The self-proclaimed “World’s Best Cat Litter” may be able to live up to its name. Because it is made from whole kernel corn, the litter delivers great odor control. The microporous structure of corn provides a large surface area to trap and absorb ammonia and urine odors.
We like it because it is biodegradable, comes from a renewable source, and because it has added chemicals or perfumes to mask odor.
The 7 pound bag sells for about $9. Here is a list of retailers.
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One problem I have had with this litter is that if you live in an area with high humidity and you leave the litter in the box for too long it begins to grow mould.
My understanding is that before commercial cat litter was available, people made their own by mixing sand and baking soda.
I own two cats and have tried most of the commercially available litter, not only the chemically dubious space-age clumping varieties but also those based on green-ish alternatives like recycled pine and cedar sawdust.
In my experience the one litter that is by far the most effective at odor control, and also seems to have a texture the cats like most, is Arm & Hammer Unscented, whose ingredients are, basically, sand and baking soda. It’s comparatively cheap too, in 35 lb boxes at Target. Perhaps sometimes not innovating at all is meta-efficient.
Is this whole kernel corn non-GMO? Were petroleum-based fertilizers used to grow it?
I’ve found that ime-tested soluations are often the most metaefficient. The sand and baking soda solutions sounds like a good one.
TWBCL emphasizes the “dust free” qualitites of the product – “it contains no clays, silica, synthetic binding or dust reducing agents”.
The corn in the TWBCL product is probably not organic, so it might not be a efficient as sand and baking soda litter.
Can someone comment on the possibility that the innovative “green” litters (corn, sawdust pellets, etc.) are more suitable for disposal by composting? How significant an advantage might this be?
Can someone comment on the possibility that the new “green” litters (corn, sawdust pellets, etc.) are more suitable for disposal by composting? How significant an advantage might this be?
oops, sorry for double post!
I love this blog, but this entry bugs me.
One thing that bothers me about this is the incredible amounts of nonrenewable petroleum energy, water, and land inputs that go into overproducing corn. That, and you can feed corn to hungry people, instead of giving your animal a place to excrete.
Microbes from kitty litter, such as the one that causes toxoplasmosis, have also been implicated in the drastic increase in the disease rate of sea otters off the California coast.
The corn-based cat litter people emphasize that their litter is free of “dust” and is flushable.
But, as commenters have pointed out, corn does require at lot of water to grow and usually involves pesticides.
So do you have a metaefficient alternative? We’ve heard about sand and baking soda so far…
I ran out and got some of this the other day for my cat. Glad I could return it. She stopped using the litter box. I gave it a day and a half with no luck… back to Arm & Hammer.
WBCL really is the best. Clay is bad for your cat – kitty walks on litter, gets clay dust on feet and fur- and then ingests it. WBCL is the EASIEST to clean, it is more lightweight than clay, it produces much less dust than any clay litter, and much less than most other types (wheat, cedar, etc). It controls odor well without that disgusting perfume smell of clay litters, and you can flush it.
I can’t imagine this any litter moulding if the box is cleaned frequently enough, I have not had a problem in the most humid of weeks (though I live in NY, not sure about other humidity levels).
And regarding cats acclimating to ANY new litter, half a day and a cold-turkey change won’t work. The package of ANY litter will advise that changing litters over should be a gradual process, sometimes taking a week or more.
I work in a private sheleter, and we have used ALL types of litter. This is by far the best available litter. Healthy for the cats, and easy to clean up for the owner.
I cannot stand the scent of this litter any longer. I’ve used it for 6 months and while it clumps wonderfully, the smell is forcing me to look at alternatives. I wish the makers could make the corn smell go away.
Baking soda can burn/irritate your skin, can’t it also be harmful to cats’ delicate pads? My cat has long hair and is always cleaning himself, won’t ingesting the baking soda be harmful for him?
I use swheat scoop, which has some of the same pluses, non odor, flushable, but is a BYPRODUCT of wheat, not the wheat itself, and would otherwise be thrown away. I agree that it seems pretty strange to use something EDIBLE to dispose of cat’s waste – plus, as Michael Pollen discusses in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the subsidization of corn has incredible detrimental effects on our society and the environment. I’d recommend looking at http://www.swheatscoop.com for an alternative.
