Automatic Litterbox Central

Hi All,
My wife and I just got a Littermaid LM900 this weekend. The 1st unit had a problem with the sensors not working, but the 2nd unit seems to work fine. But I have a problem. It is the litter. I bought a bucket of the Tidycat Red Top. I thought that would have been a good clumping litter. (Well it does smell good.) Actually the litter worked fine the 1st day, but that night the LM woke me up continueally cycling. The rake had clogged up with mushy litter. Ok I thought just a freak mishap. I cleaned the rake and added some extra litter.(I'm now little over half way between the 2 red marker lines.)

Well I am here tonight, writting because the rake stopped up again. It woke me again cycling. Rake was again stopped up with soft gooe. Now this is making me believe that the litter is not doing what it supposed to with the LM. This begs the question; What is the best cat litter, in order of likes and performance? I know it is said that WBCL is actually the best, but I can't get it locally. I would prefer something I could go in a store and buy.

Also on a side note. I wonder because of my problem above; If I could add some corn starch on top of the litter I already have in hopes of making it clump better?

Thanks,
Mike

When I was using the Littermaid, the Arm & Hammer clumping litter worked very well in the unit, at least for me.

Hi,
Well I had to completely clean the unit today. It was that bad. The rake was 3/4 stopped up.(Only on the 3td day with 2 cats.) I called the LM people and asked them for recommendations also. They also said A&H Super Scoop was one they recommended. They also said to spray the rake with Pam too help stop the clogging on it. So far everything seems really good. Much bigger clumps to.

BTW where is everybody here? Seems awlfully slow.............

I got an idea about the rake from all this to. To help keep the rake tines clean one could build a cleaning bar, notching it for every tine, and fitting it securely in the box so when and as the rake returned to the park position, its' tines would back into the slots pushing any debris back into the box. I may look further into this if my rake keeps getting clogged.

Everyone seems to have their own idea on saving the waste containers by lining them. I have tried another idea that works very well also. Get a large produce baggie from your grocery store. The ones you put your loose produce in, that you get off a roll the store puts out. Just slide your waste container in that baggie and when full, remove and pull the baggie back off, inside out over the litter. Works well as long as you don't bust the baggie.

Cheers,
Mike

My favorite clay-based clumping litter is, hands down, Pet Gold Plus. I'm pretty sure it's only available at Petco. It comes in 30-lb plastic buckets that cost around $10 on sale, and refills (bring your bucket back to the store) are $10.

jeff wrote:My favorite clay-based clumping litter is, hands down, Pet Gold Plus. I'm pretty sure it's only available at Petco. It comes in 30-lb plastic buckets that cost around $10 on sale, and refills (bring your bucket back to the store) are $10.

Hi Jeff,
I had read some about that one, but unfortunantly there is no Petco within a hundred miles of me.

My A&H SS seems to be doing pretty good on its' 2nd day, but I still have a little problem with the urine making sticky balls that wanna stick to the rake a little.

Cheers,
Mike

You might want to try spraying the rake with some of the Pam stuff used for lubricating cooking pans. Seriously.

shfwilf wrote:You might want to try spraying the rake with some of the Pam stuff used for lubricating cooking pans. Seriously.

Done Did!

Read my 2nd post.

Thanks though.

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Sorry, I missed that part! I think your idea about a cleaning device is very interesting - I used to use a wire brush on the rake in my Litter Maid - not all that easy, but it did the job without having to remove the rake, which is a major hassle.

I know that we have a whole section dedicated to litter. I've responded on several but still to this day and after having 4 littermaids for about the past 5 years I have still yet to find a litter that works well. I've tried everything listed on this board except WBCL. My cats are super finicky (sp). The litters either don't clump AT ALL and remain sticky and gross therfore leaving a crumbling path along the rakes path and then stuck to the pan right before the lip of the container or clump SO hard that the rake won't go through! I actually really liked the Arm and Hammer new litter because it seems as though it just fell off the rake and didn't stick. Cats liked it but then decided they didn't and started going on the floor. I don't know...I guess i'll keep rotating until I find something thatI don't have to re-scoop!