Kitten Stork

Review by Ashok Aiyar:

The ScoopFree automated litter-box is the best thing that’s happened to my two cats. They have a clean litter-box five minutes after they’re done, and I need to clean it just once a week. That being said, ScoopFree Litter Tray Refills are expensive, running about 0 every two months. So like many others in the “ScoopFree family”, I switched from using the pre-packaged trays to the permanent Forever Litter Tray®, designed by Rick Weldon. This works very well, and has significantly dropped the cost of use, and can be used with any crystal litter that is small enough to fit between the grills of the ScoopFree. And therein lie two problems: 1) A crystal size that is too small is less effective at absorbing liquids; 2) Most pre-packaged litter is sold in 8 lb bags (eg. FreshStep) – and each fill of the ScoopFree Litter Tray takes 4.4 lbs.

In one move, Just the Crystals solves both problems. It is a perfect fit for the ScoopFree grill, and not so small that it doesn’t soak up liquids efficiently. Also, it is shipped as two 4.4 lbs per box – which is two refills of the ScoopFree. The litter doesn’t have as much of a perfume associated with it as FreshStep, and is close to being completely perfume-free. The ratio of white to blue crystals is skewed toward white – this makes it easier to visually the state of the litter, and rake it if necessary.

Finally, what could be more convenient than having it delivered straight to your door? This is a quality product that perfectly complements that Forever Litter Tray®.

I recommend the product very very highly!

[Edited 5-8-2010 with some tips ...]

I’ve noticed that the negative reviews of this product complain about two issues: a) poor absorbance, and consequently more frequent litter changes; and b) odor control. We have two large Maine Coons (>15 lb), and yet change the litter only every two weeks. During this time, the cats have used the litter box between 55 – 65 times (about 2 times per cat per day). Here is what we do, using suggestions from Rick Weldon’s Forever Litter Tray website.

1) We rake the litter twice a week.

2) We have a small fan diagonally above the Scoopfree that continuously blows a gentle breeze on the litter.

3) I scoop the dried poop after 1 week because our cats poop a lot.

4) We clip an old sock filled with 1-2 oz of activated charcoal above the litter box. We replace the activated charcoal in the sock every month, but it can probably go much longer.

With the raking and fan, no more than 20% of the crystals are water-saturated after two weeks (chalky white or blue in appearance). Scooping the poop at the end of the first week and using activated charcoal provides really good odor control. The fan probably helps with this as well.

Before we started using these tips from Rick’s website, I had to change the litter every week – sometimes after 5 days otherwise one of our cats, Allie – who’s really fastidious, would pee and/or poop right outside the Scoopfree. I started with steps 1 & 3, and that helped quite a bit; Allie would get queasy around the 10 days time-point. After adding 2 & 4 we’ve never had an issue for as long as we’ve tested – which is two weeks.

I hope this helps …..

Review by Charlie Howard:

UPDATE September 27, 2010.

Changed rating from 3 stars to 4 stars.

1. No more jams. Added small plastic sleeves to the lifting mechanism of the litter box, and it solved the problem.

2. As others have noted, Target no longer sells their own brand, so the price comparison now is between genuine ScoopFree crystals and JTC. JTC’s price went up by a dollar recently, so it costs a bit more at Amazon than Scoopfree costs at Target; but considering Amazon’s free delivery to my doorstep and the pre-measured bags, the convenience is worth the difference.

3. JTC now lasts longer than before, usually about two weeks (for two cats). The litter box has a counter, and with stirring, JTC can go about 50 cycles before needing replacement. This is almost as good as ScoopFree, but I think JTC needs more frequent stirring, or liquid begins to accumulate sooner at the bottom of the tray.

4. I think ScoopFree does a slightly better job of controlling odor. The litter box is in the garage, so this isn’t a serious problem for me, but if it had to be in the house, I’d run more comparison tests to be certain about this.

So why 4, not 5 stars? Because, if it was more convenient for me to shop at Target, I’d still be buying the ScoopFree crystals because they seem to last longer, don’t need stirring quite as soon, and seem to do a better job of odor control. Since Target is a bit of a trip, I’ll continue buying JTC through Amazon.

