electronic litter boxes??

My mom had one, but the cats were freaked out by how it moved and all the noise it made. It doesn't "go" until a few minutes after the cat leaves the box, but if your cats like to dig around and generally hang out by the box after they go, it might scare them. Because my mom's cats are like that, they got freaked out and never used it again after they got so frightened.

Our neighbour has one, and I've been looking after the cat for the last couple of days. So these are my thoughts about them from that perspective as opposed to our covered litter box with clumping litter that lasts a month or so.

The electronic litter box didn't seem all that clean still... There was lumps all through it.
It's not covered, so litter goes everywhere still which I hate! This needs to be cleaned up regularly still, so it kinda defeats the purpose.
You can't see how often your cat is going to the toilet. I like to know how often the cat is going on a regular basis. I clean out her litter tray every 2 days probably, and I know how much I should be scooping. If I have no poos, or excess wees, I'll know, and I can monitor her immediately to make sure there's no problems. How can you monitor this sort of thing if a machine scoops it all?
What if your cat has diarrhea?? If it needs to go shortly after it just went and the mechanical thing is doing what it does, and the poor kitty desperately needs to go.... what then???

I like the clumping long lasting stuff. I can monitor my cats toileting habits, it's easy to scoop everything, I can do it every couple of days without it stinking, she can go whenever she wants without getting freaked out by the noise/movement of the mechanical thing, it's covered so I don't have litter going everywhere, she gets her privacy, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper!

I also think $100 is a waste of money, and it's lazy!!

Now Darn darn darn!

I've been saving up for one of these. This makes me sad. I've read so many good reviews about it, guess I never thought to look at the bad ones.

Ho-hum...

Maybe I'll think of a different way to keep the smell down. It's not horrible, I'd just like it to be a tad less smelly. (Mushi's got some serious smell issues. lol. He's even embarred. He gets all sad when after he poops, and I'm like "man mushi! That's stinky!" Kipper thinks he has stinky poop too.)

Anyways, I've tried it all. All of the litter additives, and perfume things you can put in the room..All of it. And the self-cleaning litter box was like my last resort.
What to do...What to do...

I'll move this to care and grooming for you

Why not just get the ones that you roll around and they clean themselves and then just pull out the tray? I don't mind scooping, but I've been considering one cause it looks cool. It's a good idea. I've seen two households with mechanical automatic boxes like the littermaid and in one the box was broken and didn't scoop itself anymore and in the other one of the cats was afraid of it and wouldn't use it and just kept going on the floor where the old non-scary box had been.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...82574488339137

It's only $25 and from what I've heard it works. I'm hesitant about covered boxes in general, but if I ever buy one it'll be this one. I mean, you just roll it around and it scoops itself. How sweet is that?

Then instead of scooping all day you could just roll it around and then empty it before bed or something, still once a day but it'd be in its own little compartment not being stinky.

I used the electronic litter boxes before and they never worked, then I found the Litter-Robot.

They are amazing and I have never had any problems with mine. We have six cats and three Litter-Robots and I have not scooped since! They are a little expensive, but well worth every penny!

http://www.litter-robot.com/default....1?source=ysm01

Check out the "how it works" section.

Call me crazy, but I'm a little bit ADDICTED to cleaning the litter box! I got my cats from the shelter so they initially arrived at home with a butt-load of problems (pun intended). Scooping their poops lets me know what's going on with them internally and it doesn't really take all that much time throughout the day (probably an accumulative 2 minutes or so...I've gotten really fast). I think even if I had an electronic litter box, I'd be checking to make sure everything was working properly.

Never send a Littermaid to do a cat lover's job. That's just how I feel.

I have two Littermaids, and I LOVE mine, too. DH and I both work all day, so, unfortunately, we can't be there to clean the boxes during the day. My cats much prefer a clean box (and Forest DEMANDS one) so the Littermaids make it possible to give them boxes that are always reasonably clean. No, it doesn't eliminate having to clean the box...you still have to dump the used litter catcher and scoop it to get the stuff off the bottom every few days. I don't know that I see it as an improvement for me so much as an improvement in the quality of care I can give my cats.

I have had littermaid litter boxes now for close to 10 years and we (the cats and I) LOVE them!!!! Mine broke recently and it was a couple weeks before I could afford to get a new one and so I just scooped 2 or 3 times a day (my cats like a clean box and so do I) and now I know I will not go back to the normal litterbox again. The latest one I got came with an air purifier and has been upgraded so it is MUCH easier to clean. The rake is made of metal and is removeable so I can just take it out and hose it off. The rest of the box comes apart much easier in the new model too. It was more expensive but worth every penny.

