I'm thinking about the Littermaid, b/c we are leaving the boys here for 4 days while we waste away in Margaritaville. My husband doesn't want to ask his sister to scoop out the litterboxes. Please share your experience if you've tried it. I think Jan has them and I don't remember who else.
Thanks, Ya'll
I would not leave cats with them on without experience with the cat and the Littermaid. They do have safety features, but one wants to know a cat is not inclined to just sit there and let the rake go over his tail. You also need to find out the adequacy of the waste container for the time it will be on its own. You can (could) get cabinets that increase that limit a lot, but that means expense and more space.
I would say they are a good choice, but you may have to delay their first full use until a later trip.
Your SIL may be more comfortable with dumping boxes and adding litter rather than scooping - or even adding a new box with clean litter on some appropriate schedule.
(08-20-2010 09:50 AM)JanH Wrote: [ -> ]I would not leave cats with them on without experience with the cat and the Littermaid. They do have safety features, but one wants to know a cat is not inclined to just sit there and let the rake go over his tail. You also need to find out the adequacy of the waste container for the time it will be on its own. You can (could) get cabinets that increase that limit a lot, but that means expense and more space.
I would say they are a good choice, but you may have to delay their first full use until a later trip.
Your SIL may be more comfortable with dumping boxes and adding litter rather than scooping - or even adding a new box with clean litter on some appropriate schedule.
We will have about 2 months to practice before we go, so I think we will know if the cats are okay with it. After reading reviews, I'm wondering if they are worth the money spent. It seems to be a trend (in reviews) that the old ones were wonderful, and the new ones, a big dissapointment.
We have not gotten one in some time and the first few versions were each improvements over the earlier ones. I do not know anything about the Scoopmaid, but often one can buy older versions of the Littermaid that are new even when the company has moved to a new model. I cannot remember the model number of our newest ones. I believe it is an LM900 that is still available through Amazon. I see you can still get an LM500 through Amazon and an earlier version as well from Kmart online.
I've had littermaids almost 8 years and love them. The key to being satisfied is finding a litter that clumps well and I've found that Arm & Hammer clumpable litter works best. The multi-cat litter clumps harder than their regular. If you don't find the right litter, it will just be mush in the box. There is also a book on ebay on how to "repair" them. There is a reset button that the littermaid people sort of forget to tell you about and it has actually saved me from replacing a boy that didn't cycle.
My boys were used to the littermaid with their breeder so they were quite comfy with the noise it makes when it cycles. They are also tremendous diggers and this is one box that the litter cannot fly out of. I use the "mega" littermaid and it's only a little bigger than the regular one. The best prices are on Amazon and it is not necessary to get the newest one, which is quite expensive.
There are plastic "tanks" that catch the waste and littermaid figures we will all put the top on and throw them out. I dump them and wash them and use them until the plastic cracks. At $1 a pop, it's worth the effort. I dump the boxes completely once a week and refill them and we're good to go. I found that a lot of people don't like the littermaids but I've had wonderful luck with them.
sue
I had not looked at the newest model. It seems they have changed the tines and that it seems to scoop the top section of the litter, rather than scooping all the way down - close to the bottom of the tray. People are reporting that clumps go under the tines and the box does not successfully self clean. I think I would get an older box until they put out a new model that corrects this problem.
My brother uses the litter maid with his 3 cats and seems to be satisfied with it.
I didn't want to make such a large investment in a litter box, so I did some research and am currently using the Omega Paw Roll n' Clean litter box. I found the Large at PetsMart for around $35.00 and started using it about 4 months ago.
I really like it...I don't have to scoop the litter at all, but I also don't have to worry about the mechanics breaking down. I went ahead after I tried it and changed over completely to this litter pan and I now have 4 of them in different areas of the house.
My mom took care of William and Harry for a week while we were on vacation, and she was dreading having to deal with the litter pans, but she had no problem with these since you don't have to deal with scooping at all.
Here's a link to a video on you tube from the guy who invented them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGsis-W10A
Hope this helps...I think both the littermaid and this litter pan are good solutions...just depends on your finances and preferences.
(08-20-2010 10:34 AM)blueeyedmarshmallow Wrote: [ -> ]My brother uses the litter maid with his 3 cats and seems to be satisfied with it.
I didn't want to make such a large investment in a litter box, so I did some research and am currently using the Omega Paw Roll n' Clean litter box. I found the Large at PetsMart for around $35.00 and started using it about 4 months ago.
I really like it...I don't have to scoop the litter at all, but I also don't have to worry about the mechanics breaking down. I went ahead after I tried it and changed over completely to this litter pan and I now have 4 of them in different areas of the house.
My mom took care of William and Harry for a week while we were on vacation, and she was dreading having to deal with the litter pans, but she had no problem with these since you don't have to deal with scooping at all.
Here's a link to a video on you tube from the guy who invented them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySGsis-W10A
Hope this helps...I think both the littermaid and this litter pan are good solutions...just depends on your finances and preferences.
I really like that concept because it doesn't involve electricity and is simply ingenious - but I'm curious... isn't the litter box a bit small for a fully grown Ragdoll? - I know they use even normal boxes but I'd be afraid of messy feet and bums with that little space - How is your experience with that?
(08-20-2010 10:44 AM)nicky263 Wrote: [ -> ]I really like that concept because it doesn't involve electricity and is simply ingenious - but I'm curious... isn't the litter box a bit small for a fully grown Ragdoll? - I know they use even normal boxes but I'd be afraid of messy feet and bums with that little space - How is your experience with that?
The one in the video is not the Large one that I have. So, you have to keep that in mind when watching it.
I only have problems with "messy bums" when William is having a some loose stool. (he's sensitive and any change causes this problem)
He is 15+ pounds and VERY large and has no problem with the size of the box during normal non loose stool weeks!
Harry is 11 pounds and he is structurally as large as some female raggies I've seen and he has zero problems with this box.
I also use a very good clumping litter (arm and hammer multi-cat) I have found it to work best for odor and clump firmness.
I have thought of DYI-ing an even larger box with the same/similar concept if he does start having problems with the size (thankfully it's all been fine so far, since I'm not very crafty).
Here's a video a guy made of the size box that I have...
http://www.youtube.com/user/monkoflight#...y68KtK9T2c
Wow, for the difference in price that seems like a really good solution to having to scoop.