Almost puurrrfect cat litter (Catsan Hygiene Litter)

Member Name: a_m_y

Product:	Catsan Hygiene Litter
Date:	28/07/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, not too smelly

Disadvantages: a little bit messy

We have had our cat for nearly a year. He's been a house cat his whole life - having been one with his previous owner, although we have just bought a cat flap so hope that when he goes out he will do his business outdoors more than in the flat!

The breeder told us which cat litter he was used to when we got him. It was a wood pellet sort of cat litter and very expensive. Also, only available (for us) at Pets at Home, which wasn't wildly convenient.

Turns out our cat is a very messy litter user. He likes to dig. Sometimes I think he just digs in there for fun.

So he started using this wood stuff and it wasn't good. We live in a flat. The cat litter tray is in the entrance to the kitchen on laminate, with the navy landing carpet about 60cm away. The wood stuff was not good for our carpets. The place was a tip! Also it caught in his paws and he trampled it all over the place. Not pretty....

Since then, we tried a variety of cat litters including crystal ones (not absorbent enough) and clay ones (too clumpy in the paws) and finally we have settled on catsan. We have also bought a covered litter tray to contain his digging mess. (Excellent idea. Get one!)

Catsan is not only available in Asda so a doddle to get hold of, it's also about £5, so affordable and a decent sized bag for storing. You can get a bigger bag if you want to, but 10L is enough for us to stick in a box out of the way. It also has handles, which is handy as I don't need to use a carrier bag, although I would do if I wasn't using a trolley and a car as I'd be nervous of it splitting. I once had an incident with this at the self service tills in Asda where the prongy things the carrier bags are attached to dug into the bag and I ended up spilling cat litter all over the place! I was lucky enough to be given a replacement without having to pay for it, even though it was my fault. So although the bag is pretty sturdy, you do need to be careful with it.

There are many advantages to Catsan Hygiene cat litter. Firstly, it's pretty easy to open. Which is always a bonus. You're not left with a ripped bag that needs to be decanted into something else due to cat litter spilling everywhere. It's also not very dusty. Very handy for asthmatics and clean people.

The litter is white, mineral granules which are made of "natural lime and quartz sand". These have micropores which mean they are quite absorbent. According to the bag this makes the litter three times more effective at odour control and growth of bacteria. I can't speak for the bacteria, I'll just trust the bag on that, but the odour control isn't bad. We have a very smelly cat, and being a house cat he uses the litter a lot. He's also got a virus so he tends to have diarrhea fairly regularly. Of course the litter does get smelly, but if you clean it out regularly (which if you care for your cat, you will do) then it's not bad for a toilet that doesn't flush.

The whole amount of litter in the tray doesn't have to be changed every day. You can just scoop it out and change all the litter every as necessary, which is very handy considering how unpleasant the job is. Thankfully this is my husbands job at the moment - hee hee :-)

Catsan is a prefectly good cat litter and the best I have found. I'm still open to experimentation though. I want a litter that clumps, doesn't smell, doesn't stick to paws (and therefore carpets, sofa, cushions...) and isn't too dusty or expensive. Catsan is pretty good for all of this, although i still find the odd bit of litter around the house that must have got caught in his paws. I wouldn't describe it as perfect though, which is why I am awarding 4 stars instead of 5. I think it would be better if it was less messy. Or maybe that's just my cat....but I do find that it's on the carpet a little bit at the entrance to the kitchen - (he does have a cat litter tray doormat) although it's still nowhere near as bad as other litters I've tried.

Summary: The best cat litter I can find,nearly perfect.