Cat litter - I love and hate it. I love that I don't have to take my cat on walks and follow it around with plastic bags to pick up steaming piles of rank, soft poo. So it is great that the cat can go when it wants, indoors. On the other hand, I never want my house to smell like a toilet, so I am very particular about cat litter. I clean the litter box every day; as part of my morning routine, and dump and replace all the litter (and sanitize the box) monthly. I have tried all kinds of litter boxes from simple pans, to expensive automatic self-cleaning boxes, including decorative enclosed boxes (hidden) in nice looking wood furniture. I have a large (14 lb) male cat, and he is assertive with his digging and cover up. He also sometimes pees on the inside wall of the box, so a high wall box is critical for us. We have found that top entry boxes are the best overall for containing waste, smell, and litter spray when digging, as well as minimizing tracking. The basic Amazon one is good, but the PetCo brand is by far the best (pricey, but worth it!) because it has a larger walking area on the top to capture litter. This litter drops back into the box with a neat hinge when you clean it. This model is also the easiest to clean because the hinge top is very, very convenient. With the Amazon box, you have to remove the top and put it aside. If you clean the PetCo box daily (which is very easy to do), it outperforms the expensive self-cleaning units, by far, in mess and odor control. Cleaning daily is much easier if you keep a bag dispensing scoop handy and toss out the daily bag of waste. When it comes to litter, there are 5 critical factors IMO (ranked in order of importance to me, as #1 is the most important): Odor control. If litter doesn’t contain odor, what is the point? That is its #1 job! Hard clumping. Scrapping a mushy litter paste off the bottom or side wall is awful, messy, time consuming, and disgusting. Plus it leaves your scoop all gross. Low tracking. I don’t want litter all over the house. Keep it in the box please! Price. It is a regular purchase, so it adds up. Price matters. Low dust. I don’t want to feel like I am breathing in poison or getting permanent lung damage every time I change the litter box. Here is my breakdown of some of the leading brands. Note the best solution is last. Dr. Elsey’s Ultra (total 19 points): Odor Control: 55555 stars: I never smell waste even after 30 days of use. Hard Clumping: 4444 stars: works pretty good for 15 days, in the second half of the month, I am occasionally scraping pasty off the walls, but not always, it is pretty good for most of the month. Low Tracking: 4444 stars: the granules are large enough that most of them stay in box; however, there is always some that sticks to his feet and gets scattered nearby. Price: 333 stars: not the cheapest, but not really expensive either. Low Dust: 333 stars: always a cloud of dust when I fill the box. It settles quickly, and I don’t see any more until I fill it next month. Arm & Hammer HardBall (total 19 points): Odor Control: 55555 stars: I never smell even even after 30 days of use. Hard Clumping: 55555 stars: fast and hard clumping, pee on the side wall comes off in a clean hard clump without pasty scraping … very nice! Low Tracking: 22 stars: the granules are very small, so there is alot more tracking. Price: 22 stars: it is pricey. Low Dust: 55555 stars: no dust when I pour, no dust all month. Fresh Step (total 16 points): Odor Control: 4444 stars: I don’t smell much but odor control starts to fade near the end of the month. Hard Clumping: 22 stars: clumping is not that great plenty of pasty scrapping, especially in the back half of the month Low Tracking: 333 stars: the granules are smaller, so there is more tracking. Price: 4444 stars: it is cheap and readily available in bulk at places like Sams and Costco. Low Dust: 333 stars: lots of dust when I pour, and some dust when the cat stirs it. Boxie Cat (total 10 points): Odor Control: 1 star: Started good, but in only 3 days I had the very strong odor of cat urine - no odor control after a few days. Hard Clumping: 22 stars: Started good, but daily pasty scrapping after 3 days. Low Tracking: 22 stars: the granules are very small, so there is alot more tracking. Price: 1 stars: it is crazy expensive with TONS of marketing you are paying for. Low Dust: 4444 stars: some dust when I pour, not much after that. Mixed! The best solution I have found is to mix ⅓ Arm & Hammer HardBall with ⅔ Dr. Elsey. This way you get all of the benefits of Dr. Elsey with the added hardening from Arm and Hammer. (total 20 points): Odor Control: 55555 stars: no smell all month. Hard Clumping: 55555 stars: Already good clumping from Dr Elsey, beefed up Arm & Hammer’s HardBall formula. Low Tracking: 333 stars: adding the Arm & Hammer adds a little bit more tracking that you would just get with just Dr. Elsey. Price: 333 stars: not crazy - mixing makes both last longer so pricing is moderate. Low Dust: 4444 stars: less Dr. Elsey means less dust when I pour, not much after that. I hope this helps!
