Saturday Caturday: Cat Litter Review

Cats mean litter boxes. We love our cats, and hate their litter boxes. For years I've been using natural compressed wood pellets in the litter box rather than more conventional litters, but when I was given the chance to review a new scent of Fresh Step from Chewy.com, I decided to give it a try. I figured it would give me a chance to see if I switching back to conventional litter is a good idea, or if I should stick with what we've been doing.

We were sent this cat litter in exchange for our honest review. We were not compensated in any other way.

Theodore Trex is open to modeling gigs in the future

The litter we tried out is Fresh Step extreme odor control with Febreze freshness in the Hawaiian Aloha scent. When I first opened our Chewy box I could actually smell the litter. The scent is light and flowery without being heavy or overwhelming. The scent is a little too much when first pouring the litter into the box, and for the first hour or two. After that it starts to dissipate a bit. My cat explored the new litter pretty much immediately and ended up smelling like Hawaiian Aloha for a few hours, but that only happens with new litter. Each time I add a little more to his box, again, the scent is strong for a few hours, but mellows out after that.

This litter clumps really well and is super easy to clean the litter box. Something that I don't like about the pellets we've been using for years is that while you can scoop out solids, the liquids stay in the box until you clean it out (liquids cause the pellets to come apart into shavings, so you can scoop it out a little, but not much), making you need to dump the entire box more regularly. I have not smelled a single gross smell from this litter box the entire time we've been using the Fresh Step, even when cleaning. This litter is more dusty than the compressed pellets, but not as dusty as I remember from other classic cat litters.

The big downside for me of the Fresh Step is that it must be thrown in the trash. We recently moved and don't have traditional trash pick up at our new place. Things like dog poop and the cat litter box (when using the pellets made out of compressed wood shavings) can go into a large barrel for a specific kind of compost such as used when making humanure (look it up, it is fascinating and gross all at once, and probably the way of the future). Clumping litters can't be used with this kind of set up, though, so while we have been testing out this litter for review I have been needing to throw away the scoopings and the litter and bring it into town for disposal. Because of this, I think we'll be sticking with the pellets we have been using long term. However, I am absolutely saving the rest of the box of this litter to use while traveling, because I think it is a better choice for when in smaller spaces together or in hotel rooms.

A Caturday New Year's Eve

This month, we had the pleasure of reviewing Muse canned cat food from Chewy.com. Now, I think it is pretty obvious that my cat is something of a food hound. He eats out of food toys much of the time, and always gets his food carefully measured out because he gorges himself until he is sick if left to his own devices.

That said, he is still a cat, and cats are picky in some of the strangest ways. He doesn't like a lot of treats that I give the dogs, for instance. He will eat the dog kibble, but only certain kinds. He likes his kind of cat kibble, but after a few days, he loses interest in most other kinds (with a few exceptions which end up added into his food rotation).



Muse is a grain free wet food by Purina. We tried the Chicken recipe in a paté. With wet cat foods, I've found that the texture is as important as the flavor. Paté tends to be well received here, while chunks or shreds in gravy more often just have the gravy licked off the pieces. Though, again, this isn't always true, depending on the food.



Theodore liked the smell of this food enough that he was pretty offended when I tried to get a picture of him with the can, and pulled it toward himself with a paw.



He settled down to eat, and gave me dirty looks if I adjusted the can to get the label facing forward, or move him back to a better spot of light.



Overall, I would say that this food was a hit with him. He seemed to enjoy both the flavor and the texture, and he licked up every bit (well, other than that inevitable bit around the edges on the bottom that every cat I have ever had leaves around the bottom of a bowl regardless of the food). The ingredient list (Ingredients: Chicken, Chicken Broth, Ocean Whitefish, Liver, Spinach, Sweet Potatoes, Blueberry Pomace, Potassium Chloride, Guar Gum, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Salt, Mono and Dicalcium Phosphate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Manganese Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hyrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide) makes me comfortable feeding this as a supplement to dry kibble, or as a stand alone meal. 

Currently, it is on sale for $22.98 for a 24 can case, which is less than a dollar per can. At 1 can per 3-3 1/2 lbs, that is more than I would want to spend as a standalone food (though the Salmon flavor is on sale for $14.22 right now). But as one meal of the day, or as a treat. I would be fine with it, and I feel that cats tend to not drink enough water when on a kibble only diet, and benefit greatly from wet food. And for cats who are more dehydrated, it is easy to mix in even more water to make a mushy soup. 

We were provided with these treats in exchange for our honest review. We were not compensated in any other way, and all opinions expressed are entirely our own. 

Caturday

Theodore Trex wanted to make an appearance on the blog. He crashed out outdoor Stella and Chewy's photoshoot earlier this week.

Caturday Saturday

I did already post one review for Chewy.com in January. But, I was lucky enough to receive two products from Chewy to review last month, and managed to totally space out on getting the second review done until I looked at my supply of canned cat food and saw the ZiwiPeak sitting there!

But I figure, late is better than never, right?

