Litter boxes for cats

[lightheart]

Anyone have experience with one of the fancy automatic ones? the ones that clean themselves. Do they work? How is your cat with them? Actual expense to use them? Environmental - save the planet type of thoughts about them?

My hubby looked and he said they had one that just raked it and then there was another that could be hooked up to your plumbing and it would sweep through raking the litter and wash the litter somehow so it was clean to reuse.

I know it's a big expense but we are looking at me possibly being able to travel with the kids for hubby's work this summer. We would be having someone come in spend the night or day, feed, water, give pets and love to the kitty while we are gone but I'm pretty neato with the litter box and check it at least 6-8-15-80 times a day, basically I scoop as soon as he poops and pees. He's only been here a short while and came from a home with 2 cats where the other cat (and possibly him) didn't use the litter-box because his person did not clean the box often enough. (I mean, like would only clean it once a week - 2 cats, I can easily see why the cats used the floor...) I know I still have a while to work with him and he may be OK with only having his box cleaned once every day but I would just as soon use the time to get him trained to the automatic one because long term that would be a nice solution once my youngest starts school next year and I either go back to work or to school and not here all the time able to do 24 hour litter-box duty.

[gumby74]

I would love to hear thoughts on this topic. We had to move our litter box upstairs because one of our cats is arthritic and now the box in a closet. I clean it every day and use deoderizer and the other night I was awaken by a strong odor! Nothing like cleaning the litter box at 2am! Anyway, I am now at the point that I think we might spend the money and was very confused by all the choices.

[manamakeri]

We used to have one of the ones that raked after each time the cat used the box and stored it in a container at the end. W had four cats that used it, and it actually worked pretty well for quite a while. We only stopped using it because on of our female cats decided to stop squatting when she peed. The sides of the litter box weren't high enough to keep her pee contained, and I was wiping up the floor all the time.

[sofiabugmom]

From personal experience, it's not all it's cracked up to be especially if you use a clumping litter. My cat tended to use the same side of the box; since the rake picked up clumps of cat pee, the clumps sometimes accumulated on one side of the little tray and the lid wouldn't close.

It also took her a while to get used to it; she'd hiss at it when it activated.

[RufusBeans]

I was just going to ask this. We are now a two cat household and the new guy is a super pooper and I am ready for an automatic!

are there any that you love? like the super expensive ones? I need one that will bag itself so my handicapped husband can (will) do cat clean up while kid and I are visiting my folks for the summer.

[Carson]

My friend has a persnickety cat and got an automatic litterbox, and I guess it is working really well for them. No complaints.

I couldn't do it, I personally don't like traditional cat litter, plus my guy is a pee in one spot too, and we'd probably have the problem mentioned above.

[SunShineSally]

Originally Posted by sofiabugmom

It also took her a while to get used to it; she'd hiss at it when it activated.

could see my girl doing that

[femalephish]

Originally Posted by manamakeri

We used to have one of the ones that raked after each time the cat used the box and stored it in a container at the end.

We had one like this and it was AWFUL! It litterally THREW the litter all over the floor. I feel bad, too, because I used to do the cats and now DH does it and hates it, I really hoped that this would work for us, but it didn't.

For going away we got extra litter boxes. Good Luck!