Our curiosity finally got the best of us: we tried the famous Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter. Want to know what we thought? Keep reading!

If you’ve been following us for the past few months, you may have noticed that we’re die-hard fans of Pretty Litter, the color-changing, non-clumping cat litter that detects early signs of illness. You may also be wondering how we could betray this brand that we love so much.

Here’s the thing: we were asked by Chewy to give Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter a fair and thorough review. The Meow Place prides itself on being totally honest about the products we love, the products we hate, and the products we’re kind of ‘meh’ about. (I apologize for the lack of pictures. The lighting in my office is crap.)

Who Are The People Behind Okocat?

Where did Okocat Cat Litter come from? Okocat is a child company of Healthy Pets, who are known for other brands such as Simply Pine and CritterCare (both are natural litters). The difference between the Simply Pine cat litter and Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter is that Okocat is made from a blend of woods. It uses spruce and fir trees along with the pine.

Okocat litter also uses sustainable practices by using “naturally fallen timber or unused lumber materials that would otherwise go to waste“. I think that’s pretty cool. I’m not super hardcore about using only eco-friendly products, but I use them when I can. You can find out more about Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter on Healthy Pets’ FAQ page.

(This post contains affiliate links. Purchases made from these links do not result in any extra cost to you, but the owner of the blog may receive a small commission. These commissions keep The Meow Place up and running, and the blog owner off the chilly streets of Minnesota.)

The Meow Place Tries Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter

Okay, first off, let me tell you about the environment that I used this litter in.

Where We Put Okocat Litter

In short, we put it in my office. It’s not a large room; in fact, it’s about 6′ x 8′ (48 square feet), so it’s fairly compact, but the spot for the litter box is open. Due to the small space, it would be the ultimate test for odor control. Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter claims to have 7-day odor control.

The Smell Test

To be honest, I didn’t like the smell of the litter at first. It smelled very sweet. The scent must have been natural from the wood because Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter isn’t scented. There are no artificial fragrances at all.

After a couple of days, though, I got used to the way it smelled. For almost two weeks, I didn’t smell a thing except when one of the cats peed right on the edge where it was hard to cover.

Clumping Power

I’m not one for clumping litters, but this one works really well. There were giant balls of pee (ew) in the litter box every day – no pools in the bottom! On the other hand, it was really difficult to work with.

The litter, although lightweight, becomes quite heavy once it’s saturated. This is because it can absorb up to 500% of its own weight. That sounds great when you hear it, but your scooping sessions tend to get longer and longer. Getting all of the clumps out takes several minutes bent over. I’m not a fan of backbreaking litter scooping.

Biodegradable And… Flushable?

I have news for you: no litter should ever be flushed down the toilet. Here’s why.

Litter that gets flushed down the toilet, whether it’s biodegradable or not, still plugs up our sewer systems. Clumps of non-flushables can become what’s called a ‘fatberg’, and the results are not pretty. A 10-ton fatberg was removed from London’s sewer system that was made of human waste and baby wipes.

If human waste, which is 100% biodegradable (but takes a long time to biodegrade), can get stuck together with baby wipes, what do you think happens to cat waste covered in litter?

Cat waste also carries with it the risk of toxoplasmosis. Sewer treatment facilities can’t get rid of it by treating the water, so marine life suffers. So please, stop killing the fishies by flushing your cat litter. For a company that claims to be environmentally-friendly, promoting the practice of flushing cat waste is incredibly irresponsible.

What We Loved About Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter

I have to say… the smell test passed with flying colors. Although I hate to admit it, I have to be honest with you: this litter stops smells better than Pretty Litter. I love that it’s made from unused timber; sustainability is important to us here at The Meow Place.

The packaging is awesome, and the FAQ section on the site is extensive. Okocat even talks about why the Prop 65 Warning (pertaining to a California law) is on their product. It’s refreshing to see such honesty when it comes to cat litter.

If you aren’t a fan of the Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter, there are many different varieties of Okocat cat litter.

What We Weren’t So Crazy About

One of the biggest problems with this litter was that it was MESSY. This stuff gets tracked all over my office, and I dare not go barefoot in here ever again. There’s nothing yuckier than the crunch of urine-covered cat litter under your toes (except maybe a pile of cat vomit, or worse… poo). And yes, we did use a litter mat, as we always have. It still tracked everywhere.

Like I was saying in regards to its absorbency, the litter gets quite heavy. I filled half of a Walmart plastic bag from one scooping, and we do this twice daily. At the time we used Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter, we only had two cats. I can’t imagine doing this with a third.

It needs to be reiterated: flushing cat litter/feces is not acceptable. The trees and forest life that were saved by using naturally-fallen timber is by far outweighed by the marine life that have suffered because of flushed cat litter. Okocat could have gotten another meow (our system of rating) if they had left that off the box.

The Final Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 Meows

I’m not creating a graphic just for a half of a meow (lol). One meow was taken off for supposedly being ‘flushable’, and another half because of how messy it is. The rest is pure gold. I adore the odor-blocking power this litter has, and if ever Pretty Litter experienced another shortage, this would be my go-to!

Have you tried Okocat Soft Step Clumping Wood Litter or any other Okocat product? Let us know what you thought of it in the comments section below. Don’t forget to follow us on Pinterest for more reviews and cat care tips.