We Found A Magical Cat Litter That Changes Color Based On Your Cat's Health

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Cats can be stubborn sometimes, which is why they won’t always let you know if they’re feeling under the weather.

While you can put on your best baby voice or meow at your BFF all you want, there’s still no way to communicate with him to find out if something is actually wrong.

But what if his litter could talk to you? PrettyLitter is a unique litter that claims to change color to let you know if there’s something up with your cat’s health, even if he can’t (or won’t) tell you himself.

Too good to be true? We had our Dodo cats test this litter to find out if it’s the real deal. Here’s why it earned our Paw of Approval.

PrettyLitter is a nonclumping crystal cat litter that’s designed to let you know if your cat is healthy based on what’s in his urine.

It uses a color-coded system to let you know if your cat’s pee is totally normal, or if you should hit up your vet.

Here’s how it works:

On top of indicating any health issues, PrettyLitter is designed to make your life easier. It’s made with silica gel crystals that are lightweight and easy to scoop. They’ll also absorb your cat’s pee and trap odors, which should help with that nasty litter box smell. Plus, it’s 99.9% dust-free, so you aren’t breathing in your cat’s litter all the time.

PrettyLitter works through a subscription service, and one bag of cat litter is supposed to last for about a month for an average cat — you’re actually supposed to dump the entire bag in your litter box at once so the litter is 2 inches deep, and mix it up every day so the same spots don’t keep getting soaked in pee. 

Your subscription plan can be customized based on your cat’s age, how much he likes to dig in his box and how many cats you have.

We picked three office cats who are high-maintenance litter box users (including one with diagnosed health issues) to see what PrettyLitter is all about.

PrettyLitter’s most unique feature is using color-changing crystals that let you know whether or not your cat’s pee is normal, and this feature definitely didn’t disappoint (especially since one of our judges has had bladder issues his whole life).

“Murphy has chronic bladder stones due to pH issues. His urine turned the litter yellow, indicating no issue, which was a great peace of mind." — Cristal C.

“The litter turned yellow/green-olive, which means that Nike is relatively healthy.” — Olivia M.

“I liked the peace of mind of seeing the yellow spots instead of another color that would indicate something wrong with my cat.” — Becca S.

It’s worth mentioning that since our cats fortunately all stayed healthy during the trial, we couldn’t really determine how effective PrettyLitter is at identifying an issue — but we’re not complaining!

Monitoring our cats’ health wasn’t the only perk. PrettyLitter legitimately helped with those signature litter box odors.

“They promised that I'd never smell Nike's dirty business again and I surely haven't for the past two weeks we've been testing it.” — Olivia M.

Our cats may not have noticed (or cared) that their pee made the new litter change color.

But they did notice the switch to PrettyLitter made it way easier to cover their poop — even for our kitten judge, who hadn’t quite grasped that concept before this.

“Phoebe used it right away. My cat had no problem covering her poop with this litter, which was soo nice.” — Becca S.

“Nike went on the litter box right after I'd [gotten] done pouring it and started smelling and digging into the dry silica gels. Immediately, she tested it out and did her first urine., While she was covering it, I realized then how heavy clay litters might have been for her to carry, given how hard she was going at it.” — Olivia M.

The fact that PrettyLitter changes color to help you keep tabs on your cat’s health is really useful and reassuring.

But aside from that, it’s also just a good litter to have in the box. Our pet parents loved how simple scooping became.

“I really liked that cleaning felt easier — the urine evaporates so I only really needed to clean the poop.” — Becca S.

“It takes me half the time it'd normally take me with another cat litter.” — Olivia M.

And quick poop coverage wasn’t just a perk for their pets.

“I noticed Nike doesn't take as much time as she used to [to] cover her urine or feces., Nike is notorious for scratching her litter for two minutes straight, nonstop, which annoys everyone in the house. She is much quicker.” — Olivia M.

Using the whole bag at once also takes all the guesswork out of filling your cat’s litter box.

“I liked that I got to dump the whole bag in instead of having to figure out the right amount.” — Becca S.

Plus, the fact that it’s 99.9% dust-free made a huge difference for our pet parents.

“PrettyLitter just seemed so much lighter and definitely dust-free!” — Olivia M.

Since PrettyLitter is nonclumping, you can’t just scoop out a clump of pee-soaked litter like with clay products.

“The only bummer is that the PrettyLitter turns somewhat yellow after a week, which makes sense since it is holding urine. It doesn't bother me that much, to be honest.” — Olivia M.

“After a while of mixing in the urine, the whole litter starts to smell like pee.” — Becca S.

That might mean it’s time for a change — and depending on your cat’s size and litter box preferences, you may not be sure if one bag will actually last a full month.

“After opening it and pouring it out into the litter box, I thought this might not be enough for a month. I like to fill up Nike's litter box to the top, and with PrettyLitter, I could only do it about half of what I'd normally go for.” — Olivia M.

While PrettyLitter may be pretty dust-free, a couple of our pet parents noticed an issue with their cats tracking it through the house because it was so light.

“The litter tracked 1,000 times more than our usual does, and I found it all over the house.” — Cristal C.

“The little sandy pieces of litter also got everywhere. They would stick to Phoebe’s paws and end up [on] all of my floor and rugs.” — Becca S.

It’s also worth noting that one of our cats, Murphy, was a bit reluctant to use it — and, strangely, his dog brother decided he didn’t like it, and started barking and whining at the litter box. 

We aren’t quite sure what was going on there, so his mom said she didn’t feel comfortable recommending it. But our other two human testers said they would recommend PrettyLitter to fellow pet parents, even though it’s a bit on the expensive side.

The average subscription plan costs $22 per month, but you can get 20% off with our exclusive code DODOCAT to make it easier on your budget.

Since PrettyLitter is designed to tell you if your cat’s sick, your cat won’t have to — which is huge, because he’ll definitely hide it from you. It’s an especially valuable tool for cats who suffer from recurrent health issues that may be picked up by the cat litter, like chronic urinary problems.

And while you’ll love having that peace of mind, your cat will love how easy it is to cover his poop after he’s finished doing his business.

Sounds like a serious win-win! 

(And don’t forget to use our code DODOCAT for 20% off!)

The Dodo may receive complimentary samples to test in our Paw of Approval program, but all our opinions are 100 percent our own. We only publish endorsements of products we (and our dogs and cats) absolutely love! You can find out more about our testing process here.

If you have a product you love that you want to share with other pet parents, send a tip to dodopaw@thedodo.com.