What a useless pile of (cat) s***! (Catsan Hygiene Litter)

Member Name: NutNutNut

Product:	Catsan Hygiene Litter
Date:	22/03/09 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can get a small or large sized bag

Disadvantages: It's expensive and doesn't neutralise odours as it claims

Somewhere along the line I acquired a "housemate". Along with said "housemate" came a large ginger cat. Now I know I am taking a huge risk of upsetting cat-lovers AND cat-haters up and down the country with this review but I'm a risk taking girl lol. So before the arrival of the Mr. Cat I had to make certain preparations. The cat is not, and never has been a house cat. In fact he was originally a stray. To be honest, and I know people will disagree with me on this, but I do not believe in keeping a cat as a house cat. It is my belief that they should be "set free" to a degree. Ok so some may argue and say they are a nuisance and they crap on peoples gardens or kill certain wildlife or fight or have noisy sex and produce masses of kittens or even risk being hurt or killed. Now to answer all these in advance yes I KNOW he probably does crap on my neighbours gardens but his owner would always clean it up if anyone complained about it. I don't know whether he kills wildlife or not as he's (luckily) never brought any "presents" home. Yes he is an un-neutered male so he fights and has noisy sex. Whether he has fathered any kittens or not I am unaware. I will say however, I am not the owner of this cat. The owner made the decision not to have him neutered as the owners belief is it spoils them. I cannot comment on this, I have never owned a male cat, neutered or not, but if that is the cat owners decision I cannot argue either way. All I will say on this is before I get lectures on the scores of unwanted kittens out there, it is, in my opinion just as much, if not more, the female cat owners responsibility that this happens. Also as he was a stray he could have been the victim of this himself so his owner has done a pretty honourable thing towards this problem already in my opinion. Finally, yes he is at risk of getting hurt or killed but isn't every living thing? Any human being could step into the path of an out of control vehicle at any time but does that mean everyone should spend their entire lives shut indoors never to venture outside again? I'd rather any living thing had a shorter but happier life than a longer surpressed one. Oh and for the record I don't have a garden myself as I live in a flat.

But anyway before I turn this into a discussion on neutering/house cats let's talk about the cat litter! Now even though I do not like to shut a cat indoors, when they are moving homes you do not have much choice but to shut them in for a certain amount of time (3 weeks is the current recommended time to do this for, although this particular cat "escaped" after just 1 week but did not attempt to return to his previous home and has never been missing. He just started coming and going like he'd lived here all his life). So to prevent my flat being covered in poo and perhaps even worse, un-neutered male cat wee, I had to get him a litter tray and some litter as his owner already had enough to do what with moving and all.

I picked up a cheap litter tray from ASDA and searched for some litter. Catsan looked ideal as it claimed to neutralise odour before it developed, which is what you would certainly need for the strong smelling wee of a tom cat. I thought I would only need a small bag as he wasn't going to be kept in long plus if it neutralised odour it wouldn't need to be changed too often. I was quite shocked at the price (£5.70) for such a little bag but figured it was due to it's effectiveness that it was so highly priced. Plus I wasn't going to have to keep buying more for the same reasons as above. How wrong I was.........

The packaging is blue with a very very very (probably photoshopped) white cat. It has the name, instructions and all sorts of false claims all over it. Pah. It is kind of a paper sack. I don't know how else to describe it.

So I took it home and filled up the tray with a layer exactly as directed on the bag. Well upon arrival the cat used it no problem but what struck me was the awful smell! I thought this might go off in a bit but it didn't. I wondered if maybe, as the cat had lasted the whole journey without having any "accidents" if this was a particularly strong smelling wee as he had been holding it in as it were. I couldn't bare the stench so changed the whole tray thinking it wouldn't happen again. Wrong! This happened every single time and the Catsan was not "neutralising the odour" in the slightest. I ended up having to re-purchase a couple of times as the minute he took a pee the whole flat would stink of it. I didn't try any of the cheaper brands in case it could possibly get any worse.

So needless to say I was relieved to be able to do away with the litter tray and I am extremely happy that he now goes and piddles and poos all over the neighbouring gardens lol. And I am glad he has his freedom. It's always intriguing to think about where he might go when he's out. Cats are so mysterious like that. I won't be repurchasing Catsan, not just because I have no need for it now but because it didn't do anything it claimed to. It only gets one star from me. Sorry Catsan!

Summary: Set the cats free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!