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Two weeks ago my mom adopted a cat and somehow she's become my cat. Or at least I'm caring for her with the exception of evening snuggles when Grandma (my mom) has the cat, the dog, and my toddler on her lap in the recliner. Tomorrow I'm heading to Petsmart to get Zoe kitty some more supplies and I'd like to get a different litter. She's using Arm & Hammer Double Duty right now but I hate it. Her box has a high odor even though I clean it once or twice a day and it's so messy. She has a covered box but I guess it's tracking out and it sticks to the bottom/sides and then the clumps fall apart when I'm scraping them off the plastic. Not an enjoyable situation we have going on. From reading other threads on littler, I'm seeing that Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat is a favorite but I'm wondering what else is popular. What about the Nature's Miracle litter? Or Worlds Best? Those are both rated highly on Petsmart and Petco. Any others that are really amazing at keeping the smells at bay?
My second question is how often do you do a full litter box change? I thought that was a weekly thing but I saw somewhere it said monthly? I was like oh my, the neighbors would be complaining that the whole neighborhood smelled like cat urine if I let it go that long before doing a full change. That can't be right! Haha. But maybe with the right litter it lasts that long?
We use dr elsey's precious cat. I find the odor is minimal since we switched from tidy cats. My dogs don't even realize when there's a fresh kitty tootsie in the box anymore, which means I can actually scoop it before they do! Yay!
I rarely do a full box change. We scoop the clumps and refresh with new litter. I wipe any messes with baby wipes, and keep the box really deep- like 4". At that depth, nothing is reaching the bottom, and the litter clumps tight. I think I've done a full box change once in 6 months. We scoop twice a day.
I'm a Precious Cat user, too - the stuff in the blue bag, for multiple cats. It really does a great job of clumping and keeping the smells down. I keep it at a depth of about 4 or 5 inches, scoop daily, and do the whole-box change every three or four months.
Other litters I've used are Arm & Hammer unscented litter for multiple cats - it's good, too. I've also used the Petco generic litter, which you scoop into your own container; it's a little dustier than Arm & Hammer or Precious Cat.
Right now I use Walmart brand (the $1 bag) and it does pretty well. I put a couple inches in there and scoop multiple times a day. i do a full change 1x a week. We use a litter genie and it is the best thing for getting rid of the clumps. I have tried just bags and the trash but nothing compares to this!
The BEST litter I used was Fresh Step Crystals. No smell at ALL!
If money were no object, I'd use Everclean (unscented version). It clumps very well.
However, with three cats, I use Premium Scoop, which also unscented and around $12 for 40 pounds. It works well, and all of the cats like it.
I would love to use one of the non-clay litters like World's Best, but our cats won't use it, even when I tried to transition by adding one scoop at a time to the old litter. If the cats will use it, it's a great litter.
As for a complete changing of litter, I do that about once per month. I don't have a set timing for this--whenever the box looks dirty or the leftover litter has a bunch of tiny clumps in it. I'll wash the box out with hot water and castile soap and dry it.
I used to use Tidy Cat but I found the boxes really stank after only a few days. Then I switched to Fresh Step and it works so much better. I hate the clumping/scoopable litter. I use the clay-and yeah, dust does get everywhere. I used to have the boxes in a BIG closet in our old house and everything was covered in litter dust. Now, the boxes are in the bathrooms. I have put them in big cardboard boxes and cut one side of the box so the cats can get in & out-hoping it will stop Elvira from getting litter EVERYWHERE! (I swear she is trying to build sand castles in the litter. ) Not to mention everyone seeing it. This is just a temp solution until I find something better.
Cat
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) Not to mention everyone seeing it. This is just a temp solution until I find something better. 
