Should I Clay or Should I Go Now?

A review of non-clay cat litters 32

Kitten in litter box


It's time to let the cat out of the bag about the icky stuff in your cat's litter box. (No, not that stuff.) If you're using clay-based kitty litter, you could be making a mess of the environment -- and your health.

Most conventional cat litter is made from natural clay, or sodium bentonite, which is formed into pellets and dried. The clay is strip mined from the earth in a destructive process that seems quite silly when you think about what happens to it once it hits the litter box: It is shat upon and then tossed in the landfill, where it will remain for a long, long time. In fact, over the average lifespan of a cat (15 years), you could be dumping almost 2,000 pounds of the stuff.

GRIST'S PICK

Swheat Scoop
$9.95 / 14 lbs.

But what's potentially more distressing is that the dust generated when the sodium bentonite is disturbed -- by a digging cat or a poop-scooping human -- contains silicon particles that are a known carcinogen. Fortunately for both felines and their friends, there are an increasing number of clay-alternatives on pet-store shelves. They fall into several categories: wood-based (pine, cedar), plant-based (wheat, corn, grass fibers), and paper-based (newsprint, recycled newspaper). Unlike clay, most of these litters are biodegradable -- especially if disposed of in a paper or corn-based bag -- and flushable, though there is some debate as to whether this is advisable, especially in coastal areas.

But which of these alternative litters is the cat's meow? Here's the scoop.

Feline Pine
$2.99 / 4.1 lbs.
Ingredients: Renewable yellow pine and natural guar bean gum
Flushable: Yes
Biodegradable: Yes

My cat Bella prefers softer litter, so I got the scoopable version of Feline Pine instead of the large-pelleted original. That was my first mistake. The scoopable Feline Pine is essentially tiny flakes of pine -- like sawdust, or the cedar shavings you might see in a gerbil tank. Because it's so light and flaky, it doesn't sift easily through a slotted litter spoon. It also sticks to cat fur, which means it slowly starts to appear everywhere -- on my couch, on my pile of clean clothes, on my bathroom rug, anywhere the cat hangs out.

Swheat Scoop
$9.95 / 14 lbs.
Ingredients: Naturally processed wheat
Flushable: Yes
Biodegradable: Yes

The Swheat Scoop packaging claims that natural wheat enzymes help neutralize odor and clump with urine. I can attest to the former -- the litter box maintained a pleasant-ish oatmeal scent -- but as to the clumping power, I found that a lot of the urine clumps stuck to the bottom of the litter box, which proved a pain when cleaning.

World's Best Cat Litter
$10.95 / 7 lbs.
Ingredients: Whole kernel corn
Flushable: Yes
Biodegradable: Yes

I like that these guys go ahead out on a limb and call this the "world's best cat litter." I don't know that I'd go that far, but this stuff does clump well -- it actually ends up looking like a Nutty Buddy (those ice-cream cones covered in peanuts) and scoops well. It doesn't quite cover the poop though, and did end up smelling more than clay litters I've used.

Good Mews
$6.99 / 8 lbs.
Ingredients: Recycled paper fiber
Flushable: Yes
Biodegradable: Yes

These black pellets smell strongly of newsprint, and that is the first thing I noticed when I poured them into the litter box. I'm pretty sure Bella also took notice of this, as she refused to use the box and ended up pooping on my cushy comforter (probably the surface in my apartment most resembling a litter box) while I was away that day.

Fresh Step Crystals
$12.99 / 8 lbs.
Ingredients: Silica gel (sodium silicate)
Flushable: No
Biodegradable: No

After the Unfortunate Comforter Incident of '08 (see above), I ran out to one of the few stores still open that night and grabbed the only non-clay litter I could find: these blindingly bright blue and white crystals. It wasn't until later that I learned that this silica-based litter is readily inhaled by both humans and felines and has been linked to respiratory problems like lung cancer, bronchitis, and in some cats, a fatal form of tuberculosis. Good thing I wouldn't have recommended it anyway -- the crystals have a strong perfume-y smell and were quite noticeably crunchy (read: loud!) whenever Bella used the box.

