I did way too much research finding the best products for my cats. Here's a summary to save you some time.
After independently researching and testing models, I've used Amazon referral links below for some of the recs, which give me a small tip at no cost to you.
Just get a new kitten or cat(s)? Have an existing cat you'd like to treat like feline royalty?
You're in luck: I spent approximately 20 hours on the internet reading Wirecutter, The Spruce, and Amazon reviews, and more, as well as watching all the best YouTube videos, to find the best essentials for my two new kittens.
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| Pepper and Poppy |
Here's a summary of what I've read and tried.
The best litter boxes
General guidance for number of litter boxes is the number of cats + 1. That said, I think most people can get away with one for each cat—as long as you're scooping at least daily—and introduce an extra if necessary, but note I'm not a vet or cat behaviorist, just a random guy on the internet with two cats.
The best litter box system
The best litter box for most people is the Purina Tidy Cats Breeze system.
For around $40, it solves most of the main issues with litter boxes: litter tracking everywhere, cat pee smell, and affordability:
- It uses hard pellets, which are much harder to track around outside the litter box.
- The pellets last a long time and can be washed and reused, saving you tons of money vs. buying litter.
- It uses a pee absorbing mat at the bottom to capture urine and its smell. You'll need to change these out once per week. If you'd like to save further, you can use any pee training pad cut to size.
Bonus: it doesn't look ugly either! The hooded one in particular (what I use) looks quite nice.
You'll need to buy pee pads regularly. Amazon now sells Breeze-specific pee pads (much better than cutting your own pee pads to size – do not recommend!) which are a better deal than the official pee pads.
The best chic traditional litter box
The Iris USA top entry litter box is very popular. It looks chic, works with any type of litter, and the top entry helps capture litter when they jump out.
The price ($35-45) is a little on the higher end for what it is, but given how often you'll look at it, a worthy trade-off IMO.
Note: if you have small kittens, they may not yet be comfortable jumping in and out (my kittens weren't). I brought it back out once they were 4 months old and they used it just fine.
The best automatic litter box
Let's get this out of the way: automatic litter boxes are not cheap—especially ones that actually work well and look nice. And really, the time savings from not having to scoop a litter box is maybe 1-2 minutes per day.
Most people don't need one.
That said, if you love tech gadgets, are often time-crunched, and can afford it, an automatic litter box might make sense. I justified it by estimating a minute per day of time savings over 10 years (60 hours!), which at even just a $10 hourly rate, would justify an over $600 expense.
I read tons of reviews, and ultimately was won over by the looks and performance of the Petree automatic litter box, which I've now used for over a year. The lowest price I've seen for it is $309 during Black Friday 2023.
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| Petree automatic litter box |
After your cat has done their business, the machine spins litter through a grate, catching clumps and depositing them in the lower trash-bag-lined holding area. It includes a deodorizer, and smells are well-contained, so you only need to empty it every 2-3 days, in my experience.
My kittens got used to it pretty quickly, and I feel an immense satisfaction every time I hear it run—the sound of me not needing to go treasure hunting, scooper in hand, through a litter box.
The futuristic space-age looks are quite nice as well, especially compared to the Litter Robot and similar washing machine-looking ones.
Long term review: It has some annoyances—sometimes if you don't tuck the drawer liner bag properly it'll trigger the "bin full" error and won't clean automatically. But overall, it's been great. We have it in an office room often used for working from home, and we like not having to stop what we're doing to scoop every time the cats do their business (and if we didn't scoop, it'd be stinky).
The best cat litter
Clay litter is so 2000 & late. It's messy and unsustainable. This video explains more:
All the hot cat parents now are using pine litter, pine pellets, cassava litter, or semi-reusable pellets.
- Pine litter (like Feline Pine) has a nice pine wood smell, clumps reasonably well (though pee clumps do tend to fall apart), is sustainable, and isn't super expensive at $1.20/lb.
- Cassava litter (like Sustainably Yours) clumps the best of any litter—rock solid balls 🤘—and is also sustainable, but a bit pricier at $1.54/lb. Most people who use it swear by it, though, and I've definitely found it an excellent option.
- It's also recommended by Jackson Galaxy, which if you haven't found his YouTube channel yet, I'll see you back here in a few hours.
- Pine pellets are possibly the cheapest litter around, as low as $0.15/lb, assuming you live near a Tractor Supply and can buy a 40lb bag (sometimes also referred to as "horse bedding pellets"). The pellets turn to dust when they come into contact with moisture, so you'll ideally want a two-piece litter box with a grated top for sifting out the dust.
- It may take some cats time to get used to the feel, so it's recommended to blend with normal litter for a while.
- Semi-reusable pellets (like found in the Breeze litter system) can be continually used, as pee flows through them to an absorbent pad, and even washed for reuse.
- Again, some cats may take time to get used to the feel.
How to feed your cat without going broke
The best value wet food
Wet food is considered far superior to dry, given cats traditionally got 70-80% of their daily water intake from food. But, call me a terrible cat dad if you want, I don't want to spend a fortune feeding my cat uber-premium expensive wet food, or go through the hassle of preparing a raw diet.
The best value wet food I've found is Kirkland Signature Pate Cat Food. It's $0.80 per 3.5oz container, and it's a premium formulation with no grains or fillers. We've noticed our cats' fur has stayed extra soft thanks to the ground flax seed used.
Looking for the cheapest possible wet food? The cheapest I've found is the house brand option from Walmart: Special Kitty canned wet food. It contains rice, but otherwise the ingredient list doesn't look terrible.
