# Does anyone use self cleaning cat boxes?



## CurlyQRexluver (Sep 6, 2012)

Just wondering if they work well and are worth the money. MY husband and I always fight over cat box duty and our house is only big enough for one cat box so with 2 cats it has to be cleaned regularly or its stinnnnnnnnky and we both hate doing it. I was looking into the self cleaning ones that rake it out but I wasn't sure if itd be a waste of money or not.


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## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

I use World's Best Cat Litter Multiple Cat. It's a clumping litter and it works well. I like it.

I have read about the ScoopFree. They have mixed reviews and use silica crystals. I've never been too fond of those.

Another thing you might try is the Tidy Cats Breeze system. I've been thinking about trying it once I run out of WBCL. There is a $7 coupon too. See here: BREEZE® Cat Litter System | Odor Control Made Easy


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## Penguin_Dreams (Sep 28, 2012)

I second World's Best! It's biodegradable and flush-able so if you stick it right next to the toilet, you can clean up your cat's stuff every time you... y'know... do your thing. 

Honestly, if I had someone to split chores with, I'd trade litterbox duty for hairball patrol any day. It's that easy.


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## CurlyQRexluver (Sep 6, 2012)

Penguin_Dreams said:


> I second World's Best! It's biodegradable and flush-able so if you stick it right next to the toilet, you can clean up your cat's stuff every time you... y'know... do your thing.
> 
> Honestly, if I had someone to split chores with, I'd trade litterbox duty for hairball patrol any day. It's that easy.



this is a great idea, my husband wants to know if steam from a hot shower would make it clump up? because our bathroom is small, is it expensive and where can I buy it?


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## Penguin_Dreams (Sep 28, 2012)

I've never had it clump up even in the middle of a Southern summer with no ventilation and the hot water flowing. (Which, by the way, was pretty miserable.) 

It's not the cheapest stuff on the market but I don't really know how much it is. I want to say the medium sized bag (14 lbs) is somewhere between $15-20, but I won't swear to that. I've got two cats and it lasts over a month. You can buy it at any major pet store like PetSmart and I'd be willing to bet most boutique pet stores would carry it as well.


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## rightsaidfed (May 31, 2012)

CurlyQRexluver said:


> this is a great idea, my husband wants to know if steam from a hot shower would make it clump up? because our bathroom is small, is it expensive and where can I buy it?



I'd be surprised if a steamy bathroom made it clump. World's Best has a rebate for a free bag on their website so it's certainly worth a try. It's not my preferred litter, but I buy it frequently because of coupons. Coupons.com often has $5 off any size bag. the 7-8lb bag is usually about $8 on sale at my grocery store. I believe Target just started carrying world's best as well, but this might only be in certain areas. Coupled with the online coupons, I frequently pick it up for about $3 per bag.

I don't use an automatic litter box, but I use the Omega Paw Roll and Clean box. Some are squeamish about it because the waste does technically roll around the inside of the box, but I've never found it to be any dirtier or smellier than any other litter box, and it works exactly as advertised. If you search on youtube, there are some great videos on how it works


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## Penguin_Dreams (Sep 28, 2012)

rightsaidfed - just curious... what don't you like about it and what would you get if coupons weren't a factor?


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## scottd (Jun 28, 2011)

I paid full price for World's Best until I found coupons for it.

I really don't have any complaints about it. It works very well and it's not harmful to cats and humans. It is also environment friendly!


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## rightsaidfed (May 31, 2012)

Penguin_Dreams said:


> rightsaidfed - just curious... what don't you like about it and what would you get if coupons weren't a factor?


i don't think it clumps as well as what I normally use, and the brand I use is normally cheaper. Others don't feel this way though so I'd really encourage you to try it.

I normally use Dr. Elsey regular clumping clay litter in the blue bag. I buy a 40-lb bag for $16 and mix in the world's best that I get with coupons as "filler" This combination clumps well and is inexpensive. Dr. Elsey is as dust-free as you can get in a clay litter, clumps hard as a rock, and is cheap.

