Best kind of litter...

Well, after going my entire life without owning a cat- I'm finaly breaking down and getting one. My aunt and I are very close (mentaly and age wise, only four years apart lol), ad she has decided to adopt a kitten from the humane society on Friday. Because of over-crowding, instead of "adopt one cat/kitten get the another for half off!", it is now "adopt one and get the other FREE!"... So, I decided that I might as well... I mean, I think it will be cool, hopefully, and also because my husky pup likes cats- and I would like to keep it that way as she grows... Well, thats what I'm telling my b/f any way- I'm really starting to want one!!

The main reason though why I've never gotten a cat is because of the smell of the litter- whenever I go into a house with a cat I know it before th even tell me, because I can smell the litter from a mile away. Whcih is why I'm asking all of the cat ownders on this site what (in your opinion) the best kind of cat litter is. I;m fine with cleaning it multiple times a day- so long as to keep that smell away!!

Also if theres any other advice that you would like to give this "cat-newbie" before I bring home the little girl/guy, then please feel free..

Thanks!

Generally, if you feed a high quality food, make sure the kitten is free of any and all parasites and clean the litter box often, and it shouldn't smell.

Yesterday's News is nice and relatively inexpensive, there are also some smaller paper pellets, looks like clay but isn't.. Hm.. Tidy Cats(multiple cats type) works really well, and they have the crystal type too. I try to stay away from anything that is made of clay as it just fills up the landfills and doesn't go anywhere. They have a flushable kind now too.

And then there's the litter box with self-washing, reusable litter, that dumps right into the toilet. *love*

Ohhh, I really like the last one!! lol. Yea, I was just looking at that "Fresh step" kind... We will see- I do agree on the whole cley thing though. And I am planning on feeding a high quality food- I know a lot of differnt kinds and brands for dogs and what to look for, but with cats I'm at a loss.. But I am researching to find out, and will be asking the humane society what they feed, and see if thats "good food" or not.

Humane societies get alot of food donated.. So it could be Science Diet or it could be Ol' Roy. And even Science diet has gone downhill lately with all the crappy grains they are putting in the food.

Try the highest quality you can get, they eat SO much less of it(adult males need about 1/4-1/3C a day and are fine) and poop less as a result. Fillers such as grains just make their poo smell worse, as well as make their hair coat rough and oily.

Wellness, Felidae, Innova Evo, Solid Gold, Bil-Jac (is actually good from what I've read in the ingredients), and a few others. They may seem more expensive, but your cat will live a much longer life and will not have the health problems associated with a poor quality diet(especially at the start of life).

Best cat litter is Horse Comfort.
Its feline pine, but for horses and comes in a 50lb bag for about $5. I work at a country store and people buy it for cats and swear by it. no smell and little mess.

when it comes to cat litter you wanna get premium clumping multi cat (even if you have just one) after that just find the cheapest kind cuz they are all the same just the box is decorated diff.

for food i recomend and use nutro natural choice they use no by-products (feet, bones, beaks corn meal, or meal of any kind) they only use high quality products in their foods. it does cost a little more up front but when you compare to how much you actually feed the cat compared to the cheap stuff if avg. out. plus you will have a healtier cat and have to clean out the litter box less often cuz they use more of the food that you are feeding them so there is less waste.

nutro.com has a coupon for a free bag

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Humane societies get alot of food donated.. So it could be Science Diet or it could be Ol' Roy. And even Science diet has gone downhill lately with all the crappy grains they are putting in the food.

Try the highest quality you can get, they eat SO much less of it(adult males need about 1/4-1/3C a day and are fine) and poop less as a result. Fillers such as grains just make their poo smell worse, as well as make their hair coat rough and oily.

Wellness, Felidae, Innova Evo, Solid Gold, Bil-Jac (is actually good from what I've read in the ingredients), and a few others. They may seem more expensive, but your cat will live a much longer life and will not have the health problems associated with a poor quality diet(especially at the start of life).

---

Its OK, cost means nothing- and thank you very much for the suggestions!!

Feline Pine. It's flushable (in very small amounts), bio-degradable, and natural.

You only need a little because it expands when it gets wet. It also makes it easy to clean the box because you can SEE where the cat has soiled it.

Those self-cleaning litter boxes are TERRIBLE. :mad: They're crazy bad for the environment because of all the waste they produce. Please for the love of god do not get one of those.

