Are Litter Amendments Worth It?
If you have a kitty, you are always battling two scourges in your home: fur and litter. No matter how assiduously you clean, these two items will, at times, drive you bananas.
For the hair issue, dog and cat owners have a few different solutions like the Furminator and the Dyson Groom. Fine. But litter? Different litters have variable odor-control capabilities, but really — is there any solution for the smell of an unattended litter box? Like most of you, I’m out of the house all day at work, and I like to come home to the house smelling like something other than Birdie’s toilet. Enter litter amendments.
Litter amendments are exactly what they sound like: substances, usually powdered, that you add to your litter mix to help eliminate offending odors. For my first foray in to this potential solution, I followed the advice of a nice Pet Food Express employee and tried Citrus Magic.
Citrus Magic smells a little bit like Froot Loops cereal, but zestier and better (I don’t know how it smells to cats — that’s another matter). You’re supposed to add about 1/4 cup to your litter box and mix it around thoroughly. Good news: it definitely helps! It’s not going to make the litter box smell like roses or magically deodorize your entire house, but it’s a big improvement. Reapply it to your litter liberally. Remember that kitties are very sensitive to changes in their bathroom routine, so try out a little bit at a time before going whole hog. And if Kitty wrinkles up her perfect little nose at it, move on and try something else. (Believe me, you to do not want to mess up good litter box usage habits).
Citrus Magic isn’t the only amendment on the market — Arm & Hammer makes one that is well-reviewed on Amazon.com, and Nature’s Miracle also makes one that seems to have a passionate following, but may or may not be discontinued. Does anyone have experience with these?
I’m not sure why litter can’t clump well AND deodorize effectively, but until we get there, litter amendments are a good solution.
Image: Great Beyond
6 Responses to “Are Litter Amendments Worth It?”
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I used to put baking soda in it, but I don’t anymore. I’ve never used the Nature’s Miracle litter additive, but I do use their spray to clean the box each time I change the litter. Works pretty well.
I find that fresh step is great for clumping and for not smelling up the house… but it gets EVERYWHERE. Now if I could find something that addressed all three of those issues and that my cats would agree to use, I’d be so happy!
A&H is the one I use, but I think just about ANY baking soda style litter amendment (or just baking soda!) does the trick.
I’d rather the boxes smell be neutralized than covered up with a perfumy (or fruit loopy) smell any day. Nature’s Miracle is great too but always more expensive in store… I’ll have to consider purchasing it online.
Also.. not sure why I didn’t say it but A&H and Tidy Cat both have clumping cat litter with litter amendments (deodorizers) already in them. It’s just that in my MULTI cat household, our boxes need a lil MORE help…
Oh, good to know! Thanks, Tyler!
I used to buy Nature’s Miracle, which was great because of the pine tree smell, but because it was more expensive and seemed to have a smaller sized bag for it’s biggest size, I eventually stopped getting it.
Now I just try to clean my cats’ box a2-3 times a day and put baking soda into the trash can where I throw their waste away. At 50 cents per baking soda box at the dollar store, this proves to be a lot cheaper of an option!
For litter, I use Pet Food Express’ brand of organic litter. One bag is a little more than my old brand of Swheat Scoop, but when you get the store deal of buy 3 get the 4th free, it comes out to less. It does a great job at absorbing, is clay free, and pesticide free for my kitties’ paws since it’s organic :)