Looking to pick up a self cleaning litterbox but there are a lot of options. The coolest one I've seen by far is the CatGenie Automatic Cat Box, but it's nearly $500 and seems a little overkill.
I've also seen that the PetSafe Litterbox is a very popular choice, but it uses proprietary litter refills and crystal litter when I'd prefer clay litter.
I've been getting away with a $15 do-it-yourself litterbox just fine for a while, but I think I (and my cat) would appreciate something that doesn't require daily maintenance. Something as simple as an automatic rake would be interesting.
My main goals are:
- Requires as little maintenance as possible while keeping my cat happy and the smell under control
- No proprietary lock-in (I can use my own litter)
- Doesn't break the bank
- Built well, won't break / easy to fix / good warranty / cheap enough that I can just buy a new one if it breaks
While I am looking for budget friendly options, I'm also curious on the more expensive options. I can't imagine what justifies spending $700 on a Litter-Robot when emptying a litterbox manually isn't that bad and the CatGenie is $500 and promises zero-maintenance. Have you had good luck with premium options like that?
Ehm, I thought we went overboard with the surefeeds we have for the cats (4) as one of the previous set needed special feed and buying 4 of those was cheaper then feeding all cats the same very expensive food. This proved a good investment, as shortly after a 2nd cat needed special feed and now one needs medicine trough the feed. But that's the other end of the process.
Here we have 4 cats and 6 litterboxes which get scooped daily. With the general rule of thumb of 1 box per cat and 1 extra worked well here with the clumping litter we use (wood based). 3 litterboxes are on the groundfloor (hallway), livingroom on the 1st floor, 2 boxes on the 2nd floor (hallway and a separate room accessible via a cat flap) and 1 on the attic. It takes me about 5 min to scoop the 3 on the ground floor, my wife needs a few min more as there are more stairs involved and the cats use those more since we use the same litter in all boxes (they went downstairs for the clay based grit, now they just go to the closest free one when they are in the bedroom).
I'd almost advice to try an extra litterbox 1st and don't place them in the livingroom. (when I saw the picture of those automated boxes they were situated in livingrooms) We humans have our toilet somewhere else as well. (you could try to teach the cat to use the toilet)
However, I'm curious about the automated boxes advised here.