Purina Tidy Cats Hooded Litter Box System, BREEZE Hooded System Starter Kit Litter Box, Pellets & Pads

So, I put off writing this review for several months because I wanted to give my cat a chance to put it to the test...I think I am at the point now where I can give this litter box system my heartiest endorsement (two paws up)--with the caveat that EVERY CAT IS AN INDIVIDUAL and so your experience may vary. However, having said that, I will give you some background and the specifics.I am a retired veterinarian, and in my years in practice dealt with *many* inappropriate elimination cases. I dealt with so many, in fact, that I made a point of going to lectures on feline urinary health and behavior at every conference I went to, just to stay on top of things so I could make the best recommendations I could to my clients. Inappropriate urination in cats is a frustrating subject to say the least, and the steps I would cover with a client were often not things a client wanted to or even could do. Luckily all of this experience came in very handy over the summer when I realized my cat--who had a history of lower urinary tract inflammation in the past--was no longer peeing in his litter box. To add to the standard frustration, this cat 'o mine is a highly anxious cat who is fearful of everyone but a very select few, of every noise, of any change in his world. I knew getting to the bottom of why he stopped using his box and fixing the problem was going to be a challenge..."The Baby", as he has become known (despite being 11), is our only cat, as he was the youngest of four and the only one still surviving. He inherited a very large litter box that we cleaned at least once a day, hidden in a little alcove off our kitchen. He spends the majority of his day on the top floor of our three level townhouse, but space up there is limited as far as fitting in a second box, and as a long-haired cat he tends to track litter everywhere. It was easy enough to sweep up litter from the kitchen floor but I *hated* getting into bed and finding grains of cat litter on my sheets, or trying to vacuum all the litter that was stuck in the carpet fibers on the stairs.The rule of thumb when it comes to cat litter boxes is you should have one more box than you have cats--so ideally we should have two boxes for him. It's the first thing I would tell a client who had a cat peeing out of the box. I *knew* this, but I absolutely dreaded the thought of adding another box upstairs. I started asking google about alternatives to clumping litter, in hopes that I could find a trackless litter that my crazy cat might accept. I found an article that referred me to this box and right away I become hopeful--to be honest, it sounded too good to be true. I tend to be a skeptic, and I know that behaviorists in general do not recommend a lot of the litter boxes that *people* find the most agreeable, because, believe it or not, cats do not share our preferences when it comes to boxes that: hide the sight and smell with a cover, make cleaning "easier" with automated scooping, or have most of the other gadgets and gizmos marketed to make cat litter boxes more people-friendly. The unfortunate truth is, the box needs to be *cat* friendly if you have any hope of getting your cat back in the box and not peeing on your under-the-bed storage for your swimwear (ask me how I know that).Alright, so this box seemed to check the right boxes--no cover, no noises, nothing to spook a fraidy-cat away. We got the XL box since The Baby is a large cat and he is used to a big box. I wasn't sure how he would take to the new substrate (the litter is made up of little cylinders significantly larger than clumping litter grains, though smaller than recycled newsprint litter if you are familiar with that). I followed the instructions on introducing your cat to the box TO THE LETTER. I had added a small litter box with clumping litter to our guest bathroom tub about a week before that he thankfully began using again, so I put the new box just outside the tub and added a couple little poops and a small clump of urine to it to show him its purpose--no good. I lured him into the new box with treats and praised and pet him while he was in it. I put treats in the furthest corners to force him to step into it but he did every sort of cat acrobatics to avoid putting his body all the way in to reach them. I stopped cleaning the box in the tub. I added some of the new litter into the old box so he would get used to the feel of them. One thing I think helped was that I purchased some inexpensive cat-attract--sort of a crushed herbal mix that probably has some catnip in it--and I sprinkled it liberally into the new box. That was a little more tempting than the treats in getting him to stand in the