I'm not going to go into what to feed the cat because I believe in all natural diets. All of my animals are vegetarian (like me) so that I don't have to provide meat. The only exception being the snakes (obviously). They all get nothing but fresh fruits, veggies, grains, etc. No store-bought food for me. ;)

Yea, the self cleaning litter box soudns nice- but after looking at them I realized I would rather save a $100 than be lazy :) lol. And yea, both of my dogs are on all natural diets- with the exception of some table scraps here and ther.. lol. But yes, bio-degradable is very good, so thank you very much!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mindibun

Feline Pine. It's flushable (in very small amounts), bio-degradable, and natural.

You only need a little because it expands when it gets wet. It also makes it easy to clean the box because you can SEE where the cat has soiled it.

Those self-cleaning litter boxes are TERRIBLE. :mad: They're crazy bad for the environment because of all the waste they produce. Please for the love of god do not get one of those.

I'm not going to go into what to feed the cat because I believe in all natural diets. All of my animals are vegetarian (like me) so that I don't have to provide meat. The only exception being the snakes (obviously). They all get nothing but fresh fruits, veggies, grains, etc. No store-bought food for me. ;)

---

Your cats get no meat? They are omnivores and do not eat fruits and veggies as part of their natural diet. Grains are not good for them - I feed only grain free food to mine.

Mischevious, I've been studying cat nutrition since I got my most recent two kitties - the best diet you can feed is RAW, but for me and my schedule, RAW just doesn't work.

Wet diet is now preferred over dry, or at the very least, the wet should make up a higher percentage of their food intake with a quality dry kibble to nibble on during the day. I like Innova Evo (thanks Kara!) and I've got links to nutritional content in different canned brands that I can link here if you'd like.

Read http://www.catinfo.org for more information on cat nutrition.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mindibun

They all get nothing but fresh fruits, veggies, grains, etc. No store-bought food for me. ;)

---

You may wish to read this if you're truly feeding no meat to your cats:

http://www.catinfo.org/#Cats_Need_Animal-Based_Protein_

Go to your local Purina dealer, and buy cat food from there, ask for a PMI brand of cat food, not the walmart purina.:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

Your cats get no meat? They are omnivores and do not eat fruits and veggies as part of their natural diet. Grains are not good for them - I feed only grain free food to mine.

Mischevious, I've been studying cat nutrition since I got my most recent two kitties - the best diet you can feed is RAW, but for me and my schedule, RAW just doesn't work.

Wet diet is now preferred over dry, or at the very least, the wet should make up a higher percentage of their food intake with a quality dry kibble to nibble on during the day. I like Innova Evo (thanks Kara!) and I've got links to nutritional content in different canned brands that I can link here if you'd like.

Read http://www.catinfo.org for more information on cat nutrition.

---

Yes, I do heartily agree with Robin on that one... I would never feed my cats a vegetarian diet. It's completely unnatural.

Raw is definitely a great diet for cats. I wish I could pull it off, but as it is, my freezer is full of rats butts! I like Evo, but haven't found a place closeby that carries it (I didnt see it at petsmart....)
I'm still finishing off this bag of Iams... once that's done I'll make the drive to a smaller foodstore to pick up some high quality 30$ for 12 lbs lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stangs13

Go to your local Purina dealer, and buy cat food from there, ask for a PMI brand of cat food, not the walmart purina.:D

---

And to add to this...there isn't a better choice for cat foods than the PMI cat food brands!

Well... I would have to argue that one Justin... ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Well... I would have to argue that one Justin... ;)

---

Don't be mistaken though. PMI is totally different than the purina in the wally world, petsmart, and everywhere else. PMI brands will not have the red checkerboard on there cat and dog foods. But the nasty purina will.:D PMI brands are also all meat based. :gj:

Im sure there is other really great cat food, this is just what I have seen to be the best. I used to be pretty skeptical about it. But i had to see results, and man, I sure did!!

PMI is ok, but I have seen Hill's Prescription diet save alot more lives. I have helped a 90lb labrador get through a GI illness for a good month on only a/d and fluids. He lost a bit of weight, but was still his happy self.

Oh, and I've seen quite a few cats get urinary stones from PMI... so!

