So, what are some good alternatives?

Hit enter too soon! Green living has some, but it would have been nice to have a breakdown here! =)

I have been using Swheat Scoop wheat litter for 2 years now and it works great. Clumps well and makes for easy cleaning.

We use a pine litter- it smells nice and piney, and avoids the whole clay problem.

My dog likes to eat the treats in the cat box and probably ingests a lot of the litter. I had no idea how bad it is. I can't imagine sweat scoop, newspaper or pine would be any better...

We have three cats and just switched over to corn fibers. I'm surprised at how much less the litter box smells anymore, and love that I don't choke on dust when I'm pouring it. It's also a lot more absorbent, but breaks down.

I use pine litter. It's non-clumping and breaks down to sawdust when wet, so I imagine it'd be the safest option for dogs who snack.

Depending on the size of the dog and the willingness of your cat to tolerate enclosed litterpans, I've found using a large rubbermaid tub with a hole in the side effective from keeping my lab mix from getting to the litterbox (positioned at the back of the tub).

I recommend "The World's Best Cat Litter." The name's no joke! It's made from corn. It's more expensive than some types, but I find I can use less of it, so it lasts longer.

My cats weren't crazy about it when we first switched, and there were a few "accidents" as a result. But they've adjusted now.

I also absolutely recommend "World's Best Cat Litter"!
I love it. There's no dust and much less tracking in the house. It also controls odor pretty well. And it clumps.

Seconding Swheat Scoop wheat litter. Nice bonus is that it's flushable. I've used corn but switched because the dog, a lab mix, found it too tempting, probably since corn is often an ingredient in his food. I like pine and sometimes mix it with the wheat because of the pine-fresh scent.

Thankfully, my cat is indoor/outdoor, and is happy to go outside like my pup, so I don't even have to worry about litter much at all.

so what do you propose for people whose cats refuse anything *but* clay/clumping litter?

I have used Feline Pine over the years with great results when I had 2-3 cats. Though, at one point with fostering and my own cats, there were 7 cats in my home. I had to switch to something more "powerful."

I now use The World's Best Cat Litter for multi-cat households. If you have more than one cat, there's a very noticeable difference between the standard version and multi-cat as far as smell.

Don't flush your cat litter!! California and North American West Coast residents should not flush cat waste because of the parasite risk to sea otters and other sea life.

If your cat is not keen to switch you can mix your two litters - clay and otherwise and slowly start using less clay..

Another vote for World's Best. We tried almost every non-clay litter, and this is by far our favorite!

@clareawasw - my cats refused once there was a new litter in the box. even in small amounts, they refused it.

@falnfenix @clareawasw Same problem here. It was a big triumph when I got my cat to shift to a perfume-free clay litter. He has outright refused to use any of the non-clay litters I've tried him on - and I feel like the amount of water and other resources I've had to use to clean cat urine out of things (not to mention the things I've had to dispose because they couldn't be cleaned) has negated any environmental benefit to switching away from clay litter.

My boyfriend and I are moving our cats in together and will have several boxes in our new place - since his cats are less picky, I'm going to try to switch 2/3 boxes to clay litter and see if my cat will use any of the other litters. Maybe the peer pressure will get to him!

@septicidal I understand your pain. sometimes we just have to give-in to our furry pals.

i've had to let one of mine outside every day since we moved because he suddenly refused to use the box and was leaving "gifts" all over the house (and ruined brand new carpet that came with the house). they're sensitive beasts.

I use Swheat Scoop, but I don't flush it even though it's probably not a problem to do in a prairie city, because it tends to temporarily clog my toilet up.

I've been very intrigued with the Cat Genie of late as an alternative, but I'm skeptical that it will work as well as it claims, because I don't know anyone who uses it. But if it does work as it says, that would be awesome.

worlds best cat litter is great- but whats even greater??

i know i risk sounding like a loon but we are potty training our young cats! seriously. its called litter kwitter and its changing my life!!! no nasty smells, no fighting over changing the litter, and no harming the environment.

guests think its weird but we couldnt be happier =]

Um what does biodegrade in landfills?

I'm not up on the literature or laws but I have to wonder what is legal (toss it in the trash, is it really legal to flush it?) or what is more likely to contaminate the waterways. I use cedar litter and although it's somewhat benign, I hate to think that monoculture cedar farms are being used or worse that places are being deforested.

The clay litter is certainly bad; not only can it contain carcinogens from clay and perfumes, but it is mined and highly earth-destroying. What's more it is heavy. I run a small cat rescue and our trash guys refused to take our trash one week because they said the bags were too heavy, so until I switched I had to use twice as many plastic trash bags. Not a problem with cedar litter.