So while in January the dogs got to test out a kibble toy (with the assistance of Bugsy and Thimble), the cats got to try out some ZiwiPeak canned cat food. It also happened that it was time to deworm the cats. Lucky for me, Theodore Trex actually is easy to give pills and medication to. You just hold onto him, pop it into the back of his mouth, and he swallows it down no problem. Martha, on the other hand, has other ideas about taking pills. So after about the fifth time Marthe spit the nasty, crumbly, coming apart pill back out, I opened up a can of ZiwiPeak and coated the pill in it, and tried again. And while she still didn't seem particularly pleased with the situation, she actually swallowed the pill, so I call that success. After both cats were wormed, I split the rest of the can between them as a reward and as an apology, and they seemed to take it as the peace offering that it was.

Overall, I would say both of my cats were big fans of this food. They get a mix of dry kibbles, raw, and canned food. There are a few canned foods that they don't care for at all. Martha is picky about texture on some of them (especially the gravy-and-chunks style wet foods), but this food seemed like a pretty big hit. Plus, the ingredient list is pretty excellent, meaning that I am happy to have it in our regular food rotation.




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Because we like to be truthful and honest with all of our customers, we ask that bloggers who receive free samples and other goodies from us in exchange for a product review, acknowledge in any related comment or post that you received the product free of charge. We also ask that any non-opinion, factual claims you make about the product be truthful and consistent with the product information sheets provided to you or found on the manufacturer’s website. We encourage you to share your honest experience and opinion with your readers and we will never direct, alter or edit your content in any way

Caturday!

Glamorous cat

Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for your cat? Why not stop over at Chewy.com and check out this awesome cat tree? Chewy.com still can get one of these to you before Christmas. 1-2 day shipping is free if you spend $49+.

The Armarakat Cat Tree arrived for our review packed up tight in a box, some assembly required. That said, the assembly was super easy.

All packed up tight

The box includes the parts for the tree, instructions that are easy to follow, the bolts required for assembly, and the tool needed for tightening the bolts. You don't need anything of your own, or any kind of tools, to assemble this tree.

Using the included tool to tighten up one of the bolts

There is a small toy that comes with the tree for the cats to play with.

Martha may be 13+ years old, but she still knows how to have fun

Martha took to the tree right away, crawling around on it, playing with the toy, and scratching on the uprights.

Loving hanging out on the new tree

Theodore Trex took a little longer to warm up to it, and he honestly still doesn't hang out on the upper level at all. He does like sitting on the base and using the scratching post part though.

Both cats getting into the action

Martha is enjoying her new cat tree a lot. She thinks it is a pretty great Christmas present, even if she did get it early.

Smug cat is smug

The Armarakat Cat Tree is even on sale right now for just $38.95, which is such a great price for a cat tree. Between the price (just need another $10.05 for free shipping!) and the free, fast shipping, you can't really go wrong.


We were provided with this cat tree free of charge in exchange for sharing our honest review of the product. We were not compensated in any other way.

Happy Caturday!

For some reason, Martha has taken to laying in Koira's kennel. I even swapped out beds to see if it was the bed she liked, but no, she insists on hanging out in the kennel. Koira has a healthy respect for cat claws, so goes ahead and lets Martha steal her space and bed.

Martha wasn't too thrilled at being woken up!

Caturday

Happy Caturday!

This month, Chewy.com sent us an awesome product, or should I say products, to review. Temptations has come out with an interactive treat dispensing toy called the Snacky Mouse just for cats. (The Snacky Mouse is on sale for $5.95 right now.) To review the treat dispenser, we were also sent a bag of the new flavor of Temptations Mixups Catnip treats (on sale for $3.89) as well.

So I set up, took the pictures of the products in the package, then opened up both to set up a photo of just the mouse dispenser. And Theodore Trex apparently heard the bag of treats being opened and knew it was meant for him, because he invited himself into the photoshoot.

That is quite literally the photo of his first sniff of this treat dispenser.

A couple more sniffs, then he added in a gentle nudge. Because cats, when in doubt, head bump. Or at least my cat does.

And then he seriously got the hang of it. He figured out that the more he bumped it, the more treats fell out.

I think it is fairly obvious from the pictures that he not only got the hang of the treat dispenser pretty quickly, but that he also enjoyed the treats.

The little mouse dispenser has three holes in it, on all sides of the mouse. The treats can come out of any of the holes, making things a little random.

You can see here how Theo nudged the mousie out of the way to eat a treat he had knocked out, and a treat is coming out of one of the back holes as well.

After spending a good bit of time just nudging the mousie around with his nose and head, the level of treats got lower, and things got a little harder.

Theodore quickly figured out that adding in some paw action made things pick back up and provided plenty of treats.

Overall, both this toy and these treats were big hits. I may start even feeding Theodore Trex his normal kibbles out of this dispenser to give him more of a workout, and just add some treats in it when I need him out of my way for a little bit. The treats work great in the dispenser, but obviously are best used as treats in addition to normal feeding.

You can grab this treat dispenser and these treats on Chewy.com. Since orders over $49 ship for free, and ship quickly, it is super simple to just add these onto your normal order of cat or dog food and treats.


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