And if you are truly not feeding your cat any meat, good lord.. Cats are CARNIVORES. You CANNOT force your beliefs onto an animal that IS UNABLE to process grains, vegetables, fruits, whatever. All you are going to give them are heart problems, organ failure and a premature death. Think of the animals instead of yourself. Dogs are also more carnivore than omnivore, and too many grains can make them gassy and more prone to disease. I for one, do not like Ol' Roy farts(which is just cardboard, sawdust and meat flavoring).

I use Tidy Cats http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/p...5_front200.jpg

I have 2 cats.... I feed them Purina Cat Chow, indoor formula
on occasion I give them a can of whiskas can food. But they still seem to "go poo" everyday! Especially when I cleaned the litter box.. them buggers.

Calm down people, I never once said I have cats. :rofl: I said all of my animals are vegetarian. That doesn't mean I force them to be - that means they are by nature (i.e. - rabbit, etc.)

Everyone is way too quick to jump to conclusions here. :rolleyes:

Well, you DID post in the cat forum...

And seriously, have you NEVER seen that one B movie with all those hideously giant rabbits running around eating people?? Carnivorous I tell you! ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Well, you DID post in the cat forum...

And seriously, have you NEVER seen that one B movie with all those hideously giant rabbits running around eating people?? Carnivorous I tell you! ;)

---

Oh. :( I must have missed the rule where I can only post on topics where I actually OWN the animals. I'll retract my info then, if I can?

:rofl: I'm just kidding. :hug:

But no, I haven't seen the movie. Sounds like a good one. ;) My rabbit is similar to the Monty Python rabbit. They're both white, and they both viciously attack men. True story. My guy roommates are afraid of him. :rofl:

OMG I loooove Monty Python. I am going to have bits running through my head all night now though.
Anyway, I have my cats on Evo. For years they were on Iams and I see a HUGE difference in coat, output and over all health. If you are willing to spend the bucks, then I highly recommend Evo.
As for litter, I tried pellet bedding but the cats prefer clay. As long as you scoop daily and wash the box regularly, there shouldn't be much smell.

Science Diet is only good for specialized needs imo. IE Sensitive stomach, skin, prescription. Other than that the line is not worth the money for what they put in. Ol-Roy, bil-jac are all complete garbage. The ingredients are terrible. Wellness is relativly new, so I'm not up to date on that.

What you want to look for in a good food is the word "Meal". Chicken meal, lamb meal etc. Meal is just a ground up waterless substance. So in a meal you are getting 100% real chicken, not water, not chicken beaks and feet.

One of only foods I've found to be good is Nutro.

I've always used tidy cats and it's worked well. I just bought a bucket of Fresh Step, but haven't tried it out yet, so we'll see how it goes!

Congrats!!! I'm so glad you're getting a kitty! Once you have one, you'll always wonder how you lived without! :)

DO NOT USE REGULAR LITTER! I think that's the mistake most cat owners make. Regular litter just sits and stinks for a week until you change the entire litter box. Clumping litter traps the odors and makes it easy to remove the odor and get it out of your house!

I use an automatic litter box with Fresh Step cat litter. I've found that works the best for me, the smell, and for the automatic litter box.

(I have 4,300+ posts on another site for cats :P I met a member from this site on there and joined this site :) I'm a crazy cat lady, I'll admit it!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mindibun

Calm down people, I never once said I have cats. :rofl: I said all of my animals are vegetarian. That doesn't mean I force them to be - that means they are by nature (i.e. - rabbit, etc.)

Everyone is way too quick to jump to conclusions here. :rolleyes:

---

:rofl: Well I'm glad to hear you don't force your cats to be vegetarian! I was worried for a minute there!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Isis

(I have 4,300+ posts on another site for cats :P I met a member from this site on there and joined this site :) I'm a crazy cat lady, I'll admit it!)

---

You were one of the first to welcome me over there too! I need to go back over there, I haven't visited in a couple of weeks. It's the best cat forum, IMHO!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

You were one of the first to welcome me over there too! I need to go back over there, I haven't visited in a couple of weeks. It's the best cat forum, IMHO!

---

:D I'm glad to hear that! You were the first to welcome me here, (and get me here) I'm glad you did! I love it!

they do make a litter box that uses no litter and all the waste goes down your toilet each time they use the box, if you want to spend the money on it that it

http://www.futurepets.com/cgi-bin/FU...NUM=PNAS100000