Does anyone have any experience with self-cleaning cat litter boxes? I’m curious if any particular model of self-cleaning litter box is any good. We now have 4 cats and it would be nice to not have to clean litter boxes manually 1-2 times every day.
Do they separate pee/poop from litter well? Are cats afraid to use them? Do they stink more than regular litter boxes because pee/poop are in them for longer periods? Are they a hassle to clean? Do you have to buy propietary supplies (custom litter? special trays?)?
Thanks for your input.
I have a Litter Robot (that’s the actual brand name) and it’s worth the money. Completely eliminates smell other than right when they do the deed. Incredibly easy and clean to empty, but that’s all besides the point. They ha e the BEST customer service ever. I’ve had parts replaced for free, experts on the phone guide me step by step on how to fix it if it malfunctions, and once they even replaced the entire dome for free (plus shipping). I’ve had this for several years and it’s amazing. Truly.
I’ve had other automatic litter boxes too but none of them have been as durable, clean smelling, or easy to use as this. Plus I get phone notifications when it’s full and it won’t cycle anymore so I can change it.
My cats took a week to get used to it but now they love it. They offer their own litter but you can buy your own as well. There are certain restrictions on litter type though, check that out before you buy litter.
It separates the waste well, and there is hardly any wasted clean litter in the waste bag when I take it out.
And it actually stinks LESS than a regular box because of how it stores the waste and the fact that it seals it away a few minutes after cats go, using a weight sensor to tell when a cat has left the box.
Edit: reading this sounds like an advertisement, but I swear I’m just a dude who loves my litter box a whole lot.
I have one arriving today. Fingers crossed that my scaredy cat will be able to make the change.
My friends bought me a litter robot, too. I have mixed feelings. I seem to have to reset and fiddle with the thing too often, but when it works, it’s really good for keeping the smell down. My guys use it more often than the other two old school boxes, so I guess two paws up from them?
Have you broken it down to clean? Issues in mine usually mean there’s dust build up under the bowl, particularly the pinch sensor. If I get that sorted every few months then it goes back to fine.
I have not, and I will check! If that’s all it is… It’s been finicky for years!
Sounds like it needs a cleaning. Also update the firmware just in case. Customer service can help if you need help figuring out how to clean it or if a motor goes bad or something. They’ve replaced motors and stuff for me a few times for free. When one of the sensors broke or was damaged, it was finicky for me too. Sometimes worked sometimes didn’t. Replacing it fixed it instantly. Though the same happens if a sensor needs to be cleaned.
This sounded fantastic until I looked it up and it’s A THOUSAND DOLLARS???
I love my cat and I hate scooping litter, but definitely not a grand worth of either…
What dollars is that?
Mine was £350 which is under $500 US, just looked at the site and the brand new model is $699.
Ah, that’s $999 Canadian. Right now our exchange against the US$ is brutal.
How’d you get your cat to try it? We’re struggling to get ours to even look at it, any pointers would be appreciated!
I put the old litter box next to the litter robot and let the old litter box get super gross and didn’t scoop it at all for over a week. Once it got gross they opted for the clean litter robot. I then removed the old litter box and now they just use the robot.
This is exactly what we did with our cat and it worked like a charm. We tried leaving a path of treats into it before that, but she just ate the treats and then walked away. We didn’t want to just shove her in there because we were afraid she would associate the trauma with the Litter Robot.
This is going to sound like hyperbole, but this thing changed my life and I always love it when I get a chance to share it with somebody. It requires no electricity, it has no moving parts and in the 11 years I’ve been using one, it’s never broken. I give you: Omega Paw.
It requires clumping cat litter, so if you use that you’re golden. When it’s time to clean, you roll it - and as you roll, the loose litter flows through a grate, but the clumps and waste stay on top of the grate. As you continue to roll it, the waste falls to the ceiling. When you roll it back, the waste all falls into the drawer, which you pull out and dump. Cleaning the litter box takes literally 10 seconds. It’s awesome.
