I just got a kitten and I need to know the best kitty litter to buy? I'm concerned about smell?

Question

And, what about those automatic pooper scoopers. Do they work?

Answer 1

fresh step scoopable...comes in unscented or scented. personally, i use the scented and my cats are fine with it. i have 4 adult cats, and you can NOT tell where the litter box is in my house unless you happen to walk into the room it is located and physically see it for yourself. it is a bit more expensive, but with one cat, you won't go through nearly as much as i do. i have been using fresh step since it came on the market...with the exception of trying some other brands to 'save money.' in the end, i went back to fresh step before finishing the other products (i tried 2 others over the years) and have never tried another. the bottom line, no matter what brand or type you choose...the most important thing is to ensure you clean it regularly :)

Answer 2

The automatic pooper scoopers work but there pretty expensive, I have a litter box that has a lid on it and it works good to keep smell out, and I use Fresh Step kitty litter. I hate smell too.

Answer 3

I've always used Arm & Hammers Super Scoop. It's not cheap, but it works very well. Sometimes I'm a forgetful kitty daddy, and don't clean the litter box as often as I should. I'm afraid an automatic pooper scooper would scare the hell out of my cat.

Answer 4

I would really like to help you! I have 1 cat ( I had 3 but they passed away) Mine are out door cats, but they have a litter box in the garage. Here is my advice: DON'T buy the "Arm and Hammer brand" The best kind is the "Fresh Step". And no the auto matic ones do not work. Just a regular one is best. Fresh step in the bag is better too. You get more for less then the stuff in the tubs. If is a win, win for you and your cat! The kitten also may be a little silly and sleep in un used litter (my cats did) you just have to sort of teach them and introduce them to the litter box. Make sure the bow is somewht large and close to the ground.

Fresh Step is the best for smell too. and clumps SUPER easy.

Answer 5

You can spend a lot of money on expensive cat litters, but you really don't have to. I was at the NYC annual cat show in Madison Square Garden, and there was a demonstration of World's Best cat litter, clumping, flushable, and virtually no odor. It was great, but it is also expensive.

But there is a simple, cheap method for keeping a litter pan spotless and odor free, and here it is. Before you go out and pend a lot of money on something else, please just give this method a try.

Buy a bag of white clay litter -- non-clumping, non-flushable, plain old white clay litter. A ten pound bag costs a couple of bucks. Get a spray bottle and fill it 1/5 full with chlorine bleach, and the rest of the way with water. Have a non-slotted scoop and some cheap paper towels handy.

Fill the litter pan to about 3 inches deep with the litter -- no deeper; there is no need. Wait for 12 hours. When you go to clean the pan, scoop the poop with the scooper, and toss in the toilet. Then, tilt the litter pan 45-60 degrees to one side, so that the loose litter flows to one side. The stuff stuck to the bottom is the pee-laden litter. Scoop it out with the non-slotted scoop, and toss it in the toilet. Then take the spray bottle with the bleach-water solution, and mist the exposed side you have just scooped. Wipe the surfaces clean with a paper towel.

You have now removed all the waste from 1/2 of the litter pan, and disinfected that half of the pan. But on the olfactory end, you have gotten rid of the source of the stink, because chlorine bleach neutralizes urine on contact, so there is no source of odor on that half of the pan.

Tilt the pan 45-60 degrees the other way, and repeat.

Shake the pan a little to distribute the litter evenly again. Then grab the kitty litter bag, and pour enough clean litter into the litter pan to replace the soiled litter you removed. Flush the toilet.

The litter pan is clean and disinfected. There is fresh litter on top, unsoiled litter at the bottom, and you have chemically neutralized any source of odor.

Aside from immediately after a cat has made a fresh poop in the litter pan -- which will never smell like Chanel No. 5 no matter how much you spend for cat waste removal -- the really offending stink from a cat litter pan (the stink that wafts through the house and hangs on the air like a morning fog) comes from the pee festering on the bottom of the litter pan -- that little bit of pee that actually moistens the pan itself, and then ages through several permutations of stink. This method removes the dirty litter, then neutralizes the source of the odor. It is also very economical. And it takes about three minutes from start to finish.

I am a maniac about this, and tend to clean the litter pan morning and evening. You may be more lackadaisical. But promise me, there will be no odor.

There is an added bonus to this method. Most people who use white clay litter tend to scoop the poop daily, but let the pee-clumps build on the bottom of the pan. Of course this stinks, and so at the end of about a week, they empty the whole thing into a garbage bag, clean the pan, and refill with completely fresh litter.

When you disinfect and deodorize your pans daily, and replace only the used litter, one ten pound bag of litter will last for about two weeks (!!!!!) for two cats. You use much, much less litter, and the litter pan gets cleaned and disinfected daily, so you don't have to empty it and clean it any more frequently than that.