box. I also took off the high-sided rim that goes around the XL box, so he would feel like it was more open. Finally, after more than a week without him even once using the new box I made a drastic move--I got rid of the old box altogether, put this new one into the tub, and crossed my fingers. Downside to this--it could freak him out and cause him to go back to those nice soft under-the-bed storage bags our clothes are in. Thank the heavens for us it worked--that day we found the first poop in the box. Success! But would it last??About a week later we moved the box (sides still off) to the landing of our stairs between our main and upper levels because a neighbor would be cat sitting and it was an easier location to clean it. The good news is, The Baby likes it there, and he has continued to use the box ever since. I will note that The Baby has never been a digger in the box, and rarely if ever buried his poops. I was taught that a cat that likes his litter will spend a good amount of time digging and kicking. Well, since we changed him over, he has become a hearty digger/kicker, even going so far as to completely bury his poops about half of the time. So as far as the cat is concerned, this box is an A+.But, you ask, how well does it please his family? Well, after working out a system for the pee pads, I am continually amazed by how EASY this box is to maintain. Do the litter bits get tracked around the house? Well, to a very small degree, but I can usually just pick up the offending bits and toss them back in the box. I also set the box on one of those honeycomb sorts of cat mats, and it does most of the work of collecting the stray bits that he enthusiastically kicks out. Does it smell? It can--but that has forced us to stay on top of it, which for us simply means switching out the pads twice a week instead of once a week as advertised for one cat homes. The pads are *incredibly* absorbent--more than I ever would've guessed, and we buy the generic pads that are 40 in a box. So long as we change the pad twice a week, the only time we smell it is when we are actually changing it. We do it on trash night, and dump it in the trash bag right as it is going outside. I have yet to have one leak any urine, and The Baby is a copious pee-er. I bought one additional 3.5# bag of litter after adding some of the first two to his old box, but after about four months of use I think I've only gone through about half of that bag. We used to go through SO MUCH clumping litter and getting rid of it was a pain. Every time I open the old litter tub we use to hold his scooped poops and see how little stuff is in there I have to chuckle.As I write this, I just asked my husband if he could think of any downsides with this litter system and he thought for a sec or two and then gave me a firm no. Maybe the only one is the initial investment, considering that it may not work for every cat. But in the long run, this box has cut down substantially on litter costs, since we use so little of it.So to wrap this up: 1. Little to no litter tracking, which has eliminated my #1 pet peeve about having a cat. For real--I am a veterinarian who HATES litter boxes and I'd probably not get another cat for that reason. Unfortunately I am married to a cat lover, so you might say this system has been good for our marriage! 2. No more back-busting boxes of litter (yes, even the lightweight stuff strains my back) or especially bags of used, clumped cat litter going out on a regular basis. 3. No "Litter Box Smell"--no ammonia smells around the box. We keep it on the landing now and never notice odors in the living room or the bedrooms unless he JUST took a poop. The little scoop that comes with it is great for letting unstuck bits of litter fall back into the box (don't try to use a regular scoop, this works fine). 4. NO MORE URINATING OUT OF THE LITTER BOX...knock on wood, The Baby--with some time and a lot of patience--eventually came around to using this system, and in truth actually seems to prefer it over his old stuff.Why may this NOT be the right box for you? Well, there are a few reasons I can guess. One would be if you have more than one cat. The pads are absorbent but only to a point. If you have two or more cats using it you are definitely going to be changing out the pads more than twice a week, and this could become a cost issue. Also, unless you are bringing the bag right outside, you don't want these pads just sitting in your trash bag because it WILL smell to high heaven. We tried keeping the used ones in the poop tub (we use one of the old plastic, resealable litter tubs to make scooping easy) and it ended up being very gross--the urine would actually condense on the lid of the tub when it was sealed and would start to leak out into the tub; it