Automatic Litterbox Central

After my first attempt at trying the crystal-type litter, which resulted in 2 days of wonderful performance and then a big stinky pool of urine on the bottom of the box the 3rd day (with 3 cats), I came up with this possibly smart idea... I bought a pack of Tidy Cats Breeze pads - they are for the Breeze system (which I tried but my cats hated the pellets), the pad is full of silica gel and soaks up urine like the crystals but in pad form. I put one on the bottom of the litter box and then poured the crystals in. I am trying LItter Pearls brand now which supposedly absorb more than the smaller sand-like crystals I tied first - and they are rounded not sharp for cats' feet. I am hoping that the pad will absorb any urine that hits the bottom of the box, and that I can scoop feces/stir crystals daily and then just throw the whole thing out once a week, pad and crystals. I'll let you know how it goes! We are on day 2.5 and so far no smell.

Update: It didn't work well. My 2 boy cats always urinate right up at the front of the box. So, the Tidy Cat pad may have extended the life of the crystals by a day or 2 but by day 3 there was odor, day 4 I had to throw the whole thing out, the pad was soaked at the front and pristine at the back, yucky stinky mess.

Back to Dr. Elsey's for me!

Re: brilliant idea for crystal litter...

I don't know if you still are on here, but I just joined.

I have an idea, which I am going to try. I also have one cat who will NOT use the pellets in the Breeze box.....I have already modified one of my Breeze boxes with screening to try to get her to use it. I have tried all sorts of plastic, washable substrates in the modified one. I bought some of the Cat Genie pellets and she is using them, due to their likeness to the crystal litters.

However, the cat genie pellets sort of are stinky after several days. I can't be washing them all the time--sort of defeats the purpose.

So I am going to give up on the idea of a washable granule, and just try the pearls or crystals with the modified Breeze box. That way the excess wetness will go BELOW onto the pad and tray.

The "modified" Breeze box consists of a small piece of screening fit OVER the the perforated part of the Breeze (in order to make the holes smaller). I used my electric staple gun in a few places, and then used a silicone glue all the way around the edges of the screen, in order to seal the edges of the screen.

I'll let you know how it works, if you still are around???

Ah, necessity is the mother of invention!

Earlier this year, I tried both of these ideas too. I even experimented with aquarium gravel as a washable litter option (it failed). Finally, I found one system that worked. Lining the litter pan with the urine absorbing pad was key but my cats kept ripping up the flimsy pad with their claws. I added a one inch layer of crystal litter on top of the pad then put a solid plastic grate on top of that then added more crystal litter on top. The sturdy grate keeps the cats from disturbing the soiled litter underneath and keeps their feet clean. The top layer of litter never gets saturated and the odor issue is well controlled too. Now my litter box is lasting one month with two cats!