Best cat litter?

[TimO]

When I needed to replace the Pets at Home Fullers Earth, I tried some Bob Martin Ultimate Odour Control litter, which is another Silica Gel based litter.  It works pretty well, and seems to absorb most of the smell, except for immediatley after Tali has taken a dump, when an air freshener is very useful if you're in the house!  It seems pretty economical, since only a little gets removed with the poo when you clear the tray.  You have to leave it a bit after it's been used before clearing it, since it does suck up the liquids, and takes a while before that evaporates off.

The main downside with it is that it is very light, so very easily gets tracked around the house, although the vacuum cleaner sucks it up equally easily.

After experimenting, I'm not sure which I think is best, the Fullers Earth, or the Silica Gel stuff, they both seem to work fairly well, although the Fullers Earth does tend to form into lumps where it's got "damp" so you do have to remove, and replace, more of it than the Silica Gel.  It is half the price though, so much cheaper to replace.  The bog standard CatSan was useless though, that's definitely not recommended.

[Sigurd Mudtracker]

Were it up to me, it would be the wood pellet stuff.  Smells quite nice at first, reasonably good at covering odours, doesn't track too much.

Unfortunately it's not me that uses the litter tray and wood pellets are ignored until the last possible minute.  Tesco lightweight cat litter is the only one any of them will entertain, but unfortunately that doesn't stop them emptying the whole tray out on a regular basis.  I have a huge shallow tray - one of my cats claims to be claustrophobic and will not use a high-sided tray.

We did have one of the covered cat trays at one point.  Worked very well, contained the litter.  However one of the cats discovered the amusement that could be had by holding your paw against the door whilst the other one was trying to get out.

I can also vouch for the effectiveness of large dogs. 

[bobb]

Next door's garden....   

That's light weight!

Boris the Blade has been known to go through next door's cat flap, nick their cat's food and then crap in his litter tray before coming home to have his tummy tickled!! 

Fortunately my neighbours have a good sense of humour!

I've never bothered with litter trays with adult cats - they can sod off outside (or next door) if they have a call of nature...... Although I did accidentally shut a cat in my room for about 36 hours once. My bed was not a pretty sight after that 

[TimO]

As an update, I'm rather going off the Bob Martin Ultimate Odour Control litter.  It's mostly worked OK, but now it's smelling very strongly of ammonia, and if I find it that unpleasent, gods knows what it's like to a cats somewhat more sensitive sense of smell (then again, what can you say about a species that licks its own bum... ).  It certainly doesn't seem to have lived up to it's "OK for up to month" claim, since it's been substantially less than that, and probably not even twice the life of the Fullers Earth, but at twice the cost.

On past experience, if Tali doesn't like the smell, he'll refuse to use it, and that can get messy, so I think I'll get another small bag of the Fullers Earth stuff, which should last the short time until he goes home.

[border-rider]

Waitrose  had own-brand wood litter at about a fiver, and some super-eco-stuff wood-based stuff at a quid more.  As a test I bought a bag of each for comparison

No question, the dearer stuff is more absorbant, stays together better and doesn't smell as bad.  We've got 7 days out of it - normally I'd change the litter at 4-5 days.

edit: or maybe not.  I've just changed the litter, and the super-eco stuff looked better but was in a very sorry state below the surface.  I suspect it is more owner-friendly but - because it encourages you to change it less often - is nastier for kitty.