I just recently got two rabbits and im looking for a safe clumping litter to use in their litter box. Im trying the worlds best but im a little concerned about them eating it. Now will it become impacted if they do ingest it? if anyone has any other advice id love to hear it
Iam a maker of it and i dont have a cat or pets but i promice you that we test every pallet three time. if you guys and girls have problems there is a 1800 number on the bag just call them and they will refund your money. who else dose that. Also there is a code on the bag on the back in a white box if it is a year old return it it shouls say c0625101 or cs0625101 the c or cs is if it is extra strenght or original the 06 is the year the 251 is the day of the year that it was made and the 01 is the 1 truck of the day or if it is an 02 it means the second truck of the day but we usually only get three trucks a day out
I have used mny different brands and styles, but the best, BY FAR is the arm & Hammer unscented. It has the best scent and dust control.
I use this, and it is the best litter I’ve tried, and I’ve tried many (including s’wheat scoop, which is almost as good but a bit sticky). I do, though, have reservations about the eco impact of corn production, about using what could be feeding the hungry, etc.
To the person concerned about kitty ingesting clay. Do you have any reason to think this is harmful? My understanding (as a potter) is that silica is not harmful to eat (some cultures actually use it medicinally), though it IS bad to breath.
I have used this litter before with no problems, but the bag, that I just bought has some kind of little tiny bugs in it I do not know what they are, but I threw it out, cause I don’t want my cats or house exposed to these bugs.
I have used this litter before with no problems, but the bag, that I just bought has some kind of little tiny bugs in it I do not know what they are, but I threw it out, cause I don’t want my cats or house exposed to these bugs. Anyone else had this problem.
I have had a new kitten for a little over 1 week and decided to go with TWBCL since I have heard so many rave reviews about it. I have to say, our kitten tracks it everywhere, and the dust from it ends up on his paws and then on our couch. It seems to clump well, but his litter box always ends up with little pieces of poop about the size of the corn kernels that I can’t clean up in our scooper, and it means that even though I clean his litter box after EVERY potty, it is really never totally clean. Has anyone else had any of these experiences?
I have had the little black bugs in my cat’s corn litter too. I think they’re the same ones that infest flour. I think all the corn litter already has the eggs in it, once exposed to air they hatch. I have started freezing the clean litter before I put it in the litter box, about a week before I’ll need it. Anyone else have any ideas? I buy a lot for a better deal, so I think it’s the remaining litter sitting around in an opened bag (twisted shut) that caused the hatchings. Has anyone seen the bugs in an unopened bag?
I’ve been using “The World’s Best Cat Litter” for many years, and have loved it. It is absorbent, clumps well, is flushable and almost dustless, and doesn’t have any chemical odor.
This morning, disaster! I opened a new bag of “The World’s Best Cat Litter” and a moth flew out! There were more in the bag, plus some tiny critters (whatever moths were before they got wings?). I took the bag back to my pet store, and they replaced it. But I’m reluctant to use the replacement; a friend told me that this happened because the litter is corn-based. Maybe I’ll switch back to clay-based litter.
Can anyone tell me where the little bugs come from in the litter and what they are? We sift the litter daily and completely clean at least once a week but they never go away?
I was so excited when I first started hearing about litters like this. We live with a septic tank, and pay $1 a bag to take our garbage to the dump. We compost and recycle, but still…
So, the thought that I could put litter and cat waste right into the toilet was exciting. This litter was exciting to my cat, to0… she ate it. Thankfully, I had cleaned the litter box before Madame chowed down.
Our cat was a stray and has “food issues”. When she came to us, she was starting down a bony road. Every litter I’ve tried made out of what could be in cat kibble (corn, wheat), she’s eaten.
We’re now using a clumping pine litter that can go into the septic tank. Still not perfect, as our cats track it everywhere. We also end up with little litter/urine (hopefully not feces!) balls in the box after scooping.
ProductNonUser: It’s never a good idea to put human (omnivorous) or cat (carnivorous) waste in your compost.
While my wife was pregnant I was left to care for our cats, and I am NOT as they say a “cat person” the ONLY litter I could find, that I could stand to be in and around was Feline Pine (a sawdust pellet litter.)
The only time it smelled was if you were right in the vicinity while the cat was using the box, but within moments it simply smelled like pine dust, as if someone had been cutting wood in the basement. The solids are dried by the dust and the liquid waste breaks the pellets down. Simply remove the dust and solids, leaving the remaining pellets and add a few more as they run low.
