A cattery tests and reviews several different types and brands of cat litter. What were our results? Is there a 100% perfect, effective cat litter for everyone?
At the current time, I have one very stinky unaltered male kitty, one mama kitty with a litter of eight, and four nice, clean, respectable girl kitties with no bad litter box habits, all living in my house. Yes folks, that’s 14 indoor kitties! You can imagine I have to be quite particular about what cat litter I use.
It’s been difficult, though, trying to find one cat litter that suited everyone because we’ve got problem areas, like my breeding girl who needs extra antibacterial care and has trouble “getting into position” in the litter box, and my male who has incredibly strong urine odor. Also, we litter train all our kittens starting at 4 weeks old. So in reality, there’s never going to be just one “best” litter here for everyone.
What do I want in a litter?
- Good value
- Convenient availability (I’m able to find it locally)
- Odor control without being heavily perfumed
- Low dust
- Low tracking
- and Clumping if possible
Here are the litters we tested and how they performed, from least expensive to most expensive:
Tidy Cat Clay Litter – Plain clay litter is the best thing to start out on with your new kitten. Clumping litters are not recommended for kittens under 6 months old. Tidy Cat clay litter is readily available, very inexpensive, and provides odor control providing you perform proper litter box maintenance. Clay litter needs to be scooped daily and completely dumped and changed at least twice a week with only one kitten.
Tidy Cat for Multiple Cats – This is a clumping litter that can be found just about anywhere. It is low dust, fairly low tracking, and is an exceptionally good value for the performance and excellent odor control. For your every day house cat, this is the best litter you’ll ever need. This is what I use for my problem free female cats.
Tidy Cat Small Spaces – This is a clumping litter with some crystal litter mixed in to help control odor. It is not hard to find and is mid-priced. It didn’t have a lot of dust, and it was very low tracking. It was designed to keep odors down in high traffic areas where you have a litter box, like the main bathroom of your house. I was about 98% happy with the odor control it provided for my male cat.
Tidy Cat Crystals – My problem with crystal litters is that they do not clump. However, they provide the best odor control available. I had tested a more expensive brand of crystal litter, and I must say that Tidy Cat Crystals performed just as well! This is what I am now using with my unaltered male, and our odor problem has been eliminated. I still recommend completely emptying and cleaning the litter box once a week, just like with regular litters. That makes this a costly option, but well worth it.
World’s Best Cat Litter – I only tried this litter with my pregnant cat and my stud cat because it is an expensive product. I do know that many people use this litter and swear it is indeed the World’s Best Cat Litter. I was not happy with it at all. I found it to be dusty, extremely messy, and high tracking. I also found the odor of the wet litter to be highly offensive, worse than the smell of kitty poo, actually. I might have been happier with this litter with my problem free girls, but why pay a high price if a better value product is serving my needs well?
Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat – So far, this has been the best product I’ve used, except for a couple of things – the price, that it isn’t readily available in our area, and that the variety I tried was non-clumping. However, if you have a special needs kitty, you won’t find a better product. This product line includes cat litters for litter training kittens, and helping pregnant cats and older cats that have litter box problems. Their products have herbs to attract cats to the litter box, and they also help kill bacteria. I found this cat litter to be 100% effective on my worst odors!
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After much trial and error, I believe that Tidy Cats clumping litter for multiple cats is the most reliable litter for the value. If you have a kitty with odor problems, try Tidy Cats Small Spaces first, and if that doesn’t resolve your odor problem, go with a crystal variety. And if you have a problem kitty, nothing beats Precious Cat.
(Note: This article has been misquoted by ConsumerSearch.com, so I have edited it to make things more clear. Tidy Cats plain clay litter is ONLY what we use for kittens under 6 months old. The best all-around at performance and value is Tidy Cats clumping litter for multiple cats.)
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