Litter-robot And Other Automatic Litter Boxes

[TobiDaDog]

Do any of you guys use a litter robot or anything else? I was thinking about getting one, but also a bit on the fence considering that the cats get an urge to dig to china once in a while. I don't think the function would work very well if the litter is just stuck to the sides, but I don't know how they work?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
I used to have a litter robot, and with my kitty then there didn't seem to be issues of litter sticking to the sides because the plastic material was extremely smooth.
The only other thing might be if the rake starts to move before the cat is done, but I seem to remember the timing is set to wait for however many minutes after it's been used by a cat.

 

[daftcat75]

My old gal decided that she no longer wanted to turn around to pee. She would walk right in and just start peeing. That meant the clump would be at the front of the box where the rake seems to be weakest (accumulated drag?). Most of the time it would try several times before giving up. Then I would have to manually clear the box and reset it. I eventually just turned it off. Krista’s bathroom habits are pretty tightly coupled with her eating. So I just figure the feeding shift doesn’t end until she’s used the bathroom or decided she doesn’t need to this time.

 

[tweetkit]

I got one when I adopted my two kittens and since they’re under 5 pounds I do the manual cycle where I plug it in only when I want to clean it. I haven’t had the issue of the litter sticking to the sides but wastes do stick to the rubber liner. This isn’t really a problem though because when the globe turns it also flips the liner down to reach those wastes. For me, it has definitely been a timesaver. Absolutely love it and customer service is superb. My babies had giardia and I reached out to customer support on how to clean it. Well... they sent me a whole new globe so I can be hundred percent sure the kittens won’t be exposed to the bacteria again. I was blown away by their service and plan on purchasing another one.

 

[Pepsi216]

The litter robot is probably the best cat-related purchase I've made. We've had ours for almost 3 years now and it's saved us so much time and eliminated my least favorite chore. When we bought it, we had a cat who was going blind and the sound of the motor freaked him out, so we'd run it manually when he wasn't around. After he passed, we let it run automatically as intended and Logan doesn't mind at all. We adopted Saxon a month ago, and despite his age (14 years young) he took right to it even though there's an old school litter box for him to use too. I'm planning to buy a second one to put upstairs so Saxon doesn't have to go as far with his arthritis.

It's had the occasional hiccup, but nothing that we haven't been able to troubleshoot. No issues with litter sticking, and the depth has been enough to satisfy our cats. Probably the biggest tip I can give is to periodically clean off the drawer full sensor-glass inside the drawer. The best way to get to it is to take the globe off and it's the glass on either side of the hole. This gets gunked up after awhile and if the sensor can't penetrate the glass then the box may not cycle after being used. Other than that, any glitch we've had has been solved by pulling the power and plugging it back in.

I have a $25 off referral code that a friend gave me recently if you're interested, just send me a PM (mods please delete if not allowed).

 

[kittyluv387]

I really like the robot. Its not literally hands free but the little bit of cleaning I do is a lot easier. The litter does get stuck on the bottom if they pee a lot. Most things are made for dehydrated cats on dry food.

 

[HPeters]

I would not recommend them for the following reasons:
1 the sound/action can scare the cat resulting in litterbox avoidance
2 you will likely end up having to clean it manually at some point anyway
3 you can miss signs of health issues by not looking at the urine and feces