Top 13 Best Cat Litter How To Choose Cat Litter

 

Hello, my name is Mallory and I'm here with All About Cats, and in today's video, we're going to be talking about cat litter. So over the last few years, We're All About Cats has published over a dozen cat litter brand reviews and done in home testing on over 30 different cat litter products. I've spent hours researching litter, studying the industry, learning about the different types of litter, and identifying the qualities that are essential in any good cat litter. So I think I've developed a pretty good sense of what types of litter are available and which types of litter tend to work best. And it was based on that experience and research and testing that we chose these 13 products as the best letter you can buy. Took things a step further...so we bought all of these litter products and then I tested them out in my home with my two cats, Wessie and Forest. So over the last couple of weeks, I've been testing these products out. I've been evaluate their dust production, odor control, tracking and scattering, scoopability, and other key factors. Let's talk a little bit more about our top 13 recommendations and my experience using each of them with my two cats. So our first recommendation is from Dr. Elsey`s. It's their Ultra Premium multi cat litter. So what I like about this cat litter is that it's just all around high performance clumping clay litter. It does just about everything that you would want a clumping clay litter to do and you can get it for a really good price. This litter is relatively low dust. As you can see it doesn't make a huge plume of dust when you pour it into the litter box and once it was in litter box, I found that it just did everything that I would want a clumping clay litter to do. It created firm, cohesive clumps that were easy to remove, but I did notice that it stuck a little bit to the size of the litter box a bit more than some other products and I was noticing some other customer reviews, saying They had the same experience. The granules are pretty heavy. When I was scooping this litter it was noticeably heavier than most other products. Overall, this Dr. Elsey`s litter is just an all around high performance product and should be a good fit for most people. So our next recommendation is the best non clumping clay litter. Our number one recommendation for this category is Purina Tidy Cats 24-7 Performance non-clumping litter. This litter does pretty much everything that any good non clumping litter should do. It's very absorbent and has been a favorite among cat guardians for quite a while. When I use it in my in home test I noticed that it was moderately dusty, like a lot of other clay litters, but the dust didn't seem to linger in the air very much. The litter offers moderate odor control and generally seemed to work pretty well. But then again, it is a non clumping litter and you are going to have to dump out every week, and its absorbency and odor control are probably not going to be as great as that of a clumping litter product. Another good thing about this cat litter is that it's quite economical. I bought a 40 pound bag for just over $10. Our next recommendation is our top pick. For those who are looking for a good silica gel crystal cat litter, Just the Crystals litter has a slightly larger crystal size than a lot of other products out there, which has both benefits and drawbacks. The main benefit of using a moderately sized crystal is that it tends to last longer, it doesn't reach its saturation point as quickly as would a more fine grain product, but obviously this also means that the litter might be harsher on the paws than another finer-grain product. In my in-home test, the first thing that I noticed about Just the Crystals litter was that it was extremely dusty. You can't tell, but this litter produced a huge plume of dust. It was a very irritating dust. Once it was in the litter box, this litter appeared to work really well. I noticed that it had good odor control and it was very easy to maintain, just as all crystal litter usually is. I didn't have to scoop out the urine. I just removed the fecal matter and they litter did the rest. The biggest drawback of this cat litter is that it is really expensive. This litter costs almost $5 per pound and it could cost upwards of $20 a month for one cat which is pretty expensive. Moving along to our top recommendation for those who are looking for a natural or biodegradable plant based litter that is Smart Cats all natural clumping grass litter. So this litter is, again, made from grass. It's a clumping litter that promises to out clump clay. So how did they perform when I used it with my cats? The first thing that I noticed is that this litter is very low dust and it actually has a really pleasant smell. Once it was in the litter box, this litter performed extremely, extremely well. It forms clumps really, really fast. So because this litter works so fast, it creates a clump right at the surface of the litter. The moisture never seeps down to the bottom so it's very unlikely to stick to your litter box. So this is going to make the litter really easy to scoop which it was really easy to scoop and it also helps to prevent that sort of odor build up that you would find if you had a lot stuck to the