Litter comparison

❄ Our view

This is our new reference, and it takes the Fleur de Litière’s place for a simple reason: it does the same job for markedly less money. We put it in expecting a downgraded product — it is the range below, from the same brand, at half the price per litre. That is not what we found.

The clumps are very good: firm, decisive, lifted out in one piece with the scoop and leaving no residue at the bottom of the tray. That is the criterion that decides everything else, because it determines whether you remove exactly the soiled matter or carry clean litter out with it — and therefore how long a tray lasts before it has to be emptied.

What surprised us most is the odour control, the best on this page. The mechanism is the same as the Fleur de Litière’s and it is nothing like a fragrance: bicarbonate slows the bacterial degradation of urea that produces ammonia, instead of covering it. The Carbonite adds dark grains — the brand’s technical sheet describes them as 1 % activated charcoal — which fix volatile compounds. On heavily used trays, the gap with the bare bentonites on this page is clear.

On paper it sits slightly behind its big sister: above 280 % absorbency against above 320 %, and 3 % of grains under 0.5 mm against 2 %. In use we did not find that gap — neither on how the blocks hold, nor on dust, which stays discreet when pouring. The manufacturer still recommends pouring in a ventilated spot, and that is advice we follow for every clay.

One reservation about the reading rather than the use: the published particle-size distribution only adds up to 95 %. Three per cent, eighty-seven, five: five points are missing. We would rather flag it than pretend not to have seen it — on a page that faults other brands for publishing nothing, the least we can do is read what is published.

What remains is what it shares with every bentonite: it does not compost, it never goes down the toilet, and it leaves the tray clinging to paws. And as with any clumping clay, our reservation stands for very young kittens — we explain that below.

❄ Our view

Technically it is the best-made litter on this page: we have nothing to hold against it, except the price. We tested it expecting a compromise somewhere: there is none. Clumping is decisive, the blocks come out in one piece without crumbling, dust stays discreet despite the fineness of the grain, and odour control holds over time.

That last point has an explanation: it is not scented, it is well made. A tray’s characteristic smell comes from the ammonia released by the bacterial degradation of urea, and the 1 % bicarbonate slows that reaction instead of covering it. It is the exact opposite of an added fragrance, and the only form of odour control we accept in a cattery.

The fine grain works in its favour here: the greater the contact surface with urine, the faster the clump forms and the better it holds. Concretely, you remove exactly the soiled matter and nothing else — which is what makes a tray last, and partly offsets the price gap.

It is also, together with the Carbonite, the only brand on this page to publish its particle-size distribution, and the detail is worth reading: only 2 % of grains pass under 0.5 mm. In other words, it is a fine grain, not a powder — and that is exactly what separates it from the Éco+. The manufacturer still recommends pouring in a ventilated spot, which is honest: no clumping clay is entirely free of residue.

There remains the real flaw, and it is serious: at €7.30 the 4.5 L box in direct sale, i.e. €1.62 per litre, it costs nearly five times the Éco+. Over five or six regularly renewed trays, that is no longer a detail — even if it is the only one whose real monthly cost can be estimated, around €10 to €15 per cat. It can be found cheaper in supermarkets than in direct sale. And it is that price, that price alone, which now puts it behind the Carbonite from the same brand: at about €0.89/L, the Carbonite keeps the same promises on clumping and does better on odours, for roughly half the price per litre. The Fleur de Litière keeps the edge on two figures — a higher announced absorbency (> 320 % against > 280 %) and a slightly less fine grain — but we did not find that gap in the trays. The brand still carries other ranges we have not tried, including a Carbonite formulated for neutered cats.

❄ Our view

It is not a remarkable litter, and we will not pretend otherwise: it shines nowhere. But it fails nowhere either, and that is precisely what puts it here.

It clumps decently — the blocks form and lift out without crumbling under the scoop. It is not the Tranquille’s hold; it is perfectly usable day to day. Above all, it makes little dust, and that is where it takes the advantage over the Éco+: on the criterion we place at the head of our grid, the Beasty passes where the Éco+ plainly fails. No scent either, no coloured granule: clay, and that is all.

