What's your favorite cat litter?

@mcrustawildernesscat-com I have tried soooo many different brands and litter types. I know each cats PH etc reacts differently so it’s different for each kitty parent, but fresh step has always worked the best for my cats in terms of odor and clumping for an easy clean up.

@mcrustawildernesscat-com I've been using arm and hammer both slide and clump & seal though I'm disappointed since last year or 2 they were 100% dust free and the cloud control eliminated most dander but it probably wasn't cost effective, tidy cat I used for years but it's even more dusty

@aparnajayaraman I really love SMART CAT grass litter. .... Also, much friendlier to the environment when you do have to throw some out.

@aparnajayaraman Aparna, Skoon is pretty interesting, isn't it!? I agree that instant absorption is a downside, and I also found it to be extremely dusty. Thanks for sharing your experience.

@Lynn, I love SmartCat, too. 🙂

@Pama009 Do your wood pellets have pine smell? My cat hated feline pine but I'm not sure if it's a scent thing or a texture thing.

@pama009 Hi! I’m curious what wood pellets you use that are dust free? I use wood pellets for my horse and miniature donkey but they have a lot of dust and are a known carcinogen plus harmful to reproductive health if breathed.

@pama009 How do you handle disposal?

@rodstasick I used Ultra for a while until it became extremely dusty.  Clouds of dust when being added to the litter box and dust being kicked up by my cat when it was used. That was that.  (I also used Dr. Elsey's dry food for a while, until the color and kibble size changed and it got more crumbly, and gave my cat diarrhea -- not sure what's going on at Dr. Elsey's.)

I have since been using Boxicat Extra Strength Scent Free.  Virtually no dust, cat took right to it.  No odor from the litter box, good clumping.

@agirlhasnoname Thanks for the recommendation. I’m trying both Okocat and Elsey’s Ultra in two different boxes with a transition of 75% of my old favorite, Yesterday’s News Clumping. So far, the Ultra is being used more often, but, my god, does it ever track - and what’s tracking is even tinier bits, so it’s kind of a pain. One of the cats, especially, will jump up in his favorite chair - wrap his tail around the front of his body for his nap and I come around the corner and see that his tail is just full of the Ultra. I’m reserving full judgement until each box is 100% what’s intended. I’m thinking that my choice will be tied to whether I get absorbency, but lots of tracking (Ultra) vs low tracking but not much absorbency (Okocat). To ask for both might be asking for too much. Thanks again. Oko seems to be easily available here, so we’ll see how things go the next few weeks.

@rodstasick I've been looking through natural litters online recently,  and I remember seeing a paper pellet one by okocat, I think it was called. Maybe that will be a good alternative. Now for me to get back to my search 😉

@rodstasick 

used Dr Elseys for YEARS. Im so over the dust i hope the new litter works for you. My new one is spendy so may have to look for something else 

thanks 

@colleenleahgmailcom Good to hear that. So far, the Oko is winning.
The Elsey is a real mess - it’s showing up on bedding and blankets and
other coverings as well as on the tails and body of two of the cats.
That stops today when we change out the boxes. I think we’re trying
“Original” in one box and “Less Mess” in the other while sprinkling in
some of what’s left of our supply of the wonderful, clumping version
of the late, dearly departed “Yesterday’s News.”

@mitchellregenbogen Hey there, good point. I did recommend Dr. Elsey's in a recent piece (our piece on budget essentials for cats), and it's bugged me a bit—I recommended it kind of "by default" because it's been a top pick for so long, but you're right that there's been a significant enough decline that it shouldn't be there anymore. From both personal experience and others' observations, I know there's been a quality decline. Besides being dusty, it's a bit sticky as well, and that makes it hard to clean.

Anyway, we won't be recommending it as a number one option in any updates, but I'm still trying to find the best alternative. For now, I'd consider Tidy Cats' Free & Clean as a lower-priced option or, of course, my favorite Ever Clean Extra Strength Unscented, for those who are willing to spend more for a great clumping clay litter. 

Also, @Rod Stasick, thanks for being generous and patient. It's true that not everything gets updated instantly, and it really does bug me to know that we are sometimes giving out outdated information or recommendations that I no longer agree with. Anyway, hope this clarifies, and I'll do what I can to get everything updated and corrected as soon as we can.

Thanks for all the feedback!

@mitchellregenbogen Well, I think Mallory has her hands full with all kinds of informative future reviews and it’s possible that either the quality of the litter has gone down since the last review or,
just like all of us with our differing kiddos, the problems that we’ve had aren’t ones that others have.

I know that people have all kinds of negative reviews of products - and when you look closer, you find that their approaches may be wildly different than what you or I may experience simply because our needs and desires are different.

I’m reminded of a review I saw on YouTube where the woman was complaining about tracking everywhere throughout her house. If you kept watching, you’d discover that she would go WEEKS (!) without scooping her litter box. By the end of the video, I wanted to go rescue those poor critters from this woman!

So, just like “Yesterday’s News” got a bad rap in reviews (and I think a not very good one here), it worked great for us. You are just looking at which has a larger consensus in the end.

@rodstasick Nice! Have you used any other wood pellet litter before? Do you think this Okocat Less Mess litter tracks/scatters less than other similar products?

@jakedouglas Funny, for me, that this topic is coming up today, because I was going to update after cleaning house today. This is the first week after we finished all of the last batch of “Yesterday’s News” and the first week where we’ve used nothing but the Okocat “Less Mess” and we are still amazed by the reduction of dust and scatter all over the house. It is easily 95% better than what we thought was the best before (Y.N.) and we’re both astounded and very grateful that we will find, at most, 4 to 6 little pellets/day in the house instead of having to go thru with a dry mop a couple times a day.

The Okokat “Original” uses small crushed pellets, so that may be why you were getting excess dust.
Again, the “Less Mess” version are full pellets and they’ve been really wonderful. Usually, I have to completely empty the big litter boxes every Wednesday, but with this stuff, I only have to keep to my regular daily scooping and just top it off when needed. I’m anticipating that I will be doing a complete box cleaning once a month instead of weekly. It’s been an enormous difference for us. We’ve even removed those looped scatter pads that you put at the entrance to the box and they’re now in the garbage outside. We have nothing at the entrance anymore and it’s not a problem - maybe a pellet or two from the three cats.

I have a small bag of tofu litter from a company called “Frisco” that’s been sitting in the closet for months because I’ve been in the experiment stage of testing litter and, yes, it was hella expensive.
Maybe I’ll lightly integrate it into the Oko just to get rid of it (either that, or I may donate it since it hasn’t been opened yet).

@jakedouglas Tofu litter is really interesting—thanks for sharing your experience!