I am assuming the dust would just come from lumber mills and would be wasted anyways. The tomato plants really love it too!
I have tried most litters and have used wbcl I must say I prefer the original as the extra seemed to track…but I think it is great, easy to use… not heavy to move..clumps[although certain cats it does not!!! anyone else noticed this?]well,not anywhere near as smelly as other litters…cheaper would be great..but you do get what you pay for.
We LOVE TWBCL. Have had no problems at all. We use it in combination with the Dispos-a-box corrugated recyclable box liner and a couple sprinkles of baking soda every few days. Using this combination we have not had to change the entire box for 3 weeks now and have NO cat smell! When you average out the cost of this litter and the pans it’s about the same or less than the other stuff because you constantly have to dump the whole thing and replace with new. We scoop 2x a day and replenish the corn when needed. We have very little dust and we nor our cat is choked to death by the clay dust anymore! Try it out!
I bought a brand new bag just to realize it’s full of bugs….
The best one is Doro Lockers and it is biodegradable as well as recycled. And does lock the odor. What more can you ask for??
I have started using WBCL and really like it. I don’t think there is any “perfect” litter out there, just some that are better than others or are better suited to particular conditions or preferences. For me WBCL has been the best I’ve tried. I like the smell ok, which reminds me a lot of a bale of fresh straw. As the litter stays in the pan for many, many days with no fresh litter added (30+ days), the smell can get a little less fresh and pleasing, but still it seems to do a better job of controlling cat waste odor than anything else I’ve found. In particular, we *never* have cat pee smell from the box. Sometimes there is a poop smell, but *only* if I haven’t kept up with scooping and haven’t added enough fresh litter so that is really not the fault of the litter. I personally can’t stand the perfumey smell of most scented litters, but scent preference varies a lot so I could see how someone might not like the WBCL smell.
The stuff is quite light weight, which makes it far easier to scoop through the box, and best of all it doesn’t stick the to pan. I absolutely hate having to deal with sticky residue at the bottom of the pan, so I love to death that this doesn’t do that. I scoop twice a day and it takes me less than 60 seconds to do it if I keep up with it. So much less of a chore than with clay litter. It is not as dust free as billed, although when fresh the dust is very low. The dust increases as the litter ages after many days of use and the individual granules begin to break down. Our cats have tracked every litter we’ve ever tried, so I don’t find this too objectionable, and yes there have been a few powdery pawprints left on things, but not too often. Because this litter is expensive I try to stretch its use to a month or more before completely emptying the box and changing it out for fresh. I believe there would be lest dust if I changed it more often, but this is a trade-off that works for us. My parents used pellet-style wheat and pine litters for their kittens, and I didn’t like it at all. Seemed like it took a lot more effort, and the pellets disintegrated into a yucky soggy much. The extra-strength WBCL, which is what we use, stays clumped together very firmly, with a lot less small, soiled particles getting loose in the pan than with other litters.
Regarding composting human and animal waste, there is no reason you can’t do it safely and successfully, however it is best to do some research, learn how to do it right and take appropriate precautions. The Humanure Book is a good place to start. If you decide to compost the litter box waste when using a compostable litter like WBCL, create a dedicated composter that is separate from your main kitchen-garbage composter. Locate it away from stream run-off, in an out of the way place, and plan on letting the composted litter age for a couple of years before using it in landscaping, not food crops. With these precautions, I don’t think you’d be at any more risk than you are already experiencing just by having a litter box in your home and maintaining it. I am also concerned about the reports of toxoplasmosis getting into the streams and affecting sea otters, but if you can prevent such runoff, there is no more risk than with putting it into a landfill. We haven’t yet tried composting it, but I intend to, mainly because it would reduce our garbage so much.
I had been a faithful user of TWBCL for 2 years, but after noticing more and more flour bugs in the bags, I will now be switching to another brand.
I suppose one could freeze the litter (and dry cat food, as those manufacturers also have problems with flour bugs) but that would go against the principal of expecting companies to work proactively to prevent flour bug infestations in their products.
We use Feline Pine (scoopable) or Aristocat scoopable Pine Litter. Both are made of sawdust with minimal added chemicals. Aristocat is more expensive but lasts longer before the whole box needs to be changed out.