I had one when my cats were kittens, unfortunately one of my cats is freakishly large and can’t turn around in most lidded litter boxes so I had to replace it but it was very convenient. It’s easy to use and the monthly clean out is about the same as any other manual litter box.
Did you have the large one? I have a 17lb long-haired Maine Coon and he has no issues with it, but I do have the large one.
It was the large option at the time but it is not as large as the one in your link. Mine is also all grey. I got 2 cats from my local animal shelter, they were about 2 and 3 months old at the time and the younger one was a little bigger than the older which should have been a warning sign. They are both American shorthairs. My older cat is white with a calico saddle and is only a little bigger than average, she is 14 lbs. My younger cat is almost solid black with 2 little white toes on one of his back feet. He is 22 lbs, over a foot tall, and from his nose to the end of his tail he is 39inches. He can stand on his back feet and get stuff off the kitchen counter.
So, am I missing something? Is my cat just really good at how she uses the litter? Most of the time it takes me 2 seconds to bag my hand to grab a poop, and every other day I’ll also clear out the few clumps of pee she always leaves in the same spot (knock tray back a bit, clumps stay behind, again just grab with bagged hand then spread the litter back). No need for all this extra manual labour and tumbling of poops, it just seems like a lot more work than it has to be? Not having a go, genuinely curious…
Edit: I do realise more cats mean more work and I appreciate it might help then, but still, it seems like making more work for yourself…
do you use clumping litter? not everyone does, which can make it messy if you leave it for them to kick up the next time they go. Not to mention the smell… if you’re really leaving your cat’s pee go for days at a time you might be nose blind to the smell it makes.
Honestly I don’t see why anyone would use litter that isn’t clumping, but obviously my habits are different to others, so what do I know… As for the smell, the pee seeps to the bottom and clumps there, where it’s buried under the rest of the litter which keeps the smell trapped. When I shift the litter every other day (so not “days at a time”), yeah, it smells, it’s cat piss, so no smell blindness here, just a system that works for us… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I hate an open catbox. I also don’t want to directly pick it up, bag or not. So I had to unclip the top and use a scoop, and I had three cats so I did it every day and I just effing hated it.
I thought it was pretty cool.
We stopped using it because one cat was sick and suffered from diarrhea from cancer. And the clump litter couldnt clump enough, leading to diarrhea wetness when we rolled. That lead to diarrhea on the top part. And the other cats were not happy.
Had to switch to open air litter boxes to meet all their fickle demands. But it was great while it lasted.
Bought a litter robot 4, wouldn’t do it again for the price. It’s a pain to clean and the cats are always peeing/pooping on the sides. It constantly stopped it cleaning cycle, and ended up growing a ton of bugs inside because the design had some cat poop inside the machine where I couldn’t get to it. I had to dismantle the entire thing taking out every screw to clean it. It’s currently sitting in my basement. I left a similar review on their website and they decided not to post it, I guess they don’t like unfavorable reviews.
I had a Cat Genie for years and loved it. Like others, they’re a bit of a pain to take apart and clean when you need to.
It also had a draw back of sometimes missing a small piece, washing it, then blowing hot air on it to stink up the whole place.
But overall I was happy with it. The only reason I don’t have one now is my living situation changed and I don’t have room for it (requires water hookup and a drain).
Yes what I mentioned may sound annoying but consider this: we had ours hooked up to a laundry drain and had to do no scooping. Ever. We didn’t even have to flush the toilet. Every once in a while we’d plug in a special cartridge to do a self clean cycle, and once a year we’d take it apart to clean the internal section (but honestly it didn’t need this except once due to hard water buildup).
You don’t have to do anything and it always had washed and clean litter. Every once in a while it got a little stinky but what litterbox doesn’t?!
Seriously, highly recommend.
3 cats, two little robots. They’re a hassle to get calibrated right but once you do get them set up they are great. I would buy them again, can’t imagine going back to scooping every day.
I also agree, we’ve had one for years and even if it breaks they are easy to repair.
