As cat owners we are all concerned with regards to the well being of our pets.  We’re human however, and the majority of us would like to make taking care of our cats as simple as possible.  Cunning advertising experts recognize this, so they construct a new product that is going to cut back on the amount of time it requires to care for our pets.  Well, this isn’t usually the case.  Consider an automatic cat litter box for instance.  Even though the idea appears to be helpful, I learned otherwise.

With the lure of convenience, countless pet owners were tricked into paying for an automatic cat litter box.  Most models have a rake process that is activated soon after the cat exits the litter box.  At this point the rake is designed to effortlessly scoop up the clumped cat litter and dispose of it in the disposable litter tray.  In my situation, it just didn’t work out as desired.

For starters, let me say that my cat is old.  His feces is often soft.  Once the rake came across this, it was a mess.  I had to dismantle the top of the litter box just to get at the release points of the rake so that I was able to clean it.  Under ordinary scenarios this would not be a problem, however the rake was unbelievably soiled.  As soon as I eventually got the rake out, it was hard cleaning between the teeth.  This by itself was enough to make myself question the choice to purchase one of these so called automated litter boxes.

Where I reside, we have continual issues with electric outages.  Many times the electricity is off for many hours.  One time I was caught off guard when the electric went out and the litter box did not operate.  Yes, the self cleaning litter box has got battery backups just in case the power is out, but it doesn’t alert the cat owner when the batteries are weak.  When the power was restored, I heard the litter box continually working.  After taking a look at it, I noticed that the rake cycle was only going half way where there seemed to be an excessive amount of clumped litter causing a great deal of resistance that the rake couldn’t dispose of it.  For this reason, the rake process was interrupted and would start again and again.

When considering the purchase of a cat litter box, think of how it will perform in real life.  I too bought into the concept that an automatic cat litter box would save me a considerable amount of time.  Ultimately, the self cleaning litter box wound up in the garbage, and I purchased a good litter scoop instead.  And to be truthful, there aren’t any surprises nowadays.  Routine scooping is much better then taking apart an automatic litter box to get to a unclean rake to wash.