Covered sifting litter box sized to accommodate a large cat?

[tuxedokitties]

I've been using 18-gallon Sterilite totes for litterboxes to accommodate our biggest cat (who also likes to spray against the back wall of the box). Since reading here about using a sifting litter box with Feline Pine, I'm considering switching back to using Feline Pine and trying it with sifting boxes, which would hopefully solve the sawdust tracking problem. But any box we use would need to be either covered, or high-sided enough to contain sprayed urine.

Have any of you found a covered sifting box that is big enough to comfortably accommodate a large cat? The Van Ness sifting covered box looks a little bit too small for our biggest one to use comfortably.

 

[mschauer]

Do you mean Feline Pine pellets or scoopable?

If you mean pellets, I'm not sure you want to use the sifting litter boxes typically found at pet stores. They aren't meant to be used with FP pellets. The only commercially available sifting box for use with FP pellets that I know of is the standard sized available from the felinepinelitterbox web site. I need oversized boxes and made mine from two storage boxes. You could make an oversized, high sided one if you can find 2 storage boxes that fit together but one is high and the other not high.

If I'm not mistaken, the other sifting boxes are meant to be used with scoopable litter. I've looked at them for possible use with FP pellets and didn't think they would work.

 

[tuxedokitties]

Originally Posted by mschauer

Do you mean Feline Pine pellets or scoopable?

I'm thinking about the pellets. The Feline Pine sifter box wouldn't work with my cats because of the low sides. I was hoping that the other sifting boxes, even thought meant for clay clumping litter, might still work for sifting the sawdust from the pellets - are they set up wrong, or the wrong size? How did you make your sifting box?

Thanks!

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

I'm thinking about the pellets. The Feline Pine sifter box wouldn't work with my cats because of the low sides. I was hoping that the other sifting boxes, even thought meant for clay clumping litter, might still work for sifting the sawdust from the pellets - are they set up wrong, or the wrong size? How did you make your sifting box?

Thanks!

If I remember correctly the reason I thought they wouldn't work with the pellets is that the holes are either too large or too small and also there isn't a large enough gap between the 2 pieces. To work as a sifter for FP you want a gap so that when you shake the box there is room for the sawdust to fall down and collect. Even if you empty the bottom everyday, which defeats the convenience of using the pellets IMO, you need to be able to put a small amount of unused pellets in the bottom cuz without that or some sawdust already there urine can fall through and puddle and stink cuz there isn't anything to absorb it.

Here are the directions for making one that I wrote up for someone else:

I find containers so that when they are put together there is a good gap (~2") between the bottoms to allow room for the sawdust. Be sure to check for this gap before you buy the containers. With some containers the gap is *very* small.

I use a 1/4" drill bit to drill holes in the bottom of one of the containers. The center of the holes should be about 1 1/2" apart. You want the holes to be as large as possible and to have as many as possible but you don't want the holes so big that whole pellets can fall thru and putting the holes too close together can lead to cracks between the holes.

A few tips:

This requires a lot of holes to be drilled. About 800 in my case. I found holding the drill trigger down while drilling that much caused my hand to start to cramp so I taped the trigger in the on position and plugged and unplugged the drill to turn it on and off. Some drills have trigger locks for this purpose.

I found it helpful to mark the location of every hole before I started drilling. This is very tedious but drilling 800 holes is tedious also and I found the drilling easier if all I had to do was start drilling at the next mark rather than having to consider every time where the next hole should be.

If you drill from the bottom of the container when the drill bit punches thru the container you have to pull the bit out before going to the next hole. This is easy for a couple of holes but when drilling 800 it adds significantly to the effort involved. So I drilled from the inside of the container and put a scrap piece of wood underneath. This way the bit stops as soon as it breaks through the plastic.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[tuxedokitties]

That's very helpful, thank you!

 

[mschauer]

Today is one of the days I dump the sawdust out of the bottom so I thought I'd snap a pic or two to illustrate (I'm sure everybody is just dying to see my litter box! Not!

)



This is with the top part removed. You can see the sawdust collected in the bottom:

 

[jack31]

WOW! You have much more devotion than I! You must really be a cat lover. Unfortunately I not quit there...

Leslie

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by Jack31

WOW! You have much more devotion than I! You must really be a cat lover. Unfortunately I not quit there...

Leslie

Actually it's more for me than for them. I find this litter system to be *super* easy to maintain.

 

[katgoddess]

I wish I had the patience to make something like that...I'd probably get really frustrated a quarter way in! But if it works as well as mentioned, maybe I'll get boyfriend to do it for me...lol.

Do you find it hard to scoop poop with FP pellets? I used wood stove pellets at one point and I found it really time-consuming to sift through the heavy pellets with a scoop and try to get all the poops out. It was near impossible to keep it spotless. And additionally, they always seemed to be squished and smushed (sorry for the graphical description!) because 1) he stepped in them and 2) they were being covered in heavy wood pellets.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by MesmerizeK

I wish I had the patience to make something like that...I'd probably get really frustrated a quarter way in! But if it works as well as mentioned, maybe I'll get boyfriend to do it for me...lol.

Do you find it hard to scoop poop with FP pellets? I used wood stove pellets at one point and I found it really time-consuming to sift through the heavy pellets with a scoop and try to get all the poops out. It was near impossible to keep it spotless. And additionally, they always seemed to be squished and smushed (sorry for the graphical description!) because 1) he stepped in them and 2) they were being covered in heavy wood pellets.

No, poop scooping is simple. You shake the box and the sawdust sifts to the bottom and the poop "floats" to the top. I've never used the stove pellets but I've gotten the impression that they are larger than the FP pellets. That might make a difference. One of the things I like about using FP is how easy it is to keep the box spotless.

BTW - It makes me about 45 mins to make one of the boxes.

 

[katgoddess]

Thank you

I'll add this onto the list of "projects" to be done. Do you also use the FP scooper or just a regular one?

 

[tuxedokitties]

Those pictures are helpful, thanks! I think it will be well worth the initial labor to cut down on the sawdust tracking & waste of good litter.

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by MesmerizeK

Thank you

I'll add this onto the list of "projects" to be done. Do you also use the FP scooper or just a regular one?

I use a regular one. The FP one would probably be better but I don't find it difficult to pick up just the poop with a regular scoop. If I get a few pellets also it's no big deal.

 

[jennyb]

Do you recall what brand name of container this was????

 

[GoldyCat]

Do you recall what brand name of container this was????

Welcome to TCS, jennyb. This thread is 5 years old, so the original posters are not likely to still be following it. The pictures look like the Sterlite containers that I use, but there are other brands with similar styles. Your best bet would be to go to a store and look at what they have.

 

[Pineconekitty]

I currently use and love the Breeze pellet and pad system. But, one of my cats stopped pooping in the box. After we got her checked out medically, the vet recommended using a bigger box. Breeze does not make a bigger box. So, I’d like to make my own using the Sterlite containers. Does anyone have photos of how they made one? I can’t seem to see any photos, but may not know how to access them since I am new to this site. Thanks for any advice you have!

 

[mschauer]

Don't know why my photo isn't shown any more. Here it is again.

DSC_0028.jpg

• mschauer
• Aug 2, 2013

 

[Pineconekitty]

Thank you so very much! I’m hoping this is the answer.