Posted on May 1, 2023

The major "downside" of owning a pet is dealing with their poop.

Purrsonally I don't mind scooping the poop. One of the reasons I'm not really a dog purrson is having to pick up poop without a scoop and then carrying it around until a garbage bin can be found; but I digress.

As a Cat-Sitter I have been able to experience all of the litter options out there and I'm here to tell you there are a myriad of litters! The question I get asked the most is which litter is the best litter? The answer to that question isn't as easy, as I believe that the best cat litter solution varies from home to home. Ultimately you don't want it to be too stinky and you don't want it tracked all over the place but most importantly your kitty needs to like using it. There's no point having a litter that everyone says is great but your cat ignores. Once the pooping or peeing outside the litterbox habit forms it is a bugger to break. Kitties are intelligent creatures and purrfur fastidiously clean places to toilet. When they decide they don't like the toilet you have provided for them and poop or pee outside the box they then watch with amazement as their hoomans go to great lengths to clean it up.

Aha they think, that's what I'll do in future....problem solved (for kitty - not for the hoomans). Eeck.

Gone are the days when there were no real choices other than, "do I want purrfume in my clay litter?". The answer to that easy question is NEVER - I'll explain why as we go through the list.

Following is a list of the different options out there now and my rundown of the Pros and Cons. I will give them a rating of 1-10

1 being bad,bad,bad and 10 being the premium option. Now remember this is only my opinion.....kitty may disagree.

Clay Litter - Rating 1 Bad, Bad, Bad

To research this blog post I looked at other sites that rate litters and it was pretty obvious to me that most people rated litters based on how much of a kickback they get from affiliate links.

Why you ask? Because most of them list Clay based litters as the best litters out there and that is just patently untrue.

I lost a kitty once, 20+ years ago when the only litters out there were clay based litters. She developed a mass in her abdomen that was basically the consistency of concrete. Nothing could get past and nothing could really be done by the time we realized what was going on.

Clumping Clay litters are designed to absorb fluids and form hard concrete-like clumps that are easy to scoop out of the litterbox by using a specific kind of clay called Sodium Bentonite.

Now think about how your cats clean themselves. They lick themselves clean. So, inevitably the clay gets onto their paws as they dig around in the box and then as they clean themselves they ingest this concrete like substance. Over time this builds up in their colons and causes blockages or at the very least, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Which makes all the litter box "stuff" so much worse. Diarrhea, stinky poops, the list goes on. And..... kitty feels miserable.

Then there is the environmental travesty that comes along with strip mining all this clay. According to a Stanford Study 75% of all clumping clay litters have Sodium Bentonite in them to create the clumps. This stuff is "harvested" by strip mining. Ugh.

But that's not all.....The industrial footprint involved in the physical process of all this mining includes enormous energy costs. First mining the clay, then baking it dry, then crushing and rolling it to achieve the desired litter texture. And finally this stuff is heavy! So..... shipping it around the world has a huge carbon footprint in itself. Then there’s the matter of what happens after kitty has pooped and we have scooped. Clay (and silica-based) litters are not biodegradable. It doesn't break down because it is already in it's final form. Instead, it sits in our landfills, piling up and creating mountains of poop that doesn't decompose. According to the Washington Post, in the United States, there are 5 billion pounds of clay mined each year to be used for kitty litter.

And, the real kicker, as soon as there is any humidity in the environment - weather is changeable y'all - the clumps don't "clump" but create sticky gross smelling sludge that sticks to the bottom of the litter box and to kitty's paws. I've found this sludge in all sorts of places, including on pillows on the bed. Yuck! It also makes litterbox clean up sooooooo much more complicated than it needs to be.

The non-clumping clay litters also get a 1 - because they are always wet so therefore stink, kitty can still ingest them and cause havoc and all the environmental travesties remain.

So purrleaze, consider moving away from Clay based litters. For everyone's sakes.

And perfume, Just NO! All is does is add extra chemicals for Kitty to ingest and they don't make anything smell better. In fact, in my opinion, perfumes do little to mask the smells but they do make it smell worse. Cloying sweetness with Poop just doesn't go together.

