Choosing the best cat litter for your cat
Nowadays there are lots of different types of cat litter available in the market. But which one is best for you and your beloved feline? And how often should you change the litter? In this blog we’ll answer all your questions!
Scented or unscented cat litter
Cat litter is available with or without added scent. The extra scent (e.g. baby powder scent, lavender scent ... ) that is sometimes added, is to mask unpleasant odours in the litter box.
However, some sensitive cats prefer unscented cat litter. Don’t worry, unscented cat litter can also absorb odours. Often harmless additives like zeolite, silica or carbon are added instead. These additives have typical properties of retaining or even eliminating unpleasant odours.
Clumping or non-clumping?
How and how often you’ll have to clean the litter box depends on whether the litter is clumping or not. In general, with clumping cat litter you can easily and quickly remove urine and faeces with a scoop. This means that a complete change of litter is not necessary every day. You’ll only need 5 minutes a day to remove the clumps from the cat litter and that's it. Easy-peasy, isn’t!? 💩
Non-clumping cat litter such as wood pellets or silica gel pellets offer other advantages. They cause less dust, are biodegradable (green container) and easy to maintain ... Read more about it in our blog.
Other things to keep in mind
Where to put your cat’s litter box?
If you place the litter box in the living room or kitchen, it’s best to choose a cat litter that absorbs odours quickly and efficiently, but also smells good, causes little dust and does not stick to the paws. If your cat litter box is in the storage room or garage, odour absorption and dust are less important and you can go for environmentally-friendly wood pellets.
Outdoor or indoor cat?
An indoor cat will always do its business inside a litter box. In that case, we recommend a low-maintenance cat litter. If your cat spends a lot of time outdoors, and therefore does most of its business outside, it’s not necessary to clean the litter box as often. In this case, it’s best to choose a litter that is less maintenance-friendly, but more durable, such as wood pellets or silica.
Budget
How much do you want to spend on cat litter? Some cat litter is more budget-friendly than others. Also keep in mind that certain types of cat litter need to be replaced sooner. So the most expensive cat litter bag isn’t necessarily the most expensive one in practice, because it may need to be replaced less often.
The environment
Do you have a heart for the environment? Then you should definitely go for biodegradable cat litter.
Which cat litter does your velvet paw prefer?
Perhaps your cat is sensitive to odours or dust or has sensitive paws. She often shows this by not using the litter box properly.
Different types of cat litter
Bentonite cat litter
What is it?
Bentonite is a type of clay and bentonite cat litter is a classic, clumping cat litter.
Benefits of bentonite?
- Strong clumping action
- Easy to maintain: remove clumps daily and replace the entire contents of the litter box once a week
- Economical in use
- Budget-friendly
- Available in different scents
- Soft on the paws
What should be considered when buying bentonite?
- Some dust
- It happens from time to time that the granules get stuck on the paws and thus end up all around your house. But no worries! A cat litter mat offers the perfect solution. 👌
- Not biodegradable, so can only be disposed of with the household waste
Blend cat litter
There’s also mixed cat litter, for example a mixture of bentonite and silica. By adding silica, unpleasant odours are reduced to a minimum.
Bentonite for your cat
Silica cat litter
What is it?
Silica cat litter is a cat litter composed of natural raw materials.
Benefits of silica?
- Very low dust
- Ideal for people and cats with allergies
- Neutralises unpleasant odours
- High absorption capacity
- Coarse silica granules don’t stick to the paws
- Easy to maintain: remove discoloured granules daily and replace the entire contents of the litter box once every 2 weeks
- Lightweight, especially an advantage when you have to carry the bag
What should be considered when buying silica?
- Not all silica cat litter is clumping. Discover our range of silica clumping cat litter here.
- Usually a little more expensive than bentonite, but also more economical in use.
- Only meets your cat’s natural preferences to a limited extent.
Silica for your furry friend
Wood pellets
What is it?
Wood pellet cat litter is made of pressed natural wood fibres and sawdust.
Benefits of wood pellets?
- 99% dust-free
- High absorption capacity
- Neutralises bad odours thanks to the natural wood scent
- Biodegradable; can be disposed of in the organic waste bin and is therefore the most ecological cat litter
- Dries quickly
- Doesn’t stick to the paws or fur
What should be considered when buying wood pellets?
- Non-clumping
- Some pet owners find the wood smell too strong
- Less easy to maintain, best to replace the contents every 4 days.
Cat litter guide: an overview
| Wood pellets | Silica cat litter | Clumping e.g. bentonite or mix | Clumping and scented e.g. bentonite with baby powder scent | |
| Indoor/Outdoor cat | Ideal for cats that also go outside | Indoor cats | Outdoor cats | Indoor cats |
| Litter box location | Ideal for garage or storage area | Ideal for kitchen or living area | Ideal for kitchen or living area | Ideal for kitchen or living area, especially suitable because of the added scent |
| Suitable for | All cats | All cats | All cats | Less suitable for kittens |
| Environmentally-friendly? | Biodegradable | Little waste | 35% less waste | 35% less waste |
| Absorbent? | Highly absorbent | Highly absorbent | Very highly absorbent | Very highly absorbent |
| Dust? | 99% dust-free | Very little dust | Little dust | Little dust |
Cat litter for kittens
A kitten is moving in? Then there are a few extra things to take into account. A kitten is more sensitive to strong odours and in rare cases may dare to eat the cat litter.
Silica cat litter can be best used for kittens. There’s also cat litter that is specially designed for kittens, such as the one below, which you’ll find in our range. The scent is a mixture of herbs adapted to kittens.
Getting your cat used to new cat litter
- Mix some of the new cat litter into the existing cat litter.
- Over a period of 7 to 10 days, mix in more and more new cat litter.
- After 7 to 10 days, your cat will be used to the new litter and you can fill the litter box completely with the new cat litter.
Is your cat experiencing problems with the current cat litter? If you have a cat that holds its urine too long or is not house-trained, a quicker change is often desirable or even necessary. This is how it works:
- Buy 2 or 3 different types of litter.
- Clean each litter box and fill each with a different type of filling
- Check which litter box your cat uses most.
- Fill all your litter boxes with your cat’s favourite litter.
How often should you change the cat litter?
How often you should replace the cat litter isn’t always easy to determine. It depends on the type of litter, the number of cats and the number of litter boxes. In general we can say that with bentonite and silica cat litter it’s best to remove as much urine and faeces as possible from the litter box(es) every day with a cat litter scoop.
Once a week (bentonite) or once every 2 weeks (silica) replace the entire contents of the litter box. With wood pellets, daily removal of dirt is more difficult and you’ll need to change the entire box sooner (approximately every 4 days).
Tip
Litter tray bags make changing cat litter much easier. Remove the entire bag so that the bottom of your litter box simply stays clean. A deodoriser or deodorant for litter boxes are useful tools to mask unpleasant odours for a longer period of time. You can use our cat litter deodorisers by first sprinkling the powder in the litter tray and then adding the cat litter on top.
There you go, hopefully you’ve learned something thanks to our blog.
Have fun with your pet!
In a nutshell
How often you should replace the cat litter, depends on the type of litter, the number of cats and the number of litter boxes (from once every 4 days to once every 2 weeks). TIP: Keep unpleasant odours away for longer with cat litter deo.
There’s cat litter that’s especially designed for kittens, for example with an appropriate fragrance.
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