Automatic Litterbox Central

Hi,

I'm new to this board but have been involved w/ cats, rescue & foster for about 18 years. I currently have 7 cats and one foster. There are sometimes a few more in the house. I currently have a cat door between my house and my attached garage. It is fairly climate controlled in there but the only flow of air is the "cracks" around the garage door and the cat door which leads into my livingroom/foyer.

I am looking for the best thing to control odor. Any help with less cleaning would help as well. The cat door does not have a flap on it as my blind cat will not use it if it does. If I am at all behind in cleaning the boxes, the smell seems to seep in.

I currently have 5 large boxes and use Feline Pine. I have for quite a while now and am fairly happy with it. I have 2 cats that spray so all the boxes are covered. I also use Feliaway in there and several other rooms to prevent spraying outside the box and it really seems to help. I do have one mentally disabled cat who will urinate and poop on rugs in front of the box. I've gotten used to this and just by washable rugs and change them every other day. Everyone else adjusts easily including a recent move to a new home which is the first time any of them had moved.

Between keeping up with the rugs and making sure nothing else gets sprayed and cleaning up if it does and the sweeping of cat food and litter in that room it keeps me busy on top of scooping 2-3x a day.

I would love any suggestions on scoop free/less boxes that can handle 8 or so cats. I feed high quality food so excess stool is not a problem. However I also hate to mess up a good thing if Feline Pine will work better. I HATE the smell of regular cat litter, scented or not, I think it just smells like perfumed poop, which is why I enjoy the Feline Pine.

I was considering the new elite whatever Littermaid, however I had several of these years ago and they broke easy.

thanks again for all your help.

I know that you posted this a while back, but I just joined a few weeks ago. I have seven cats and had three Littermaids. I loved them. I used Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Ultra. Like you, I did not want my cats to smell like perfume. I also feed my babies premium cat food, Wellness and Nature's Variety. Due to health issues, I could not continue to maintain the Littermaids. I would tear them all apart and scrub them down every couple of weeks. The last time I did it, it took me three hours to clean three boxes. I was physically exhausted. So I began the search for something that did not involve lifting litter and scrubbing out boxes. I thought that I wanted to toilet train them, but with seven cats I thought that would be a nightmare. I purchased two cat genies. I used to think that buying the Littermaids was the best decision I ever made. Now I think buying the cat genie's was the best decision I ever made. I've only had them close to a month, so I am not sure how the cost compares to litter, but I think they will end up paying for themselves. But I can tell you that in time and maintance, they are definately worth what I paid for them. I've had a few problems with the hair getting wrapped around the cutter, and the bowl sticking. But I have found out that I just need to check the hopper about once a week and I may have to put some lip balm on the bowl. Much easier than tearing down three littermaids. They have really been a blessing. It is so nice to be able to spend time with my babies instead of struggling to keep up with their litter boxes. I haven't had the cat genie's a month, but I run them on cat activation. I am going to see what my water bill is next month, and then I may switch it to preset. But right now if I can swing the water bill, I am going to leave them on cat activation. The cats just seem so much happier now. And Allie is getting better at using the cat genie and isn't having accidents like before with the littermaid. I hope this helps. I know it is hard to find a lot of info when you have seven cats. I would recommend the cat genies. I think they are doing a great job, and if you run them on cat activation, you can have one unit for four cats.