Two words...

Litter Robot.

We have one & it is the best automatic litter box out there.

http://www.litter-robot.com

I would not use one : a cat would want to play the mechanism that scoops (not sure of the expression to use here, I am not English speaking! - and have his - her leg stuck in it, or if he-she stays there for any reason, have his tail caught in it. A terrible accident happened to my kitten last fall, after which I had to have him put to sleep : his leg got caught up in a simple table chair. I never thought this would happen. So, just any accident can happen with objects that cats can get caught in and with which they would want to play.

I have a covered litter pan that works wonder, without the risk of your cat's leg getting trapped in it. Only 19,00 CDN $. does not smell at all in here. With an electronic version , you would have to clean it anyway.

I have a littermaid and I love it! It does take some of the mess out of cleaning. If you empty the bin enough, it's a piece of cake! We've had no problems with ours! And the cats find it ammusing! For Bunny (one of my mom's cats) it's a godsend because she will only use a scooped litterbox. Otherwise it's the carpet in the family room!

Here is a pic of what my girls normally do when it goes off!

How do people use your bathroom?

I was wondering that!

yeah, me, too - mine are in closets, not the bathroom!

I just got the new Littermaid for my kitty. It was expensive but I live in an apartment and I find it helps control odor much better and its easier to clean.

It took a few days for her to get used to the box. The directions suggest you leave it off and let them use it and turn it on to scoop after they are done.

I did that and it worked. She also runs to the box to watch it work when it sweeps 10 minutes after she gets is finished.

I did have to stop using the carbon squares they give you to put in the plastic disposal containers. For some reason my cat decided she had to have them. She would open the lid of the container than take the disposible lid off of the pan. Then she would notice the container with the scoops in it and proceed to fill the container with the litter to bury them. Basically making a mess.

Once I changed the container and didn't put the carbon square back on the lid she stopped doing that. She's pretty silly.

Good Luck!
Cindy

I have a littermaid automatic from walmart it was about 85 dollars....I love it and I have had it for about a year. It works perfectly fine....and my cats got use to it very quickly, but it all depends on your cats

I have had several LitterMaid's. I think that it is a good product for one cat - but probably not for several. When they work - they work great - but when they break down - its a waste of money.

Some times the rake gets dirty and it is a pain to have to clean it too.

I have gone back to scooping manually.

I had one of these and returned it to Petsmart because it was more irritating to me than scooping. When it did "clean" it only cleaned half of what was in there, and a lot of the time the red light was on indicating malfunction and I had to manually pick up the box to redistribute the litter and then push the button to make it go. It was a PITA. Now I use a regular litter box with World's Best and can't imagine switching to anything else. Easy to clean, little to no tracking and dust, and I only smell stuff if they don't cover it well enough.

toilet train - no litter. no licking litter, stool and urine off paws. no tracking it around the house to smell and attract fly, bugs and insects. completely sanitary, and the cats feel safe knowing it's 'gone' after they go.

3 months toilet training or 10 + years scooping, smell, bacteria, sickness

Gizmo uses an open litterbox under the sink which is scooped every time I use the bathroom. There is very little odor (it only smells just after she has pooped which is understandable.)

I don't have room for a Littermaid and have heard too many horror stories of kittens killed by the mechanism, cat mess fouling the mechanism, etc. to consider this expensive toy worth it. It's no bother to scoop a box if you have good biodegradable litter, a healthy cat, and a nearby toilet.

I had one and it scared her but she eventually got used to it, then the feces would get stuck inthe rake and cleaning them was worse than scooping by hand. I gave it to a friend who had one and wanted another.

Now with high quality food and WBCL multicat I have no smell and scoop three boxes (one on each level of the house) once a day. Oddly, Abi has a preferred for using the garden level box for bowel movements and uses the others for urinating. But then again that makes sense because in the wild cats defecate in the outer limits of their territory. well that's what I read, so it must be true .

What food do you use?

if you're home all day to scoop, i think you're probably right. i'm often gone from 730am until 6pm, & i don't like coming home to 'litterbox' odor. i have 3 littermaids for that reason. i know if i smell catbox when i walk in, the containers need emptying! they're also good for when i go out of town - i rarely am gone more than a few days, & that way no one has to worry about taking care of the boxes for me. i haven't had many problems with them, & they now come with a scooper that has tines on the end that fit between the rake tines, making it easier to clean out the rake when something gets stuck in it.