was a total mess.Finally, as a veterinarian I feel compelled to make a few points. The first is important--every cat really is an individual with very specific likes and dislikes. Just because my scaredy, neurotic, FLUTD cat took to it eventually, not every cat will. Unfortunately there is not a good way to know that without trying it out. If your cat doesn't like it, it's not his or her fault, and it's not the box's fault. It just is. Go slow and be patient and observant. The second is even more important--if your cat is peeing out of the litter box, *take your cat to the vet before going any further*. Cats rarely stop using the box without a justifiable reason, and there are numerous medical reasons that MUST be ruled out, for your cat's health and because you are not going to stop inappropriate urination with litter box changes alone. Anything from lower urinary tract inflammation, to diabetes, to kidney disease, to your new kitten, to your new sofa, to a malfunctioning washing machine making noise next to the litter box could be to blame and you will need a vet to help you to figure that out. Thirdly, I just want to give props to the Purina company for this system and for ALL of their products (I stress ALL because as a vet I feed all of my pets Purina diets as well). Companies like Purina have been given a very bad rap in the the media in recent years, and by unproven pet food companies that play on your guilt and love for your pet to get you to spend unnecessary dollars on expensive diets. I have seen firsthand the type of research that goes into every Purina product, whether it is a new litter box or a prescription veterinary diet, and I always feel confident when I recommend their products that my client will be getting a quality, thoughtfully designed, *thoroughly vetted* one. I do not work for Purina, and I get NO financial recompense for recommending their goods over any other company. I simply speak as a pet owner, an animal lover, and as someone who has had the opportunity to get a close-up view of them and their competitors. I like to give credit where credit is due, and so I say that Purina gets my business.

This litter system is genuinely life changing, and that’s not even an exaggeration. It’s improved both our lives re: cleaning and Miss Kitty’s re: using it. All the essay-length, updated-multiple-times reviews on here aren’t lying. It’s been about a year since we got it and it’s been worth every penny. So here’s my essay length review.Miss Kitty likes to pee in the same corner every. single. time. Without fail. That meant that when we still used regular litter, that corner was always extra gross. Didn’t matter how well the litter was designed to clump. Also the older Miss Kitty gets, the less she cared about keeping her feet clean, so she was tracking grody footprints everywhere. She also had litter stuck in the fur between her paws which couldn’t have been comfortable. And she was kicking the litter out and then grippin’ it in her paws, so she was tracking litter everywhere, no matter what we did to clean. Since she likes to sleep on our bed all the time, we were getting desperate for a solution.So I went searching and came across this (I think from a Reddit suggestion iirc). I read a bunch of the reviews, the multiple updates, the photos, the hacks. It sounded too good to be true. Good news: it’s true.The major pros:• The lack of smell. Oh man, that right there is one of the biggest pluses. Cat ammonia permeates everything and I hate the idea that I could become nose blind to it and then have family or friends over who could smell it. Scented cat litter was never an option because then Miss Kitty would walk by all perfumed but all that did was make me think of the fact that she just got out of the litter box. Ew. And then later that turned into scented cat ammonia when cleaning it out. Ew. This system is - somehow - 98% scent free, even when it’s time to change a batch of pellets. Truly magical.• The near lack of “ew” factor when cleaning out the poop or pee pad. You know what I mean, re: regular litter.• The pellets are advertised to work for 4 weeks, but we usually get about 6 weeks out of each batch. Each batch uses 3.5lbs of pellets and that looks like it isn’t enough if you’re coming from regular litter, but since it doesn’t need to absorb liquid, it’s definitely sufficient. They also mask the poop smell impressively well. There’s a little odor while it’s fresh, but the zeolite pellets dry it out quickly.