FYI: it's a myth that every cat carries toxoplasmosis. Most cats do not - it's an illness. But all cat and dog feces have nasty bacteria and it should not be allowed into the toilet. This is one instance where I think that trash bags / landfills can be useful (and I almost never say that). I don't know any other good alternative.

Keep your cats indoors (or walk them or put them in an enclosure) - that's the first step.

I'm in a similar boat. I tried every kind of non-clay litter out there, and my cat will not use it. He's 17, and at this point I give up. If I want him to use a box, it has to be the cheapest litter on the market. It's what he used as a kitten, when we didn't know any better.

I have heard of people training their cats to use the toilet. Anyone had positive experiences with this? Seems like the best solution. No packaging, no use of extra fuel...doesn't even use extra water, because they cant flush. :)

I'm all for using a different kind of non-clay litter... but no one has mentioned the affordability factor! I have 3 cats, so we use a lot of litter! World's Best/Swheat Schoop would be completely cost prohibitive for someone on a fixed budget, like me!

Are there truly affordable alternatives?

I mix in wood pellets with our clay littler. Super absorbant and makes the littler last longer.

I switched to World's Best Multicat early this year for the two kittens that I adopted last summer. The dust was unbearable--I stopped being able to wear contacts, and had a horrible hacking cough for two months. Fortunately my cats are not picky about their litter and adjusted quickly to the change...now if only they would be less picky about food!

We use (but in Oz) a recycled newspaper made into pallets kitty litter - no smell, no dust, cat seems to prefer it (he does have a habit of balancing on the edge of the container, but always has), and we can dump it in sensible bits of the garden.

I use Healthy Pet Milled Grain litter. It's totally flushable, biodegradable & has none of the crappy dust that comes with clay litter. I've been using it for years & I love it.

I also enjoy how it doesn't get tracked throughout my apartment because the grains are a bit larger.

Any comments on "Yesterdays news"? we used it when the cats were being spade (spaded?) as per the vets directions, made out of old newspapers...

Of the many litters I've tried, I have come to love World's Best. It has a pleasant smell, clumps and doesn't track as much as many of the other alternative litter solutions.

Sawdust and wheat based products were dusting my floor like an old-timey bar that wanted only for a cowboy. The sawdust does smell lovely, though!

Newspaper didn't seem absorbent enough and my cat seemed disgruntled with digging in it. This was also my least favorite for odor.

***

For those people that have cats reluctant to change there are a few tricks to getting them to use a different product:

Cat Attract: Basically it is a litter supplement that you add one scoop of to the new litter to make it more attractive to your cat. After a while you can phase it out. I had AMAZING results with this in application with a kitten that wanted nothing to do with the litter box.

A pheromone treatment: There are plug ins, sprays and collars. They help in all times of transition. I suggest spraying outside of the litterbox and considering a wall plug-in. Remember not to spray inside!

A mixture: Phasing out the old litter slowly can make the change less abrupt and therefore less traumatic.

Make sure you don't change the box position and keep the litter scooped very frequently. You want to make the box as enticing as possible while they adjust.

I switched over a year ago. World's Best Cat Litter is awesome as is Arm & Hammer's Natural cat litter. No clay and it clumps!

I also recommend the Arm & Hammer Natural Cat Litter. It is a corn cob litter, and I found it works better then Feline Pine.

I tried a corn-based litter before and we had a lot of problems with those little bugs. Using freshstep, no bugs. Have any of you had problems with bugs with World's Best Cat Litter or any of these other ones?

A few years ago I became convinced the dust and chemicals of the clay litters were unhealthy and horrible for the environment so I began trying a number of alternatives, including pine, world's best, etc., and ultimately the one that won it for me in terms of clumping firmness, odour control, and texture was Swheat Scoop. Two years later I'm still amazed at this natural wheat-husk based litter. Smells clean and fresh, clumps well, and controls odour great. I can't recommend it enough!

Sodium bentonite sounds scary, but it's just clay. But the strip mining thing is the problem, to my mind. I have tried several of the wheat or pine ones, and have trouble scooping them. They don't sift through the scooper well. Since we have 3 cats, daily scoops are necessary. And, when I introduced it starting with one box, they all fled to the clay-filled litter boxes. That being said, the one I have had the best luck with is Arm and Hammer's, and it's pretty cheap too. Another advantage if Arm and Hammer's is that it doesn't weigh a ton, and can go in a backpack for a bike ride home without being hugely uncomfortable.

World's Best Multicat.

Safe for septic systems, low dust, no bugs. Bugs in cat litter? Awesome stuff.