Silica Based Litter - Rating 2 (Bad)
The biggest drawback for Silica Based litters for me is that it doesn't clump, which means the pee just sits around getting stinkier and stinkier until you completely change it out. And I don't know about you, but can you imagine what fastidious kitty must think about walking around on it's on own pee. The silica gel is sodium silicate sand that is processed with oxygen and water and turned into "beads" with tiny pores in it. Apparently it can absorb about 40 times its weight in liquid. It's similar to desiccant “do not eat” packets you find in all manner of things that need to stay dry - mainly medications and leather products. The "good news" is that silica crystal litters are specifically formulated to be safe for cats and do not contain crystalline silicate, which can be harmful to cats if ingested. However I find the silica litters to be really dusty - they get my sinuses running more than any other litter. I always silently think of them as being akin to asbestos - little shards of glass that can only do harm...no matter what the marketing tells me. And speaking of marketing. The oh-so trendy Pretty Litter that is out there now - the one that turns different colors depending on the pH of your kitties pee is an example of very clever marketing, preying on cat owners insecurities and "promising" to keep kitty safe. Frankly if you're scooping the tray daily you'll soon know if there is anything up without the need for fancy litter that changes color. Blood in urine for example shows in every litter if you actually look at it.
Finally the environmental cost of mining the silica is just as bad as for clay litters.
My opinion - move onto another option. There are plenty!
Paper Based Litters - Rating 4 (Getting There)
I remember being so excited when these first hit the market. I was living in Europe at the time and there were no options other than Clay based litters. After our experience I rushed in head first. I liked the idea of using recycled paper;
Environmentally friendlier - check.
No concrete clumps - check
It is supposedly three times more absorbent than clay litter with “effective” odor control and is 99.7% dust-free. It comes in both pellet form and clumping form.
It has big draw backs though, the major one is that it gets wet and stays wet. Once again kitty is walking around on her own pee. And in my experience it STINKS. Hard Pass for me nowadays but I did use it for years. We put the litter boxes in a room we didn't hang out in too often and changed it out completely every 5-7 days.
Grass Based Litters - Rating 6 (OK)
No, it's not actual grass like you would use for your bunny. It's grass that's been made into little pellets. The major drawback for me is the price, I would say it's the priciest option out there as it does need to be changed out a lot. Once the pellets start to dissolve it doesn't really do it's job any more and can get stinky really quickly. When it is fresh it smells a lot like hay. I grew up on Dairy farms so quite like that smell but I can imagine that some people (and kitties) might not like the barn-yard aspect of it. One way to combat the barn-yard smell would be to mix it with another litter with Pro-Biotics in it. I do this at home with my corn based litter which can also smell a little bit like the hummus you find on the ground of a forest. A natural smell but not so "fresh".
Now we're getting into the territory of biodegradable litters that manufacturers often market as being "flushable". While they can be flushed. please don't do it. I'll explain why later.
It's sustainable - Check
It's Biodegradable - Check
It's natural (no added chemicals, dyes or perfumes) - Check
It's lightweight - Check
It's affordable - Check
My opinion - give it a try and see what kitty thinks.
Soy, Wheat and Barley Based Litters - Rating 7 (Good)
Soy, Wheat and Barley based litters are very similar in almost every way to corn litter. It looks pretty much the same and clumps the same. It’s a little cheaper than the major corn brand but not by much. For me I rate it lower because it is very dusty, which means it tracks like crazy, and the hummus like smell is stronger than most of the corn based litters.
It's sustainable - Check
It's Biodegradable - Check
It's natural (no added chemicals, dyes or perfumes) - Check
My opinion - give it a try and see what kitty thinks.
Olive Pit and Walnut Shell Litters - Rating 7 (Good)
The furrst time I saw this litter I must say I had a bit of an eeck moment. It's dark brown as it is made from the shells of walnuts or olive pits so it kind of looks like dirt. That does make seeing the poop a bit harder, but not impossible. But once I got over my initial reservations I actually grew to like this litter. It clumps tightly, hardly tracks at all and has awesome odor control. Like really amazing.
