Automatic Litter Boxes? Who has used them??

[benburch]

Hi!

We are considering an automatic litter box to solve the problem of our dog deciding he has to dig stuff out of the cat boxes.

Who has experience with these?

Do they work?

What brand do you have?

Did you have a hard time getting the cats to accept it?

Thanks!

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Here is an old Pets Group thread on the subject

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=243&topic_id=8688

[Suziq]

2. Hey Ben

Your doxie snacking on cat turds? It was a staple in my doxie's diet for a while. :D

We solved the problem by building short walls around the litter box with an opening on the side just large enough for the kitties to get through. We put a wooden platform on the top. My Maggie (my avatar) now eats up there. Her brother, Moe, eats up on the counter. Keeps the cat food off the floor. My doxie also loved to snack on that!

[Jo March]

3. We LOVE ours!

We have a LitterMaid for large cats or multiple cat households. It is awesome! We bought it at BJ's for $99 and that included the box, a ramp (lol), about 10 litter containers, a scoop and a little brush to help clean it, some carbon pouches that help to mask any smells and the plastic lid thingies that hold the carbon pouches.

Jasper loves it. He watched it like a hawk the first few times that he used it - just to see what was going on. Jill, the new kitten, took to it right away and is not scared of it.

It stays cleaner than the old box since it makes an automatic sweep of the litter 10 minutes after the kitty finishes his/her business. It dumps the poop/pee over in the little container and then sweeps back through the litter.

You use less litter because the pee doesn't have time to sit there and absorb the litter. Your cat has a nice clean box every single time they go in. Our cats scratch less because the litter is clean so we don't have the mess outside of the box from over-zealous scratches, lol.

When I empty the box's litter catcher thing, I just dump it over into an old litter container that has a garbage bag in it and then I put the lid on the container. I pop the box's litter catcher thing back into the LitterMaid. Then I take a little scoop of fresh litter and pour it back into the box.

There is very little smell since the litter only sits in the open for 10 minutes. Then it's dumped into the container which has a lid that closes over it.

You do have to get the premium clumping litter. The cheap stuff doesn't work as well BUT you use less, like I said.

Jasper thinks that he is a king since we got the thing. Jill is scared of lots of stuff but she gets in there and does her business like a pro!

I HIGHLY recommend getting one. They are just great.

[nickinSTL]

4. I have afriends who have one

they seem really happy with it.

Sorry I don't know the brand.

[bettyellen]

5. they also have top entry boodah boxes now, so they'd have to jump up

and then into the box. i doubt a dog would do that.
also harder to kick out the litter.
:hi:

[meow2u3]

6. I used a Littermaid 4 years ago

When I had 4 cats 4 years ago, I picked up a Littermaid, only to have one of them refuse to bury her waste (she was an orphaned feral kitten when I trapped/adopted her). The Littermaid mechanism went into action and crap stuck on the combing portion. Otherwise, it worked when I used a scoop to cover up the crap.

Bottom line: those automatic litterboxes do work, provided the cat is completely litterbox trained and buries his or her shit.

[CountAllVotes]

7. I think I might get one of these

Right now I have 3 litter boxes for 2 cats. It is getting old, I'll say that much. I wonder if one of these might possibly bring it back to only one litter box instead of three? All of the cat litter, etc. takes a lot of work and costs quite a bit too! Thanks for the info.

[dipsydoodle]

8. I've got an automatic cat litter changer

She's called Amber. Aren't daughters just wonderful