Automatic Litterbox Central

Greetings Everyone!

I'm new to this board, but have been reading posts on and off again for quite some time! I'm the mom to two female domestic short hairs - Hunter and Midnight (they are sisters) and I'm here to get some advice from you.

Let me give you a little litter background on my cats. Midnight, she'll use any form litter box you give her, just show it to her and she'll use it. My Hunter on the other hand is a bit finicky. A while back we had tried to switch from clay to corn clumping litter. We did the 25% / 75% mix with Corn being 25%. Every couple of days I would find poop right outside the box. I gave up and she won.

Being tired of scooping every other day and after reading all the great posts on this forum I decided it was time to take the plunge to an automated box; I narrowed down my litter box choices to LR, CG and SF. In the end I choose SF and have had it for all of two days . I've set-up the SF right next to the old box and added some of the clay litter to the SF. Here is where I need your advice. I keep reading not to clean out the old box, however I'm getting a bit concerned as no one is consistently using the the SF. The old box is looking quite disgusting and I'm nervous I'm going to wake up tomorrow with poop right outside the two boxes. Should I semi-clean the clay litter box? Also, I've been watching the counter on my SF and someone has been using it sporadically and my guess is it's been Midnight only.

I read the posts on playing with the cats near the box or 'treating' them for getting near the box or going into it to get them comfortable with the box, haven't tried either of this yet. One positive sign (I think), last night Hunter was rubbing up against the SF and purring - fingers crossed. And I think another good sign, when they hear the SF go into the cleaning cycle then go running to cautiously check it out (quite funny) - fingers crossed. I'm also going to try the Cat Attract Additive (we have our yearly vet appointment in two days), so I'm hoping to get that at the vet, otherwise online. Is there any other information you would suggest to me? Any input is greatly appreciated

My other thoughts, should I unplug the SF and manually run it? I've had it plugged in the entire time. And they've never had a hood over them on their old litter box, I'm not sure if I should take it off or not? Eventually I do want to have it on (Midnight doesn't always seem to get her butt down).

On a side note, I'm lovin' the SF itself and would be just ecstatic if I could get them to use it! Send me good vibes

Thanks for listening!
Jen

The bigger of my two cats (Stan) hated the hood and refused to use the box with the hood on it.......


My suggestion is to run the SF without the hood (especially if they're not used to a hood on their old box), and then remove the old box completely, leaving a bit of "seasoning" in the SF.

This gives them one thing (the SF) to adapt to instead of two (the SF with hood).

Just an opinion..........

My two guys took only took 2 days to "convert". I knew we had success when Jack decided it was cool to perch his front paws on the purple lid and watch the rake............

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the advice!! The hood is gone. Hunter is a big cat so she may feel a little squished in there. Two days for you? I'm so jealous!!!

I must admit I cleaned the old box out last night, but still left some 'stuff' in there.

I just bought a SF about 2 weeks ago.

My advice would be 1) sprinkle cat attract on the crystals 2) run it manually for a while until they adjust.

My finiky cat that wouldn't use CG, was digging up a storm in the crystals this morning, so I don't think she minds the switch from clay to crystals. Time will tell!

I'm going to by a forever tray so I won't have any pee leaking accident through the cardboard tray.