Its real weak point is odour control: fairly mediocre. The tray does not turn to ammonia overnight, but it holds up neither against the Tranquille and its bicarbonate, nor against the corn litter, which lets nothing escape. Across several trays, in a cattery, that shows.

Second reproach, more prosaic: it goes everywhere. The grains leave the tray, spread around it, cling to the paws and travel through the room.

So why third place for a litter we find unremarkable? Because our grid holds in three refusals — no dust, no scent, no colours — and it is the only one, along with the two Tranquille litters, to pass all three without a major reservation. At €0.50 per litre, it is the best neutrality-to-price compromise on this page. That does not make it better than the Tranquille litters: simply far cheaper, and without a serious fault.

❄ Our view

There is one thing the bag’s photo does not say: it is much finer than it looks. The visual suggests a medium granule; on opening, it is clay powder. We personally find it too fine, and the consequence is immediate: it makes an enormous amount of dust, on pouring as on scratching. That is the main reproach, and it is also what makes it a chore day to day: the cats scatter it everywhere, and what they scatter, they have first breathed.

The rest pleads in its favour. It clumps rather well — the grain fineness that is a problem on the dust side does a service on the clumping side. And above all, it contains nothing: no fragrance, no colouring, no blue “anti-odour” granules, no essential oil. Clay, and that is all. It does not smell of perfume, and across five trays that is a quality worth more than any packaging promise.

The price changes the scale of the problem. At €0.35 per litre, you can afford to renew a tray entirely rather than patch it up — and in a cattery, full renewal is by far the best sanitary tool. A litter five times dearer that you keep twice as long is not a saving, it is a hygiene compromise.

Our use: the trays of adults and already-weaned youngsters, with the dust as a permanent reservation. It is this litter’s paradox: the most stripped-down of the nine is also the one that poses the most problems.

❄ Our view

It is frustrating, because technically it is good. It clumps very well — among the best on this page on that criterion —, the blocks are firm and lift out cleanly, dust is contained, and odour control is genuinely effective. At €0.60 per litre, and less still on promotion, the value for money would be excellent.

A single point rules it out, and it is disqualifying: the scent irritates the airways. Less violently than the MultiFit’s, but clearly. You smell it pouring the bag, standing, a metre from the tray — and this product’s scent is precisely designed to release on contact with moisture, that is, at the exact moment the cat urinates, muzzle a few centimetres from the grain. The mechanism is designed for the human’s comfort, and it places the nuisance exactly where the cat cannot avoid it.

With a confident adult, it often passes. With a kitten learning its litter habits, a pregnant queen whose sense of smell is heightened, or a newly arrived cat still finding its bearings, it is a tray-refusal factor. Add the usual opacity: nobody knows what this scent contains.

Without the fragrance, it would probably be our budget benchmark. With it, it does not enter our home.

❄ Our view

Let us start with what it gets right, because it is not nothing: it gives off no bad smell. No added fragrance, and none of that faintly sweetish background note some plant-based litters carry. The tray stays neutral, and dust is low when pouring — the classic plant-based advantage, and it is real here.

The problem lies elsewhere, and it is a big one: clumping is poor. Urine does not form a block but a paste, which spreads, sticks to the bottom of the tray and refuses to come away in one piece. You have to scrape, and scraping carries clean litter out with the soiled. On a product whose first packaging claim is “fast clumping”, that is precisely the promise not kept.

The useful comparison is with Lidl’s plant-based Coshida, which fails the same way one notch lower: where the Coshida disintegrates completely under the scoop, the BPS holds slightly better — enough to remove something, not enough to keep the tray clean. That is what puts it ahead, and what leaves it far behind any decent bentonite on this page.

The price does not help. At €1 per litre it costs three times the Éco+ per litre and about seven times per kilo, for a function it performs less well. The plant-based argument does not close that gap: the corn cob litter, also plant-based, clumps barely better but costs €0.67/L, and the mineral Carbonite does everything better for €0.89/L.

Two points of use, to finish. The “flushable” claim only holds on mains drainage: with a septic tank, litter does not go down the toilet. And it does not hold at all for faeces — Toxoplasma gondii oocysts have no business in the wastewater system. Like every plant-based litter, it must also be stored dry, or it will mould in its bag.

