Sifting & Sorting litter boxes

My kitts had broken the door on their old box, so I bought them a new box. It's a sift & sort litter box, and your not supposed to even scoop with it. It has a collander type square tray that sits under the litter, and you pull it up through the litter and shake a bit, and all the loose litter falls into the pan again, and the poop/pee etc is in the tray for dumping. Sounds great right? Well, so far it's not so great. The problem is, the pee clumps throught the grated part, and I end up with giant clumps frozen to the grated tray. So I had to hunt for my old scooper (as I gave the box with the broken door to a rescue group), the whole time fighting Louie out of the box, and scrape the frozen clumps of pee loose, then dump into a trash bag. Which ended up with litter all over my floor, as I had to violently scrape it loose and dig it out. The other problem is that even though I scraped & scraped, there was still debris clinging in between the slots. Really it needed to be washed thoroughly, but I was without any help at that time, and so I just put it back in for the meantime. I can't "wash" it in my bathtub or sinks cause of our old old drains, and I don't have a hose hook up. So does anyone have a solution?!?! Please help, as this is becoming waaaaaaay harder than the regular litterbox, that never got litter everywhere!

My question with the scoop and sift boxes is you can only do it once? How do you get the sifter part back under the litter without emptying the litter and starting over?

A long time ago, before the electric litter boxes came out I bought a litter box that worked pretty well, let me try and describe it:

It was an enclosed litter box with a small rectangular pull-out tray on the side. Here's how it worked: To clean the box you simply roll it over. All of the clumps would get caught in the side tray which you them pull out and empty.

Simple, right? I don't know if they still sell them, I'm sure they do. I loved it, it worked great. Maybe you could get one of those if you can find one.

I looked at those sift & sort boxes when I was shopping for a new litter box recently, as I knew I'd need another adding Ferris to the household, and after looking at them for a bit, rejected the idea of them for the very reason you are bummed out about.

I think that they might work best with non-clumping litter, to at least get the poops out, but I knew that since I'm always scraping the pee clumps off the floor of the current box that they would stick to the grating, and I thought - well, that'd be way too much of a bother.

So I didn't buy it - I bought a hooded one instead, and I just scoop them both twice a day.

Wish I had advice for you other than: buy a new, different one.

I have a corner hooded box that was one of the sifting ones. The idea was you lifted the grate out, dumped the waste then put it back in the top and transfered the 'clean' litter into the lid then wipe out the bottom and that becomes the top. At this point I don't even remember what happened to the grate but I do know I only used it a few times before giving up on it. Now I just use it like a regular box w/ scoopable litter.

I've seen the ones you roll and those look like they might work better since kitties aren't peeing on the filter so it won't clump onto it.

Originally Posted by Phenomsmom

My question with the scoop and sift boxes is you can only do it once? How do you get the sifter part back under the litter without emptying the litter and starting over?

Click to expand...

yeah, you should've seen me trying to figure it out Brandi, you know I"m not the sharpest! There are 2 bottoms, and 1 top, and 1 sifter tray that fits into the bottoms, so you pull out the sifter, dump the poop, put the sifter in the second bottom (that stacks right below the 1st bottom) then pour the left over unused litter into the 2nd bottom with the sifter already in it. And add additional litter to fill. I didn't ever realize there was a second tray!!!

this is the box I have, but it doesn't have instructions...
http://www.petdiscounters.com/produc...cat=298&page=1

Geez! That sounds like way too much work. I'll stick to my regular cat box and litter scoop.

Originally Posted by laureen227

you might try spraying the 3 levels with Pam before putting the litter in - that might make the clumps not freeze to the pan. i had a tri-level sort-n-sift box before i got my littermaids, & i liked mine pretty well. it's still in my garage.

Click to expand...

you are SO BRILLIANT!!! I am going to try that the next time I sort & sift!!! (but will the clumping litter stick to all the PAM?)

I have a few of those sifting pans, if you have enough litter in them it won't stick to the grate. Probably depends if your cats dig a hole before they pee though, mine don't they just sit on top of the litter and dig after.

Originally Posted by missymotus

I have a few of those sifting pans, if you have enough litter in them it won't stick to the grate. Probably depends if your cats dig a hole before they pee though, mine don't they just sit on top of the litter and dig after.

Click to expand...

Yup, I'm sure they do. Luck has done this since the day we found her, we were in our hotel room and she stayed all night with us and didn't go once on the floor, so the next morning I let her out of the room (into the courtyard) and she ran to the bushes, dug a hole, squatted, covered for a long 5 minutes, and ran back into the room. (SUCH A GOOD GIRL!!!! ) She is quite the digger/tap dancer and spends a while digging & covering....and Louie's official knick-name in our house now is "the copy kitten" he will sit & study her, and then try to do exactly what she does....it is the cutest thing...and immitation is the highest form of flattery right??? I will try extra litter, and the PAM.....and keep my fingers crossed! Thanks for the help!