Indoor cats - what litter do you use?

[Bleurghhh]

We've always had a litter tray, even when our two cats went out. Now they're indoors full time and obviously the tray is getting used more. We've always used catsan because we find other brands smell.

It's costing a bomb to use catsan now. I've just tried some cheap tesco litter and it absolutely reeks after one night.

I've tried mixing catsan and cheap stuff and it doesnt seem to make any difference.

We've never had any luck with the wood chip type ones, the smell is much stronger and also it breaks up and goes everywhere.

Does anyone have a magical solution for this? Or do I have to give in and spend more on catsan?

Wood pellets, in a covered tray with a flap and a small hand held Hoover.

I've always used wood pellets for my animals, it's cheap and absorbent.

We have a covered tray inside a cupboard with a flap, it still stinks. The whole downstairs of the house stinks.

Fresh news litter. Comes in a huge bag, delivered via Amazon, it's a pellet type litter made of recycled newspaper. It's not at all dusty and doesn't breakdown Ito mush (or sawdust like the wood pellets).

It's the best I've found by a country mile,

I always use whatever is the value version at a supermarket. Always got on with Tesco everyday or the Sainsbury's one. I freaking hate catsan as it's so light it gets everywhere - he seems to drag half of it out of the tray when he's done and I've found it all over the floor. Plus it's expensive for the privilege. I used to like Thomas when I could get that one.

Used this for a couple of years for my indoor cat. Best I've found.

Cats best. In a covered litter tray with a filter on the top that you can change. Also, I find their diet makes a huge difference - you could change that slightly and see if it helps?

We can't change their diets because one has to have prescription stuff and the other is fussy and we CBA to feed them ddifferent things tbh. I think if anything it's the one on the prescription diet that smells.

I can't put into words how bad it smells after one night on the cheap stuff. I won't be able to bring guests round with it like this. As I say, there's nothing more we can do in terms of covering the tray.

We use catsan but mostly buy it online only now. I get the smart packs from zooplus, and top up bags from Waitrose (because they were a pick your own option a few months ago so I always get them with a 20% discount).

My girl has started using a tray at night, and I'm using Aldi's. Seems fine to me, and clumps easily. About £1.80 a bag from memory.

Yes, ours were fine when just using the tray at night when we just kept them in overnight. It's now they're fully indoors we are noticing the difference.

Yet another cat has been poisoned in the houses behind us so we can't let out now.

Thank you, I will try the Felight and newspaper ones next.

I've looked at those crystal ones but the bags are so small.. I can't imagine it's more cost effective than catsan.

It doesn't help that both our cats are male and large (not at all overweight, as confirmed by a vet, just tall and long).

You might want to try Maizy. It doesn't smell at all (we keep it in our kitchen, so really matters!) and clumps well so is easy to clean out.

Just be careful changing litter. When I tried something else recently we had a dirty protest so I switched back pronto!

We use "World's Best Cat Litter" for our two cats. It is sold as "100% natural, clumping cat litter, made from whole kernel corn, bio-degradable and suitable for toilet disposal". It seems to control the smell quite well, probably helped by scooping the pee clumps and solid waste a few times a day. Being able to flush them is very convenient. We tried the "World's Best Cat Litter Extra Strength", but didn't like the smell.

Whilst I'm pretty happy with World's Best, it is quite expensive, and we seem to be getting through a lot of it (partly because our young cats spend ages trampling around in the litter box, which breaks down the clumps a bit, meaning we have to change the litter more often than we had to with out old cats). I am about to try Super Benek Corn Cat Natural Clumping Litter and Applaws Nature’s Calling Cat Litter, to see if they work out any more economically. If they don't impress, we'll go back to Word's Best.

We buy from Zooplus.co.uk, who seem fairly competitive on pricing.

Intersand classic. It's brilliant. Scoop once a day and do a full change once a month. Absolutely no smell at all. Even though my two don't bury their poo. Both my cats use the box.

I use clean and Tidy from pets at home. ( white plastic bag with bits of bright pink on) It's the only one that seems to prevent that cat pee smell in my opinion. When it was out of stock, I tried lots of others but they smelt awful very quickly.

