Automatic Litterbox Central

I used a scoop free a year ago and got rid of it. Since it was in a place where I couldn't see it everyday if there was a problem, it would get bad before I noticed. I have the litter box in better location for daily monitoring now. I am thinking about buying a forever tray again. Has anyone been successful with lining the tray with a garbage bag for easier changes who has a cat with all claws intact? The discussion I found didn't answer the claws issue.
Thanks!
Jenny

Hi Jenny,

I've actually had more than a few people ask this question, and quite a few varying experiences reported from users. In concept this should work, however I think there may be some drawbacks.

- As you mention, a cat with claws has a good chance of putting a hole or a rip in the bag. The worst time to find out the one time your cat did this is when picking up 4 1/2 lbs of dirty litter our of the box and having the bag rip the rest of the way.

- I'm basically lazy when it comes to tending the litter box -- which is why this whole thing started for me in the first place. I did a ton of homework before deciding on the Scoop Free as the best choice. For me, it boils down to time and effort changing the litter box. When I say time I'm talking about total time[i] spent messing with things. So the time spent making sure the bag is in the box [i]just so -- so it won't interfere with the rake, etc. is balanced out with just pulling out the bag and tossing it.

I have found that for me the least amount of time spent is in simply giving the tray a quick clean at each change. My laziness actually goes a step further.......... I use two trays, and cycle them. I pop the clean one in at change time, and take the other one out to the back deck and do a quick clean and set it out to air dry for the next cycle. Total time spent at each litter change between 5 and 10 minutes.......with no fuss.

Hope this helped!

Thanks for the reply. The only challenge with the idea of rinsing the tray out outside is it is below zero here several months out of the year. The hoses outside have to be turned off so pipes don't freeze.

woopsie! Sorry about that. I realize how spoiled we really are in CA!

I would rather have freezing cold weather then earthquakes

Hahaha........

The reality (confession) is that I'm a real wimp when it comes to the cold! Grew up in hot climates.......

(sigh)

It's not so bad when you have two cats to keep you warm.

biiiiiig cats!

Ariel (the tabby) wasn't full grown in this picture. I need to get a new one off them cuddling but they don't do it as much. Ariel is 13 pounds and not overweight. Roo is 15 pounds and needs to lose a pound to be perfect weight.

You Roo looks very much like our Stan. Both our guys are black -- and I learned just recently that they are Bombays -- a breed I confess that I hadn't heard of. Maybe Roo is a Bombay as well?

Both are GOK's (God only knows).

Ariel is supposedly pare Maine Coon. He was a few weeks old when a rescue group got a call from a man with too many cats. He was supposedly 9 weeks when I got him. My vet put him at 12 weeks - I brought him there before going home with him to be sure he was healthy. He is affectionate but also very independent.

Roo was born the a stray that was found by a rescue group right before she delivered her kittens. I think Roo acts like a Burmese cat. He has a very loud and pitiful meow. I call him my needy boy. He is very cuddly and purrs so loud you can hear him over the phone. He is trying to get me to pet him as I type.

You may indeed have a stray Bombay on your hands. That totally sounds like Bombay traits. Our Stanley is very much like that.

You may want to do a search on the breed -- you may be surprised.

Our two were rescued as well -- and they are textbook Bombay.

Aha, so that's what my Blacky is. He came into my backyard a couple years ago as a kitten and decided to stay. I'd look outside and only see these big gold eyes as he hid behind a bush... he is pure black, looks just like the pics on Bombay sites. He just CRAVES attention too and will not leave me alone until I pet him, rub his ears. Very unlike my girlie "leave me alone, let me just look pretty for you" calico, Holly

I'm facing a problem with Blacky right now though , not sure what to do?! As the weather becomes more chilly up here in the NW he wants to come inside at night. The problem is is he refuses to use the scoopfree like Holly. If it's #2 he has to do, he will make it well known to me he wants outside. That means jump on my bed and paw at me until I wake up. Good kitty I suppose, but I use a w/c so it's kind of a hassle for me every night. I really wish he'd just use the SF! If it's just to pee he needs to do, then he jumps into my shower to do his business. I'm serious. He knows that bathroom is the "potty room" I guess bc the scoopfree, which my Holly always uses, is in there, but I don't want him to teach my Holly that that is OK to do. I sure do wish I could figure out why he does thisI' considerings trying a manual box for winter nights, see if he'll use that b/c I am so tired of scrubbing out my shower every morning. Oh, not to mention the smell of his urine is quite stinky....pee-yew.

Wow. I think our cats may have come from the same litter!

They were about 6 months old when we rescued them, so were used to going outside.

The hardest thing at first was keeping Stanley from climbing up onto a large potted plant and peeing or digging and pooping. Once we broke him of that, then Jack decided to pee in the sink in the bathroom where the SF is. So I put a cover over the sink.

Then Jack decided to pee ON TOP of the toilet tank. On top. So I put a cardboard box up there so there was no room to get up there. So then he decided to stand on the toilet seat and let go onto the back of the toilet -- so I now have a tinfoil tent over the toilet bowl. (the hate tinfoil).......and now for the last 6 months everyone is using the SF.

Argh.

I feel for you.

I had a cat who would pee in the tub. She started it after my disastrous attempt to train her to use the toilet - she fell in. I stopped her from using the tub by keeping an inch of water in it when I wasn't using it. I kept the box with her preferred litter next to the tub. Once she was on track for a month, I was able to leave the tub water free and she never went back to that.

The challenge is that no matter how good we think a system is, if that cat wouldn't use it, it isn't the right one for your home.