• The pee pads are magical. I’ve used “magical” a few times, but I really mean it. Absolutely ZERO cat urine smell, no matter how full or even over-full they get. I don’t know how they do it. Based on plenty of other reviews, I’m pretty sure every new Breeze system owner accidentally lets a pad go too long at least once until it’s swimming in urine (gross) and then has a mixed bag of emotions of “ew!” and “how is there no smell??” We have to change the pad on a schedule because there will be no odor to remind us. With one cat, we change it once a week (the night before trash day).• Both the pads and pellets are available locally in PetSmart and Petco. No generics though.• Clean paws! No more disgusting footprints in the hallway. Her toe beans have never looked so perfectly clean and pink. She’s 20yo, so anything to help her hygiene helps her out.• No more litter everywhere. The pellets are too big for her to grip in her paws, so she can’t track them beyond the immediate vicinity of the litter box.• It’s easier to keep an eye on her health. Looking at her poop and seeing the color of her pee are good insights into her health and if anything changes, especially as she gets older. Also it’s really easy to use a dip strip indicator by just pressing it into the pee pad right after she gets out of the box.• The cover that flips back is great, compared to having to unclip the entire top each time. Makes cleaning out the poops easy, but keeps things covered and out of sight. It’s a small detail but it’s helpful.• Since there’s no regular litter with clay to conceal, the dried poop can just be tossed down the toilet. Makes it easier to clean more often.• Since the pellets dry everything out quickly and the pee is absorbed by a pad in the lower tray, the box just needs to be washed in between each batch of pellets, so about every 6 weeks.• Even with buying brand name pads and pellets, the annual cost of litter stuff is way, way lower than having to buy litter frequently.• Miss Kitty adapted to the new system right away. Fortunately, she’s never been picky when I’ve changed litter brands. I did a couple things for the first week to encourage her transition. I mixed a little regular litter in with the pellets for the familiar smell and feel. That shuffled out to the pee pad below over the week and then she was just left with the pellets. I put a couple old poops from the used litter in the new box, again to bring a familiar scent to the new system. And I left her old box out too for a week, but I left the used litter in there to discourage use of it. She was a little unsure the first evening, but after the first use, she never went back in her old box.• For people who are disabled/limited by lifting weight, picking up a 7lbs bag of pellets is way more feasible than 20-40lbs of litter or a box of used litter.Cons:• The Tidy Cats pellets and pads are pricey. That said, they are worth it for how well and how long they work. Some reviews talk about washing the pellets to extend their lifespan. I tried it just once out of curiosity, using the pet enzyme cleaner and a thorough rinse. It’s just not worth the gross hassle so I never did it again. Tidy Cat must have a stranglehold on the pellets because I can’t find an off brand, and if I somehow do, they’re back ordered or “we don’t know if these will be available again.” I wouldn’t think zeolite (the mineral they’re made of) pellets would be hard to find a generic of, but I’ve yet to. Even the pet stores don’t have their own generic versions. I haven’t tried generic pee pads yet, but the Tidy Cat ones work so well I’m fine with paying a bit more.• The pellets can be noisy. Miss Kitty loves rustlin’ in the box and those hard pellets against hard plastic can be fairly loud. I think she paws at the litter more now because she’s trying to cover the poop but it pretty much sits on top of the pellets no matter what she does. We tried getting the equine pine pellets that are dirt cheap and supposed to break down once they’re wet. But Miss Kitty apparently loved shredding those so much she was spending extra time rustlin’. All we ended up with was a messy pile of pine powder that was too much to fit in the lower tray. We gave up after a week. So we’re back to the louder, more expensive Tidy Cat pellets, but the pros vastly outweigh the cons. We got used to the sound in about a week or two.• Stepping on a pellet with your heel can feel like stepping on a Lego. With all her rustlin’ Miss Kitty still kicks litter out of the box. We have a litter pad outside the box - the kind with sizable holes and two layers so it’s easy to clean up (got it on Amazon too) - and that really helps catch them, but there’s still usually a few in the vicinity. We just have to be on top of cleaning the loose ones up. Also pointing the box opening towards the wall instead of the walkway really helped. The tray can be flipped to open either way - same direction or opposite direction of the box opening.Never thought I’d be evangelizing cat litter, but here I am. TL;DR just get it. You won’t regret it.