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Anyone have an auto litter box for your cat?

So, I'm not a cat person.... at all.... in fact - I would go as far as to say I rather dislike them. Long story short, we've ended up in a weird situation whereby we're inheriting a cat - however lucky for my wife and I (she's not a cat fan either) it's just about the sweetest/friendliest cat i've ever met, so this turned out to be not such a bad thing and we're both looking forward to it.

The fun stuff - I am a big time neat freak and I am remarkably sensitive to foul scents and as we all know - cat waste is particularly gnarly stuff. In college, a friend of mine had a "Littermaid" automatic litter box that basically did all of the dirty work for you, and raked the cat waste into a sealed container 15 minutes after the cat did it's business (it had a motion sensor). I recall this entirely solving the cat odor issue(s) and figured I better pop for one of these bad boys prior to kitty time, which is in about a week.

After doing a little research online - it looks like they range in price from $90 - $400, with most models in the $100-150 ballpark. As with most things of this nature a good portion of the people reviewing them online love them, a good portion think they're ok, and then a huge portion of them go into tremendous detail extolling what a *** their model is all go into grave detail regarding their horror story.

Anyone have an automated litter box? If so, what model and what are your thoughts?
 
My mom and I have a littermaid elite. My comment on it is it does a decent enough job, but you're still going to have to empty the uhm... receptacle. You'll also want a nice soup strainer handy to take care of the tidbits it misses on occasion (buy a dedicated soup strainer obviously). A cheapy at the grocery store will do fine, as long as it's metal.

I have no idea how well some of the other models work but we've had littermaids for over a decade now and they do the job, minus the aforementioned shortcomings. An added advantage is they don't stink if emptied properly. Also make sure to use a good cat litter of the appropriate texture with it, it will work better.

Other than that its 100x better than a normal litter box and you'll enjoy the cat a lot more.

EDIT: I forgot to add if you get a littermaid get the bigger model. The larger size makes it easier to clean and you have to clean it less frequently. There's also less chance of the cat peeing on the plastic rather than the litter...
 
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I am very interested as to how this goes, we scoop regularly.

That said, make sure you do it every day or two and the smell won't be too bad. With one cat, possibly every 3 days. We also just discovered a clumping pine litter that doesn't smell too bad and lasts awhile. When it comes to litter, you may be tempted to buy it cheap but the cheaper the stinkier.
 
I guess my wife already chimed in before I got a chance. :blush:

I'll post a funny story then... she lets the cats outside during most of the year and they absolutely love it. Our oldest cat was begging and pleading to go outside every couple of hours and was practically scratching down the door to get back inside a few minutes later. As luck would have it, Mrs. Chip had accidentally trained him to go outside, go to the bathroom in the garden (apparently a bad thing) and come back in. The funny thing is that it took us nearly a week to realize what was actually happening.
 
The motorized mechanism on ours (also a Littermaid) broke. I can't remember if it was one of the gears, or one of the sliders on the comb, but apparently the part retails for about $60. I think we paid $90 for the whole assembly.

I've been scooping for a while now. :(
 
I have an ordinary litter box with the removable "roof" which keeps litter from getting scattered. I scoop every day, and have no problems with foul odors. I never smell anything, even while scooping. "Scoop Away" is the best litter I've found.
 
The motorized mechanism on ours (also a Littermaid) broke. I can't remember if it was one of the gears, or one of the sliders on the comb, but apparently the part retails for about $60. I think we paid $90 for the whole assembly.

I've been scooping for a while now. :(

Yeah, they're really not designed to be repaired... If you view it as a purchase to be made every 5 years you're fine though.
 
I have an ordinary litter box with the removable "roof" which keeps litter from getting scattered. I scoop every day, and have no problems with foul odors. I never smell anything, even while scooping. "Scoop Away" is the best litter I've found.

That's just the way we do it but we use the brand "Fresh Step" which also works well. It is a "clumping", deodorizing litter.

We live way out in the country so the cat pretty much comes and goes as she pleases, if we are home to oblige her. She much prefers to do her business outside and never uses the litter box unless it is super nasty outside or we leave her in the house a long time by herself. Even with that she can "hold it" a remarkably long time -- she's got me beat by a country mile (so to speak).

It is really a simple chore to scoop out her box. Using the fancy motorized deal wouldn't make this much easier, if at all. And the combination of the deodorized litter and the covered box makes the whole thing odorless. Using a slotted scoop the box rarely needs to be replenished.

EDIT: We tried one of those special mats to put in front of the litter box that is supposed to knock off any litter so the cat won't track it around the house. Our cat hated it and would jump over it on the way out of the box so it never got used. We have no problems with litter tracking anyway.
 
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Friends of mine have a motorized box that they keep in a closet of their bedroom (the bedroom is the whole second floor). I don't know the brand. It's one of those that use the plastic covered inserts that the stuff gets scooped into and has been working for them for years. The other standard type litter box is in the basement. Both of them have problems with litter getting scattered around, but what do you expect with four cats?
 
I also have a standard litter box with a (carbon filter vented) roof. I managed to find one with a deep pan to keep litter shrapnel to a minimum. I use a corn based litter, self-effacingly referred to as "World's Best". It has zero dust, absorbs easily 99% of odours (which means a lot with a male cat), and is supposed to be flushable. I also do the scoop once or twice a day and it's at most a twenty second chore when it's that often.

Your post asked about an "auto" litter box, which I mistook for "automobile", so I might as well tell you about it.

For trips (I work a lot out of town), I use a similar box, with a roof that folds down into a tight cover for the driving.

For the record, I am not a "cat guy" either and would never have picked a cat over a dog. He picked me, about two years back and we haven't been apart for more than four hours since. Now I wouldn't trade him for Lassie and Rin Tin Tin combined.
 
