Best Fragrance free and Dust free Alternative to Fresh Step
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2014 | Rating: 4/5 | Best Sellers in Pet Supplies
for many years i used fresh step scoopable clumping cat litter exclusively  in terms of odor control and clumping the clumps are hard and do not break up fresh step is the gold standard  howevertwo new kitties entered my life last fall and one of them has breathing issues  the dust andor fragrance associated with fresh step was just too much for him and caused him to sneeze cough and ultimately to need an inhaler  i did not need to be told to switch litters  the problem was which one  the solution i have 5 cats and four huge litter boxes petmate giant litter pan so i bought four types of clumping litter and test drove each simultaneously  i am lucky enough to have an empty tiled office in the basement that serves as the litter box room so all four boxes were available to all the cats in one place each with a different type of clumping litter all unscented  the test lasted 5 months  the points of judgment were in descending order of importance dust odor control clumping ability weight and to a much lesser extent tracking  none of the litters i tried were so awful that i tossed them but i did settle on two winners each of which continues to occupy two boxes  heres what i usedthe losersswheat scoop multi cat natural wheat cat littersomeone from another review said that it worked fine but smelled like vomit  i think it smells a bit more like stinky cheese but either way eww  i do not think it worked well  it controls odors okay but has one of its own thats unpleasant and even more unpleasant when mixed with cat poo  and while the litter clumps well the clumps dont hold up when they are jostled about by the cats or hit by the scoop  the cats did not seem to like this litter as it was almost exclusively a pee only box  swheat scoop is a little dusty but not too bad  it tracks a lot  bonus this litter is very lightworlds best cat litter multiple cat clumping formulait is certainly not the best and for my little experiment was actually the worst performing  moderate odor control decent initial clumping but the clumps were tenuous at best falling apart easily into bits too small to be caught by the scoop  it smells really good coming out of the bag  a nice natural grainy smell but the cats did not seem to like this litter as it was a pee only box  dust is minimal and tracking is moderate  added plus this litter is light  not super light but certainly far from clay heavythe winnersblue buffalo naturally fresh multicat clumping cat litterthis litter is made from crushed walnut shells  its clumping ability is okay but the clumps fall apart too easily  however the cats love this litter  it comes out of the bag smelling wonderful  almost coffeeish  it has an odd sort of odor control  it doesnt really mask anything but the natural smell of the litter seems to nullify both pee and poo smells  this litter is moderately dusty and tracks a lot and since its dark brown its sort of gross looking  in truth this would have been a total loser if the cats didnt take to it so well  i dont know why but they love the walnut litter the best  this litter is very light and easy to scoopprecious cat ultra premium clumping cat litterthis would have been the only winner if the cats werent so crazy about the walnuts  this litter clumps like crazy and stays clumped  someone in another review claimed the urine went through the litter and created a sort of uniclump on the bottom of the box  my experience is this would happen only if a a very shallow amount of litter was used or b the box was not scooped frequently enough  my litter boxes which i scoop daily are huge filled at least 5 deep and there are four of them and five cats  i never found what she described  i did notice that the clumps in this litter are a little sticky and are round rather than cookie shaped like with fresh step which i believe is due to precious cat having larger particles and being pretty much dust free  if a clump sticks to the sides or bottom of the box it can cling pretty tightly but comes up with not much effort  if i let the boxes go for three or more days however i can certainly see how i would have problems cleaning them properly due to the weight of the clumps and their stickiness  this litter tracks lightly  the precious cat ultra premium clumping is as close to fresh step as i got while remaining fragrance and dustfree  big downer extremely heavy perhaps even heavier than fresh step  but as long as amazon offers to ship it free ill buybottom lineif i had to select just one litter it would probably be precious cat ultra premium clumping at least for now  true its extremely heavy but the dust problem is solved  in the rest of my house i am still cleaning up many years of fresh step dust i can tell by the smell of that awful fresh scent that used to seem pleasant but that i now associate with cat poo  my one cats breathing problems are receding and he no longer needs his inhaler  the two brands of litter my cats seemed to dislike swheat scoop and the worlds best cat litter tended to be peeonly litters  im not sure what that fact means in the cat world but i wouldnt want to commit to a litter the cats see as unworthy of their poops  i tend to think that the reason the walnut shellbased blue buffalo naturally fresh clumping litter is such a big hit is because three of my cats are elderly two of them being 14  i think their paws are sensitive and this litter is easy on their old paw pads  i would think that the swheat scoop and worlds best would also be old paw friendly but all i can say is cats are fickle and they dont explain themselves