Cat Country Elite (Finicky Feline Formula)
$5.95 / 8 lbs.
Ingredients: Organic wheatgrass fibers
Flushable: Yes
Biodegradable: Yes

The Cat Country Elite formula is supposedly a smaller-pelleted version of the more common Cat Country litter. Because this stuff is made from wheatgrass, I thought Bella would totally dig the smell -- but it actually made her sneeze quite a bit when I first introduced it to the litter box. She did start using it though, and it seemed to perform just fine -- but I'm not a fan of the intense farm-y smell.

Our tester Bella with her pick.

Photo: Sarah van Schagen

The bottom line: None of these cat litters are perfect. My top two picks are Swheat Scoop (good with odor, annoying cleanup) and World's Best (good clumping, lost points for odor). But a once-monthly annoyance seems preferable to a smelly box all the time -- plus Swheat Scoop is half the price of World's Best (per pound). So for Bella and me, Swheat Scoop hits the sweet spot. Though perhaps the very best option is to combine two different types of litter.

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  1. konklarii Posted 5:18 am
    23 Sep 2008

    I have pinpointed the odor issue!Once-monthly cleanup, you say?  That could be the source of the odor problem with World's Best. ;-)

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  2. Sushikat Posted 6:26 am
    23 Sep 2008

    Please don't flushFlushing litter can get parasites from your cat's feces into the water table, and consequently into marine mammals' food supply. It's a possible cause of disease for some species. Especially important if you have an outdoor cat that occasionally snacks on rodents and birds.
    PS: My cat and I agree - Swheat Scoop is the best!

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  3. mihan's avatar

    mihan Posted 7:25 am
    23 Sep 2008

    FoodI had just been thinking I should write in about this... I get the whole strip-mined-clay thing, but I have issues with having my cats shit in food, too. I mean, how is this better/different than food-based ethanol? I grew up in a culture where food was food, and not to be wasted.

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  4. loraz Posted 7:36 am
    23 Sep 2008

    Swheat ScoopWe use Swheat Scoop, and I'm very happy with it.  I find that if you scoop out the litter box every day (it's a pain, I know, but you really should anyway for your cat's sake), it doesn't stick to the bottom of the litter box.  And, responding to mihan, Swheat Scoop is made from secondary (non-food-grade wheat), according to the website.  I assume this means that this wheat didn't make the cut for food and that Swheat Scoop is diverting what would otherwise be a waste product into a usable product.  In any case, it has to be better than strip-mined clay, right?  

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  5. pamzella Posted 9:06 am
    23 Sep 2008

    Missed one!I agree- I switched from World's Best with their formula change about a year ago, it just smelled very strange.  It's also really expensive.  
    But also in the category of biodegradable and like World's Best and Swheat Scoop but SO much cheaper is chicken crumble.  About $8 for a 20-lb bag in m urban part of the woods.  
    It works best, like the other two, when you use a small quantity, scoop daily, and completely replace the litter in the box often.

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  6. amc89 Posted 11:14 am
    23 Sep 2008

    Wood pellet fuelSarah, the same thing happened to my poor cat Ralph. When I tried using the newspaper litter, my cat pooped on my bed. I knew it was too good to be true.  
    The best material I've used was wood pellet fuel, which we used to get at Home Depot. Super cheap, no smell, no dust, and easy to clean but our local Home Depots stopped selling it and it broke our hearts.  
    I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but truly the most important action you can take in regards to minimizing the eco-footprint of your cats is to adopt from a shelter or rescue group and to spay and nueter them. And to feed them non-factory farmed food.

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  7. marylounoble Posted 11:33 am
    23 Sep 2008

    Cat LitterI have found all of the recycled paper and wood fiber litters to be vastly superior to clay.  They clump well and track far less.  I do not dispose of them in the toilet, however.
    Marylou Noble

    Portland, Oregon

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  8. ndunne Posted 2:23 pm
    23 Sep 2008

    swheat scoopBeen using the wheaty stuff for a number of years now. I've found that the amount of dried urine that needs to be scraped off the bottom of the box correlates negatively to the depth of the wheaty stuff in the box (i.e. more wheat equals less strenous scraping of coagulated feline pee!).
    You might also try rubbing a little olive oil (single estate, first press, extra virgin, of course!) on the inside of the kitty box when you do your main monthly cleaning. It helps prevent  the cementing of the urine-wheat compound to the sides of the box

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  9. mountainmama Posted 4:26 pm
    23 Sep 2008

    More details, please!What is chicken crumble? Where would one buy it? With 7 indoor cats I am very interested in the alternatives to clay litter. I'd like my feline family and I to be doing better for the environment!
    Thanks.