It's $0.51 per 5.5oz can in a 36 pack, or $0.55 per can sold individually. They sell both regular cat and kitten varieties.
Note: I avoid cat food made with beef, given the substantial negative health and climate impacts of red meat.
The best value dry food
Costco's Kirkland dry food is around $1.00/lb. It has relatively high quality ingredients (e.g. less grains and no corn), and is my recommendation for those with a Costco nearby. It does still contain rice.
Dry food is definitely convenient, especially when paired with an automatic feeder. We feed each of our cats half a tin of wet food and 4 "portions" of dry food per day, split between a morning and evening meal. If we're traveling or getting home late, we'll feed them an extra portion of dry food.
Tip: add water to dry food
You'll often hear how the main drawback of dry food is that it has a very low moisture content. If your cat eats all of their dry food immediately, you can actually add some water to your cat's dry food when you serve it to them!
I ran this by our veterinarian who said, "anything that increases a cat's water intake is fine by me." So now my cats are like me on a backpacking trip, eating rehydrated meals.
Note if your cat free feeds or otherwise doesn't finish their dry food, you don't want to let it sit in water. Bacteria, etc.
The best automatic feeder
Automatic feeders are great. They're an easy way to perfectly portion dry food, and it's comforting knowing your cat(s) won't starve if you can't make it home in time for dinner.
The best option
After lots of researching, I got a used Amazon Warehouse version of this Petlibro 2-cat automatic feeder with wifi + camera. We love it!
I originally was skeptical the camera would be very useful, but it's actually a great way to check in on the cats while we're traveling.
The wifi is also great, as it's now a breeze to update the schedule, fix the clock (after a power outage or accidental unplugging), and feed an extra portion remotely—especially compared to the analog one I had before.
No wifi version if you want it analog, but I don't recommend this. It is cheaper.
There's some other slightly cheaper options in this space, but Petlibro seemed like the most established brand, with an app still in active development, with the nicest-looking feeder.
The best cheap alternative
Original review below from before I moved to the feeder above
Most of the automatic feeders on Amazon are basically the same. I read a ton of reviews, and looked to optimize for cost, aesthetics, and performance. I arrived at the Ymiko automatic feeder for around $40.
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| Ymiko automatic feeder |
It was easy enough to set up, and I remember how to program it by memory now if I need to change things for a trip.
When it's low on food, it gets a little easier to knock over—we've had one incident. A little tape and repositioning it (the cats were using it as a springboard to get on the counter) fixed that.
After six months, I haven't had an issue with this one, but I'm going to try:
- One meant for 2 cats, as two 1-cat ones will eventually not dispense at the exact same time (unless you reset the clocks every couple months), which can cause drama.
- One with wifi, as we currently do a combo of wet + dry food at every meal time, but would be nice to easily switch to just dry food (so doubling the portion) if we'll get home late or we're traveling.
Also, getting down on your hands and knees to use a confusing button UX is not super fun. But, if you only do dry food and rarely change the portion or timing, the buttons on the analog one will work fine.
The best water fountain
I wanted a fountain with low power consumption and clean looks. It needs to look good enough that I'd use it even if I did have a cat (ok, maybe not, but I still have a high bar).
After sorting through lots of options, the most chic option I found was this model, sold under a few different names on Amazon:
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| Nugget pet water fountain |
The best cat toys
There's two types of cat toys: ones operated by you, and ones they can use themselves. It's nice to have a mix of both.
For self-play toys, I recommend starting with:
For toys operated by you, I recommend starting with:
- An extra shoe string you have laying around
- The Cat Dancer
- Feathers on a string
- A laser pointer
When playing with your cat, mix it up: do fast moving, then slow moving, then pausing so they have to try doing a sneak attack. And, let them catch it sometimes, so they don't get discouraged.
The best plant & cord deterrence
You'll hear a lot about how most houseplants are toxic to cats. This is one of those things that is technically true, but in practice, a small nibble will at most give them an upset stomach. Only lilies and a few others are especially toxic and should be avoided completely.
My cats have bitten the leaves of pothos, fig trees, philo congo, and succulents. They're fine.
That said, cat bite marks are not the best look. To avoid them chewing on your plants (and power cords), get a bitter apple spray:
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| Grannick's bitter apple spray |
Spray down a plant or cord whenever you notice they're interested in it. It works great—they make a face like a baby tasting a lemon, and tend to avoid it in the future.
The best counter & table deterrence
Aluminum foil didn't work for me. Spray bottles are an ok stop-gap, while you wait for a better solution, but ultimately make your cat fear you—not the counter—so they'll still be mischievous when you're not around.
The best solution is a motion-activated air spray, like this one:
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| PetSafe deterrent spray |
It requires 4 AAA batteries, which is annoying, but pick up some rechargeable ones from Walmart or Amazon for $4-6. These are the cheapest I found on Amazon.
However, while PetSafe declares this spray safe for pets, it is not. According to this Amazon review, it uses a substance called R(efrigerant)-134a, or tetrafluoroethane—the same chemical used in home refrigerators and air conditioners. Not only is this dangerous for pets, it stays in the atmosphere for 14 years with a greenhouse gas warming potential of 1300—that means it's equivalent to releasing 1300x the amount of CO2.
Thankfully, you can use a homemade mixture with the motion detector instead—which also saves tons of money on future refills. Buy this Refillable Compressed Air Spray Bottle, then fill it halfway with water and air (easily obtained from a portable inflator).
Hope this helped, and drop a comment below if you have questions about my experience with any of these.
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