Litter & Toilet

Cats are famously particular about their toilet; a cat that dislikes its litter or box may start going elsewhere. Choosing the right litter and tray therefore matters for both household hygiene and your cat’s stress levels. This category brings together authorised bentonite and silica litters, litter boxes in a range of sizes and scoops.

Bentonite or silica?

• **Bentonite litter:** forms firm clumps on contact with liquid, and its fine texture feels like natural soil to most cats. With daily scooping it lasts a long time.
• **Silica litter:** draws liquid into the crystals, locks in odour very effectively and is extremely light. It does not clump; you remove solids, stir the crystals and usually replace the whole tray every three to four weeks.

Both work well in single-cat homes. With several cats, clumping bentonite is often more practical because it is easy to see and remove what has been used. If your cat is sensitive to dust, or someone in the home has asthma, choose a low-dust formula.

The golden rule for litter boxes is that your cat should be able to turn round comfortably: the tray should be roughly one and a half times the length of your cat from nose to base of tail. Hooded boxes reduce scatter and smell, though some cats prefer an open tray. A common guideline is one box per cat, plus one.

When switching litter, mix the old and new over several days and gradually increase the proportion of the new one. As litter is a regular purchase, autoship saves you 5% and keeps you from running out.