Automatic litter box

Being away from home for two weeks had me most worried about one thing

"How bad is my house going to smell when I get back to two weeks of litter box?"

It wasn't bad at all. Having the extra litter box really helped. And when I got home I just dumped each one and started fresh (My nightmare of overflowing box, and accidents all over the basement floor was my overreacting)

This will not be the last time the cats have to be left alone (with a neighbour checking in to feed/give water every couple days).

Does anyone have one of those automatic litter boxes? I would need one that was completly automatic. I saw one in a flyer recently that scooped the box 15 minutes after a censor was triggered by the cat entering the box. Sounds great, does anyone here have an automatic litter box? Suggestions on what I should get?

There are newer ones out there that I suspect are better then the original types. I never got one when they came out. Most people found out that their cats were afraid of them and wouldn't go near them. Maybe it was the noise or something.

You could buy one and see how they like it. If they don't I guess you could sell it on ebay or craigslist

You might be worse off with the "automatic" box. I got one but soon got rid of it, as my cat's "poop" often clogged the mechanism, and I had to clean it even more often than my standard box (which I wash thoroughly only once a week). I found the automatic box to be more trouble than it was worth. Moreover, I'd worry if I were away because it could malfunction.

Your cats must be very tolerant because when I'm away, I insist that my sitters scoop the litter box daily because both of my cats have always wanted a clean box.

They've learned to be tolerant over the past few months with the litter being ignored for a few days at a time with my being pregnant and not wanting to do it.

I'll take a closer look at what's out there and make a decision. I don't want to look until I am prepared to pay up for a 100$ kitty box.

When I was 21 or so I had a female Ocicat named Alley, I got one of those Littermaid Automatic litterboxes when they came out, I was quite excited about it around that same time I was quite excited about my new Papisan Chair that I had always wanted (more on that later)

...Anyway...

Ended up that the Auto box must have TERRIFIED her at some point... I ended up finding urine in my Papisan Cushian sevaral times... then poop... Washing it was not working... I decided to throw the cushian away and buy a new cushian... but got a thicker and comfier one but again it was used as a litterbox... *sigh*... upset... I left the house... bought a new litterpan, came home, pulled the plug on the Littermaid, carried it right out the door, chucked it right in the apartment dumpster... picked up the cushion and the bowl and bottom piece 1 by 1 and took all those pieces to the dumpster and threw those away... (over-reacted... maybe a little) but I was upset... lol.

She never went outside the box again.

Anyway... with any subsequent kitties, I shall never use any such device. Manual scooping it is.

Is there someone that can some and scoop for you once a day? A neighboor kid that wants to make $5 a day or something? lol

i've only ever heard bad things about automatic trays. i think they are indeed more likely to create a tray aversion with the noise etc. you should definately get the neighbour to clean the tray aswell, your cats will hate having a dirty tray. as a rule you should have a tray for every cat in the household anyway, so your cats would probably love it if you left the other tray down for good. as someone suggested, pay the neighbour to scoop the poop!! it'll pay dividends as your carpets may be saved in the future!!