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  10. Cocasio Posted 10:36 pm
    23 Sep 2008

    Issue with Food based litterI guess I just have a fundemental issue with using food based liter.  It seems wrong to allow my cat to use wheat for her business when people are starving.  Add into this, that grain prices are rising.  Pretty soon corn and wheat based liters are going to see that price increase.
    We moved to Pine based liter.  We use the pellets and gradually transitioned our cats to it.  It beats sWheat scoop for order control.  The only thing I ever smell is poop just after one of our cats has done their business and sawdust.  Add in the fact that the pine liter is cheaper by about 25%, I think it is worth investigating.  Additionally, I have found that the pine pellets do not track anywhere near as badly as sWheat scoop.
    Feline Pine is one brand but there are several.

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  11. Fawn Pattison's avatar

    Fawn Pattison Posted 1:25 am
    24 Sep 2008

    I like the pineMy cat has been doing his business on Feline Pine for many years and is a big fan.  We use the old-school original style.  I like that the bag includes instructions for slowly transitioning your cat over from your old litter to avoid rejection tragedies like the Unfortunate Comforter Incident of 08.

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  12. bailsout Posted 4:10 am
    24 Sep 2008

    Sand up for the environmentAnyone else tried using sand? After cleaning the box with the scooper, I then poor the sand in a bucket and clean it with water, and let it dry for a couple of days in the sun. In the meantime, of course, I use another batch of sand while I'm waiting for the first to dry. Biggest odor problem is the urine smell if not tended to every four or five days. Also the litter box is heavier with sand than fiber products. The whole operation is a little labor intensive but the out of pocket expense is nearly nothing.

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  13. Knaag59 Posted 11:50 pm
    24 Sep 2008

    Cat litterI agree that scooping once a month is terribly wrong.

    I scoop up after our cat has used her box when I am home (she usually waits until I come home). If not I scoop immidiately after I come home. It is easily done and does not take much time. After all: we flush after every seating.

    As far as cat litter goes, I would like to use some of the "better" brands, but unfortunately they are all more expensive than "Fresh Step" or "Scoop Away", which I think are from the same company. I get 40 bls for $12 at BJ's.

    Sand is good, but does not clump very well.

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  14. emxander Posted 12:23 am
    25 Sep 2008

    Cooking SprayI have to second NDunne's comments.  I had the sticky clumps of Sweat Scoop and it nearly made me stop using it.  But then I read the side of the box and they recommended using cooking spray in the box before filling.  Seems strange but works like a charm.
    Now I have no complaints at all.  Easily the best litter I have tried (and I"ve tried a lot).
    What bothers me most is that I can't find a simple, deep, stainless pan to use as a litter box.  Plastic gets scratched and then hold in the odor.  And it's, well, plastic. . .

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  15. latenac Posted 6:31 am
    25 Sep 2008

    feline pineWe've been using scoopable feline pine for awhile now and don't have any of the issues you seem to. Doesn't stick to our cats or float in the air and scooping is just fine. We do scoop thinking out of the litter boxes every other day and add litter as needed. I can't imagine the smell from any cat litter if we only cleaned once a month.

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  16. dandel Posted 12:05 am
    26 Sep 2008

    silica litterI saw the silica litter (Space brand) at Trader Joe's recently, and have been very happy with them ever since.  I'm a little confused by the statement above that the crystals are "readily inhaled by both humans and felines"...how can this be possible?  The crystals are really quite big--comparablein size to the gravel you put in the bottom of aquariums.  My cats' nostrils are not nearly that big, and my face isn't getting that close to the box!  :)  I have not noticed any strong perfume smell from this brand, and the crunchy sound is hardly noticeable in my covered litter boxes.
    I've only used clay, Feline Pine, and this brand of silica, so my experience isn't extensive but the silica has been my favorite by far.
    While scooping daily may ideal, I think that in most busy households it doesn't happen in reality.  The nice thing about the crystals is that it absorbs all the liquid waste, so all you have to scoop is the solids, and there's much less of that.
    I'll be doing some more research on its safety though.

