Whats the best low-dust unscented cat litter in North America?
Whats the best low-dust unscented cat litter in North America?
31 comments
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If you want no dust then some kind of pellet litter would be best, like corn or pine pellets. My cats hate that texture though, so we had to find one with a similar texture to clay litter. I worked at a pet supply/food store for a couple years and tried a bunch of litters, nothing with a granular texture is truly dust-free, and I found clay litter claims of being “low dust” to be complete bullshit. I settled on Sustainably Yours Large Grain litter, it’s corn based. The large grain really reduces the dust, I get a little bit when emptying the bag but the large grain doesn’t throw dust when they dig around in it. It also clumps pretty well.
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- wood pellet. if you buy it packaged for horse stall bedding instead of cat litter you can get 40 lb for $6. requires a special litter box because it's different from the clump and scoop type.
- if you don't want to change your litter box, you want Naturally Fresh Walnut shell Quick Clumping. please remember not to use clumping litter with small kittens
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Since this horse bedding is made from wood fibers, it’s relatively safe for cats. But keep a couple of things in mind to ensure your cat’s health:
- Check if the type of wood pellets contains any harmful additives. You want 100 percent natural wood, preferably pine, cedar, or oak.
- Ask if the equine pellets are kiln-dried to remove phenols. Phenols are dangerous for cats since their livers can’t break them down. In large amounts, they can be deadly.
- Ensure that the wood is not treated with any chemical additives.
(E: personally, though in the UK, I buy Cat's Best pellets. Probably more expensive than horse pellets, but they come in smaller packages I can manage, and are 100% safe for cats so I don't have to worry)
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Pine pellet for horse stalls is definitely the correct answer. It's the most effective, easiest litter AND it's monstrously cheaper.
I've tried maybe 5 or 6 different litters, nothing absorbs as much smell as pine pellets. You can ignore it for a couple of days without issue. It doesn't track or clump. You don't have to scoop pee, although you should give it a quick stir or sift daily. That's easy enough to do when you scoop any poop.
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You can also get pine pellets for cheap by going after wood stove fuel but you need to thoroughly research whether the brand uses accelerants or not.
I'm actually super pissed off that the pellets marketed as litter have such an insane mark up given that other pellets usually just have additives... you're paying a premium for them to not do extra work.
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When I tried that arm and hammer slide litter, it was bizarre how little to no dust there was, when id pour it out.
My cats didn't care for the texture though. It's very fine, and they'd kick it out of the litterbox.
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Petco carries a "sofresh" litter that you can refill. Its unscented and does just fine keeping smells down. If i smell anything then i probably forgot to empty it.
Not particularly low dust but also not any worse than purina or others i've used. And its cheap due to refilling. I have a few petcos that i pass weekly regardless so its pretty convenient for me, at least.
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Thanks, but ya its gotta be low dust. Potentially (pretty sure) I got an asthmatic one
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We use this stuff, and it meets your requirements. I like it more than anything else we have used
https://www.kroger.com/p/abound-natural-clumping-cat-litter/0001111080010
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Blaine's farm and fleet brand. Cheapest clumping litter I ever found, dust free and unscented. It worked great.
Saddly I moved and now it isn't convient to buy.
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I've had great luck with pine- and corn-based cat litters for low/no scent and low/no dust. Only problem is that they usually don't clump, though they do make ones which do. Oh, and they're all much lighter than the normal stuff. I'd say give one of those a try.
31 comments
World's Best clumps and is unscented. It's corn, so there's no clay or silica dust, but it does make its own kind of corn dust, which my previous cat tracked everywhere after thoroughly digging and burying. My present cat just tiptoes in, pees, poos, and tiptoes away, leaving the poo perched proud. It gets my attention to scoop it! But at least no dust gets tracked.
It’s also fully flushable, since it’s just corn. I can’t stress how amazingly convenient that is. I scoop and toss the solids and clumps straight into the toilet, add my own waste if necessary, and flush. No heavy garbage bags filled with gross stinky clay. Never had an issue with plumbing since the clumps break up straight away on contact with the water. I’ve been using it for about a decade. Imo this is one product that lives up to its stupid name.
I'm afraid I need to contradict you. It is technically flushable. Certainly better than anything else out there! But depending where one lives, it can cause problems and one can't just blithely flush it all down.
For instance, I'm in an apartment building built in 1970, in a state with low-flush toilets and low-flow fixtures. The drains were built for more water and less stuff. And if they clog it's not only my problem, it can affect everyone in the stack. Learned this the hard way, although there was probably more than the litter to blame.
So I do flush the poo, with the litter coating it. But I scoop the pee clumps into those little green bags and put them in the trash. The bags and litter might be compostable but I'm not sure about the pee, and we don't have compost collection set up yet anyway. At least being able to flush the poo is a lifesaver!
I'm also not 100% sure about old septic systems.
I'm happy for you that it works fine for you! You're living the dream, dude! And with cats!
It's just that others' mileage may vary.
And they make a low track version, basically bigger grains. Our cat drags out considerably less litter now, though some cats might not like the texture on their paws.
I bought that one time and my cat wouldn't stop eating it.
Oh, not for you, then!
I think, as with anything involving cats, individual situations vary a lot, so different solutions are required.
Some cats may have allergies to it though so watch your cat closely after switching. You also need to stay on top of scooping it as it has a higher propensity to mold.
We used World's Best for years. At one point we had a cat who was exhibiting some potty-related behavioral issues, and in desperation I brought in some clay litter (BoxieCat). 3 cats, 6 litterboxes¹: I replaced one litterbox with clay, and they all immediately stopped using the ones filled with World's Best. I reduced it down to a single box of WB and they still wouldn't use it.
I have no idea why, but it solved the potty problem.
¹: My first attempt to address the issue was to keep adding litterboxes so they had choice.