Automatic Litterbox Central

Something I hadn't considered when purchasing this box, but when I think about it letting poo sit for a month is likely to draw some unwanted insect attention!

I realized this when I scooped the poo out yesterday and one of those nasty little fruit-fly like creatures flew out from under the flap. I had noticed a couple of them around the house and had been wondering where they were coming from! Anybody have any ideas how to control/prevent this? I will say that my poor kitten is eating horrible food and is probably producing far too much waste (hence the scooping). I will be switching to a better food as soon as I manage to get to the pet store.

I also stirred the litter when I scooped and was surprised to see a lot of yellow saw-dusty looking stuff kind of stuck to the bottom of the tray under the litter. Is that normal? I don't remember that with the other crystal litter I used.

I will say that so far I do like the box and think that some of the "problems" I have experienced are due to the corn-based food my cat is eating. I had a friend over the other day and asked her to tell me if she could smell cat (i.e. litterbox!) when she walked in. She said she couldn't. Very impressive -- particularly since the box was about 4 feet away.

I think that doing a "rake and stir" will help with the residue you're seeing on the bottom of your tray. What's going on is that cats tend to pee in pretty much exactly the same spot all the time, and so your crystals are getting completely soaked in that area. Raking and stirring will both distribute the urine, and will also allow the crystals to off-gas vapors (not urine, water vapor) and will in general help with keeping things more odor free.

As far as the food goes -- there are numerous posts here covering that topic in pretty good detail. We've had very good success with the Wellness products. They have a very good nutrition profile and our boys like it.