Automatic Litterbox Central

An evening up-date. Nuba's protest against changing litter boxes continues. It snowed in Southern OR, today. Despite this event being new to Nuba, he actually preferred squatting in the snow to using the LR! I remind myself that he took a couple days to adjust to the Scoopfree as well so I haven't lost hope yet. He did climb up on the step (which turned it off) to watch the LR cycle this afternoon.

SF update:

Box lasts 2 weeks with 1 Siamese (pretty active); could go 3 in a pinch (or long vacation). Liking it much better than LR, for stated reasons. Cost is about $1 a day w/OEM cartridge - about the same as CG; should come down in time; absolutely worth it in convenience. Think I've found the automated litter box solution...

Doc H.

The ScoopFree (SF), much to my surprise, failed the final cat test this weekend. Initially, I bought the SF and gave it a 20-day trial with my cats and stored it away while the cats tried a 20-day trial with the Litter Robot (LR). This weekend the cats could choose to use either the LR or the SF as the auto boxes sat side-by-side in the laundry room...

The first night, as soon as both cats saw the SF, again, they eagerly used it, welcoming it back into their world with poop. I thought it was all over for the LR. But I was wrong. This morning, Nuba who initially pooped in snow, peed in my leather couch, and pooped on my bed rather than get inside the LR, headed for the SF, got in, dug, sniffed, turned to the LR, sniffed it, climbed out of the SF, climbed up the step of the LR, got in, and peed and pooped... while I stood there watching slack jawed! Zen urinated in the SF all day... and maybe the younger cat did at times, too... I thought Zen might stick with the SF but tonight she got into the SF several times, dug, and left... the last time, dug, turned to the LR, sniffed, and climbed out of the SF to enter the LR to poop.

I was amazed... They don't need an electronic box to pee in crystals... They can do that in ANY box. I hauled in their old sterilite box, dumped the crystals in it, and started packing up the ScoopFree. It was getting quite late by this time and the cats came into the laundry room, climbed into their beds -- one on the washer and one on the dryer and watched me in my obsessive state with their litter boxes. They didn't seem too concerned as I removed the SF and they headed off to kitty dreamland. They have selected their auto litter box! I really thought it would go the other way...

DocH wrote:SF update:

Box lasts 2 weeks with 1 Siamese (pretty active); could go 3 in a pinch (or long vacation). Liking it much better than LR, for stated reasons. Cost is about $1 a day w/OEM cartridge - about the same as CG; should come down in time; absolutely worth it in convenience. Think I've found the automated litter box solution...

Doc H.

How do you figure these prices for catgenie? I just got mine and expect to pay about $10 a month for one cat!

Actually, just used figures from one of the CG users on their forum:

scanned over the post here and didn’t see the answer to question 1. If it has been answered, I blame my poor eyesight (:

The CG uses 3.5 gallons per full wash cycle. If you run it 2 times a day that 7 gallons a day that’s 210 a month.
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For me that about $0.25 in water and $0.56 is sewage cost per month. The power it uses seems to be about 4500ish watt/hours per day and that’s about $0.17 for me or $5.14 a month, then $13.34 for the cartage, THEN $12.00 for the Granules (assuming they last 2 months) for a grand total monthly operating cost of:
$31.39
It cost me about $21.50 or so for nature’s best litter a month and you know what, I will not go back. The cost is worth not having to stand over a litter box and scoop poop.
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Zap

May or may not be precisely accurate, but I suspect ballpark correct. SF cartridge prices are retail online.

Doc H.