You Probably Don't Need An Automatic Litter Box  

I love mine and my cats love it too. I had an arm/shoulder injury and it was difficult for me to pick it up. They always have litter!

Do you not regularly clean your Litter Robot? The upkeep is intense. You need to disassemble the unit and clean it outside at least every month. And every time I change litter, I'm cleaning it without disassembly. In comparison, a regular litter box is just a matter of pulling the liner every so often. Scooping is effortless. I guess if you have a ton of cats it makes sense to use the robot.

Automated cats!!

I second this, their bathroom habits can tell us a lot and I’d rather not miss out on a potential issue

100% agree!

Great point! That's how I discovered that my first cat had IBD, which is still work in progress.

They usually cover it, so the point is moot. It's when they start to poop outside the litter box that you know something is going on.

The apps monitor and keep track of there bathroom habits aka bathroom health.

Just be careful how you clean them!! I have a few and while I and the cats love them, and I love that they are sand scratch resistant and cat claw scratch proof, they are not invincible. One of them presented with a fairly deep pit, and after the last deep clean because of tummy troubles, I noticed a lot more tiny pits after leaving the bleach to disinfect for... way too long. I'm currently dremeling the spots so I don't have to toss the box, but yeah! Be careful with bleach and make sure you fully rinse it after haha.

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing.

Hmmm, interesting!

if your cat dosnt mind enclosed litterboxes, it should be no issue!

The only one I've found to work really well is the PetSafe ScoopFree. The ones that are paired with clay litter tend to be a disaster, whether it's the Litter Maid, the Nature's Miracle box, or the Pet Zone Smart Scoop.

@@AllAboutCatsYT It was quite a few years ago with my ex but I think it was a Litter Maid we had. It worked reliably for several years and was still in use when I moved out so I don't know how much longer.

Thank you! I made a comment about how pet products are often marketed to pet parents and not designed very well for pets. I had a nasty reply from someone about that. Good to see I'm not the only one that feels this way.

Y'all must be kidding. Of course cats don't give a shit about automated things. These are not made to entertain cats, their purpose is to make the owner's life easier.

This is how I feel! I only had the 1 carry and while it can be hard for me to get up every day, I usually had to do more work with the automatic box.

I have 6 cats. Normal litter boxes for 6 cats takes a lot of time to clean out. However you get 1 big ones with like pellets, and some sifting ones, and then it's like 2 minutes to clean up after 6 cats. Literally takes like 20 seconds to do a good sifting literbox. Pick it up, rotate it around, shake a bit, dump, lift up the top one, put sifter in the bottom one, dump back in, put one in your hand under it, good to go. Sounds like a lot of effort but it's literally like 20 seconds a box. Why would you spend $300 on one litterbox when you can spend like $18 for one that is easier.

​@makaisenki how is 20 seconds easier compared to an automatic litterbox where you dont have to spend a sec scooping? I think you forgot the most important element of automatic litterbox. I own 5 cats and it's not 24/7 you will know when they poop. Sometimes if their litter or urine sits for too long, it can smell. And that is the whole point of auto boxes where it always self cleans after use so you are guaranteed to have a fresh home everytime. This also eliminates the fly problem which is also a big issue with leaving poop sit out for too long. I scoop 2x a day. Once in the morning and another at night and auto boxes is really a life saver.

@@chochic10Automatic litterboxes require regular disassembly and deep cleaning. The upkeep is way more labor intensive, smelly, and dirty. I just switched back to a standard litterbox with disposable liners after 3 years with the Litter Robot 3, and I feel so stupid that I ever bought the automatic one. Lesson learned. And you mentioned smell. The LR never allowed pee to clump properly, so the whole unit always smelled foul, and I'd get mold occasionally due to dampness. A real litterbox allows the pee to clump, and there has been next to no smell in comparison to the LR. And no random malfunctions where it's out of order all night.

@jon4715 i dont understand what you meant by pee not clumping in the auto litterbox. The litter dictates the clumping of pee not the type of litterbox. Unless your cats are peeing on the edge of the lr which is unusual. Manual and auto box is just the same. They are both nothing more than a container for your litter. The only diff is that the automatic one cleans for you while scooping is necessary for manual boxes. While i get the disassembly part being hassle, you dont need to do it every other week. Once a month is more than enough and there are boxes that have quick disassembly like the petree gen 2. You basically lift the box and thats it. No need to unscrew anything. One more point to add is that manual boxes tend to be more messy. I get poop and litter all over the floor because small bits fly all over the place when they bury their waste unless you opt for an enclosed one. One more trouble for manual box is the scooper itself. It gets smelly and cleaning them multiple times a week is not fun. So to sum up, in manual boxes, you are obliged to scoop when you wake up and before you go to bed. For auto boxes, you can get on with your life and schedule a cleaning once a month. I think that justifies it. I forgot to mention that manual boxes tend to smell fast if you got busy and missed scooping especially when pee accumulates. Something that does not happen with auto boxes as they constantly drop the waste in an enclosed bin. The smell is probably coming from litter does not get changed constantly. I have an auto box and never experience the smell issue unless my cats just pooped. But after cleaning cycle, the smell is out. I pull out the tray and throw it along with daily house trash. Very easy.

@@makaisenki what about 20 cats?

I think you should just get a sifting litterbox. Takes like 20 seconds if you do it every day. I have 1 with pellets that I really just let them use until it becomes all sawdust, change out every couple weeks, some sifting litterboxes, and it's like 2 minutes for 6 cats a day and I'm done. There's one I was kinda interested in. It's kinda like an automatic one, but it's like $50 and you roll it on its side and the scooper grabs all the poop, and when you roll it back to normal all the litter falls back. Then you slide it out and throw it away. Was curious about trying one of those. It's kinda cool, different, and you're only out like $50 if your cat doesn't like it versus $300. Hell if I was gonna get an automatic one I'd still want to use one of those first as a test case.

Why?

Why?