We will not keep it as a main litter. It stays usable for the specific cases where neutrality matters more than a clean tray — transport, post-operative recovery, a cat with fragile airways — but on that ground the corn cob does as well for less.

❄ Our view

On paper it ticks our whole grid: plant-based, no scent, no colouring, no dust. And the odour control is genuinely effective — the tray does not smell, and that is what it does best.

It still misses the essential. It does not clump. Or rather, it gives the illusion of clumping: instead of the firm block you lift in one movement, urine forms a semi-soft paste that crumbles under the scoop, leaves half of itself at the bottom of the tray and sticks to the sides. On a product sold as clumping, that is not a secondary flaw — it is the missing function.

The rest follows: what does not clump gets scattered. The granules leave on paws and end up well beyond the tray. It makes no dust — the classic advantage of plant litters, and it is real — but it still gets everywhere, in another way.

The most telling comparison is within the brand itself. The mineral Coshida does everything better: firm blocks, clean removal, odour control at least as good. The one reproach we make of it, its scent, does not exist here — but we trade a serious flaw for a disqualifying one. And the two budget bentonites on this page, Action’s Beasty and the Éco+, also clump very well, at €0.50 and €0.35 per litre: their flaw is dust, not clumping.

We will not buy it again. The principle of a plant-based clumping litter is not what is at fault — this particular reference simply does not keep its promise.

❄ Our view

The weak point is clear and we must start with it: clumping is middling, and above all slow. The urine blocks form, but in use they are uneven: under the stainless scoop, some hold in one piece, others fall apart at once. You carry clean matter away with the soiled, fresh clumps stick to the bag when thrown out, and the tray degrades faster than with a good bentonite. On heavily used trays, that is a real constraint.

That slowness has a direct consequence in an automatic litter box: the matter is compatible with a robot, but we set ours on thirty-minute cycles, and at that pace the clumps visibly lack the time to harden — the rake breaks part of them. Usable, then, provided the cycles are clearly spaced and you accept a less clean sort; with a fast rotation, a bentonite remains better suited.

Against that, two very good surprises. Odour control is excellent: on our trays, nothing escapes, absolutely nothing — the cob seems to hold urine odours remarkably, better than we expected of a plant litter without a single additive. And it makes no dust — not “little”, none: it is the only one on this page whose whole bag can be poured without the slightest cloud — the BPS tofu comes close, without matching it. Which makes it precious where the Éco+ is ruled out: post-surgery, transport, and any cat with fragile airways. If a kitten swallows some — they all do — we are talking plant fibre, not sodium clay that swells on contact with liquids.

It is also very light, 2.5 kg for 6 L, which is not nothing when setting up a tray in a carrier or at the vet’s. The flip side: the grains fly. A cat that scratches energetically sends them out of the tray, and a thick-coated Ragdoll walks out with grains all over its breeches.

A point of vigilance that holds for every plant litter: store the bag dry. Damp plant matter can go mouldy, and a bag forgotten in a damp garage has no business in a tray any more.

All told: too weak on clumping to be our main litter, precious for the precise use we reserve it for.

❄ Our view

It is, with the plant-based Coshida and the BPS tofu, one of the three litters on this page we would not buy again, even as a stopgap, and here the reason holds in one word: the scent is far too strong. It is the most aggressive of the nine, far ahead of the Coshida. Opening the bag is enough; filling a tray in a closed room is frankly unpleasant, and the airway irritation is immediate. On a product meant to carpet the floor where a cat will bury its muzzle several times a day, that is a contradiction in terms.

The rest redeems nothing. Clumping is fair at best, dust medium, and the price puts it at more than double the Éco+: €15.99 for 20 L, i.e. €0.80 per litre, and €0.71 only if you take two twenty-litre bags at once. You therefore pay more for a flaw.

The product sheet is otherwise remarkably empty: “entirely natural” means nothing on a litter — clay, corn, wood and silica are all natural — and none of the data that would allow comparison is given. The user rating follows: 3.5 out of 5 over more than 1,300 reviews, the lowest of the chain’s litter shelf.

Its only argument remains the 20 L format, the only large packaging of the comparison. It is not enough.