11 Best Cat Litters, From Gel Crystals to Wood Fiber (2024)

Our Lab experts named this the best overall cat litter, and online reviewers love it as well, to the tune of more than 48,000 five-star Amazon ratings.

Some other brands we tried were fine-grained (like sand), which can cause clumps to break apart as you scoop, or they had large grains that wouldn't clump at all. Dr. Elsey's Ultra Premium litter's medium-size clay granules form hard clumps that you can scoop out easily. In our at-home tests, daily litter-box cleaning became a 20-second chore with this litter. It's also one of the best litters to use with the Litter-Robot 4.

This brand has no added scents but controls odor well, even with multiple cats. While the 40-pound bag is tough to lift and carry (unlike a box, it has no handles), we like that this litter can be delivered to your door (unless you live in Alaska or Hawaii). The large bag can last up to two months with one cat. You also have the option of ordering a smaller, 18-pound bag designed to last a month.

If you're looking to pay less and don't mind the occasional sweep around the litter box to pick up a few tracked granules, this litter from Special Kitty is easily half the price of most other litters. It absorbs messes quickly and forms tight clumps, which helps minimize odor and scooping time.

This "fresh scent" choice is strongly fragranced, so it's best for cats (and owners) who are less sensitive to scented products. Many online reviewers have multiple cats, which makes frequent cleaning necessary, so this light-on-the-wallet brand is especially attractive for owners with multiple furry friends. Each 20-pound, easy-pour plastic jug lasts at least a month for one cat, and the jug can be recycled.

But it isn't much more money to bump up to the 40-pound box, which will actually save you a few bucks, too, if you know you'll use it all eventually.

Vets recommend unscented litter for finicky cats and kittens, but, of course, cat owners don't ever want to be able to smell the litter box.

Arm & Hammer helps solve the odor problem by working baking soda into the formula. We tested this cat litter in a home with an open-top litter box placed in the kitchen, and to our noses there was no telltale smell, even after waiting several days to scoop.

We like that this brand is widely available in supermarkets and big-box stores, as well as online. The 40-pound box has a handle, easily pours from a hole in the side and should last about two months for one cat. It touts itself as "low tracking," but unfortunately, during testing, we did have to regularly sweep around the litter box with this. "The cat tracks this but also kicks it out of his box, which is the cat's fault and not the litter's fault," the tester said. "It's still worth it for me for the odor control."

If your cat box is in a high-traffic area, it's especially important that your litter is able to keep odors at bay.

We home-tested this with a family whose litter box sits in the hallway, and the pleasant scent made litter-box maintenance an odor-free chore. "Stirring up the litter as I scooped released the Febreze scent and even made the area smell good!" our tester said.

This Outstretch formula is made with concentrated clay, and the brand claims it lasts 50% longer than its previous versions, which should mean you can go a few days without scooping (if you have just one cat) and a month and a half without changing out the whole litter box. The litter pours easily out of a hole in the side of the box. It's not dust-free, but if odor-fighting is your priority, this is a good option.

World's Best Cat Litter is made from corn instead of clay, which makes it much lighter than other litter, so your trash bag won’t sink from the weight of your daily cleaning.

The brand claims to be flushable and septic safe, as long as you don't flush more than two clumps at a time. Good Housekeeping freelance writer Yolanda Wikiel used and flushed this litter for three months with no ill effects. "I definitely prefer to be able to flush litter," she said. But note that the state of California asks its residents to always place litter in the trash rather than flushing.

Wikiel purchased World's Best Cat Litter when she adopted two new kittens. "A lot of the animal rescue organizations I talked with recommended it, and the kittens gravitated to this brand when I put out two boxes, each with a different litter," she said. "But the pieces of litter are small, so they do get everywhere."

The litter smells a bit malty, since it is, in fact, plant-based, which also means it has some naturally occurring dust. That's offset by the fact that it clumps so well there's very little litter waste as you clean. The 28-pound bag can last about two months, even if you have two cats.

Though this brand touts its odor-fighting abilities, during testing we were the most bowled over by its lack of dust, as well as its non-tracking formula that kept our hardwood floors fairly clean. That's rare for a clumping, sand-like litter.

"I still had to vacuum and sweep about once a week, but overall, this litter doesn't stick to my cats' paws as much as other brands," our tester said. The downside of the large texture is that the clumping doesn't pack quite as tightly as other clumping litters.

The brand has stepped up efforts to make the packaging more eco-friendly, with boxes and bags made from more sustainable materials. Online, you can order three paper bags packed in a recyclable box, and each bag perfectly fills a litter box for a month if you have one cat.

Perfumy smells and pebbly textures can be a turnoff for some cats. Felines on the finicky side seem to take to this shredded-wood litter, thanks to its soft, natural texture and lack of added scent.

Online reviewers say that because it clumps, they can scoop less regularly and the odor stays more or less controlled. But many cat parents use this brand with a sifting litter box and clean out solid waste that way, instead of using a scooper.

Because this plant-based cat litter is so light, a giant box that pours from the side is only 16.4 pounds and lasts a month or more for one cat. 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.

You can feel good about using this litter, which claims to be made of recycled paper pellets that create no dust and won't track. And we realized another benefit while home testing: If your cat noisily kicks around regular litter, this So Phresh paper formula solves that problem — it's silent. Online reviewers report that cleaning is especially easy if you use this with a sifting litter box, which lets you lift and separate solid waste between box changes.

