As any owner of indoor cats will attest, it's all about the kitty litter. What holds it, where it goes, the mysterious watermark (so to speak) where beloved fluffytuff decides that the box is too filthy for her dainty paws. I think the most cats I ever lived with at one time was five. My usual three suspects and two belonging to my roommate. So there's been no shortage of cat shit in my life.
Meet the Jetsons' cat's waste recepticles
I bought the littermaid when it wasn't even available in stores back in 1997 but that didn't pan out. Those poop trays are awfully small and the poop doesn't fall neatly into them either. With three healthy little cat bladders that machine was constantly running. And it was loud. And for god's sake don't use the arm and hammer scoopable litter! That stuff hardens so much it actually broke a few of the sifters! If you want to replaster your walls that litter would sure do the job.
It's really too bad that the litterfree autoflushing cat toilet company went out of business before I could muster up the courage to spend 300 bucks on a repository for cat shit. Although I hear it was kind of stinky.
If you're curious about other automatic litter machines there's a whole forum dedicated to them.
Pop n Toss
So about a month ago I caught an ad on tv for this new cat litter called Pop n Toss. The basic premise is the litter comes in these little cardboard pup tents so you can just pop them up, let the cats go, then collapse them and throw them away. They claim these things last for two weeks. The litter is made from dried orange rinds. No kidding. I've used litter made from cedar pellets, cedar shavings, recycled newspaper, sand, and this new miraculous silicone crystal things but never dried fruit! I love the longetivity and lack of smell with the crystals but I really worry about their nonbiodegradability and my dog's inability to digest them those few times she manages to sneak into the litter room for a snack. Yeah well that's what living with a dog is like. The clincher for me with these popntoss dealies was the price. 9.99 each. That's pretty cheap for cat litter these days.
I spend about 14.00 a bag on larger bags of Fresh Step crystal litter. Three of those lasts about a month if I'm being vigilant with the cleaning. So that's about 45 dollars a month. But I only have to go to the store, buy new litter, and change the boxes entirely once a month ? that's worth more than money trust me. Sometimes the stuff in the plastic bins is cheaper but I hate throwing big plastic bins like that away and having held kitty litter I don't like to reuse them to store stuff. Except garage hardware. Hmm. There's my next project.
Anyway, that 9.99 price made it worth my while to give it a try. So I picked up three Pop n Tosses at the petsmart and gave them a try. First off, the cardboard popup tent thing isn't that bad. Pretty easy and fairly self-explanatory. The litter is in a little plastic bag you have to tear open. I tried to use the plastic as a liner since wet on potentially nonabsorbent litter + unprotected cardboard = potential leakage disaster. There's not a lot of litter there and I prefer having a lot to maximize coverage. I'm sorry to say that the dried orange rind did very little to combat the severe stinkiness for which my cats are known. And I'd say even with three boxes they didn't last a week. The air in that room after two weeks and my cats could be considered to be weapons of mass destruction. Haha. Oh god that's bad.
So, it's a thumbs-down from me on the popntoss. Back to the plain plastic litter bins and the fresh step crystal litter.
Pop-n-Toss
pros- litter and container are biodegradable. orange rind litter has a pleasant smell and isn't nearly as painful on bare feet as crystal litter. Cheaper than crystal litter. Comes in its own container.
cons-collapsing the box is kind of a pain. Orange rind litter didn't really take care of the poop smell. Very small amount of litter. May be cheaper to buy than crystal litter but the crystal litter lasts three times as long.
We just tossed our littermaid after a couple years of using it. I reused the little pans because I hated paying so much for them all the time which was helpful, but I hated how the stupid thing would get stuck. I'm sure you're familiar: Rrrrrr .. rr.. Rrrk! *backs up, tries again* rrrr ... Usually in the middle of the night, too. I'm thinking about trying the crystals, but I'm not sure what miss prissy paws will think. She's probably already irritated at me today for buying the dog a toy and not her. :)
Posted by: Crankydragon at March 27, 2004 5:55 PM
I still love my Littermaid, as I have a fussy male who refuses to use the box if there's anything in it! We reuse the trays too. Ours only seems to get stuck when there is too much litter in it. It is getting old now though and doesn't work as well as it used to. But I will definitely replace it. Anything that keeps me from having to scoop! *g*
Posted by: sarah at March 30, 2004 9:18 AM
Oh I hate scooping. That just doesn't happen here lol. That's why I like the crystal litter it does a really good job of covering stink so all I have to do is dump the whole deal at once. But I've noticed I can't go nearly as long between litter cleaning since I've been getting my sense of smell back after quitting smoking.
I'm glad to hear someone likes the littermaid though it could be such a nifty thing. I can really see the use of it. Actually I just remembered Cody spoke with a woman who claimed she invented the littermaid when he worked at aol. She said that she lines the pans with plastic bags and just tosses the bags.
Posted by: noelle at March 31, 2004 10:12 AM
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