P.S. The vendor provides excellent customer support for his products. Who’d a thunk that could matter with silica gel for a litter box? but it does.

==Original Review follows==

My cats have been using the Forever Litter tray for 2-1/2 years. It works well and being able to refill it cuts operating costs in half, as compared with ScoopFree’s cartridges.

Mostly, I was buying the 8-pound ScoopFree Crystals at Target, and with 2 cats, half a jug lasted 10-15 days. Then, Target raised the price and introduced its own brand for .59, so, taking the hint, I switched. The Target brand works well enough, but not quite as well as Scoopfree’s. Half a jug lasts about 10 days, rarely 14; and there’s more of a “crunch” sound when the rake moves under the blue lid of the catbox.

Now, I’ve tried “Just the Crystals” (JTC), and have mixed feelings about it:

Pros: Convenience: 1. pre-measured, 2. delivered to your door

Cons: 3. costs more than Target’s house-brand; 4. does NOT last longer; 5. more likely to jam the machine.

Explanation and details:

1. PRE-MEASURED: The JTC box contains two 4.4 pound bags, so you just open a bag and dump it into the (cleaned and empty) Forever Tray. The other brands come in 8-pound jugs, so you have to estimate when you’ve poured out the first half (I’m now weighing the jug with a package scale). As anyone who uses the Forever Tray knows, quantity is critical: unlike clay litter systems, you can’t get away with just pouring an approximate quantity.

2. DELIVERED: no-brainer here. I rarely go to Target except to buy cat litter and cat treats, so JTC wins this one hands-down (and paws-down); and it’s worth paying a bit extra for this convenience.

3. COSTS MORE: a box of JTC is .99; a jug of Target’s house brand is .59 (plus possible sales tax). Each is good for two “cycles” (one cycle is about 10 days with my 2 cats). The argument that you’re getting more litter doesn’t hold up, because of point #4, below: more litter doesn’t mean it lasts longer. What matters is cost-per-year. Even allowing for sales tax, JTC will cost about .15 more per cycle, or /year more. That must be balanced against the convenience factors, both of which are valuable.

4. DOES NOT LAST LONGER: the first bag of JTC lasted barely 8 days. I stretched the second one to 10 days, but really should have replaced it sooner. The Target brand has never lasted less than 10 days, and the genuine ScoopFree usually lasted 12-15 days. So, even though there’s an extra 0.4 pounds of crystals with JTC, it didn’t translate into longer useful life. And yes, I stirred and aerated the crystals regularly.

5. MORE LIKELY TO JAM THE MACHINE: this is a biggie. The reason why the quantity of crystal litter is critical with the ScoopFree Self-Cleaning Litter Box is that too little will leave large bare areas in the Tray, while too much will cause the rake to jam (and twist!) when it gets to the covered receptacle area. The extra 0.4 pounds seems to be too much for my machine … sometimes. Not always, but a couple of times a week. NOTE: I’m using the 2nd generation of Forever Litter Tray, and think the ridge on the bottom may be the culprit. Previously, I’d been using the 1st gen version, and do not recall EVER having a jam with it. With this 2nd gen Tray, I’ve also had jams with Target’s litter and Scoopfree’s, but only when I put in more than half a jug. (That’s why I weigh things now.) I suppose a solution to both points 4 and 5 would be to take about a cup of crystals out and set them aside, until enough have accumulated to use as a “bonus” refill; but a better solution might be for JTC to reduce the quantity to 8 pounds and the price by 10%.

BOTTOM LINE: Will I buy it again? Not sure. For now, I’m planning to just stock up every few months at Target; and I may try going back to the 1st gen Forever Tray to see whether the jamming is caused by the Tray or by the litter box mechanism itself.

DO I RECOMMEND IT: Depends. Your results might be slightly better than mine. If you don’t live near a Target store, and do use Amazon Prime, then yes, I’d definitely recommend it. Just monitor things for a while to make sure the larger quantity isn’t causing jams.

Review by Phillip Roncoroni:

First, let me state that I don’t smell any difference between this standard variety of World’s Best litter and the “extra strength” one. They add some kind of plant protein to the “extra strength” one, but both litters are very lacking in odor control. Either that, or my cat takes extremely smelly poops.