For trips (I work a lot out of town), I use a similar box, with a roof that folds down into a tight cover for the driving.

For the record, I am not a "cat guy" either and would never have picked a cat over a dog. He picked me, about two years back and we haven't been apart for more than four hours since. Now I wouldn't trade him for Lassie and Rin Tin Tin combined.

So, am I reading this right? You take your cat on car trips? I have had many cats in my 60+ years and not one of them remained sane while in a car. Trips to the vet always required one of those pet carriers and a sad-sounding cat the whole way.

Unless I am misreading your post and the box is for you! :eek6:

P.S. Our cat picked us as well. She moved into our new house when it was still just a frame and hasn't left since. So she has lived in our house longer than we have. We are her tenants.
 
I have an ordinary litter box with the removable "roof" which keeps litter from getting scattered. I scoop every day, and have no problems with foul odors. I never smell anything, even while scooping. "Scoop Away" is the best litter I've found.

+1

Unless you're likely to forget, doing it every day or two really isn't a big deal - especially with the flushable kind. You'd also have fewer moving parts to fail on you, and you won't have to clean anything that a monthly hosing doesn't easily take care of.

I'd recommend at least giving it a shot, if for no other reason than that the initial outlay for a traditional setup is virtually nil. You could always spring for a mechanized solution later if you found it intolerable. My bet, though, is that after a week or two you'd be scooping clumps on autopilot while shav-...er...texting a friend with the other hand. :biggrin:
 
This may not be the avenue you want to go, but it's really not that hard to teach them to use the toilet. Laugh all you want folks -- I haven't had to deal with litter for nigh 5 years now :smile:

Happy to provide more information if you think it will help. There's also plenty online: http://www.karawynn.net/mishacat/toilet.html

Regards.

J

Word of warning, we tried that and failed. The stress of it eventually got to our male so much he'd only use the litter once or twice a day and one morning we found a uh, "present" wrapped up in a blanket in our living room. Needless to say, we went back to regular litter.

It's a great idea, and I believe it can work, but be prepared for major stress on both you and the cat.
 
Word of warning, we tried that and failed. The stress of it eventually got to our male so much he'd only use the litter once or twice a day and one morning we found a uh, "present" wrapped up in a blanket in our living room. Needless to say, we went back to regular litter.

It's a great idea, and I believe it can work, but be prepared for major stress on both you and the cat.

It's definitely not for everyone, or every cat. And you really have to not stress about it, make it fun for the cat (as in rewards afterward, etc.).

Regards.

J
 
Word of warning, we tried that and failed. The stress of it eventually got to our male so much he'd only use the litter once or twice a day and one morning we found a uh, "present" wrapped up in a blanket in our living room. Needless to say, we went back to regular litter.

It's a great idea, and I believe it can work, but be prepared for major stress on both you and the cat.

FOCKER, I'm not gonna tell you again. Jinx cannot flush the toilet. He's a cat for Christ sakes! :lol::lol:
 
So, am I reading this right? You take your cat on car trips? I have had many cats in my 60+ years and not one of them remained sane while in a car. Trips to the vet always required one of those pet carriers and a sad-sounding cat the whole way.

My little buddy *loves* the car. I keep him either in his padded carrier or seatbelted on a very short tether to his harness where he has enough room to get to my lap and stand to look out the window. He also: can open the inside house doors, walks on a leash, fetches, jumps to my shoulder on command and knows the commands "here", "no", "sit" and "beat it". He also hates the vet and knows when we're going there. He tries to hide but comes on command. I don't claim to know zip about cats so I've treated him like a dog and some of it has rubbed off, I guess.

Unless I am misreading your post and the box is for you! :eek6:
:lol: He likes to come into the bathroom and stare while I'm, well, you know. Funny, since he hates it when I do it to him in revenge. Hm, that doesn't sound too good, put that way. . .

P.S. Our cat picked us as well. She moved into our new house when it was still just a frame and hasn't left since. So she has lived in our house longer than we have. We are her tenants.

:smile: Mine also knows who the boss of whom is.
 
It's definitely not for everyone, or every cat. And you really have to not stress about it, make it fun for the cat (as in rewards afterward, etc.).

Regards.

J

Yeah, in this case it was the cat and not the person. Mrs. Chip tried extremely hard for a very long time, a few months, and eventually had to stop because it was affecting the cat's personality. The funny thing is that this is the same cat that will use the litter box as you're scooping/refilling it.

FOCKER, I'm not gonna tell you again. Jinx cannot flush the toilet. He's a cat for Christ sakes! :lol::lol:

:lol::lol::lol:
 
I am very interested as to how this goes, we scoop regularly.

That said, make sure you do it every day or two and the smell won't be too bad. With one cat, possibly every 3 days. We also just discovered a clumping pine litter that doesn't smell too bad and lasts awhile. When it comes to litter, you may be tempted to buy it cheap but the cheaper the stinkier.

Only one problem.... "won't be too bad" for me = goodbye cat. :wink:
 
Only one problem.... "won't be too bad" for me = goodbye cat. :wink:

Joel, no offense, but what did you expect when you took this cat in? If you had a dog you'd be cleaning up after it too, and same with pretty much any other pet. We tried one of those fancy litter boxes that's supposed to separate the crap from the litter when you tip it over and even that required some extra scooping. As great as it seems at first, you're always going to have to do at least some manual work. At least the cat only goes to the bathroom in one spot.

Consider having to clean litter a trade-off for the love of an animal and knowing that you helped make its life better. Hell, pay me $100 and I'll clean the litter for ya. :biggrin:
 
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