sides and bottom of your litter box. Overall I found that this litter works really well. The biggest drawback is probably that it's quite light, which is nice for convenience and pouring ease, but also means that you're going to want to pair it with a nice big litter mat. So our next recommendation is our favorite litter for odor control. So it's Ever Clean Extra Strength Unscented Cat Litter. Now this litter approaches the odor issue in a pretty interesting way it contains activated carbon to neutralize odors. It also contains an apparent antimicrobial agent that helps to prevent that bacterial growth. And it also contains what they call a paw activated plant extract, which is supposed to eliminate odors for good. So by using this three agent odor control system, this ever clean litter promises to be an extreme odor control solution, but how does it actually work? So the first thing that I noticed about this Ever Clean litter is that it is extremely dusty. So this litter was the most dusty of all of the clay litters that I tried, but once it was in the litter box, this product worked really, really well. It created strong, cohesive clumps that were pretty easy to scoop and I did notice that it offered outstanding odor control. I didn't notice any odors coming from this litter. This letter is a tiny bit more expensive than your average clumping clay litter at about 64 cents per pound. But if you're passionate about odor control, I think that that price is going to be worth it. Our next recommendation is our top pick for multiple cat homes. So ultimately, the only difference between multi cat litter and traditional cat litter is that multi cat litter promises to work better. So that being said, if you're looking for a multi cat litter, this product from Arm and Hammer is probably one of the best that you can buy is their Clump and Seal formula. So when I tried out this litter, the first thing that I noticed was that it was extremely low dust. Very surprisingly low dust. Almost magically, it seemed to have no dust at all. It was really, really impressive, actually. And once it was in the litter box, I noticed that this product created really nice clumps and it seemed to also offer really good odor control. Now our next recommendation is considered a hypoallergenic litter. It's another clumping clay product. It's Dr. Elsey`s Respiratory Relief litter. So, in my in home tests, I was a bit disappointed to find that this litter is not exactly a dust free litter, it definitely created some dust when I was pouring into the litter box. So although it's called respiratory relief, it really doesn't provide that much more relief than your standard clay litter in terms of dust production. However, it does apparently contain plant extracts that are intended to suit your cat. I'm not able to comment on that I am not sure if the litter soothe my cats very much at all. But it did perform really well in the litter box. This is an unscented litter that seems to control odors quite well. I didn't notice a lot of urine or fecal odors in the litter box and it also seems to create pretty good clumps. Now our next recommendation is for those of you who want to flush your litter, now flushing your litter, even if it is advertises a flushable litre is not necessarily a good idea. But if you do want to use a flushable litter my top recommendation would be World's Best Cat Litter multi cat formula. In addition to being tested and proven to be flushable this litter works pretty well. So when I tried out this litter I found that it controlled odors pretty well, but it didn't offer the greatest clumping performance. So while the litter did create clumps, I found the clumps are a little bit on the crumbly side. A lot of other people really love this litter and say that it clumps really well so I'm not exactly sure what went wrong. So overall, for a flushable litter World's Best Cat Litter is one of the most reliable that you can choose. Now if you're looking for a lightweight litter, I would recommend Cat Spot litter. So this letter is made from coconut husks and it's a non clumping biodegradable litter that is incredibly light. So five pounds of this will last you as long as 20 pounds of Clay litter. In my in home tests, I found that the litter was very low-dust. As you might expect, it was very easy to handle. The litter however, once in the litter box, is not your power litter. So it isn't going to control odors that well and it also is not particularly absorbent. So when I did my side by side absorbency test with the other litter products that I was trying out, I noticed that the cat spot litter was still a bit damp the next day because it is such a lightweight litter, it's very easy for your cat to toss over the side of the litter box and I definitely noticed that when I was testing it out. So while this is not your ultra hard clumping power litter It is one of the best options that you can choose if you're looking for a biodegradable, very lightweight cat litter. Up until this point we haven't really talked about pellet style litter. In general I tend to prefer finer granules because most cats seem to prefer them as well. But if you are looking for a pellet style litter, you might want to consider Feline Pine. So Feline Pne is made from compressed sawdust formed into