However, if you don’t mind the lack of odor control, this litter is great. It’s just ground up corn. You can probably eat it if you had to, with GREAT DEPRESSION 2 coming (joking). But really, corn litter is better for the environment than strip mining it for clay litter. Since it’s just corn, it’s completely safe and healthy for your cat as well.

Sometimes the urine clumps break apart. My cat loves to dig into this litter and kick it all over the place and it’s annoying to sweep up off the floor. And yeah, it tracks. I see little yellow paw prints on the carpet sometimes.

But I care about my cat’s health and that’s why I use this litter. Plus, he seems to like it. Though, to be fair, any litter I’ve tried with him in the past he’s used without being fussy.

Review by esanta:

This brand gets such rave reviews and recommendations I had to give it a try, especially after noticing my poor kitties were sneezing a lot from the dust in their supermarket clumping litter. Well, I was glad to see the end of the bag.

The biggest problem I had with it was the lack of odor control, probably due to the fact that it’s corn-based. After a couple of days it smells like flour soaked with vinegar gone rancid, and I scoop three times a day. I tried adding Arm & Hammer odor control powder, and it helped a little, but did not completely eliminate the smell.

Another problem is that because it’s very lightweight, it tends to fly around and track much more than ordinary litter.

On the positive side, it is completely dust free.

I don’t think “World’s Best” is a bad product. Certainly many people, including some “cat people” I know at work, swear by it. I just wanted to point out that it wasn’t “the best” for everybody. I am currently using Dr. Elsey’s Precious Cat Ultra Clumping Cat Litter which is completely dust free, tracks much less and has excellent odor control. It’s heavier to lug around, and it may not be as ecological, but it works better for my cats.

Review by Piper Laird:

Feline pine is the best litter if you use it correctly and make sure to get all the moisture in contact with the pellets.

What I was pleasantly shocked to find out is that FP is NOT a new concept. It is just new marketing. FP is the same as stall pellets used for livestock. You can get the EXACT product for -7 per 40 lbs bag at a local feed store. I live in the city and don’t have a local feed store but while driving on vacation passed one and picked up several bags.

If you can’t get to a feed store. FP is also the same as SOME stove pellets. Buy pellets with no additives if you buy stove pellets.

FP = stall pellets = stove pellets (wo accelerators).

Keep using this litter but save yourself a lot of money by getting the unmarketed product. Feel free to call Feline Pine who will confirm that their price is because of advertising. Kudos to then for getting the product to the masses though. They are a great company.

Review by Diana De Avila:

I used Feline Pine for years until I discovered Nature’s Logic Ponderosa Pine Cat Litter that was just slightly more economical. In theory, they do the same exact thing.

Here is what I like:

1) Pleasant pine smell really hides the smell of cat urine.

2) Turns from pellets to sawdust (time to change the box).

3) Easy to scoop.

4) Safe for kitties.

5) No dust clouds

Here is what I don’t like so much:

1) If you don’t keep on top of it, the sawdust can track,

2) Pellets can track and they are hard.

The pros from my experience far outweigh the cons. I did try the Nature’s Earth Feline Pine Scoop Cat Litter for several months with my 5 cats but found that the “flakes” from the Feline Pine Clumping litter tracked everywhere.

Overall, pine beats the clay litters, corn and wheat litters. I have tried them all for months at a time and have stuck with the pine litters. They absolutely do what they say and do a wonderful job of hiding urine smells. I change my boxes often and do not put more than an inch or so of litter in — the sawdust tracking tells me it’s time to change. As far as disposing of the litter (cat poop), I just flush them.

