Cat litter your tabby will actually use

Sounds like your tabby has made her opinion on that store-brand litter pretty clear — and honestly, she's not wrong. Litter preference is genuinely important: cats are far more likely to use the box consistently when the texture and scent match what they're comfortable with, and most cats strongly prefer unscented, fine-grained clumping litter over cheap alternatives that tend to be coarser and more heavily fragranced. Before I point you toward something better, a couple of quick questions — is it just the one cat, are you seeing any full box avoidance or is she going elsewhere in the house, and do you have any specific needs like dust-free or low-tracking?

Got it — bathroom mat means she hasn't given up on the general area, she just hates what's in the box. That's actually a good sign and usually fixes quickly once you switch the litter. What brand was the store-brand one? And do you know roughly how fine or coarse the texture was — almost like sand, or more like small pellets or gravel?

That explains everything. Pellet-style litter and clouds of dust on pouring are two of the fastest ways to put a cat off her box for good — the texture feels wrong under her paws and the dust irritates her nose before she's even settled in. Here's my recommendation that fits your budget well: go with Catsan Hygiene Plus litter. It's widely available on Amazon UK for around £7–9 for a 10-litre bag, it's a fine, sandy texture that the vast majority of cats take to immediately, it's unscented, and it's low-dust compared to budget alternatives. It's not a clumping litter, so you'll scoop solids and change the whole tray roughly weekly, but at that price point it's genuinely one of the best performers. Most cats switch over without any transition period needed when they've been avoiding the box — just do a full tray swap rather than mixing.

Mostly just swap and let her figure it out — cats are pretty self-directed once the litter feels right. A couple of things that help: clean the tray thoroughly before the switch so there's no residual smell from the old litter putting her off, and temporarily move the tray closer to where she's been going (the bathroom mat area) if it isn't already nearby. Once she's using it reliably for a week or two you can gradually shift it back to wherever you want it. Don't use any scented cleaners on the tray itself — plain hot water is fine. She'll almost certainly sort herself out within a day or two of the switch.