The walnut shell litter does get dusty though, the longer it is in use. The grains break down and become finer and finer, hence the dustiness. To be honest most of the sustainable, biodegradable litter solutions do get dusty the longer they're in use. You will find yourself having to completely change out the litter box more often than you would with clay litters, but the actual job of doing this is so much easier because you don't have the concrete sludge to contend with. And a side note if you pick Olive Pitts instead of Walnut Shells it doesn't get dusty...at all!
It's sustainable - Check
It's Biodegradable - Check
It's natural (no added chemicals, dyes or perfumes) - Check
It's affordable - Check
My opinion - give it a try and see what kitty thinks.
Pine Based Litters - Rating 8 (Great)
Pine litter is trendy at the moment and with good reason. It comes in two forms. Pellets and Clumping. Both products are made of recycled materials.
This litter is incredibly absorbent and virtually odor free. The only problem I see with pellets is that the pellets are quite large and hard so some kitties won't like how it feels on their delicate lil toes. The pellets are made by collecting sawdust and pressing it into pellets and when peed on, the pellets disintegrate back into sawdust. Pine pellets also don’t clump, so you scoop the poop like normal and then just let the pee break down the pellets into sawdust. I have never noticed this sawdust to be wet like with other non-clumping options and the pine fresh smell overrides any pee odors wonderfully. As with a lot of the sustainable litters this sawdust is dusty (I mean it says it in the name). I have to admit that I like the smell of it. I know - I'm weird.
The clumping pine litter has the consistency of normal litter and clumps together when peed on. It’s a little more expensive than the pellets, but if you’re wanting to switch to pine and are worried about the pellets, the refined, clumping pine may be the way to go.
Corn Based Litters - Rating 9-10 (Excellent)
For me the best litter products on the market have corn as the main ingredient.
The one "*everyone* is using is World's Best (Cat Folx rating 9). Another example of clever marketing, this time pretty close to the truth. The litter is sustainable, biodegradable, free of chemicals (although they do have a perfumed one that I suggest you steer clear of, why ruin a good thing by adding perfumes that kitty can ingest). It clumps fantastically, tracks just a little and has good odor control. I've read lots of reviews and the main thing people complain about is the dustiness. What I would like to reiterate is that you should change out any litter *completely* every 2 weeks or so depending on how many cats are using it. Think about it, any natural particle that is dug about multiple times a day will start to break down to something finer and dustier. Stay on top of it and the dust problem will be non-existent. I haven't noticed much of a difference between the original World's Best and the newer to market Dust Control Formula except the size of the granules. My cats prefer the smaller granules of the original formula but maybe your kitty would purrfer the larger granules. Try it and see....
Now for me, World's Best is excellent but Sustainably Yours is a streets ahead so gets a 10 rating. The formula includes Cassava root and something about that addition to just the corn means the odor control is now unbeatable and it doesn't break down to dust the way most other natural litters do. The major drawback for me is the price. It is definitely the most expensive option per pound. The good news is that you don't have to change it out as regularly as the others so I suppose it all evens out that way.
Please Don't Flush Your Litter
Cat feces contains Toxoplasma gondii—a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis. Any warm-blooded animal can get toxoplasmosis, but only cats can spread it. Cats are also the only animals known to carry the infectious form of the parasite. A kitty with Toxo can poop out billions of parasitic eggs, or oocysts, over the course of its life. So even if your cat doesn't show outward signs of Toxo it might still be pooping it out. Toxoplasmosis has been taking it's toll on wildlife such as River Otters and Seals. Flushing cat poop can kill other wildlife so please don't do it! Here in California, while not a "law" there are guidelines suggesting that flushing cat poop is not allowed.

In summary
When you think about it, it's pretty incredible that we have been able to "train" our cats to use the toilet in a box in the corner of our home. Considering that, we need to do everything we can to make this habit something that sticks. No-one wants to be dealing with inappropriate toilet behaviors like pooping or peeing outside the box. To ensure our fastidious felines continue to use their litter box we have to scoop their trays daily (at a minimum) and ensure that the litter inside the box doesn't smell. If we think it stinks, kitty probably will too. Changing out the litter completely should be done regularly. They also need to be happy with where their box is and even with the sort of container their litter is in (more on that in a future post).

If you have questions we are happy to help. Reach out anytime! Cat Folx SF - Owner Wilma Goodyear