WB is very highly recommended. Even though coupons for World's Best are fairly regular, it was the price that initially put me off. My big fear was not being able to get coupons for it someday and my cat being so used to it that it was either pay the full amount or pee on the floor. Granted I doubt this would happen as my kitten has proven to be very flexible with both litter and food and I'm financially stable enough that a few dollars on litter wouldn't kill me, but I'm always planning for the worst! It's not a bad litter. I liked the Dr. Elsey's slightly more and Elsey was quite a bit cheaper so that sealed the deal for me.


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## Penguin_Dreams (Sep 28, 2012)

rightsaidfed said:


> I normally use Dr. Elsey regular clumping clay litter in the blue bag. I buy a 40-lb bag for $16 and mix in the world's best that I get with coupons as "filler" This combination clumps well and is inexpensive. Dr. Elsey is as dust-free as you can get in a clay litter, clumps hard as a rock, and is cheap.


I've never seen a coupon for WB so I'm always paying full price. If there's something cheaper and better I'll definitely check that out... as long as it flushes. Can you flush it? That's kind of my make or break point.


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## rightsaidfed (May 31, 2012)

Penguin_Dreams said:


> I've never seen a coupon for WB so I'm always paying full price. If there's something cheaper and better I'll definitely check that out... as long as it flushes. Can you flush it? That's kind of my make or break point.


No it's definitely not flushable. It sounds like World's Best is a good choice for you then. Their website has a mail-in rebate for a free bag. You can sign up on their site to get coupons (I haven't gotten many through them directly). Coupons.com was posting $5 off coupons all the time for a while. They "renew their stock" of coupons every month. Sometimes there are limited prints.

Hopefully you can score some of those coupons. They make an otherwise expensive litter downright cheap!


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## Penguin_Dreams (Sep 28, 2012)

rightsaidfed said:


> No it's definitely not flushable. It sounds like World's Best is a good choice for you then. Their website has a mail-in rebate for a free bag. You can sign up on their site to get coupons (I haven't gotten many through them directly). Coupons.com was posting $5 off coupons all the time for a while. They "renew their stock" of coupons every month. Sometimes there are limited prints.
> 
> Hopefully you can score some of those coupons. They make an otherwise expensive litter downright cheap!


My wallet and I thank you very much!


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## carbonxxkidd (Oct 19, 2012)

I clean my litter boxes twice a day and use Dr. Elsey's cat litter. If you didn't know I had cats, you wouldn't know just by walking in my house! I hate being able to smell the cat box! My cats are also on a pretty high quality, grain-free food (Nature's Variety Instinct, Wellness and some raw) so that might be why I never smell it...


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## builder (Sep 2, 2012)

I find this interesting because I would like to have one myself, but had some bad experiences with two separate brands. 

I don’t remember the brand name because my son actually bought them for us while we were taking care of his cats for a while. The 1st one was defective and we received a coupon from the manufacture to purchase another. Then it failed as well by jamming up, so we got another brand and it wasn’t any better. I just gave up on them completely. 

At the time there were 5 cats using it and one cat was a monster which might have had something to do with it. I don’t know what kind of cat it was, but it was as big as a small pit bull. I just never got used to the size of him and he would fill the litter box up. I don’t know what it was eating, but I was always taking a headcount of the other animals, because I don’t think we were feeding it that much. :-?

Anyway I need to call him and ask if he remembers the name of the litter box.


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## CurlyQRexluver (Sep 6, 2012)

rightsaidfed said:


> I don't use an automatic litter box, but I use the Omega Paw Roll and Clean box. s


I bought it and its amazing! cant belive I ever owned any other type of box! I love it!