pellets, which your cat uses and then when the pellets get moist, they sort of disintegrate back into sawdust. I found that the Feline Pine was very effective, especially when paired with a sifting litter box. So if you're using a traditional scoop, what you're going to do is lift up that litter and then shake out the sawdust into your trash can and then return the clean litter to the box. This can be kind of a tedious and time consuming process. But with a sifting litter box, it gets a lot easier you just sift out the sawdust, throw it away, and then replace the clean pellets ready to use again. Using my sifting litter box I found that the feline pines did an excellent job of controlling odors. My cat seemed comfortable with the pellets and overall it just performed really well. My biggest issue with the Feline Pine is that it does tend to track and scatter quite a bit. Now you're not getting the number of granules that you would get with a fine grain litter, but you are getting these big chunks that can be a little bit difficult to clean up. My second issue with Feline Pine is that it's a little bit expensive at about 64 cents per pound. There is a much cheaper alternative, which is just equine bedding or animal bedding pellets. They're essentially the same thing. I'm not sure if there's something different about Feline Pine that makes it more appropriate for using the litter box. But a lot of people are using this type of litter and it is significantly cheaper. So our next recommendation is also a pellet style litter. This time, instead of being made of compressed pine, the litter is made out of recycled newspaper. So it's Yesterday's News, Unscented litter. Now Yesterday's News is not a super high performance litter. When I tested it out, I found that it's odor control was mediocre, and that it tended to get pretty saturated pretty fast and that the litter would just break down. And I would probably have to change it on a very regular basis, maybe even more often than a non clumping clay. So while Yesterday's News is not really a litter I would recommend for most cats, it could be a good option for kittens or any other cat who is at risk of ingesting the litter and need something that is safe in that department. Our next recommendation also comes from Yesterday's News. It could also be a good choice for kittens because of its lack of clumping ability. But it's our top recommendation for declawed cats or cats with sensitive paws in general. So it's the Yesterday's News Softer Texture Formula. So as far as I can tell, the softer texture is mainly different in that it has smaller pellets than the original yesterday's news. This didn't seem to affect its performance, it overall seemed almost exactly the same as the Yesterday's News original. So it provided moderate odor control and it tends to get saturated pretty fast. That being said, this type of paper based litter is a really good option if your cat has wounded paws, is recovering from surgery like declawing, this type of litter is not going to contaminate or stick in those wounds. Now, our verylast recommendation is our topic for people who hate cleaning the litter box. So it's not exactly a litter. This is a litter system. So here's how the system works. You're going to get a whole new litter box and it has two main sections. So the top section is a graded tray and that's where you're going to put your deodorizing super absorbent pellets. And then below that there's a drawer and that drawer is going to contain a puppy pan. So when your cat uses the litter box They'll go onto that top section go into the pellets, the liquids are going to drop down through the grate and onto the puppy pad. Anything that's leftover will be absorbed by these super absorbent deodorizing pellets. So whenever you're using a brand new litter system, you're bound to experience some resistance from your cats and I definitely noticed that my cats did not want to use the litter at first. And when they did use it, I think it was very unfamiliar for them. I noticed that my cat threw up quite a bit of the pellets out of the litter box out the very low front. I also think that my cats just didn't really care for the fact that the layer of pellets was so thin that they weren't really able to cover their waste. So I don't think that my cats really liked it. That said I did find that the litter had outstanding and really impressive odor control. So overall, this isn't the most cat-friendly litter system, but if you really dislike cleaning the litter box, it could be a good option for those of you who want something in between a traditional litter box and an automatic litter box. You can get the entire breeze system starter kit, which includes the puppy pads, the litter box and the pellets for $24 and 74 cents. So that's it, we've made it through our full list of the best cat litter you can buy. I hope that this was helpful. You know, choosing the best litter for your cat is very, it's an individual decision and your perfect litter is going to come from a combination of your cats preferences, your budget, a lot of different factors. And so you might be choosing something from this list or you might be using it as inspiration to make a completely different choice. Alright, so thank you so much for watching this video. Bye!