sure you will agree that I needed to keep searching for the perfect litter.
Since my cats were used to a pellet type of litter, I next tried Yesterday’s News. I found the idea of recycling newspapers in such a unique product very attractive and it wasn’t very expensive either, less than $10 a bag at my local grocery store. With this product, I just wasn’t getting the odor control that I got with the Feline Pine. It was still easy to scoop, but I just wasn’t satisfied with the smell, though it too tracked significantly less than the Tidy Cat. I found that the box required significantly more maintenance than I was able to give. It often failed kitty’s odor standards to the point that he would at times opt for the carpet just around the corner to urinate. While this product did not do much by way of odor control, I do recommend this product to anyone who plans to declaw their cat for use during the healing process.
I was at a loss. I liked the Pine litter particularly because of odor control, but the Newspaper litter seemed to have little odor control affect. If it weren’t for the Pine allergy, I would have been satisfied in my quest. This was when I stumbled upon a different type of crystal litter.
Tidy Cat has a product out called Tidy Cat crystals, which consist of that is white and blue crystals only, no clay litter mixed in. I decided to give this a try, even though it was significantly more expensive than the Pine or Newspaper brands. I was pleasantly surprised at the odor control and the ease of scooping waste. The crystals absorb the moisture out of all waste, making it very easy to scoop out, and there is no clumping. At first, the white crystals are spanking white, but as they absorb the urine, they begin to turn yellow. This does not mean that they have quit working, though. Simply remove the waste, scoop out any that has completely dissolved on the bottom and stir the box. If you do this once a day, I am confident that you will not smell urine as with other litters. The other nice feature is that these crystals track less than clay litter. They generally do not stick in kitty’s paws, so you won’t have tracking throughout the house. If you place a mat in front of your box, most of the tracking will be there. Tidy Cat can be pricey, over $17 for just 8 pounds of crystals at PetSmart. However, there is no dust and the product does perform superior to the other two litters I tried. Food Lion, a local grocery store in my area, offers a very similar product labeled under their own name for just under $10. I buy two bags per month and don’t find myself complaining about the cost too much.
So, after a year of trying a few different litters on the market, I have found a winner at last that met most of my original criteria. Of all that I tried, Tidy Cat was the best choice for me, considering my allergy to the Pine litter. However, in terms of eco-friendliness, economy, odor control and non-tracking, I would have to rate Feline Pine the best of the three products I tried. On site at www.felinepine.com under special offers are two offers, one for new customers to get a rebate and another loyalty program which for every 10 bags you purchase, you earn one free. None of the other two litters I tried offered that kind of savings program. I am thankful my quest has come to an end. I don’t think the cats enjoyed being test subjects in my experiments. For now, for the most part, they both use the box and that is enough for me.
For a truly disgusting gag gift, check out the link below for a recipe for kitty litter cake.