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  17. PermieWriter's avatar

    PermieWriter Posted 5:14 am
    29 Sep 2008

    Felines v. marine mammalsIf your cat has toxoplasmosis, it sheds the bacteris in its poop, which can kill otters (link to Monterey Bay Aquarium page on otters. Warning: contains links to webcams in otter habitats, so if you never leave the house again, don't say I didn't warn you).
    So if you live upstream of rivers or coastlines where otters live, you should not only keep your cat's poop out of the waste treatment system (unless you have a septic system that never needs pumping), but you should also keep them from pooping outdoors if it's an area where it could wash to the river or sea. On the other hand, it's usually feral cats that have toxoplasmosis. I wonder if feral cat colonies are the reason the sea otter population hasn't spread beyond the Monterey area, since they're doing so well there.
    On the litter front: the best feline-related investment we've ever made was a Littermaid automatic cat box. It scoops every time the cat goes, so it never has a chance to get gross. Technology to the rescue!

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  18. abarber Posted 2:29 am
    30 Sep 2008

    Best litter we've triedMy husband and I have tried most of the brands you mention (we have being using non-clay-based litters for more than 10 years) and the one our cats (and us humans) have liked best is "Nature's Miracle Odor Control Clumping Cat Litter".  Long name, but a great product.  It clumps well, is very low dust, has a nice pine smell, is soft on the cat's paws, is easy to sift through, doesn't get tracked around alot, and is flushable (urine clumps don't become rock hard as with Swheat Scoop, etc).  We had been using World's Best but both cats immediately switched to only using a box of the Miracle stuff when it was offered side-by-side with World's Best.  

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  19. Ian G's avatar

    Ian G Posted 5:47 am
    30 Sep 2008

    Gotta love Swheat ScoopTried most of these litters(I mean my cat has) and I have to agree that Swheat Scoop is the best. It's worth a little extra trouble to clean up to not have a rank smelling cat box and be able to dispose of the litter in a greener way.
    This was so useful I put it up on my site, since it's a major pain to run through all the types of litter personally like we had to. Check my Grist profile for the addy and vote it up to get the word out and give Sarah some hits!

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  20. photoboy Posted 6:33 am
    30 Sep 2008

    better than what I've been using!Thanks for that great review!  What a relief...I've been using a pile of river rocks in the litter box and it just hasn't been working...clumping?  Not at all!  And odor control?  Forget it.  Her attempts to scratch and cover in the rocks do keep her claws trimmed down a bit, but every time I clean the box I have to move 125 lbs!  
    Sorry about your comforter...

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  21. hopeful Posted 7:57 am
    30 Sep 2008

    Smartcat box and safflower seedsWe switched to a Smartcat box with safflower seeds 2 years ago. The box drains the urine to an easily emptied catchbox, and the feces is scooped out, leaving the seeds. The box itself is a bit expensive, and took a week or so for the cat to get used to, but over time, we've found it to be cheaper and to produce much less waste than any other indoor set up.

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  22. rachelsqf Posted 8:03 am
    30 Sep 2008

    sticking to the bottom?If your cat's waste is sticking to the bottom of the litter pan, try spraying the bottom with non-stick cooking spray before filling it with litter. I do this with my Swheat scoop and it's a breeze to clean up!

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  23. pynnacle Posted 3:00 am
    01 Oct 2008

    uhh, yeah"keep your cat's poop out of the waste treatment system (unless you have a septic system that never needs pumping)"
    This is backwards thinking. If you are connected to a city's waste treatement system, they employ the use of bacteria-killing technology such as UV rays or chlorine before releasing the water. If you have a septic system, the bacteria are more likely to survive and make it to your drain field...which then trickles down to the water table and eventually flows out to sea.
    If your waste treatment facility is proven responsible for releasing contaminated water, then it is ignoring federal regulations. In fact the last wastewater treatment facility I went to (in Miami) produced treated water that was actually achieving drinking water quality standards! So please don't knock your city's treament system if you don't know how it works. :)