Easy stuff and ends up to be very economical. I order about 6 bags at a time by mail so I don’t have to lug them

Review by J. Willis:

I used this litter for almost two years for my 3 yr old male cat. It worked great. Never any smells and easy to clean. Plus the larger pellets don’t track. However, one problem with this and other “set it and forget it” litters that absorb liquids as opposed to clumps that you remove, is that there is a large grey area in terms of figuring out when to change the litter. The bag mentions that all the pellets will completely break down once they have absorbed litter, but it’s hard to determine when that point is. This leaves your cat pawing through a box full of damp(with urine) sawdust if you are not studious about checking the breaking point for the litter. Still, it worked great for one cat with consistent waste(read, nice and dry poop)

This ALL changed once I got a new 3 month old kitten with stool issues(more liquid than solid, I’ll just say). The problem is, any “moisture rich” cat turds don’t really absorb quickly enough into the litter and the pine pellets are too large to effectively cover any waste like that.

Sooo..you’re left with these pine pellet covered turd mines that my cats would step on and then…well, cat poop is not fun to have spread around the house.

On top of all that, the liquid absorbent qualities of the pellets meant having to change out the entire cat box pretty much on a weekly basis and since the litter isn’t flushable, this became an issue.

Being able to clean out all waste(solid AND liquid) on a day to day basis is the main reason I switched over to Swheat Scoop which I really like(and have reviewed as well). It keeps the cat box truly clean and it’s flushable.

I will say, that even with two cats, the feline pine kept odors down to a minimum(basically, you’d have to stick your head in the box to smell odors). So, I recommend it, keeping in mind the issues I had above. I think it’s more of a one cat litter.

Review by Lenora M. Ireland:

I have had cats for many years and have used several brands of litter. When Feline Pine came out I tried it and instantly loved it. I recently have mixed Tidy Cat Crystals in with it and have found a perfect combination. Half of a small bag of Feline Pine with one third of the jug of Tidy Cat Crystals for one cat for two weeks. It doesn’t stick to the feet and track like the scoopables, it swells and turns to sawdust as it’s used and the smell is very limited especially if you use a covered litter box with swinging door. I don’t scoop or do another thing to it until it’s time to dump, rinse, and start all over. You will find some saw dust outside of the litter box at the end of the two weeks but not tracked all through the house. It is the best!

Review by Sarah Heronbanks:

I usually use Yesterday’s News, both for health reasons (one guy is prone to UTIs) and for cleanliness (less tracking). I ordered this because it was available with Amazon Prime shipping, and I am starting to have heavy items shipped to my house for personal reasons. I didn’t know what to expect, and was a little worried that I was going to end up with a 25-pound bag of something I hated. I hate, for example, that Feline Pine, as the stuff dissolves into a nasty sticky powder mess. I was pleasantly surprised with the Fresh News. Not only is it comparable to Yesterday’s News, but the actual pieces tend to be bigger, so it seems to me that there is even less tracking. Recommended.

Review by Sammie Smith Jr.:

You only had one previous review of this product, but it was positive. We were looking for something at least as good as Yesterday’s News, but in larger quantity. Fresh News cat litter is much better than we expected. It has larger pellets and less small particles and breakdown after cat use. We use it in Breeze litter boxes instead of Breeze cat litter because it is biodegradable and toilet flushable.

Review by Smitty:

I am a first time cat owner and I recently rescued a 2 year old male. My girlfriend who has recently adapted a female thought we should try out some natural litter and so we gave this one a shot. We’ve both seen different results over the course of the last week and so this is why I rated it 3 stars to split our experiences.

My male cat took pretty stinky poos the first few days after the rescue because I think he was detoxing from whatever food they were feeding him (now he’s munchin’ on Newman’s organic cat food). This litter did very little to mask this smell but as the week went on, his poo smelled less but still the litter did not mask it. The clumping factor on this stuff was alright but would sometimes break apart. The tracking with this litter is pretty bad and I have found it all through my living room and bed room which is super annoying in a 1 bedroom apartment. Because of the tracking and the smell, I’ve found myself scooping 3-4 times a day and vacuuming the floor every morning before work which seems like overkill for one cat.

My girlfriend on the other hand, has had a pretty good experience. Her cat’s business is not as smelly and so she hasn’t had any problems with smell (in fact, I don’t smell it at all over at her place). She does complain though about the tracking as its noticeable on her floor but not nearly as bad as my place. She has been happy with the clumping also. She might end up switching just because of the tracking factor.

