Automatic Litterbox Central

We just added a new kitten to our household, so it's time for an auto litter. Will I get 15 days with 2 cats in the ScoopFree? Any word on whether they will reduce the price of the cartridges.

Which one should I get?

I have 2 cats and just started using a Littermaid with Fresh Steps Crystal litter in it. So far, this has been working out ok.

I wouldn't count on them lowering the cost of the cartridges. I don't see it happening. That's why I'm using this solution instead.

I've given it a lot of thought over the holiday and I'm leaning towards the Litter Robot. I like the no muss, no fuss solution of ScoopFree... but it's cost prohibitive for 2 cats. It says 20-30 days. If I stretch to 30 days, that's basically $30 a month. Over a year, that's $360. Add $150 or so for the unit with hood. Roughly $500 for this year and $360 each and every year. I make a decent living, but that's crazy.

Okay, call me crazy... I just bought the ScoopFree. There were a few things over at the LR forum that didn't sit right with me:
1. Kick out of litter
2. Having to remove waste very 3-5 days
3. Breakdowns
4. Orb getting remains on it

The ScoopFree will be pricey, but seems to be cleanest and cat friendly (bigger area for my cats). Plus, if I go away on vacation, I can leave the litter. I have friends feed my guys, but I don't want to ask them to have remove litter - refill, etc. Put a fresh catridge in and I'm set.

I was going to get it from Costco, but shipping/tax put me at $286 with the 3 refills. I found a site that put me at $200 shipped. It will probably be a week to 10 days (I'm on the east coast and ordered on west coast), but this will give me a chance to use some of my litter. I have a huge bag of FreshStep, a large container of Tidy Cats and another from Petco.

Looking forward to ScoopFree and becoming ScoopFree - so are my cats!

Thanks to all on the forums. This place is very helpful.

-Chris

We've owned the Litter Robot for 6 months, have 2 cats.

It is much better than having to use a regular litter box. If you are thinking about getting one I would suggest trying to find out if your cats will use a litter box that is enclosed or with a hood, as a lot of cats don't like those. There's a good website with a lot of good tips on litter boxes at:
http://www.catsinternational.org/articl ... box_1.html

In part one, about 6 paragraphs down, the article explains how a lot of cats feel about hooded or enclosed litter boxes. The whole article is actually very informative.

We are in the process of getting rid of our LR right now as we have been unable to get our cats to use it consistently, and one of them intermittently pees all over the house, usually on anything he can find that resembles a litter box. They just don't like going into the globe. We tried all the suggestions, the Feliway, Cat Attract, everything and we are tired of living with it; and I also feel this has to be stressful for our cats too, which isn't good either.

The company is very nice. They have great customer service and it is a very good product, but it didn't work for us. There are a lot of people it works for though.

We've gone back to a regular litter box for now and are looking into the ScoopFree.

I have been using the ScoopFree and very happy with it. It's a stretch to make 2 weeks with 2 cats. While it's not the least expensive option, it's definitely the easiest method of auto litter (in my opinion). My cats have been great with it until this past weekend, when it went 2 days past 2 weeks. While we were away for the weekend, our kitten used a garbage can and a hamper. Not sure if was because the ScoopFree was getting backed up or just her getting back at us for leaving for the weekend. We of course had friends look in our cats, but they weren't on litter duty. I'm ordering more this week and will change out every 12th day or so.

If you don't mind the cost, you'll love ScoopFree.

We are probably going to get a Scoopfree. Right now we are letting the cats use a regular litter box for awhile (to help them forget the LR). I'm going to gradually get them used to the crystals before I buy it. I'm going to try making a cartridge per Abbeytoo's post and use the refillable cartridge with coroplast idea from same in the meantime and use generic crystals to cut costs.

I really hope this works.

tekwho1,

You seem to be echoing my experience! I had a LR for 9 months. For a while the cats used it fine, but then one started peeing all over the house. I was VERY sure it was strictly because he didnt like the robot combined with construction noise going on.

We confined him for a while with a regular litter pan to get him back on track. Eventually someone convinced me to have his urine checked. Sure enough, he had blood in his urine (we have light carpet though and it was undetectable there!). Anyway, we had to change him to a low PH diet and now he is better. Here is the catch though---he would not go back to the robot. Bad associations with pain I guess, but we could not get him to go back to it, even when he was in confinement!

We sold our robot on Craigslist.com. They seem to be selling pretty well on ebay too, but then you have to deal with shipping it (I would have done it in two boxes if it came to that). The lady who bought ours has 8 cats and thought hers would have no problem getting used to it. Everybody ended up happy.

