A Pretty Litter Review: What Happened When My 7 Cats Tried It

Pretty Litter is a cat litter made of lightweight silica gel that turns colors when the cat pees on it.

I was nervous to try it as I didn’t want to see anything other than the normal color. But, on the other hand, I want to know if one of my cats is hiding a problem.

Unfortunately, we didn’t switch over (more on that below), and then a couple of years after writing this, my cat Elwood was diagnosed with kidney disease.

This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a commission if you click a link and make a purchase. Pretty Litter did not pay me to write this post.

Now, I will tell you about what happened when I had my cats try out Pretty Litter, starting with the buying experience.

To try out Pretty Litter, click here and then use code AFF10 to get 10% off your first order.

I Had to Order the Pretty Litter Online.

Pretty Litter is not available at my local Pet Supplies Plus.

So, I checked Amazon and Chewy since I already have accounts with them. Unfortunately, as of writing this review, they do not sell Pretty Litter.

I ordered two bags directly from Pretty Litter. A quiz helps you determine how many bags of Pretty Litter are needed based on your number of cats.

I didn’t intend to switch over the long term and felt like two bags were enough for my seven cats to try it.

When placing my first order, I was given the option to receive shipments every month or every three months. There didn’t seem to be a one-time-only choice, but maybe I overlooked it. Shipping is free.

Several months later, when I was in a Target store (about an hour from my home), they had Pretty Litter in the store, so it is available in some brick and mortar stores. When I checked Target’s website, it looks like ordering online and having it shipped is an option.

I Was Shocked by the Difference in Bag Size at Target.

I ordered directly from Pretty Litter, and the cost was $20 for each 6lb bag since I bought two bags. If I had only bought one bag, the price would have been $22. Shipping is free.

The Target website sells an 8lb bag for $24.99. Shipping would be free if buying two bags (you have to spend $35 or more to get Target’s free shipping).

So, if you got the free shipping with Target, the price per pound of litter is slightly lower when buying the litter from Target than directly from Pretty Litter.

When ordering on the Pretty Litter site, I couldn’t see the number of pounds in a bag anywhere on their site (I checked that FAQ). Ordering is based on the number of cats.

I don’t know why the bag sizes are different when ordering directly from Pretty Litter vs. buying a bag from Target.

Each Bag Fills One Average-Sized Litter Box

The Pretty Litter instructions state that the litter should be about 2 inches deep in the litter box.

My shipment from Pretty Litter included an instruction card. On the side of the card is a 3″ ruler, which was very convenient when checking the depth in the litter box.

Pretty Litter Color and Instruction Card

When pouring the litter into the box, there was very little dust.

With each bag only filling one box, Pretty Litter is the most expensive litter I’ve ever used.

The Pretty Litter Turned Yellowish After the First Use

What makes Pretty Litter special is the color change technology when your cat urinates.

The instruction card includes a color range bar that explains what each color means:

  • Red indicates blood was detected. The cause may be bladder crystals, feline lower urinary tract disorder, or some types of kidney disease.
  • Orange is for acidity, which may indicate metabolic acidosis or kidney tubular acidosis.
  • Dark yellow to olive green is normal. Yay!
  • Blue means alkalinity, which could indicate a urinary tract infection or stones forming.

If the color is other than the dark yellow to the green range, Pretty Litter recommends having your cat evaluated by a veterinarian for evaluation and diagnosis. You can learn more about the color changes in this Pretty Litter video.

Fortunately, the color was yellowish when my cats used it. I don’t think all seven cats used the litter, though. So I put one litter box full of Pretty Litter in both of our litter box areas.

Stirring the Pretty Litter Felt Weird

My cats have used scoopable clay litters for many years. Pretty Litter is the first time we’ve tried a crystal cat litter.

Pretty Litter doesn’t clump the urine. Instead, each day, the litter needs to be stirred. Stirring crystals that absorbed urine felt weird.

However, I didn’t notice any problems with odor, which was amazing. But, after most of the crystals were no longer white, I felt like I was stirring a box of pee.

If you don’t stir the litter, the crystals can become oversaturated. So, stirring is important for odor control (an area of pee that isn’t covered/mixed will stink).

My cats didn’t poop in the Pretty Litter

For whatever reason, my cats are not pooping in the Pretty Litter, and it’s been a few months. Instead, they seem to prefer using the clay litter.

The only time we had poop in the Pretty Litter so far was when Charlotte was my cat that couldn’t poop, and she was trying to go in all the litter boxes, and a little turd was left in the Pretty Litter.

