Cat litter

[chaps89]

For those who have cats with litter trays, what litter are you using?
We have 2 cats and 2 enclosed trays (did have 3, they never used the 3rd so we removed it)
I’ve used wood pellets in the past but got through a lot of it and currently using worlds best but it seems to get everywhere, the cats track dusty paw prints around after using the trays and it isn’t massively cheap (though a bag does just about do the month)
Is there anything better out there?

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I found the lavender worlds best tracks less than the standard litter. The particles are bigger and don’t seem to stick to feet quite as badly but I do have a catch mat in front of the tray. I use puppy pads for Sebastian as he won’t use litter and there’s definitely no tracking from those, I wish the girls would also use them.

 

[julesjoy]

I use lidl clumping litter. Still gets shovelled everywhere but it's easy to clean out and cheap.

 

[Ratface]

Pets@Home wood pellets for Kevin Kat. Cheap, go to a semi-dust consistency when wet/damp, easy to remove solid matter. I think having at 3-4 inches depth throughout on initial fill, and removing used materials and solid waste on a daily basis is key. I change all of it every 8 days. No smell, ever.

 

[ycbm]

I use lidl clumping litter. Still gets shovelled everywhere but it's easy to clean out and cheap.

Ditto Aldi or Tesco, "lightweight" clumping litter (it's bloomin' heavy! ), all the same stuff, basically clay.

I bought some paper pellets when I couldn't get the other stuff and it really stinks if it's not changed every day.

A tip for those who want to save money by not throwing masses away, spray the top with fabric freshener, works a treat.
.

 

[fiwen30]

We use this ultra clumping litter from Jollyes -

https://www.jollyes.co.uk/clean-paws-cat-litter.html?childSku=9616

It’s a super fine sand consistency, and is VERY clumping, which means we can get away with a full box change every 2 weeks - we have 3 large trays for 2 cats, scoop twice a day, and top up a little every few days. We fill each tray about 3-4 inches to start, and then top up. 1 20kg bag lasts us 2 weeks.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I’d hate to feel what heavy weight clumping feels like!
I like Amazon’s own clumping litter. It’s tiny bits. Seems not to track and I don’t smell cat pee anymore

 

[Flyermc]

I use wood pellets and add water to them to make it break-up. It lasts ages as i dont have it very deep, so just change it often. I hated the other types as it awful to walk on when its been flipped out of the trays!

 

[chaps89]

I remember buying some silicon stuff one time, from memory you deep littered it. No smell until you did the full muck out at which point it was horrific. Never again!

I hadn’t thought of pre-soaking wood pellets, I did for the horses but for the cats just put them in as they are. That might be worth a try.

I’ll be honest, I really didn’t like the clay ones but it is a long time since I tried them so maybe I should re-visit.

Will also look at the jollyes- if it’s that fine does it not go everywhere? And the lavendar worlds best - I love the idea of puppy pads but I suspect that both cats would hate not being able to bury/dig their toilet.

 

[fiwen30]

Will also look at the jollyes- if it’s that fine does it not go everywhere?

I mean, it doesn’t not. But in my experience, it’s far easier to quickly hoover up the tiny sand particles, than it is to brush up the larger or irregular shaped litter pieces. It helps that we have hard floors throughout.

 

[NinjaPony]

My favourite is Felipure litter. It’s mineral based and clumping. Finely milled so doesn’t get tracked everywhere, doesn’t smell at all and lasts ages because you only take out the clumps. I used to use catsan but this is vastly superior! A little more expensive but I can use the same big bag for well over a month.
https://www.petscorner.co.uk/felipure

 

[smolmaus]

I like the wood pellet litter. We tried clumping clay for a while but the fine grit still tracked and felt disgusting when you stepped on it and the smell control was nowhere near as good so went back to the pellets. I am trying a bag of BioCatolet at the minute which is a paper pellet so if its really good I'll let yous know!

 

[Snowy Celandine]

Hmm, I always use the wood pellets so I can't give any useful advice chaps I find that most cats like it and it smells nice and woody before it's been used for its intended purpose but it's a devil when you unexpectedly tread on a piece that's landed on your carpet. I've used clumping litter in the past but, like others, I find the weight of the stuff problematic. I can burn the wood pellets but with 5 (possibly soon to be 6) cats, I'd struggle to move my dustbin if it were full of small stones essentially!

 

[adamntitch]

wood pellet here as they wont use other types but buy horse wood pellets cheap and they prefer it , problem being it gets everywhere

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I'm a Fosterer for a "national cat charity" and we get given a lot of different types of cat litter!

My least-fave is the clumping clay stuff - the bags are really heavy to lift around and I find it irritating that the dang stuff clumps-up!!

Not a fan of the wood-pellet one either; what tends to happen is that the cat gets it all over the place including their bedding - and it is a total nightmare to get the stuff out of it!

We had some recycled paper pellets a few months back; these would be deffo my choice. They were easy to use, didn't leave an odour, and didn't get everywhere including the bedding.