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## rightsaidfed (May 31, 2012)

CurlyQRexluver said:


> I bought it and its amazing! cant belive I ever owned any other type of box! I love it!


glad you like it! I'm cat-sitting for a friend, and whenever I go to his house to scoop the box, I'm grateful for my roly poly litter box 

Like I said earlier, some complain about the idea of waste rolling around inside, but I've been hyper-vigilant about it and haven't noticed anything sticking or the box getting especially dirty. I've been totally cleaning it out about once every 4-6 weeks. With only one cat, it doesn't seem to need it any more often.


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## Austincreek (Oct 26, 2012)

I recently tried Omega Paw litter box large. Curious to find out which one my cats prefer (Omega or the regular pan), I made both available side by side.

To my surprise, both cats almost exclusively use the Omega right away. Two days after that, I retired my old litter pan because the cats practically stopped using them. They prefer the covered box!!! Note that the old litter pan is also large in size and we clean it every day.

I wonder if this is because we have two cats and they like the covered box for the privacy and the safe feeling (the other cat cannot sneak in and disturb, which sometimes happen with the old litter pan).

Anyone else with similar experience?


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## bkitty (Aug 17, 2009)

Had 2 LitterMaids until they wore out. For 1 or 2 cats they are great. I also reused the litter containers by just dumping them daily. LitterMaid reliability is iffy. I went thru several. 1 always worked great, the next one only lasted a month before the motor froze up. Next one lasted 6 mo, one after that made it 4 years. But I had 6 cats & they used it a LOT


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## 008cats (Mar 25, 2012)

I have many cats and boxes. Use the money for the best litter which will lower the smell and last longer. Use the right depth of litter. Make it easy to scoop; keep a bucket with multiple bags (if not flushing) with a dedicated cat spatula for scraping (if necessary) and scooper nearby. I have an elevated surface nearby which makes it much faster/effective than bending over, plus you can do a quick but thorough sweep if needed. Have spare scraper/scooper so one is always clean and dry if you need a backup. If you do this right, it is very little work (I have 9 boxes throughout my house) and very little smell. Oh and BTW, if you fight over one litter box, don't have kids! ;-)


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## NutroMike (Oct 24, 2012)

I used the deluxe Litter Maid for about a year. It was supposed to be good for multi cat households. I found that 4 cats was too much for it and went back to my regular covered boxes. The auto cleaning box became a far greater task to keep clean than the regular boxes. I have 5 litter boxes in the house and scoop daily, replenishing litter as needed. Once a week they all get a complete cleaning and I've had no issues or odor. I think the automatic boxes would be terrific for one or 2 cats but it was not the wisest choice for 4 cats.


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## Arkona (May 7, 2012)

My cat's stool doesn't stink since we feed raw, so we don't have that problem. 

Even if that was the case though, I still wouldn't use a self-cleaning litterbox. How are you supposed to know if there's something wrong with your cat? Often times the first (and sometimes only) symptom shows up in the stool or pee. Your cat could be having diahrrea or blood in its stool or pee for months before you realize there's a problem.

I've also heard that self-cleaning litterboxes are not very hygenic, but the above point alone is enough for me to stay away from them. 

Maybe you should set up a system with your husband, where the first person to get home or the last person to leave for work has to be the one to clean the litterbox. OR have one person do it on even dates and the other person do it on odd dates, or something.


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## aniela (Jun 27, 2011)

I had a self cleaning litterbox (LitterMaid). I saved the receipt and I'm glad I did. 8 months of use and it died...in a one cat household. I ended up requesting my money back from the manufacturer.

But it wasn't just that it died. I hated the thing from the start. The thing would always error halfway through cleaning the box and whatnot. It was also more work to keep the thing clean. Poo and urine-caked litter would stick to the bottom of the pan because the litter isn't designed deep enough and poo would stick to the rake.

I think my home is fresher smelling now that I manually clean...

I should say I blame Oz for destroying the LitterMaid in a way. He would do his business, get out of the box and wait. When the cleaning cycle started he would put his front paws on top of the waste receptacle's lid and wait for the motor to raise and lower the lid. I don't know... kitty roller coaster?


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