I am just now introducing our new SF to my cats. I did just as you plan--started adding crystals to the regular litter to see how they react. After several days I set out the new SF for them. One of them bypassed the old pan and went right in it! The one who had the previous problems is taking his time getting used to it. I could tell he thought the sound and texture under his feet was new to him. He still uses both the old pan and the SF. He does not seem to be afraid of it, but I will give him plenty of time before removing the old pan as an option for him. I think it is going to work out splendidly though.

For those who have cats that are adaptable, I think the LR is a great machine. Unfortunately, like you, one of ours was not, so all bets were off. If you do get a chance though, you might have a urinalysis done on your cat. I was so sure his problem was attitude, but he is obviously feeling MUCH better now! He jumps higher and doesnt object to being picked up and held. I had no idea he was in pain, but its clear now....


Anyway, I wish you the best of luck in your transition!

That thought had crossed my mind too; but because the problem started when we got the LR, didn't happen before that, there was a period of about a month or so he went back to a litter box again and he did fine and the places he chose to pee outside the LR were boxes, round containers or rectangular shaped rugs, etc. (he used a corner of the living room carpet when we stopped leaving these items around); I assumed it was probably feeling uncomfortable about the globe. He would use it okay for awhile and then stop and then go back to it again for awhile; but when he did he wouldn't go in all the way (that caused urine in the drawer) and we noticed both our cats would go in, do their business, and then shoot out of the globe like a bullet and run away, almost like they were frightened, but it is hard to tell what is really going on with them.

We have removed the LR now and have a regular litter box again. The first day we removed it he had one episode, but since then has been using the box consistently; but we are keeping an eye on him and if he continues to go outside the box then I will definitely have him checked out at the vet. He hasn't exhibited any signs of being ill at all, or any symptoms you mentioned, and he is running, jumping and climbing, but I will still keep it in mind.

Thanks for the advice. Hope things work out for you too!

I have two kittens and they fill the sccop free in under a week. My house is very small and so I am extremely conscious about the smell... I try to go and entire 7 days before changing the crystals but I haven't been able to make it that long yet.

as i posted on the LR forum, the litter robot was my cat's least favorite and he tried, but never adapted to it. Neither did i -- very smelly (urine seeped inside the drum), disfunctional, did not do nearly as good of a job as the littermaid in cleaning waste and an eye sore in the house (unless you have a spare room to hide the thing in).

the ScoopFree, on the other hand, after going some 3+ months is near miraculous and, by far, my favorite auto box. i still can't believe that i don't have to do anything for 30 days at a time (i only have one cat). the cartridges are not cheap, but, hey, i don't friggin' do a thing for an entire month! I have been changing it only on the first day of each month. In between, I have not done a dang thing whatsover to maintain it! There is no maintanance needed that i can detect.

so, this is like the argument whether you should iron everyday or take your shirts to the cleaners; whether you wash your kid's diapers or buy Pampers -- i am definitely the latter type in each case, and think the convenience far outweighs the costs, especially with my insane schedule. and Todd loves it (it is always clean and always functional) and he adapted to it in nanoseconds. the scooping mechanism in ScoopFree is the only automatic i have used that totally gets rid of even the smallest waste every time (no traces, no remnants, and no smell) and makes changing it a breeze (maybe takes 2 minutes a month and without the remotest hassle!)
i truly am a believer in scoopfree.

But my cat goes like about a pound of poop and day (that's really an exageration); but he really goes a LOT. Do you think the Scoopfree would be able to handle that.

It's been a few months and my views on the ScoopFree have changed. It lasts at most 1.5 weeks. After that time, it gets real funky which defeats the whole purpose. It's just too expensive and I'm left to consider other options. I've invested quite a bit in consumables and refuse to keep doing it. I think I may try the Litter Robot 2. Seems as if they've improved on what is a pretty popular product. I hope my cats take to it. We'll see. I'd come back to the SF if they release a reusable/washable cartridge.

Good to luck to everyone.

I have been using the SF for almost a month now. The crystals needed to be changed after 2-3 weeks and I empty the waste out every 1-2 weeks. I have two kittens who always have a lot of waste as well as urine. I lined the bottom of my cartridge with linoleum. I have had no problems so far. I know alot of people were talking about coroplast but for me it was easier to go to Home Depot and get a remnant for like 4 bucks. The crystals themselves are the most expensive part so far. I have had no problems with the kittens using, they just like to attack it every once in awhile. But that is a kitten. I did purchase 4 refills so that I would have backup if need be. But I haven't opened any of them so far.

After much debate, I've decided to keep using the SF for now. I found a good deal on a 6-pack of cartridges and order (2) sets to get free shipping. That leaves me with 12 cartridges and during this time I hope to build my own. In the end, I wasn't sure the LitterRobot was right for me. Too many complaints about stink and I like using the crystals.