Review: Blue Naturally Fresh Cat Litter

We’ve got to know an even more awesome cat litter recently that replaced the clay based litter with a walnut based cat litter, named Blue Buffalo, Naturally Fresh Clumping Cat Litter.

Who is this for?

This cat litter is for the cat that wants a cat litter that doesn’t track as much under their paws. The cat litter is also for the cat owner that doesn’t like extreme smells of spoiled cat litter throughout the house, because this cat litter does absorption of smells and fluids better than any other cat litter out there.

Why Did We Switch?

We have been using a lot of different types and brands of cat litter over the past 15 years. After many cheap brands with bad absorbing cat litters, we went for EverClean and later on our all-time favourite Tidy Cats. That was until we decided to find a new brand.

There were two reasons for us to find a new brand:

1. Tidy Cats had changed their formula
2. We wanted to be more environmental-friendly

Tidy Cats Changed Their Formula

First of all Tidy Cats had changed their formula. Normally a brand checks their reviews and does something about the many complaints. Tidy Cats has not. They did eventually bring out some sort of Cat Litter Box solution (called Breeze), but that product is 1) not available for us in Norway and 2) way too expensive for multi-cat households.

One of the things that Tidy Cats changed was the clumping aspect of things. It stopped clumping properly like it had always before. Secondary they added some very strong scents to the product, which resulted in giving us headaches, making us ill, our cats ill. Well you get the picture. It was time for a change based on those results.

Wanting To Be More Environmental-Friendly

We drive an electrical car. We have to sort our paper, plastic, vegetables & fruits, cans, glass, garbage, diapers (if you got babies), batteries and more. With the major clay clumping cat litters we are still filling the ground with garbage, as these used cat litters are still being dumped in the garbage container. The clay litters are too chemical to put into the garden or in the green container, so they end up in the burning ovens. Does that sound environmental friendly? Not to us.

So we had to find a new, preferably clumping, cat litter that wouldn’t stink us out of the house.

Our choice fell on a product that had proven to be at least 3 times better at absorbing cat urine than the traditional clumping clay cat litters and also is as organic as you can be.  You can throw it in the compost of the garden or even flush it down the toilet.

Blue Naturally Fresh Cat Litter

True, organic, flushable, clumping and absorbing cat litter that doesn’t dust. That is how the producer sells the product. Unfortunately does this product dust like any other cat litter. I yet have to find a cat litter that doesn’t dust. Perhaps old newspapers do not dust, but they do not absorb very well either, so that is not an option at all.

Blue Buffalo has come with an amazing product however, that does definitely leave no smells or scents behind. Your house will not smell like urine, not even like any scented cat litter.

The smell of your house might have a slight nutty scent to it after starting to use Blue Naturally Fresh Cat Litter, but generally speaking your house will smell like your house and nothing else. That’s exactly what matters. Nobody wants artificial scenting in their house and nobody wants a house that smells like cat urine and cat feces.

Main Features

Organic Crushed Walnut Insides

The cat litter is made of a very simple ingredient, namely the brown insides of a walnut. Walnuts have a shell that is hard, while on the inside there is a soft dark brown material that is there to protect the nut from hard impact when falling from the tree and to offer nutrition to let the nut (seed) grow.

It is this same material inside the insides of the shell, that are being used for this cat litter. I am guessing that they also use the shell when crushing the walnut shells for cat litter production. There are no other additives added to this product, therefore it is perfectly possible to compost used cat litter.

Similarly you can flush the used cat litter through your ordinary toilet at low amounts. I would however suggest you to not do so anyway. It will be an extra burden to the water filtering system of cities and the chance that you could potentially block your sewer system is still there.

Enormously Absorbent – No More Smells

The crushed walnut insides are extremely well at absorbing any form of fluid or feces. Feces are just going to dry out in a matter of an hour, while urine will sink in a little and then settle and become clumps.

We used to smell when one of our cats went on the litter box, but this is no longer the case. Shortly after a visit the smells completely disappear. You don’t even get strong parfume smells, just a soft nutty scent can be smelled when you are close enough to the box.

You will instantly notice the difference between a traditional cat litter and this cat litter. Traditional cat litter will try to mask the strong smells of urine and feces by using a lot of chemicals and parfume. The walnut based cat litter will truly absorb the productions and make it not smell anything else than a slight nutty scent.

Clumping Cat Litter

The Naturally Fresh Cat Litter from Blue Buffalo is amazingly clumping cat litter. Because of its strong natural absorbing behaviour, the wet clumps will be attracting the dry stuff around them, forming good clumps that can be scooped away. It is however important to know that these clumps require some more delicacy when you are scooping them than the traditional chemical compound based clumps you are used to with clay litter.

This is not necessarily a disadvantage, because it still clumps really well, which makes it an easy scoop and clean cleanup of your litter box every day.

