OT - Kitty Cats

Zen

A kitten will be joining my family soon and I have been wondering if anyone has had good experience with self cleaning litter boxes. In looking online, I have seen electric ones that scoop themselves, and round ones that you rock and then just empty a drawer. Do any of these work?

cocolibby

They work ok, but some cats are totally scared of them. Maybe it would work better if it was used to it from the time it was a kitten. As far as the ok part, they work, but you still certainly have to regularly clean out and disinfect the whole thing.

Klt86

Look up city kitty lol you can teach it to go on the toilet. I always wanted to growing up but my mom said it was disgusting I thought it would be hilarious.

Kari

I tried potty training my smartest cat but it didn't work. Instead I got a small piece of plywood for a basement window and installed a pet door down there and a small cat-sized staircase leading up to it. It works well; they do their business outside. The drawback is that after six years we now have a neighborhood stray who likes to sneak in and s/he likely has fleas and parasites so now I have a hav-a-heart trap I'm trying to catch her in to take it to a shelter. But for five years it worked out well. I still keep a litter box but it only gets used on rainy or snowy days.

OneSmallStep

We looked into them, but ended up not going with them. Most people we talked to had bad experiences of their cats being afraid of them. One thing I've found is that by keeping a trashcan with a lid near the litterbox(es) we scoop it every time we go near them. So they never really have much in them. I use the scented trashbags, and the smell from the trashcan rarely can be detected.

Good luck, cats are so much fun. You have to work for their love but once you have it they are yours for life. :cool:

smartycat92

But they don't magically make the poop go away. The ones that rake across empty the waste in to a small plastic container that needs to be emptied frequently and still smells. And they seem to have more parts that need to be cleaned.

I recommend just using clumping litter and scooping often.

Kari

Not the topic you presented, but here's another hint: not all scooping litters are the same. 16 years of cats, and I still love the Sam's Club brand above all others. I bought a different brand when I was pregnant and my dad was scooping the litter and came up from the basement saying, "I don't know what you bought this time, but NEVER again!" I have a very humid basement, and the Sam's Club kind doesn't clump from humidity like others do; only from the little pee puddles.

Zen

Thanks for all the advice! I didn't even think about there being differences in litter. I don't have a Sam's card though and the closest one is like 20 miles away. Is there a preferred brand that I can get from the supermarket or a pet store?

Kari

Wal-Mart and Sam's are linked. Maybe there's a brand equivalent there? It used to be called "Litter Clean" and was under the Member's Mark brand, but the reviews I'm reading online say that they've recently reformulated it and the newer kind (Litter Clean Trip Odor Control) is awful, so perhaps if there was a Wal-Mart equivalent, it is equally bad now. Those reviewers seem to lean toward Tidy Cat Scoopable. The kind my dad hated was Arm & Hammer.

ETA: I also tried Fresh Step with Crystals once, and that was pretty awful, too.

cAtWmN84

i haven't had any pets since shortly after adri was born but i don't suggest the expensive electric ones.we went trough several and they all tore up eventually.get something cheap.i liked super scoop litter.it was really good at clumping and smell.i had 5 cats!the reason why we don't have pets now is they seem to track tiny peices of litter across the bathroom floor.down the hall.i was sick of stepping on it barefoot or worse.....finding litter in my bed.

smartycat92

We use fresh step brand from Costco but you can get it anywhere. It works for us

beyondobsessed

I had an electric litter box, and it broke very quickly. My cats weren't scared of it (or anything else) but it just didn't work very well.

When I was using clumping litter, I liked Fresh Step or Tidy Cats Multiple Cats litter. But what I do now is just buy the Fresh Step clay litter, fill the box up, then dump the whole thing every couple of days. It just works better for me, rather than scooping.

sara291

I hated mine. It worked so so but half way though the day it would clump so much to the thing that raked through it. Ended up getting rid of it quickly.

We recently added a puppy to our family. As of today he is 9-weeks old -a male black lab. I put down my 14-year-old Golden a year ago & my 15-year old 2-years. I figured this would be the best timing between R's age & a future child, it helps my disabled sister a lot for companionship & mostly Vanessa since she has not been herself at all since things. I'm going crazy but hard work in the puppy phase pays off later. Already knows 3 words :-)

Ms.Kate

I think the electronic ones are more trouble than they are worth. I've never used them personally, but have seen them at other's houses. Often they scare the cat, and just seem to make more work for the person.
I have two litter boxes (multiple cats). Before I was pg I scooped them 2x a day and never had a smelly house. Now still with DH doing it 1x per day or every other day (he's forgetful) it does not smell. I used clumping litter (Tidy Cats) for a long time, but then switched to a corn based litter because our dogs sometimes eat the cat poo with the litter on it (lovely, I know...)
Something that makes it easy is to keep all the supplies (bags, scoop, broom, etc) near the box. I also sweep or vacuum the area around the box several times a week because one of my kitties is a "litter kicker." If you have an uncarpeted area to keep the box that would probably be easiest.

christeacher

I loved my automatic litter box until it died a couple of weeks ago after 4 years of hard service, but when I went to but another one the store said that litter maid had pulled them off the shelf to redesign them. I am still trying to figure out my plan for litter box, I have looked into the corn litter but haven't heard anything about it from an actual owner.

mel

My best friend got a new kitten about a month ago, and it is so sweet that I've really wanted one lately. Also, 2 of my kids have asked for one and it's hard to say no when it's something I want, also.

I'd just like to say thanks to all of you for reminding me why I'll never have a cat.

babybaby

no advice on the fancy shmancy ones here. i have had cats all my life, and i've always just used a little pan and a scooper. i'm jealous!