With Aristocat, scooping twice a day (we have 3 cats), we find that the entire boxes can last 5 to 6 weeks. Eventually the number of tiny bits that fall through the scoop build up. Then we dump all of it out and replace the the entire boxful of litter.
With Feline Pine, the urine smell is obvious after only 3 to 4 weeks, even though we scrupulously clean the boxes before going to work and in the evening.
They have relatively little dust, no bugs ever (the very reason for pine sap’s smell is to repel bugs) and no harsh perfumes or chemicals.
Using these sawdust-based products seems to be more ecological to us than corn (which takes lots of fertilizer, diesel fuel and water to grow) or clay products (which have dust that is harmful to small lungs).
WBCL was recommended to us by the foster of the two kittens we adopted; she said it was awesome because it is completely & truly ‘flushable’. That is true, but, that’s the only reason we like it. We are gradually switching our cats to clay, and I have preferred A&H brand before, so that’s probably what will eventually fill their boxes. My reasons – 1. This ‘corn’ product, in my opinion, DOES NOT control odor; it seems to retain it all instead and make the whole house stink after they’ve used a fresh box only a few times. We scoop religiously too, usually as soon as we know they’ve been in it. 2. Tonight, I found one of my cats frantically scratching in the box; a bit unusual for him… to my disgust, I discovered that the poor lil guy was trying to cover up hundreds of newly hatched Weevils, aka CORNMEAL BUGS! – which I read here that others have mentioned. (I came across this thread while searching to see if this was a common problem).
P.S. I think I’m going to try the “Aristocat scoopable Pine Litter’ that Chris mentioned before me. Anyone else have comment to that product? Thanks.
A number of people have commented on the problem of the WBCL having bugs in it. Thankfully, we’ve never experienced that, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t. However, if we did, I would march that stuff right back to the store and demand a refund and I would do that every time it happened. I like this stuff well enough to want to keep using it, but I think if there is a bug problem it needs to be solved by either the retailer or the manufacturer, or both. Consistently demanding a refund or replacement with a bug-free bag would encourage this.
I noticed that this product has a new package, and I’m wondering if they’ve taken steps to solve the bug problem. Seems to me it should leave their facility bug free. As to what happens to it after it leaves their custody, perhaps they and the major retailers can work out a solution. As I said in my previous comment, I think it controls odors quite well as long as it is kept fresh and replenished at reasonable intervals. However, everybody’s mileage may vary, and other folks may have better luck with a different brand or type of litter.
We use one of those litter-robots and WBCL has worked fine with it but we have also experienced the bugs and they are very apparent especially when opening the litter tray to dump the litter …the little bugs fly out all over. We have not noticed any bugs in the new packaging. I wonder if they are seasonal or came from a bad batch? We had never had that experience with WBCL until this past summer and have used the product for a few years now. It is great that we can flush it down the toilet but our hairless cats do track it everywhere. It is so so with odor control, was thinking about adding some arm hammer to it. Has anyone tried the litter-robot brand of premium clumping cat litter? anyone have any other suggestions of litter that works great with the litter-robot?
I have not tried twbcl but I’m very skeptic of the earth friendly cat litters.First I used the wheat litter, which was fine for a week or so until I started finding big fat worms outside of the litter box.After this I moved on to feline pine which wasn’t too bad except for the fact both litters were very very light and carried all over the place.The litter even got on my furniture, my clothing and my friends clothing.Once again some small “pincher” looking insect would be found in the pine litter.I have moved on to arm and hammer which doesn’t carry all over the place and I have yet to see an insect anywhere near the litter box.
I have not used WBCL before and was looking around to see what people say about it when I found this blog. Just as info, I have been using Feline Pine, which is alright. It is great about absorbing smell and I was impressed with the company’s attempts to provide their customers with other environmentally important information regarding pet care like the problems that have been reported with flushing cat feces off the California coast. I am not a big fan of the original brand however, which is the pellets, because it allows the moisture from the cat’s urine to stay around in the litter box. I prefer clumping litter for both my sake in cleaning the box, and my cat’s because she has to paw through that stuff. I tried their clumping litter, which I like for it’s use in allowing me to remove the urine clumps from the box when I scoop, but it does get everywhere since it is really just pine dust. My biggest concern with it however is how safe it is for my cat. I came across this site which had some information about pine litter that worried me. If anyone has more information on the health properties of pine litter, I would love to know. I hope this information is of some help to those of you on this blog who are looking for more information about other litters as well.