6:40 a.m., before coffee, before Hank's walk, before anything: I'm crouched in the corner of our basement by the laundry tub with a slotted scoop and a small trash can lined with a grocery bag. Mabel sits on the bottom stair and watches. She considers this the most important job in the house, and she isn't wrong.
I've scooped every morning for eight years. This spring and summer, after one too many complaints about dust and grit on the oak floors upstairs, I finally ran a proper test. Five litters, three to four weeks each, one cat, one box, March through August, with a break in June while she recovered from her dental, when I wasn't about to change anything.
How I judged them
Four things, scored the way a tired person at 6:40 a.m. would score them:
- Dust: how much hangs in the air when I pour and scoop.
- Tracking: how much ends up on the stairs and the kitchen floor.
- Smell: what the basement smells like at the end of a day, by my nose and Caleb's.
- Monthly cost: what we actually spent in a month, based on how fast we went through it.
Everything was unscented. We don't use scented litter or plug-in air fresheners around Mabel. Her nose is far better than mine, and a box that smells faintly of fake lavender to me probably smells like a candle shop to her.
I switched gradually each time, mixing the new litter into the old over about a week. I've heard enough stories at work about cats protesting a sudden switch that I wasn't going to learn that one the hard way.
The ranking
5. Crystal (silica). Great on smell, almost no dust, and it lasts a while. But it was the most expensive at about $38 a month, it crunched unpleasantly, and Mabel hated the feel of it. She'd step in, shake each paw like she'd stepped in a puddle and use as little of the box as possible. When she spent a whole morning perched on the rim instead of using it, the crystals went to the garage.
4. Pine pellets. The cheapest at about $14 a month, and the basement smelled like a lumberyard, which I liked. Pellets break down into sawdust when wet, so you sift instead of scoop, and the sawdust tracked everywhere. Mabel tolerated it without enthusiasm. Caleb said the basement smelled like his workbench, which he meant as a compliment.
3. Paper pellets. Almost zero dust, which I loved. Smell control was weak, though, and by the third day the box had a damp, soggy-cardboard smell that no amount of scooping fixed. About $28 a month, because we replaced it so often.
2. Walnut shell. This one was close. It clumps reasonably well, it controls smell nearly as well as clay and it's lighter to carry. The downside was tracking. The granules are dark brown and gritty, and they showed up as crumbs on every basement step and halfway across the kitchen, with a fine brown dust on the shelf near the box. About $32 a month.
1. Unscented clumping clay. The winner, and the one we started with, which I find mildly embarrassing. It's the dustiest when you pour, so I pour slowly and low. But it clumps hard, scoops clean and has the best smell control of the five. Tracking is moderate, and a ridged mat in front of the box catches most of it. It costs us about $21 a month.
The tradeoffs I'm living with
Clay isn't perfect. A full box of it is heavy enough that I make Caleb carry it down the basement stairs. It's mined, it doesn't break down, and every scoop goes into the trash. If the walnut hadn't tracked so badly, I'd probably have switched for those reasons alone.
One more thing I say at the clinic and will say here too: if a cat suddenly starts avoiding the box, going somewhere else or straining, that's a reason to call the vet before blaming the litter. A change in bathroom habits can be the first sign of something medical, and only your vet can sort that out.
The clay is back in the box. The leftover walnut is in the garage, saved for icy steps this winter, and the half bag of crystals is on a garage shelf where it will probably stay forever.
Mabel's verdict: clay, unscented, scooped before the coffee. Thank you.
