Caturday: Cleaning Up the Mess - Litter Box or Litter Robot?
For years, we have had one litter robot per room -- at times four, at times five. They held great promise of reducing the workload. Just plop in a bag, let the robot do its work for a few days, then pull out the drawer, toss the old bag now full of used litter, and plop in a new bag. Every seven minutes after a cat used the robot, the drum would turn and whisk the litter into the drawer with bag. Initially, they did work pretty good, but they quickly broke down. Nearly every day one or another robot has to be cleaned and repaired -- the pincers are not touching, the plates are dirty, litter is in the gears, etc. Sometimes, turning the robot off and then on gets it back on track; other times pressing cycle, reset, or reset & cycle works. Sometimes, a slap works. Other times, though, it is a matter of disassembling and completely cleaning the robot, typically a 20-minute task that cannot always neatly fit into the day's schedule to match the times of break down.
In addition, our blind cats (two completely blind, one with one only one eye) have a challenge, even with the added stairs, of accessing the litterbox. When the oldest blind cat, an 18-year-old Himalayan (life span typically 10-15 years), could no longer climb the stairs, we had to get a litter system that sat on the floor.
We got Fresh Breeze -- and she can manage it. For other reasons, we also like it. In six months, it has never broken down (there are no moving parts to break). Nor has it ever required more than 3-4 minutes of my time: the urine pad has to be changed daily for my 8 cats (normally only once a week for homes with only one cat), and the pebbles have to be changed once a month. Pretty easy!
Both systems handle the smells well. Visitors are generally shocked to learn that we have eight cats. Fresh Breeze does a slightly better job with that, in my opinion; we do have one litter robot that does not control the smell as well as the others, but we do not know why.
There you have it. My two cents about robots versus boxes. As the robots break down permanently (our fifth one has done that already), I am replacing them with the Fresh Breeze litter system. (No, I would not return to an old-fashioned litter box -- that is indeed too much work.) Right now, some rooms have one of both because I can guarantee that the litter robot will break down at some point nearly every day, and a breakdown at night is a real nuisance.
In case anyone is trying to make a decision...
For more Caturday posts, click HERE.
Read more posts about cats.
Read more Thanksgiving posts.
Watch for Luna Norwood's forthcoming book, Raising Happy Cat Families.
 |
Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, and Instagram.
Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC?
Check out information on how to submit a proposal.
Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.
Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.
Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.
Comments
Post a Comment