 

[Snowy Celandine]

That's interesting about the paper based litter Jods. Is there a particular brand that you'd recommend? We sometimes resort to using finely sieved soil in the cattery for cats which are showing reluctance to using wooden pellet, clumping or the fine Catsan type of litter. Might be worth us getting a bag of the paper based litter in stock too.

 

[honetpot]

Wood pellets, the cheaper one are not as finely ground, I tried Petsathome, but I buy the bags for horse bedding so what ever is the cheapest.
I try and shake the tray daily the small bits go to the bottom and the dry pellets come to the top. It makes me smile when they come in to pee, its in my en suite so I often have company, even though the open window is just feet away.

 

[Bluewaves]

My favourite is ultra clumping but during lockdown it got very hard to source so I switched to wood pellets. I did try horse wood pellets for a while instead of the stuff marketed for cats but the stuff from the tack shop seemed to get smellier more quickly so i went back to wood pellets for cats from the supermarket or pet shop.

I still would prefer a reliable source of ultra clumping that's convenient to where i live though. The best one i used to use was Sainsburys ultra clumping.

 

[julesjoy]

Revisiting this thread as Lidl have supply problems! Yes the bin gets quite heave. I quite like the idea of being able to compost it. I did work experience for a cat charity that used wood pellets and really didn't like it, too smelly.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Have used several different types of cat litter through the years, paper, clay, and wood pellets, found my favourite several years ago, and have since then used Cat's Best.
Not sure I'd class them as wood pellets, they're mostly like tiny bits of wood, from really tiny size to a little less tiny.

Most of the time it doesn't seem particularly dusty, lumps well enough for my liking, can be composted so doesn't make our bin heavier, and most days I can't smell anything until I'm either next to, or lifting the hood to clean, the litter box, but exceptions happens occasionally.

There is some pieces of litter which falls off their paws just outside the litter boxes, but I don't feel that it spreads much out into the house. I did buy a paw cleaning litter mat years ago because I thought it was cute (no idea why I only bought one when I have 3 cat litter boxes), and it seems to help making it even more likely that any litter falls off the paws right outside the litter box.
It's getting old, so I recently bought a replacement.
(Again I only bought one, to replace the old one. Sometimes I'm really stupid, I should buy 2 more, if I can remember it.)

 

[smolmaus]

I am trying a bag of BioCatolet at the minute which is a paper pellet so if its really good I'll let yous know!

Product review, I don't personally like that you can't really/ aren't supposed to remove the wet with the paper pellets. Feels wrong! But it does control odour really well, just changed it all out after a week (2 cats, 2 boxes, only paper in one box) when it started getting slightly whiffy. Didn't track nearly as much as the wood pellets and definitely less labour involved day to day just removing solids. Cats liked it too, they've been on wood pellets their whole lives basically and used this with no problems. Will probably get 3 full boxes changes out of the bag which is decent.

Don't know if I will buy it again though, I still like wood pellets and I like it being cheaper! (£12.35 for 25lt vs £7.99 for 30lt)

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Product review, I don't personally like that you can't really/ aren't supposed to remove the wet with the paper pellets. Feels wrong! But it does control odour really well, just changed it all out after a week (2 cats, 2 boxes, only paper in one box) when it started getting slightly whiffy. Didn't track nearly as much as the wood pellets and definitely less labour involved day to day just removing solids. Cats liked it too, they've been on wood pellets their whole lives basically and used this with no problems. Will probably get 3 full boxes changes out of the bag which is decent.

Don't know if I will buy it again though, I still like wood pellets and I like it being cheaper! (£12.35 for 25lt vs £7.99 for 30lt)

My lazy side think it sounds like a good idea, but years ago the only sign my late old Selma's kidneys had started to reach the end, was that her lumps of pee started to look too wet. It was difficult enough as it was, to pinpoint the "culprit" in a multi-cat household, without the evidence disappearing down into what sounds like a deep litter bed at the bottom of the box.

 

[smolmaus]

My lazy side think it sounds like a good idea, but years ago the only sign my late old Selma's kidneys had started to reach the end, was that her lumps of pee started to look too wet. It was difficult enough as it was, to pinpoint the "culprit" in a multi-cat household, without the evidence disappearing down into what sounds like a deep litter bed at the bottom of the box.

Very good point! Bearing that in mind, there is also no discernable colour change to the paper litter either, you can hardly tell whats wet and whats not even if you did want to scoop the wet, so might be hard to spot any potential pink or red in the urine as well.

 

[fetlock]

I use Pets at Home wood pellets and they work very well with my cat. I use a built in/hooded litter tray but without the door on, and use puppy pads under it. I also use a puppy pad as a liner too, as mine ripped the plastic liners to shreds, trying to encase the litter folding the plastic liner like an envelope.

I do like the crystal silicone litter but it's too expensive and do find that ends up all over the floor too. Last year we had a constipation problem (cat, not me) and I switched to the silicone litter then for a while, the different texture doing the job at the time to resume normal pooping.

Wood pellets wise, I remove the poop as soon as I see it and change the entire litter every couple of days.