Please talk to me about cat litter!

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

As Harry is a temporarily indoor cat we are obviously having to empty his litter tray more often. At the moment we are using Catsan but it's costing a fortune. I tried clumping litter and practically needed an angle grinder to get the clump off the bottom of the tray so I won't be using that again.

Has anyone tried the silica crystal cat litter? I've seen it online and was wondering if it was any good. It sounds excellent but we've already spent loads this month on food he won't eat so money is a bit tight!

Thanks in advance

I use the silica crystal and am as happy with it as I can be with cat litter. Doesnt smell, lasts 2-3 weeks (more like 2 with our cat as she's a big pee-er).

I found the clay based stuff got tracked through the house, the clumping litter welded itself to the bottom of the tray, and after using the wood pellets for a while I started associating the smell of sawdust with cat pee . I quite liked the paper-based Cat-o-let (sp?) but haven't seen it for a while.

I only get it from Home Bargains or similar though (£2 ish a bag) because the Bob Martin / CityCat stuff is a total rip off for exactly the same stuff.

Can somebody explain how the silicone cat litter works?

I have two trays and four cats. I clean both trays out completely every day and remove poos as and when necessary.

Does the silicone stuff really work as well as people say? My cats like a clean tray and I don't want to upset them.

It works really well hiddenhome2, no smells, soaks up the wee amazingly well. Once went away for a long weekend and the person who came in to feed our cat forgot to deal with the litter tray but when we came back we wouldn't have noticed if we hadn't checked it as there was no smell and cat wasn't bothered at all.

Hmm, interesting. I might get a bag to try.

Childrens spades for the sea side work well for scooping wee clumps too.

Fluffy cat doesn't like silica, it's too rough on the old paw paws. Talcum scented ultra clumping is preferred but he uses wood pellets in the cattery so he has them at home now.

I think it's a proper brand (Bob Martin?) but it's from B&M - non clumping - cheap and controls the odour.

We use World's Best. It has an irritating name and it's expensive but it works really well and we usually only go through one or two bags a winter (in summer the cats are mostly outside are rarely use it) so I think it's fairly cost effective.

It absorbs smell amazingly effectively, sometimes even for long enough that I get to remove the poos before ddog eats them (urgh!). The ordinary scoopy thing works well enough and I mostly just top up once a week or so.

We do live in a very dry climate though which might make this litter work better for us than the much damper weather in the UK (I live in a semi desert area).

I used to use Worlds Best, but Fluffy pointed out that Sainsbury's ultra clumping is as good, and a bit cheaper. So is Waitrose.

The metal slotted spoons are brilliant Cozie, (good for sifting) and if feeding somebody you're not keen on...

Oops, meant to say Sanicat Ultra Clumping Gold. Not Worlds best, which is OK, but attracts maggots, which I sadly discovered when I put a spare (covered) tray in the yard. We had a rainstorm, followed by sun, resulting in a squirmy, writhing soup. A soup you definitely wouldn't want to eat. Put me off prawns for a while.

Worlds best is maize, chick crumb from country stores is also maize & very cheap .

It comes in big 20kg sacks for £10-15.

Haven't read whole thread but I used to use a silica litter (Tigerino) & the bottom of the tray got scratched to buggery with it. Also it was dusty, & got pretty smelly pretty quickly.

Now use \link{http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter/cats_best/521706\cats best from zooplus} after recommendations on here. It is expensive, but one 5-6 litre fill costs about £3.50 & lasts at least a month (I have 2 trays in regular use by 3 cats) & there is generally no smell at all.

I scoop poos & wee balls into dog poo bags & empty them (carefully!) into the loo. It does block occasionally if a big dry bit falls out before I can shred it, but I have a bath brush with a long curved plastic handle which does a great job of pushing the dry bits along

Once what's left is more than 50% sawdust instead of crumb I do a final poo/wee scoop & the dust goes in the compost bin. The cats seem to be very happy with it.

Oh, & plastic litter scoops work perfectly well on the crumb stuff - there's no cement-like lumps stuck to the tray - everything either moves about or, if it sinks to the bottom or sticks to the side can be easily removed.
I have a lovely Bob Martin scoop with rounded edges that was about 70p in B&M & it works perfectly

I use World's Best too for my three cats, currently I have two trays. It doesn't stick to the bottom of the tray as long as I keep it filled up so it's at least three inches deep, preferably more, and make sure they don't scratch it all into one area. Not sure about absorbing smells though - it never smells of urine, but two of my cats don't cover their poos and they smell a lot!

My kitten (now 8 months, so not really a kitten, but he's the youngest so we still call him that) likes to use the tray whilst I'm cleaning too.