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  24. rosalux Posted 3:47 am
    01 Oct 2008

    flushingpynnacle, treatment plants don't get all the water in most places. There are still combined sewer/storm drain outflows in lots of cities - Minneapolis has a few, and when we get a big storm they put untreated sewage directly into the Mississippi. Despite long-term efforts to eliminate these drains, there just hasn't been the money to change all of them.
    Plus, even in a perfect system, the more solids in the sewage, the more chemical & energy needed to treat it. Not to mention the extraneous water use and the chance in an older building of plugging up the plumbing - I've signed leases that specified no flushing cat litter, I assume because the landlord has experienced problems with it.
    All that said, Allie's Answers has directions for making cat litter out of old newspaper at home, and it's a fun kid project (I got the link from fakeplasticfish.com) http://alliesanswers.com/tip-of-the-day/tip-of-the-day-ma ...

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  25. 12doglady Posted 8:11 pm
    01 Oct 2008

    Cat LitterI read the article about different types of cat litter.  I run a cat shelter, and whenever we can we buy the feline pine and the recycled paper.  We mix it together.  When the litter is ready to be changed we scoop out the poop and take what is left and compost it.  It eventually turns into compost which can be used around non-food type plants.

    Glenda Beatty

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  26. alaskalainen Posted 12:58 am
    02 Oct 2008

    Scooping the poop, and then...If you don't flush your kitty's poo, then what do you do with it? Put it in the trash? I imagine that the municipal measures taken for bacteria in the trash are rather less than those taken for sewage which is expected to contain fecal matter from various species.

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  27. pynnacle Posted 3:08 am
    02 Oct 2008

    toss or flushGood point alaskalainen, but if we assume that most people's solid waste goes to an engineered landfill, and not a town dump, then we can probably say that the waste will experience hell. A capped landfill will have non-aerobic stages and really high temperatures that could kill most anything. Before the landfill is capped, however, rain can carry contaminates to the ground. The goal of most of these newer landfills is to contain the leaching and send it off to the water treatment facility, but most landfills have problems with this...especially older ones.
    So I guess the best thing to do, based on the differences of experiences in this thread, is to try to determine how your city deals with your poop water and with your garbage. In my city, water given to the sea or to the people is treated in the highest regard (I guess because of the sensitivity of the surrounding ecosystem) but the landfills have already proven to be a little less strict in their standards...so here I would trust my cat poo to the sewer. But it might be the opposite elsewhere.

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  28. rosalux Posted 7:22 am
    03 Oct 2008

    exactlyIt depends completely on where you are. Our sewers are old and sometimes overflow (something I didn't know until I looked into it to answer this exact same question.)
    But our trash is incinerated, so it doesn't go into a landfill at all. This is a good reason to keep plastic out of it as much as possible.
    This is like energy generation questions - every place is different, so each situation has different appropriate technologies.

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  29. rosalux Posted 7:29 am
    03 Oct 2008

    if you're in San FranciscoI've already said Minneapolis has combined sewers and storms cause untreated outflows.
    Looks like San Francisco has the same issue. I know it's a common problem for other cities, including Chicago and New York. It can also be an issue for small towns that can't afford to upgrade their treatment systems.
    This article http://www.museumca.org/creeks/1690-OBSFSewers.html is really good, and has a diagram of the storm/sewage water system. It mentions the benefits of combined sewers because runoff water is also treated.
    But it also says:  "The current system is designed such that overflows to the bay or ocean now occur on average one to ten times per year, depending on the rainfall and the watershed."
    One to ten is a wide range, but it's something to think about.

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  30. veruca Posted 5:26 am
    09 Oct 2008

    Healthy Pet Cracked PineOur cats didn't like pine pellets, but we found a litter by Healthy Pet called Cracked Pine. It's not saw-dusty but it's not pellet-y either. Just right!

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  31. vitalems Posted 2:24 am
    27 Nov 2008

    Kitty Litter at Simplicity Animal HospitalMy Mom is a Veterinarian and owns her own small animal practice. As you can imagine we go through a lot of litter on a daily basis and we hate not only the cost but the waste and dust. We recently bought a paper shredder for the office and we have switched to shredded paper for our litter. Not only is it recycling our office paper but produces less dust, we can compost it, and for felines who have had surgery this is the way to go because unlike litter it does not stick to the incision.

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