This formula is made with baking soda plus a scent, and the combination masks most odors. It's sold exclusively through Petco in 25-pound bags. Just note that because urine can trickle down through non-clumping pellets, you will want to empty and clean the entire box every week or two.

Doesn't it sometimes seem as if two cats put three times as much stuff in the litter box or boxes? It's like they're having a competition. So with multiple cats, you need to scoop daily. This scented litter masks odors, and the quick-clumping clay makes cleaning up after multiple cats quicker and easier.

Reviewers also rave about the packaging, which comes as vacuum-packed individual bags banded together. Though the full package is 42 pounds, you can take out the compact 10.5-pound individual bags one at a time and fill one litter box with each, making the chore of changing the whole box a lot easier on your arms and back. But there is, we'll note, a lot of plastic waste.

Online reviewers who have older cats with sensitive paws, picky cats or cats with scent sensitivities or dust allergies gravitate toward this soft, unscented litter that's made up of granules of wheat with no added anything. sWheat Scoop claims to biodegrade and be safe to flush. (We did not try the flushing part.) You can compost the litter when you do a total box changeover — not the cat poop, only the excess litter.

Users looking out for the environment will appreciate that wheat is a more easily harvested and renewable resource than clay, which makes up most clumping litter. The 25-pound bag comes with an easy-open top.

The premise of Pretty Litter is that the silica gel crystals turn a color if your cat is having a health issue. Regular, healthy cat urine should make the crystals yellow or olive green; any other color, including red or blue, may signal that you should consider making a trip to the vet.

If you have a cat with health concerns, this can be useful and well worth the price for the peace of mind. (Most cats are stoic and don't let on if they're feeling sick.) That said, for regular use with healthy cats, we find these non-clumping crystals to be more difficult to scoop than clay litter, and our tester cats simply sat their solid feces on top and didn't bury anything, so we had to stay on top of scooping to avoid odors.

The brand recommends users "thoroughly mix the litter every day" to avoid having cats saturate the same granules day in and day out. If you do that, one six-pound bag should last you one month for one cat. We do like that this litter is the lightest we've ever used — each bag weighs only six pounds.

Martha Stewart is a paid spokesperson for Pretty Litter, so you may have seen her ads for this kitty litter on TV. The site is a subscription-based service, and the brand sells food as well, so expect to see windows asking you to add on to your purchase.

Our lead tester reviewed 12 cat litters over the course of a year in her home. We also tested more than a dozen leading and well-reviewed brands in 10 other cat owners' homes to determine how they worked under real-world conditions with kittens, cats and senior felines.

Users answered survey questions about the packaging, ease of scooping, odor control, level of dust, level of tracking and their cat's acceptance of the litter.

Litter can be made of a few different kinds of materials, sometimes with added scents or baking soda. It will likely take some trial and error to find the right litter for you and your cat.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, when you're analyzing different types of cat litter, you should identify which factors you consider most important (though your cat may be the decision-maker in the end).

✔️ Material: Most litters are made of inexpensive bentonite clay. When urine hits it, it clumps up to make scooping easier. However, there are several alternatives, including gel crystals, as well as wood, wheat, tofu, corn and paper, that are milled, sawed, ground or cut into fine granules or chunky particles. Litters without clay or silica dust are viewed as more natural alternatives and may come with advantages like being flushable, generating less dust for allergy-prone cats and being less sticky, which means less litter tracked around the house. Litters come in various scents and grain sizes, and most cats seem to prefer a texture close to soil.

✔️ Odor control: Some litters include baking soda or activated charcoal, which can help keep urine and fecal odors at bay. However, these odor-masking ingredients can be a turnoff to your cat, so it may take a bit of trial and error to find the odor control that works for both you and your kitty.

✔️ Clumping ability: Clumping litter tends to help minimize messes and make it easier for you to scoop for easy cleanup. Non-clumping litter is usually cheaper, but it's difficult to scoop urine or fecal matter without changing the whole pan.

✔️ Dust level: This isn't just important for keeping your floors and furniture clean; it's also important for helping to prevent you and your cat from sneezing. But some people are much more sensitive to dust than others. In our list of picks, we have noted litter that, in our testing, produced less dust.

✔️ Tracking: The goal here 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 clay litter. A mat outside the litter box (such as this cat litter mat from Amazon) also helps remove particles from kitty's paws.

Megan Conrad, a veterinarian at Hello Ralphie (a HearstLab company) and a cat owner, explains that the biggest choice when it comes to litter is clumping versus non-clumping.

"Using non-clumping litter means no daily scooping of your cat's litter box, but you'll need to completely replace the litter once a week," she says. "Some non-clumping litters are less likely to be tracked outside the box and may produce less dust than clumping types."

CLUMPING LITTER

• Scoop daily; change monthly
• Potential cost savings
• Can't be flushed
• Can be a bit dusty
• May be heavy to lift and pour if made of large clay granules

NON-CLUMPING LITTER

• No need to scoop every day; change weekly
• Some materials are flushable
• Lightweight and fine-grained means it's easier to lift and pour
• May lead to more dust and tracking issues

The Good Housekeeping Institute provides expert reviews and advice on all things family and pets. See our recent articles on pet hair removal tools and dog beds.

In her work with Good Housekeeping, product expert and journalist Jessica Hartshorn uses her decades of experience as a cat owner to test and evaluate kitty products, such as the best cat carriers.