Little Tracking

There is rather little to no tracking noticeable. Some people will have this in higher numbers than others. Tracking means that cats have the cat litter under their paws and take it with through your entire house. We have experienced the tracking to be less than that of other traditional clay litters. We also noticed that the tracking keeps to the area directly after the box, after that it is minimal.

You will have tracking with every cat litter out there however, so that is something you will have to deal with anyway. Households with cats also have to deal with a lot of cat hairs, therefore it is more than logical to clean your house often anyway.

Less Dusty

The product is advertised with less dust. Unfortunately I would say that the product has a lot of dusting, but I noticed that it really matters how you are scooping the box. The dusting doesn’t seem to be so prominent when a cat is digging through the litter to find a place to do their business.

With that info I started cleaning the litter box with the scoop almost at litter level. This seemed to reduce the dusting tremendously. If you sift your sifting scoop meters above the box, you will create a lot of dust.

Other cat litters do also dust, so you are no better out with any other product. Best advice is to scoop horizontal with the litter and perhaps use a mask to protect your lungs. This goes for scooping any type of cat litter.

Lasts Longer

Provided that you scoop the litter box as soon as the feces and urine has dryed out and formed clumps, this litter will last you much longer than most cat litters. Possibly your litter box can be going on for 1 month if not longer on the same cat litter.

Perhaps the litter is more expensive for you per bag, but you will see that it is definitely worth the extra cost when that same litter lasts you longer than traditional cat litters do.

Healthier

No chemicals are used in this product, only the natural walnut product, which means that the product is healthier for your cats when they are using the litter box and for you when you are scooping the litter box.

Provided that you use the right technique to clean your litter box, you will not get too much dust in your lungs either.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Clumping and absorbent cat litter
• no more smells throughout the entire house
• cats are happier
• little tracking
• lasts long

Cons

• still (very) dusty

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can This Be Used With The Breeze Litter Box (Tidy Cats Breeze)?

A: Even though the grains of this product are smaller than that of the Breeze system, you can perfectly use the Breeze box for this product. You will still have to swap out the urine pad on the bottom of the box every 5-7 days however. With a traditional cat litter box, you would possibly swap it out once a month.

Q: Does It Dust Much?

A: Yes it dust as much or maybe more than traditional cat litters. The problem is in the breaking down of the cat litter when it gets used. It is not especially dusty when you are pouring it in, but gets extremely dusty after your cats use the cat litter.

I do however have some tips to reduce dusting to a minimal:

1. When pouring, pour it close to the litter box, not at great distance
2. When scooping, filter the clumps at almost litter level, to reduce dusting

Q: How Much Do I Fill The Box With This Product?

A: It has clear instructions on how many inches you should fill your litter box with. That said, I would add a couple of inches if the height of your litter box allows you to. The advantage is that there will be more room for urine to settle and form clumps and more cat litter to dry the feces. You want easy scooping, so give it time to dry.

In our case, we got a litter box the size of an IKEA container for storage. This container is getting filled with two entire bags. This sounds perhaps expensive to most people, but here in Norway this stuff is cheaper than the traditional cat litters. We also manage to let the cats use the same litter in an entire month before we dump it out for a new load.

Q: Is It Flushable?

A: Although this product is flushable, I would strongly de-advice you to do so. Unless you are perfectly sure that you can do this in your region and you have experience with it, I would not risk it. Some people have a septic tank, for which this litter might not work. Not every sewer system, toilet system or piping within the house is the same in the world and certain amounts of litter might clog your system up. It is very expensive to let someone come over cleaning through your sewer pipes in your house (have experience on that level).

That said, you can also perfectly well compost this stuff in your garden if you choose to do so, or dispose of it in your green container. I do however not feel bad about throwing it in the usual garbage container either, because it isn’t something that is going to hurt the garbage heap, rather help it.

Conclusion

This cat litter will make you as an owner happy, but it will also make your cats happier than they were before.

You will be happier with a house that smells like your house, with a better health because of a natural product and because of having happy cats around you.

Your cats will be happier with a product that is less dusty, not chemical fortified and doesn’t track too much. Cats really want to be clean all the time and a less dusty cat litter means less dust to clean off. The same goes for tracking.

A natural cat litter that is natural to them, means it will come closer to natural environments. They will more happily use this litter than other litters. Especially scented litters are prone to throw problems with your cats, also on a health level. So the result of using this cat litter is a healthy, happy and thriving kitty, and that is what matters most!

Get yourself a great smelling house again and a happy, healthy and thriving cat.

See It For Yourself!

 

Those who live in an area where you cannot get Blue Naturally Fresh Cat Litter:

Check out , exactly the same product from a different brand.

 

When you have tried it, please leave a comment below and share your experiences!