Does anyone use an automatic litter box?
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at
11:07 pm
My husband and I are considering getting an automatic litter box for our two cats. We were just wondering what people's experiences have been with them and which one they would recommend. We religiously clean the boxes we have (twice a day), but it still seems that we need to clean them more. Is the convenience worth the upfront cost? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
Tagged with: automatic litter box • boxes • cats • convenience worth • experiences
Filed under: kitty litter boxes
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I’ve tried every brand out there and finally found an automatic box that truly WORKS. It’s expensive ($300 each, I have two); but it is so worth it. It’s called the Litter Robot, it looks quite odd but works very well. I had six cats using both boxes, and had to change the collection bag twice a week; now I have four cats using one box, and again twice a week does the trick. It comes with some bags; but you can get the kitchen trash bags and they work just as well. I buy the Glad Odor Shield trash bags, to help cut down on the smell even more (minimal to begin with; nonexistent after using those bags).
As for fear, only one of my cats hesitated when I first set the box up. She was four at the time; and approached it very slowly. If it were to start cycling when she was near, she would go about three feet straight up in the air then hit the ground running, tail fluffed out to bottle-brush size. But when she needed to go, she would get in and use it without hesitation. My oldest cat was 13 when I brought one in and she jumped right in and "christened" it; so did all the other cats.
I bought one and 2 out of 3 would not use it. The rake seemed to get clogged too. I can;t remember the make, but I do know we went back to the $4 one from Walmart that we scoop ourselves. The kitties were much happier with it.
I’m sure some people have had good results ith the automatic ones. 1 of our cats is really old though and does not adapt well to change. One is a nervous rescue who also has issues with change. The kitten well she will accept anything.
I had one for a couple of years, but it finally died. Just stopped working. It was pretty cool until it burned out. The cats were a little freaked out at the noise at first and that it moved. But once they got used to that and used it all the time. I had a friend who’s burned out too after a couple of years. It seemed like alot of money for something that didnt last too long.
It’s an extra expense in trade for convenience. A lot of those automatic boxes have disposable trays that collect the waste, adding to the cost of keeping your cat by having to buy replacement trays. If you don’t usually buy clumping litter, you will have to for the automatic box, and clumping litter costs more as well. Then there’s the cost of replacement batteries/electricity to run them.
I knew one family whose cat was afraid of the mechanical noises, and stopped using the box altogether. That was only one case, though, out of several people I know who have automatic boxes. Other than the cost, they’re really nice to have.
3 out of the 4 people I know who have had them hated them. They seem to break often, they get clogged up easily and a lot of cats flat out refuse to use them. All it takes is getting spooked by the automatic rake once and your cat may never return to the box. For myself, I found that with 3 cats it was just highly impractical. It needed changed and cleaned just as often as normal box that I scooped myself and one of my cats started avoiding the room where the litter box was completely.
I used to have one, and it woke me up at night it was so loud!
The other thing about it is the box compartment doesn’t hold that much anyway, so you’re constantly cleaning that out too.
And you have to pay for more containers that the box scoops up the fecal matter into, and you can’t just get them anywhere – you have to get specific ones specifically for that kind/brand of cat box.
I don’t find that it’s worth it, but give it a try and see how you like it!
I have seen cats who will stop using the litterbox altogether when changed to an automated box. I had clients whose cats got terrified when the thing started up before they were finished in the box. They wouldn’t go near them.
May I ask why you feel that twice daily cleaning is not enough? Is there an odor issue? If so, a trip to the vet may be in order to make sure there are no problems.
dont because those waste electricity
please anser my question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080220174217AA5HB7m&r=w
haven’t tried them but i work for goodwill industries and we get them donated all the time, but i must say i do resell them as well. get one from good will for little of nothing and sterilize it first then if you like it buy a better one..
We have one for our cat Blue and we love it!!! We have had it for about 19 months now and have had no issues. We do buy the disposable trays from Wal-mart and empty them every other day or so. We replace the tray once a week. It has been exactly what we wanted.
scares the shitt out of cats, they wind up crapping in the tub!
I have 2 cats and 2 scoop free automatic litter boxes and my cats like them but have been using them since they were about 12 wk old.
Scoop Free automatic litter boxes cost over $100 and uses disposable litter trays and only uses crystal litter. The disposable trays are way way too expensive but I found a guy on ebay that makes permanent ones for it, those cost me $50 each-yes $50 for a litter tray. The crystal litter claims that it only needs to be changed once a month but I have not been able to go over 10 days before changing the litter. For me, these automatic litter boxes are great. It is always clean, it doesnt smell due to the crystal litter. I usually clean out the solid waste a few times a week and stir up the crystals. They are great for when you go on vacation. I go out of town for 7-10 days a few times a year and my litter boxes dont get any attention at all and it still does not smell when I get home. My neighbor only has to feed the cats. I just dump it and refill with fresh litter when I get back.
The downsides however-
1)they are expensive especially if you use the disposable trays that cost about $16 each with litter included and I would change those once a month.
2) they are a pain in the @$$ to clean and change the litter.
i had one and we got rid of it because the rake got clogged and we had to clean that all the time. plus it wouldn’t pick up half of what was in the litter box so we had to clean that too. we had more work to do for that than the regular litter box. and the one i had didn’t have high sides so somtimesmy cats would miss and it would get on the side and the carpet. it was not plesurable for us. then again we had ours 3 or 4 years ago so they might have improved. i wish you the best. i hope it helps.
Our friends gave us theirs because it freaked out their cats. Mine uses it with out a problem. The rake does get clogged and I have tried all the different cat litters. The plastic trays are expensive and I also find myself scooping the remains that the rake doesn’t get. I’m glad we were given it because I would never pay the price for it. The regular cat box is fine by me.