About five months ago, we set out to find a different cat litter for our cats. This is for our own personal cats. At the clinic, we still use regular non-clumping clay litter (or Yesterday's News if needed for paw injuries) that are disposed as needed throughout the day. Even though wasteful, disposing litters and trays is an efficient way for us to minimize contamination and re-infection in feline patients at our small clinic.Such concerns do not apply to our cats. Prior to this litter comparison, we used clay clum
ping litter (Exquisicat) in large litter pans - one per cat. Five of the cats are together in the back office, separated from the rest of the clinic. The pans were scooped and wiped daily. Lots of work but we managed --- until some of the cats decided to be "side-pee-ers." The areas around the pans would be soaked with urine as they stood in the pan and urinated over the edge. Cleaning the urine daily added at least another 30 minutes to the morning routine. "Free" time that we did not have before the real clinic work starts. (Image: cleaned litter pans laid out to dry)We replaced the five large litter pans with three extra large covered litter containers (customized from plastic storage containers). That took care of the side-peeing. However, the amount of clay clumping litter needed for these large containers made them very heavy for moving around during clean-ups. Moreover, the dust clouds that follow each scooping were affecting the cats' respiratory health. Hence, our search for another clumping litter.
We tried Arm & Hammer Essentials, Feline Pine Clumping, Swheat Scoop Multi-Cat and World's Best Cat Litter (WBCL) Multi-Cat. You can review the details in the previous posts. Arm & Hammer Essentials and Feline Pine Clumping were dropped from the trial after 2 weeks due to the perfume (Essentials), dust, and only fair clumping quality. Swheat Scoop and WBCL were the final contenders. Both had low near-zero dust and good clumping quality. WBCL had a slight edge over Swheat Scoop in the clumping category but was more expensive. Swheat Scoop was more pleasant smelling --- wheat, reminiscent of baking in a kitchen, compared to the clean but barn-like corn smell of WBCL.
We could not decide between WBCL and Swheat Scoop. Hence, over the past several months, we used both litters for the five office cats and the two clinic cats. The following observations were made:
- Cats seemed to prefer Swheat Scoop over WBCL. The box with Swheat Scoop had more "treasures." We wonder if the location and container size had something to do with this preference. We have to wait until the next complete litter change if we want to test that idea. Based on the adequate usage in the WBCL box though, we suspect the preference, if any, is minimal.
- Swheat Scoop had less litter trapped in the litter box mat (bath mat by the box entrance).
- Both WBCL and Swheat Scoop can be tasty to cats (and dogs). The cats ate the litter only on the first day and did not have any subsequent problems. A reader commented that her dog got ill after over-indulging in WBCL. So you may have to be careful during the transition if your dogs are known to raid the litter box.
- WBCL clumped better than Swheat Scoop.
- WBCL seemed to last longer and needed to be refilled less often than Swheat Scoop.
We did a simple test and found that WBCL used less litter to clump the same volume of water (urine) compared to Swheat Scoop. With less litter removed with the urine clumps, WBCL required less refills and lasted longer. Click on image to enlarge.WBCL's efficient clumping quality makes it more economical (cost-effective) compared to Swheat Scoop. This put WBCL over Swheat Scoop for the win with our cats.
We did not start this post with the background information on our cats to be long-winded. We wanted to give you an idea how WBCL may be the ideal clumping litter for us. We wanted a clumping litter with the following qualities:
- not too heavy when used in extra large litter boxes
- low dust
- good clumping
- excellent odor control
- cost-effective
Your requirements may be different than ours. But World's Best Cat Litter did live up to its name and turned out to be the best litter for our cats.
4 comments:
Although WBCL and Swheat Scoop are both excellent choices, I prefer Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat because the clumping ability is equivalent, the dusting is equivalent or better and it doesn't track in households like the other two. Also, Dr.Elsey's is half the cost of WBCL.
Mike
Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat litter is indeed an excellent clumping litter. However, it is a clay clumping litter and, as such, made it too heavy for us to move the filled litter containers. Since we were looking for a clumping litter that is lighter than the clay clumping litter, we did not include information on other (better) available clay clumping litter. If you use the regular litter boxes (and not concerned about the weight of the litter), Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat is a great choice.
In addition to Dr. Elsey's litter (both Precious Cat and Cat Attract), we also looked at crystal litter. But they were not a good match for our cats. To keep it short, we limited our series to alternatives to the clay clumping litter.
We may write a follow-up post on our experience with other litters that did not make it to the final comparison.
I have, well, a few more cats than that plus, always, a few fosters of various ages, so I have most boxes in my basement, then also in the bathroom and spare cat room. I really liked WBCL for all the reasons you mentioned, and so did my felines for reasons they left in the box.
Even with this many, the litter, while somewhat expensive, was easy to care for and hardly tracked out of the box. It's so lightweight, however, that a few of the regular backhoes who like to move all the litter in the box before they go could shovel it out over the top of the box, and a few of the bigger ones upset the boxes when they stepped on the edges going in or out.
The biggest drawback was that in my damp basement, both WBCL and Swheat could absorb enough moisture from the air to lose clumping power and become just "sticky" enough difficult to scoop. I eventually went back to clumping clay except for special uses.
Thank you for the information on the drawbacks of WBCL's lighter weight. We use the large storage containers with the lids on (make for good napping places for the cats) so have not experienced the tipping over but I can imagine how that can happen. The diggers and kickers do manage to get some of the litter out the entrance onto the mat.
Too bad about the humidity. Thanks for the heads up.
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