by Michael
(London, UK)
May 2011: In deciding the best clumping cat litter you have to first decide which country your talking about. Once again I’ll tackle the largest cat market in the world, the United States. That way I will hopefully get more visitors. It is all oh so commercial out here in the ether of the internet.
I am going to follow the same procedure that I used when assessing the best canned cat food and the best dry cat food in the USA, namely, comparing the comparison sites. Yes, it is a bit parasitical but it is useful as you can start to see trends. For the sake of this survey I am more or less ignoring cost. Cost is a factor of course. It affects the human’s assessment and is therefore built into these results. However it seems that the best clumping cat litter is usually judged from the cat’s perspective!
Based on years of sh*t shoveling both clumping and non-clumping cat litter, the best clumping litter should be a good clumper (!) and a good odor retainer. There should also be little dust and a minimum of “carry-out”. I have just made up that phrase and it means the litter that is carried out of the litter box by the cat when leaving it. It is amazing how much does get dragged out, sometimes between the toes of the cat and deposited a long way from the box.
ConsumerSearch
This site brings the following clumping litters to the top:
- World’s Best Cat Litter
- Scoop Away Multiple Cat Formula
- Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Attract Cat Litter
Paw Nation
They have picked the brains of cat experts, Dr. Peter L. Borchelt and Dusty Rainbolt. And they have come up with these as the preferred brands:
- Ever Clean
- Fresh Step
- Scoop Away
Amazon
Amazon.com is a useful source of feedback provided you read with a degree of caution as sometime the reviews are not genuine. I have multiplied the number of reviews by the star rating to give an overall figure. The reviews indicate that the following are the best clumping cat litters:
- World’s Best 00631 Cat Litter, Multiple-Cat Clumping Formula, 34 Pounds – 3.5 x 177 = 619.5
- World’s Best 00558 Cat Litter, Clumping Formula, 34 Pounds (Packaging Varies) – 3.5 x 83 = 290.5
- Precious Cat Ultra Premium Clumping Cat Litter, 40 pound bag – 4.5 x 55 = 247.5
- Precious Cat Ultra Premium Clumping Cat Litter, 18 pound bag – 4.5 x 34 = 153
- Ever Clean Extra Strength Cat Litter, Unscented, 42 Pound Box – 4.5 x 32 = 144
Franny Syufy of About.com
She conducted a survey on cat litter generally (ie. choose your favorite amongst a list with a free choice to add to the list). World’s Best Cat Litter came out the most popular in that poll. Reading the comments no definite trend came out so I think it fair to say that World’s Best Cat Litter did in fact come out on top. Although one comment referred to breathing problems caused by this litter (dust). Issues regarding dust may have been addressed if indeed there was an issue.
Suite 101
The author recommends Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat and Tidy Cat for Multiple Cats. This is one person’s assessment, useful as it is, however.
Epinions
Recommend: Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Ultra Clumping Cat Litter 40lb Bag
Beyond the above online research does not provide any more real comparisons. What have I learned?
Two litters come out on top: World’s Best Cat Litter and Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Ultra Clumping Cat Litter.
As an aside the highest ranked cat litter on Amazon appears to be a pine litter (non-clumping): Tidy Cats Breeze Litter Pellet Refill, 3.5-Pound Packages (Pack of 6) – 4.5 x 720 = 3240 – way ahead of the rest. I use pine litter for its odor killing properties. Clumping is not a big deal as you can refine your sh*t shoveling technique to get around that.
Hope this helps a bit.
