Fast-Clumping All-Natural Cat Litter, 25lb Bag

Having a new kitten in the house was a huge adjustment for the humans as well. For starters, our older cat was toilet trained: no litter box, no poo or pee smell, and (perhaps most jarring) no messy litter tracked all over the house by little paws (litter on my pillow, really?!).When we got our older cat, there had been 3 main types of litter available: flushable clumping, non-flushable clumping, and crystal non-clumping. It was a pretty easy decision for us at the time, and since we toilet trained her we only ever really had the one box of litter we'd purchased during training. Mr. Bob came from the SPCA with a single bag of non clumping litter. It was awful, simply awful. After about a week it smelled super strongly of cat urine, which if you've ever smelled it, is one of the stronger awful scents in existence. Cat urine is scented so strongly for a reason - it's meant as a territorial marking to tell other cats to keep out of his territory. And it's disgusting.So almost immediately we went searching for new litter. Only, in the passing 9 years, the cat litter market had gotten much more complicated. No longer separated into 3 easy choices, there were 2 main categories: 1. clay, 2. everything else. Within clay, there was clumping and non clumping. The nasty kind he'd come home with from the SPCA was non-clumping clay. When talking with the SPCA about litter options, we'd been admonished to under no circumstances buy clumping clay litter, because little kittens like to nibble on it sometimes, and it will clump and form blockages in their tiny intestines. That immediately crossed off about half the litter choices. What else was out there if we couldn't buy clay, and wanted clumping?Going to a brick and mortar pet store is great for choice, and not having to wait, but it's hard to know what's good or bad, because there are no product reviews. So, online we went.Holy cow, are there a lot of choices in category 2 (everything else). In addition to the crystal option we knew about from 9 years ago, there's litter made from paper, walnuts, flaxseed, charcoal, and, like everything else nowadays, corn and wheat.I won't bore you by copying and pasting product reviews here, but the main things we wanted out of a litter were 1. not smelly, 2. flushable in case we decided to toilet train again, 3. reasonably priced, 4. not tracking all over the house. The first litter we tried was made of teeny tiny little grains, which met every condition except #4 -- it tracked dust and sandy stuff all over the house.The reviews on the corn failed #1, and according to more than one review, smelled like wet garbage. The walnut litter was not flushable. The paper litter didn't clump, and smelled bad. The other more exotic options were expensive, and still had questionable reviews. The one standout seemed to be wheat. It was made of food, so couldn't hurt the kitten too badly if he ate it (which he totally ended up doing, picking up little grains from all over the house as a morning snack), clumped, had great reviews, and was flushable. We decided to give it a shot.There were a few brands and types out there, but the one we found easily shippable at a reasonable price, and also available locally, was called Swheat Scoop (not a very good name if you ask me, too cute, but it gets the point across, I guess... it's made of wheat, and it smells sweet?). It took a bit of an adjustment, but it was everything we'd hoped for, and more.There were 2 negative reviews about Swheat Scoop, the first involving the litter clumps falling apart. As mentioned in other positive reviews about the product, the clumps do fall apart if you try to scoop them too soon after the cat does its business, but if you wait about an hour, the clumps are hard as a rock. If you choose to flush your litter (which I know everyone advises against, due to possibly spreading toxoplasmosis, but flushability is a must for toilet training), the hard-as-rock clumps immediately start falling apart when re-exposed to moisture. It's a win-win, awesome clumping, but disintegrate in water. It's this capability that makes the wheat litter safe for cats to eat, whether accidentally (licking it up off their fur), or on purpose (kitty-vacuuming it off the floor) - it won't clump in their intestines and cause a life-threatening blockage.The other negative review was more concerning - since it's made of food (wheat), bugs love it. Some customers had opened their litter bag and started using it, only to find larvae (possibly moths) growing in the litter box a few days later. Ugh, gross, that would have been a deal breaker for us, but thankfully we found the solution in another positive review of the product. If you break the huge litter bag down into separate freezer bags, and leave each of those in your freezer for at least 48 hours, like magic, no bugs. Leaving the litter at freezing temperature kills any eggs that might possibly be in there, and getting rid of the bag that the litter came with disposes of any eggs that might be on the bag instead. Both the pet stores, and the manufacturer, swear that the bugs/eggs cannot be from them. But who cares, as long as you can kill them?We've seen nary a bug in our litter box, the kittens are happy and healthy (we ended up with a second kitten two weeks later, to keep our little Buddy company when we cannot), and it's not a hassle or a mess, which makes us happy. I highly recommend giving Swheat Scoop a try

After years of trying about every kitty litter on the pet aisle shelf:- disliked the various wood pellets because they just turned to fluff in the box and ended up everyplace in my house,- newspaper was heavy and stunk like ink so that must have also got on their paws and so in their bodies,- then tried a bunch of commercial litters, even the one that says it can be flushed down the toilet(Pet Pride "flush able" but was horribly DUSTY and there was kitty and human sneezing 24/7 until I dumped that version and went back to Whole Care Pet natural clay as it claimed 99% dust free! but wasn't really! still chemicals and glue "foot" to deal with.In a nutshell, just wish I had never used the commercial clay clumping litter before trying SWheat Scoop. Hated the dust, the sneezing, the cough ing and the glue of the commercial clay litter with its' chemicals. Both of my kitties had at one time or another stepped into a newly made piddle pile of clumping clay litter and cleaning the glue and clay bits from between their claws and feet pads was a nightmare, for them more then me. (You have to hold their offending foot in warm water while loosening the bits from between their pads, all the while trying not to hurt them. The clay bits are sharp when wet.)The directions on the sWheat Scoop bag says to slowly make the change by adding a third of the old clay litter on top of the sWheat Scoop litter. I know cats, and when they have to go, they will go in an empty box if necessary. I opted to dump ALL of the clay litter out and using 100% sWheat Scoop in their boxes. I was not surprised to find my 2 kitties made the switch immediately to this with no problems, and I no longer worry about their health or if they accidentally step in this truly natural "litter". Easy to clean up with just a plop into the john. Plus I love the light weight of the little wheat "biscuits" left behind after kitty use. I also use Albers Double Duty rabbit pellets for kitty litter, smells nice and alfalfa-y with all that chlorophyll and can be flushed. The 2 combined or separate make the best-no-mess-safe-litter that exists as far as I'm concerned.

Will start with this premise: Nothing clumps as well as clay, but then again nothing is **heavier** than urine-soaked clay! Not to mention very dusty. We have 3 cats now, and really needed to lighten the load, so we tried 2 non-clay litters, the Swheat Scoop (wheat-based) and another that was corn-based. The Swheat Scoop was by far the less dusty of the two, and clumps pretty well. I mix in some clay (10% maybe) to make it more granular and improve the absorption a bit. Using a rocking technique to sift the clumps (rather than shaking), it sorts out well.There have been reports of moth problems, and yep -- we had a few moths -- good hunting for the indoor kitties. Fortunately, we have a chest freezer, so when the last bag arrived we put it in the freezer for 2 days. I've seen no moths since the changeover to that bag. One CAUTION: If you have a dog with indiscriminate taste, make sure s/he can't get to the cat box. Eating a bunch of Swheat will cause a tummy ache at the very least. Our Golden has always been locked out of the cat-box room, no matter what kind of litter.