Special Kitty Odor Control Unscented vs World's Best Cat Litter (Unscented)

Special Kitty users on r/CatAdvice explicitly report switching away because the smell 'wafted throughout the whole house' despite frequent cleaning. World's Best users in the same communities report the opposite — guests with sensitive noses can't detect the box at all. This isn't a marginal difference; it's the difference between a litter box you can hide in a living room and one you have to exile to a back bathroom.

Special Kitty runs about 48¢/lb. World's Best runs $1.50–$2.00/lb depending on where you buy it. That's a real difference, especially for multi-cat households burning through litter fast. However, World's Best users consistently report it lasts longer per pound because the odor control means you're not dumping the box as frequently — so the effective cost gap narrows, though it doesn't close.

Clay litters like Special Kitty produce fine silica dust that coats the area around the box and gets inhaled by both cats and owners during scooping. World's Best, being corn-based, runs significantly cleaner in this regard. If you or your cat has any respiratory sensitivity — asthma, allergies, or just a small apartment with poor ventilation — this difference matters every single day.

This sounds like a minor convenience feature until you've been bagging clay clumps in plastic bags twice a week for a year. World's Best's corn-based formula is genuinely flushable (in small amounts, per standard plumbing advice), which eliminates plastic waste and makes litter disposal a 10-second task instead of a production. For eco-conscious owners, this alone justifies a significant portion of the price premium.