Automatic litter boxes: are they really worth the hype? #cats

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1. As someone coping with a terrible blow to my health which cost me my job my physical independence and my house I figured I would look up videos to see if there was an option to help me keep things sanitary for my family and pets in this new smaller space. I’m very glad I came across your video. My favorite part is where you shared your experience with auto litter boxes giving pros and cons to help people decide if purchasing one is worth it for them rather than rambling off irrational, unjustifiable, And pretentious opinions to make yourself sound deep and superior. I imagine that kind of energy is something people really love and don’t cringe at all when you enter a room.

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2. I’m thinking about getting one because my toddlers at times prove to be a lot faster than I am at getting into something, and they also love to follow the kitties around… It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m seeing easy math here 🤢

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3. I disagree with the stance that automatic litter boxes told that someone wasn’t willing to put effort into pet guardianship. I’m taking my cats and their needs very seriously and I’ve decided to invest into their well-being with one, trying to solve an issue that occured with normal litter boxes for my 3-cat-household.

   I’ve been reluctant about litter robots because of safety issues (but some concepts where the opening physically can’t fully close are pretty safe), but I’m finally getting one now because all three of my cats have decided to use the litter box in the bathroom for at least 90% of their pees and poops, ignoring the other three litter boxes almost entirely.
   They used to use all of the litter boxes pretty equally, until during the summer the temperature at the other areas of my apartment went too high (I’ve had more than 30°C (86 F) inside on quite some days; the bathroom is on a lower level than the other rooms, so it stays a bit cooler), so they decided that the bathroom was their place to be during that time, making the bathroom litter box their primary one and that just didn’t change back. Which means if I don’t scoop that thing at least four times a day, it’s going to stink horribly. And twice a week, I’m simply at work for the largest portion of the day (I work from home the other days), so when my last scooping was in the morning before I left for work, I come home to my apartment smelling like wet litter and, more often than not, having to fully replace all the litter from that box.
   Right now, I’m using the PeeWee system, which I absolutely love and it solved a number of issues I’ve had with basically every other natural litter I’ve had so far (ammonia smells, dust, tracking, litter getting so soggy I’d have to fully replace it several times a week). But since none of my cats cover their poop or scratch the litter after peeing, the wet disintegrating pellets that should fall through the sieve (into the waste compartment) just stays with the clean litter above the sieve until it dries. Which isn’t a big deal usually since it will dry and then fall down the next time a cat steps into the litter box – unless all the cats use just one box and the litter rarely has time to dry in between pee sessions. So the next time a cat pees into it, the sieve is clogged with moist disintegrated litter, which will then trap a lot of the pee above the sieve, hitting more of the still clean pellets than it usually would, leading to even more of it clogging the sieve. I temporarily put another litter box right next to the other one in the bathroom and it helped a bit, but it’s just not a perfect solution by any means.

   So, hopefully my cats will either use their new litter robot which automatically scoops before it gets nasty, or they’ll distribute their pee sessions among the other litter boxes again (I’ll keep four PeeWees up, just in case they don’t like the litter robot I’ve ordered for them).
   I’m also looking forward to finally knowing which cat has diarrhea without spending hours (or sometimes days) monitoring the use of the litter box to see who left the squishy stuff behind. That is only if they deem the robot worthy to poop into of course. And weight tracking without having to schedule it and manually weigh them is also an added bonus that sounds great. Those features might even help me detect health relevant changes that would otherwise go unnoticed for longer.

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4. I have 4 cats. My house is extremely catified and they don’t go out, they’re very happy. But the automated litter box helps me manage their health because one of them has had several urinary blocage episodes, and another has intestinal problems. The litter recognizes them automatically, tells me if a cat went a suspiciously long time without peeing, if there is blood in urine, if there is diarrhea and all others sympathetic things I would observe myself way less efficiently because with 4 cats it’s hard to tell who went when.

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5. We can go on vacation now or out of town for a night or two without having to worry about their litter boxes ….thats why….also some people work 12 plus hrs a day and that’s not fair to the cat to have shit in their box all day. There’s alot of reason it’s a good product.

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