You will find no better, safer, healthier -- and certainly no more economical -- way to keep your litter pan odorless, and I'm not kidding. I am a maniac about this. I live in small spaces, and a little bit of kitty-stink goes a long way.

I learned something interesting when I was at the cat show. Cats were considered free-roaming, basically outdoor animals until 1947 when a farmer "invented" kitty litter. It is kitty litter that made the exclusively indoor cat a possibility.

The guy who "invented" kitty litter died sometime within the past 6 or 7 years. I saw his obituary in the NY Times.He was a farmer, who bought a farm with a lot of bottom land on it, and during a drought, the soil on that bottom land, which was clay, would harden like a rock. He could grow nothing from it. But he learned that he could "harvest" this clay, grind it up, and sell it to people for their cats to use for potties. He filled his car trunk up with bags of ground clay and traveled his region, selling ground clay in bulk to his neighbors. He became much more successful selling ground clay than he had been as a farmer, and of course, when he died in the late 90's or early 21st century, he was a wealthy man.

White clay litter, a dilute solution of chlorine bleach in a spray bottle, and three minutes a day. Just try it for one week. Please, just do. You do not need to spend any more money for anything else.

Answer 6

Fresh Step is the only kind I will use.

And lots of people here have commented that those automatic litter boxes are no good. Some cats are scared of them and won't use it. It's more trouble than its worth to some. At $80 I'll stick with the old fashioned way: scoop.

Answer 7

I will use clumping kind...

dont waste your $ on the automatic litter box, since they are pricey and they break down easily....

I would also be careful about the scented kind of litter, since cats can be very careful with smells etc... but I think since your cat is still a kitten, it may adapt to the scented one easier... Once you have established a kind/brand of litter that your cat uses regularly, then don't change it. They can be picky where they do their "business", and I am sure you don't want your cat to do it somewhere else in your house...

Also clean their litter box daily to keep it clean... Cats hate dirty litter boxes... just imagine you have to go in an unflushed toilet... gross...

Good luck with your new addition

Answer 8

just go to ur local pet shop and ask the assistant most kitty litter is fragrenced so wont smell and soz but i have never heared of an automatic pooper scooper :)

Answer 9

I tried three different types and brands of litter.

Feline Fresh clumping formula - made of pine shavings/ pieces, environment friendly, clumps well but does nothing for feces odor.

Yesterday's News - newpaper pellets, environment friendly, absorbs urine, non-clumping so difficult to remove soiled pellets, difficult for the kittens to move around and does nothing for feces odor or cleanings. My kittens have been caught removing pellets out of the litter box and rolling them around on the floor.

Scoop Away! Fresh Scent - nicely fragranted clumping clay litter, controls all odor for about a day, sand-like, easy for the kittens to cover their urine and feces with, has fine dust, not environmentally friendly but is my kitten's litter of choice.

When my bf and I adopted our two kittens, we choose to keep them on the brand and type of litter they were using at the store which was the Feline Fresh. The house smelled all the time, we were cleaning the litter boxes several times a day.

A friend suggested Yesterday's New because she said it would control the odor. It was okay for the urine but feces needed to be cleaned out immediately. Scooping was not fun.

We really wanted to stick with an environment friendly product but did not want to keep changing brands. Costco sold Scoop Away, so we bought a tub to try. It was very dusty when you pour it into the litter box. The kittens inspected it and loved it. We had all three types of litter out for them and they both choosed the Scoop Away. They would walk into the other two litter box and then walk out and go to use the Scoop Away instead. The other two litter boxes were basically untouched for weeks.

Scoop Away is our answer to the litter box for now. We scoop once a day.


Additional comments below:

The Scoop Away cost $11 for a 40lb bucket at Costco. We change the litter box entirely every 3-4 weeks with about 3 inches of litter in the box.

Mary C. commented that she uses clay litter, non-flushable but then goes and flushes it down the toilet. You can clog your toilet. With regards to the bleach sloution, it will need to be prepared fresh because dilute bleach will lose it's disinfection properties overtime.

A general problem with clay litter, it tracks pretty badly. You will need to get a good litter catching mat. We vacuum around the litter box everytime we clean the litter box.

As for automatic litter boxes, they are all very expensive. The ones with rakes will jam. The only one, I see potential is the Litter-Robot but it costs $300 and needs to be run manually for kittens because of the weight sensor limitations. I have not tried any of theautomatic litter box solutions but I have read many user reviews and watched many product videos. I find it difficult to justify $300 for a litter box.

Answer 10

Stay away from things with clay. The dust form it can cause problems for your cat down the line.

The problem is that the other products can get a little pricier.

Good luck with the kitty.