IMO, if they could somehow make this litter heavier it might track less but I’m not sure how you’d do that and still keep in natural.

Thankfully, my cat is super chill and I can completely switch his litter out cold turkey and so I have since switched to “World’s Best Cat Litter” which is corn based and natural. The granules seem heavier and so it appears to be tracking much less than this pine litter. Also, I woke up this morning and I know my cat has done his business but I don’t smell anything. Other reviewers of world’s best have mentioned that it smells like cattle feed and I would have to agree but I don’t really notice it and it certainly smells better than old lady perfume and cat poo.

Review by Go Penguins:

To the creator’s of Feline Pine.. brilliant and thank you. To Amazon… thanks for the Subscribe & Save.

I know this sounds bizarre to be so happy about cat litter, but I was running out of options. My little girl kitty is tiny and dainty and she is the same way in the litter box. Never a problem. Now my new rescue (brat)cat, is anything but. He is a bruiser in and out of the litter box. I moved the litter box in the farthest corner of my apartment away from my bedroom. He digs for minutes.. no exaggeration. Litter everywhere, and even after all the digging to cover up.. it still stunk! I have had him since May and this is the 5th (I don’t want to list the brands because it’s not their fault) and final (amen!!) litter.

I cannot CANNOT CANNOT believe it covered up the odors! The little dude has some really powerful, and massive, secretions. But not a smell. I love it! It’s brilliant!

I have allergies and asthma. Not sure what it is.. but I rarely use my inhaler. Makes you stop and think… really how bad is the the silica dust in most (?) litters for the lungs? Ours and our littlest family members. This has no artificial anything! I’m saying it again… bbbbrilliant !!!

Oh.. and it’s so much lighter to carry, and better for our environment!

Moral of the story… I guess I am thankful to Rippy for his stinky business and his ridiculous digging. I would never have tried Feline Pine. Now I will never switch. Thanks thanks and thanks!!

Review by Kyle Michelson:

I work at a pet store and own two cats. I’m able to test litter used for one cat per box at home, and multiple cats at the adoption center located within my store. I’ve also had the opportunity to try a great deal of products. This litter is absolutely amazing, the best I’ve ever used. The clumps are as hard as rocks, but at the same time don’t break apart into smaller pieces like some other litters do. It’s unscented, and the litter box remains odorless even after heavy use. It’s also dust free.

To compare to other brands:

World’s Best is natural, flushable, non-toxic, and clumping. However, if you live in a small house or apartment the smell will get to you. The litter box will smell like vomit even after a couple uses. I have never used Swheat Scoop, but I heard it’s a little better with smell than World’s Best.

Fresh Step, Tidy Cats, Premium Choice, and Petco’s store brand are decent, but each has disadvantages like dust, or clumps breaking apart or turning into sticky mud. They’re relatively cheap however, so this is a major advantage for those on a tight budget.

Crystal litters have amazing odor control, last awhile, and don’t track. There isn’t a single clumping litter that doesn’t track. The problem, however is with diarrhea or loose stools. You’ll end up throwing away a ton of litter since the crystals don’t clump. Not all cats will use the crystals, and some people are also worried about health effects from the silica dust, though companies that produce the litter claim it is non-toxic.

Cedar, crushed pea, pine cone, and cellulose litters all have their own problems. The crushed pea litter is basically dust in a bag. Even though the smells of pine or cedar are pleasant to humans and mask the smell of urine and feces, many cats are afraid of the odor and won’t use the litter box. These litters also suffer from the same problems as the crystals with regards to diarrhea and loose stools. Cellulose litters don’t smell, but they also cannot handle loose stools and may not absorb as well as crystals.

If a natural, flushable, environmentally litter is important to you, by all means purchase a litter based on wheat or corn. If price is the most important factor, buy a cheap clumping brand if minor inconveniences don’t bother you too much. If you want a reasonably priced, high quality product with no dust and great clumping ability then choose Precious Cat Ultra.

Review by Amanda Tryon:

This litter works very well. I can’t stand having my cats smell of perfumed litter and this litter works without all the dust and perfumes of your average clumping litter. I’d recommend it to anyone. I have 3 cats and it does a great job.