So, if the cats were pooping in the Pretty Litter, it would need to be scooped and removed daily.

If we switched all the litter over to Pretty Litter, I would like to believe that my cats would poop in it if we did the gradual change over, and it was the only litter choice.

Pretty Litter is lightweight and easily kicked out of the box

We have some cats that like to dig in the litter boxes. With Pretty Litter being lightweight, it seemed very easy for it to be flung over the edge of the box.

The litter boxes we used didn’t have high sides, so some of the litter didn’t stay in the box.

And it tracked, but not nearly as bad as the Tidy Cats Lightweight litter.

What I didn’t like, and this is specific to me, is that the Pretty Litter sounded like sand under my feet when I stepped on when wearing my cozy cat slippers. But it is easy enough to sweep up any litter outside the box.

Pretty Litter kicked out of a Litter Box
Pretty Litter kicked out of a Litter Box

I Was Pleasantly Surprised When Changing the Litter

After the Pretty Litter was used for about six weeks, I changed it out with fresh. Now, the website says the litter will last for a month, but since most of the cats were not using the Prety Litter, it lasted longer for us.

What surprised me the most was that the bottom of the litter box was completely clean.

I changed out another litterbox with Boxiecat litter in it the same day, and some clumps stuck to the bottom of the box.

Since Pretty Litter doesn’t clump, and I had done the stirring of it, nothing stuck to the bottom!

Clay litter box vs Petty Litter Box after used litter removed
Clay litter box vs Petty Litter Box after used litter removed

My Overall opinion of Pretty Litter

Pretty Litter is a great litter to use if you think your cat might be hiding a health issue. The color technology is also helpful for monitoring changes in your cat’s health if you make Pretty Litter the primary or only litter option.

This was my first experience with crystal litter, so stirring litter daily instead of scooping out clumps felt weird to me.

The cost of Pretty Litter is more than other litter that I’ve used. Due to the cost and my cats not pooping in it during the trial months, we will not be switching all the boxes to Pretty Litter.

I will get Pretty Litter again if I suspect a cat might be having an issue. With multiple cats, I would have to be a super stalker or isolate the suspect cat with the Pretty Litter litter box to know for sure that the potentially sick cat was the one using the box.

Since writing this review initially, my cat Elwood has been diagnosed with kidney disease. We would have known much sooner if we had transitioned to Pretty Litter. I never suspected that he was sick. We found out after blood work at his annual vet visit.

To try out Pretty Litter, click here and then use code AFF10 to get 10% off your first order.

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Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.

5 thoughts on “A Pretty Litter Review: What Happened When My 7 Cats Tried It”

  1. I had questions but you answered them in your thorough article. I have 1 cat who urinates in the pretty litter and poops in the clumping litter just like yours do. Occasionally ive found poops in the pretty litter. I get 2 fills from one bag but only have 1 cat. Suggestion: to help with th cats kicking the lighter silica crystals outside of the litter box you could buy an artificial grass matt. When they jump out of litter box on to the artificial turf it separates their paws and the particles stuck in their paws get released. Then you could just shake out the matt when it needs it. Also, if you want the free shipping from target order a 10$ item you need for the household to get you to 35$ for free shipping if you dont want 2 24$ pretty litters. Sometimes i filter out the urine soaked crystals from the bottom using a spatula or poop scooper with the sieve part blocked with something waterproofed or will last for awhile scooping urine and replace it when it becomes ineffective. When you’ve gotten most of the bad litter out put new fresh crystals on top. It extends the time of the pretty litter. If you don’t mind doing that.

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  2. Thank you for the price information. Pretty Litter’s site made me kind of angry in that just to get to the shopping cart, I had to say “No Thanks” to 5 different offers. Then the coupon code I was using wouldn’t work. Then I used the other one, and I got the bag under 20 dollars… then they wanted to charge me a $1.99 handling fee. I’m sorry, but that online shopping experience really got me heated. Too much BS. Glad to know I can potentially get it roughly the same or cheaper at Target.

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  3. I was out of town for several days and my husband didn’t stir the litter. There was a dark blue color to the litter when I stirred it. Will it darken over days if not stirred or should I be worried?

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  4. Yeah. The bottom of your litterbox was clean because there’s yellow piss dust all over your house. This stuff doesn’t work at all. Not even a little bit. Because that piss dust is EVERYWHERE and WORSE because it doesn’t clump.

    What I’m explaining is that you are breathing it in nonstop

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