Really interesting that we all seem to recommend different brands. I wonder why.

I have 2 indoor cats and 2 large litter boxes. I use Catsan. I scoop poo out of the trays once per day (they "go" once a day each) and clean and change the litter only once a week. It doesnt smell. It only sometimes smells of pee on the day before if the large cat has been doing extra pees! The cats are a male and a female and neutered, not sure if that makes a difference or not. They are fed on James Wellbeloved senior dry food and a tiny amount of Felix pouch in a morning.

When we got them, we did try a wood based litter but all the bits got EVERYWHERE, all over the furniture, it was a right pain. Catsan is the best we have used and have been using it for years.

I've just done the same thing as my cats have gone from having access to outside to being inside only when we moved.
I use a newspaper based one, as the cats tolerate it the most. As long as I clean it out regularly then it's fine. Leave the wet stuff in too long then it starts to smell.
I scoop out poos and wet lumps, then do a total clean once a month. I have two cats and four trays (as they won't share and one won't poo in the same tray he wees in!).
I don't like any clay based litter like catsan as it tracks too much dust, and one of mine wouldn't use crystal litter - he looked at it in disgust then peed next to the tray rather than in it. The other one wasn't keen and refused to scrape it over. I think it was too harsh on their paws!

In NZ I used to use chick crumbs, which is a meal fed to chicks and was great as a litter when they only used it occasionally. I used to buy it in a rural foodstore, but no idea where I'd get that where I live now.

I agree with zoop1, World's Best Cat Litter is fantastic stuff - clumps brilliantly and flushable! Unfortunately after 9 months of using it just fine, Mr T suddenly went off the idea and after several dirty protests we are back to Catsan

Don't know if this helps at all, but do you line your tray under the litter? When I got Mr T (my first cat), MIL told me to line the tray with newspaper under the litter. it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I found that as soon as I stopped doing that, the wee smell got a hell of a lot better! Now I don't use any liners

I get those wood pellets used for wood burners and horse bedding. A local horse owner buys it in bulk and I get a bag for £4. It's lasts for ages, no smell at all (also hooded tray) and only a few specks of sawdust come out on kitty's feet. None at all if I keep on top of cleaning it out. It's almost the same as what you can buy specifically for cats but at half the price as its marketed for wood burning stoves.

After a bit of recent experimentation, I have recently switched to this stuff: www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/cat-litter-21103--1/sanicat-color-4-you-non-perfume-clumping-silica-gel-cat-litter-5-litres , which seems to be working for us for several reasons:
-It's truly unscented
-the silica seems to hold the smell of the cat waste very well
-One cat saves up her wees and does one or two massive ones per day, while the other one goes little and often - with this litter the large wee clumps don't turn into nasty welded soggy lumps like the clay based clumping litter.
-the cats seemed to have difficulty with the large granules of the non-clumping silica gel, but have no issue with digging in this. In fact the younger cat likes to get in the box and lie on the litter when the box has just been cleaned out!

Cost wise it's working out cheaper than the paper pellets - the box gets scooped once or twice a day and then topped up with fresh litter depending on how much they're going outside, and I completely empty and wash the box once a month. It's not needed before then.

Worlds Best is made of corn - you can make it cheaper by mixing in baby chick feed (which is exactly the same stuff but slightly less clumping)

Cat's best - similar to world's best I think. It tracks a bit, but as long as poo is covered it doesn't smell at all (one of mine doesn't cover his so I have to scoop immediately).

It's expensive but one fill lasts for weeks with an occasional top up, so it works out much cheaper than eg Tigerino silica which I used to use. It needs to be quite deep to make sure the wee forms into nice neat balls.

I scoop poos & wee balls into a dog poo bag & empty that - carefully! - into the loo (a big ball can cause a blockage so I break them up by squeezing the bag)

m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter/clumping_litter/cats_best_oko/14001

I use Catsan clumping. The clumping litter is so much easier!

This one best litter ever

Doesn't smell, flushable and clumps beautifully