Having five cats I’d like to think that I know a thing or two about kitty litter. We’ve tried a variety of brands and blends over the years. Sadly not all litters do what they claim to do. The worse are the kind that don’t clump so you can’t scoop them up, or the kind that stick to our cats feet and gets tracked all over our home (litter in carpet is a horrible thing to feel under your feet).
Fresh Step is the litter we use 90% of the time. I say 90% before every now and then my husband sees a new litter on the store shelf or he has a coupon for a different brand so he picks that one up instead. We may stray once in a “blue moon” but we always come back to Fresh Step. It works the best for our family. It clumps well and helps eliminate much of the smell.
Fresh Step is about to have a “new and improved” litter. Usually when we hear those words “new” and “improved” it means they made big changes that are not always a good thing. Plenty of products have been “new and improved” over the years – products we used all the time – that end up being horrible and we stop using them. If something works fine, why mess with it? Leave it alone! Not everything has to be “new and improved”.
I was a bit concerned when I heard that our favorite litter, Fresh Step, was going to be new and improved. The company sent me a box to try out for myself.
Here is a little more information on what was “new and improved” with the Fresh Step litter.
Seven years ago, Fresh Step® litter reinvented cat litter by adding the powerful odor-eliminating ingredient activated carbon to its scoopable and regular litters. Today, Fresh Step is revolutionizing the product once again by adding natural plant extracts to its line of litters. The plant extracts work with the activated carbon and high quality clay to eliminate odor’s naturally, providing even better odor elimination.
The plant extracts in Fresh Step litter contain two main ingredients: chlorophyll and essential oils. Chlorophyll actively binds to odors and eliminates them from the air. Meanwhile, the essential oils act as a force field, blocking odors before they leave the littler box. Coupled with the activated carbon in Fresh Step litter, the ingredients help remove odors naturally, for even better odor elimination.
The exclusive plant extract and chlorophyll ingredients have been added to Fresh Step litter products, including:
- NEW Fresh Step® Triple Action Litter: Activated carbon and added plant extracts fight all three sources of odor: urine, feces and bacteria. SRP is $10.29 for a 20 lb box.
- Fresh Step® Multi-Cat Scented and Unscented Scoopable Litter: Even in multiple cat households, the carbon and plant extracts in this litter formula eliminate odors naturally. SRP is $10.29 for a 20 lb box.
- Fresh Step® Odor Shield Scented and Unscented Litter: This unscented litter contains activated carbon and plant extracts eliminate odors naturally, without any perfume or dyes. SRP is $10.29 for a 20 lb box.
- Fresh Step® Extreme Odor Control Scented and unscented Litter: The patented CarbonPLUS™ technology eliminates extreme odors from urine and feces and now features improved odor control SRP is $10.29 for a 20 lb box.
The new and improved Fresh Step litter will be available in grocery, pet specialty, mass merchandise and drug stores nationwide starting July 2013.
We tried the litter almost as soon as it was sent to me. I had to wait a few days so finish up our current box of Fresh Step so that I knew I was using the new and improved Fresh Step exclusively.
So far, so good! We haven’t noticed a difference at all. It seems to scoop the same and take care of odors the same way as the current Fresh Step litter does.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. I wasn’t sure if I was going to notice a huge difference or not. In all honesty I don’t notice any difference. It works the same way as Fresh Step has always worked. Perhaps that might sound like a “bad” thing but in my eyes it’s a good thing. The new and improved litter with the natural extracts to control odor did not ruin Fresh Step like other products do when they are “new and improved”. I see this as a POSITIVE thing.
The scent of the litter doesn’t seem any different. As far as eliminating odor it works as well as it always have. And I have five cats so I know what a sticky litter box can smell like. I clean out the litter box all day long (no exaggeration). Fresh Step litter and the fact that I keep the litter box clean is probably the reasons why you can’t tell that we own cats. When you walk in our home you cannot smell cats at all – and we’ve had real estate agents and other people confirm that. In fact our current real estate agent was shocked to find out that we had cats at all. She couldn’t smell them at all. The only reason why she knew we had cats is because she saw the giant cat tree in the living room.
For more information about Fresh Step litter, please visit www.FreshStep.com. 
Kimberly
*I received a free product sample in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
As much as I want to use “natural” cat litter, it just doesn’t help my conscience enough to overcome the feeling of cat litter crumbles all over the cat’s bathroom floor. I’ll give this improved fresh step a try!
We actually just tried Fresh Step for the first time this week after being a long time user of Tidy Cats. Within 24 hours I went right back to Tidy Cats. The Fresh Step is sooo dusty and was making the cats choke and sneeze. I had to scoop it 4 times in one day, it wasn’t masking the smell at all. I don’t think it was this “new and improved” version though, it was a multicats scented one.
My cat and I like it I have used other kitty litter and fresh step is the best for hiding odor. I have noticed that I can go for a couple of days between litter changes, which is most important to me. No one complaints about litter odor. It doesn’t really clump, but if I wanted clumping litter, I wouldn’t buy the clay. My cat, Archie, likes it and if he didn’t like it, I would definitely know it, like the cat owner, whose cat didn’t like the extreme fresh step.
Mixed reviews.. hmmm we have 6 cats in our home, all indoor kitties and I would love to find a cat litter to really do what I expect it to do.
I have used the Fresh Step scoopable litter and found it to be as good as most scoopable litter.
My mom has one cat and Fresh Step is the only cat litter she will use. She’s tried several other litters, usually ones that were on sale, but they never work the way they claimed and usually start to stink up the house after only one or two uses and I can’t stand the smell of a dirty litter box much less the house smelling like one. Fresh Step cost a little more but it’s worth it.