We Tested Dozens of Cat Litters—These Are the Best for Odor Control

You might want to use one of these if you are looking for something other than clay litter. Because urine can trickle down through non-clumping pellets, you will want to empty and clean the entire box every week or two.

• Pretty Litter is silica gel crystals that should turn yellow or olive green if your healthy cat pees on them. If they turn red or blue, you may want bring your cat to the vet. The brand recommends owners "thoroughly mix the litter every day" to avoid having cats saturate the same granules over and over. Pretty Litter is lightweight—each bag weighs only six pounds, yet fills a box. Per pound, this is pricey, but a little goes a long way.
• So Phresh Paper Pellets claims to be made of recycled paper pellets that create no dust and won't track. I realized another benefit while home testing: If your cat noisily kicks around clay litter, this is quieter as your kitty rakes away. The formula is made with baking soda in addition to a scent, and the combination masks most odors. It's sold through Petco in 25-pound bags.
• sWheat Scoop is granules of wheat with no added fragrances or chemicals. It claims to biodegrade and be safe to flush. (I did not try the flushing part, and flushing litter is not allowed in California.) You can compost the litter when you do a total box changeover—not the cat poop, only the excess litter. Online reviewers who have older cats with sensitive paws, picky cats, or cats with scent sensitivities or dust allergies praise this soft, unscented litter.
• ökocat Wood Clumping Cat Litter is shredded-wood litter with a soft, natural texture and no added scent. It does not clump as well as clay, but does clump more than other non-clay alternatives. It's plant-based; the pellets were originally developed in Germany but are now produced domestically, in Georgia, from what the brand says is a blend of spruce, fir, and pine. It's lightweight, but may produce some natural wood dust.

I'm a journalist who reviews pet products and currently the owner of one senior cat, though during most of my testing we were a two cat household. (The younger cat went to live with my adult child. In all fairness, she was his cat!) I've personally researched and reviewed more than 30 cat litters in the last four years. In addition, the Tidy Cats brand was reviewed in our Good Housekeeping Institute as part of the Good Housekeeping Seal program.

I also interviewed cat owners about their favorites and combed through online reviews to get a full picture of how each brand works in real-world conditions. Finally, I interviewed veterinarian Megan Conrad, B.V.M.S., about what to look for when shopping for the best cat litter.

Your cat may be the decision-maker, but here are things to consider:

✔️ Ingredients:

• Clay (bentonite clay) is what most litters are made of, and it's inexpensive. When urine hits the clay, it balls up. That makes it easy for you to scoop the waste and throw it in the garbage. When your cat rakes a clay litter, it will, ideally, easily bury its own solid waste, so clay litter can be very effective at controlling odors. Some varieties are scented, some are unscented, and some have added minerals or baking soda to help kill odors. Don't flush clay litter or you'll clog your plumbing.
• Silica gel crystals have recently grown popular because the color can change based on your cat's urine content, helping indicate if there's a health problem. Crystals do not clump but they do absorb urine. They do not absorb solid waste. Crystal cat litter tends to be the most expensive, but it's also lightweight and not as dusty as clay litter. Don't flush crystal cat litter.
• Wood, wheat, corn, and paper are referred to as more "natural" choices. (Clay is natural, too, and gel crystals are sodium silicate sand processed with oxygen and water so it absorbs a tremendous amount of liquid, according to Chewy.) Wood, wheat, corn, and paper varieties might be milled, sawed, ground, or cut into fine granules or chunky particles. Some are flushable outside of the state of California, or even compostable once you've removed the actual waste.

✔️ Odor control: Any litter that clumps or that your cat can use to bury waste can be odor-controlling. Some varieties go further to mask odors by including baking soda, activated charcoal, or added scents. However, odor-masking ingredients can be a turn-off to some picky cats.

✔️ Clumping ability: Clumping cat litter makes it easy for you to scoop. Clay cat litter can clump well unless it's too fine-grained or too large-grained to hold together. Clumping cat litter is the best kind to use in self-cleaning automatic litter boxes such as the Litter Robot 4.

Crystals are non-clumping litter, and so is paper cat litter. With non-clumping litter, it's difficult to scoop urine or fecal matter without changing the whole pan, but some people prefer to clean the entire box weekly rather than scooping daily.

✔️ Dust level: This isn't just important for keeping your floors and furniture clean; it's also helpful for preventing you and your cat from sneezing. Some people are much more sensitive to dust than others. Often a litter is dusty only when you first pour it into the box and then it quickly settles.

✔️ Tracking: The goal is for your cat's litter to stay in the box and not get tracked around the house. Clay litters tend to track more than some other materials, such as paper or wood, and small particles of clay from sand-like litter tend to track more than large pieces of litter. A mat outside the litter box such as this cat litter mat from Amazon can help remove particles from a kitty's paws.

• Cats like their bathroom to be in a quiet location. If you can use a cat door to a basement or garage, that might be best. Cats also like to do their business where they're not "trapped;" they want to feel they could escape quickly if a person or another pet approaches. A box in the human bathroom might not work if the door is often shut.

The ASPCA has a lot of advice for resolving litter box problems. Much of it boils down to the fact that cats can't be shame-trained to use a litter box. It's up to a cat owner to put a box somewhere their cat feels safe, fill it with a litter that the cat likes, and clean it often.

The recommendation is one litter box per cat, and the Humane Society of the United States suggests having a bonus litter box too, if you have the space. That said, plenty of households (especially small apartments) have two cats sharing a box. If the cats are fine with it (no accidents happening) and you keep it clean, then no harm is being done.

Most experts say you should scoop daily. If you comb Reddit forums, many cat enthusiasts claim they clean daily or even twice a day. But the Pet Health Network says that it's okay to scoop every other day too. If your cat scratches around outside the box, that could be a sign that it's not thrilled with the waste inside the box and you should scoop more often.

If you use an automatic, self-cleaning litter box, you don't need to scoop daily but you'll need to empty the waste drawer at least once a week.

Dr. Conrad says that if you're using a clumping cat litter, you might change over the entire box and litter contents once a month. You'll have to do it weekly or every other week if you're using a non-clumping litter.

If you have access to an outside hose, you can empty the litter box and spray-clean it outdoors. If you live in an apartment, many Reddit posters recommend emptying the box completely and cleaning the box in your bath tub, then cleaning the tub.

Vets say most cats like an open litter box, particularly senior cats and kittens. However, we've known shy cats (including my own) who seem to prefer the privacy of a box with a cover.