The outside world can be a dangerous place for felines. Therefore, it’s no surprise that many cat owners choose to keep their cats inside most of the time. While your kitty might want to run free, keeping them indoors will allow them to live a healthier and longer life. Plus, you’ll save thousands of dollars on vet bills to come!
Even so, one downfall to keeping your cat inside is the need for a litter box. Without access to an outside space, your feline will have to do their business indoors. Litter boxes are undoubtedly awful to maintain (we know). However, having an indoor kitty doesn’t mean that you have to deal with dirty work all day every day.
Thanks to the innovative creation of the automatic litter box, your cat’s bathroom setup can look, smell, and be much more pleasant. Here are the top 5 things cat owners hate about litter boxes and how a self-cleaning litter unit can help!
1) The Need To Scoop And Clean Regularly
If your days are already manic, cleaning the litter box can become a dreaded chore on your endless to-do list. Not only do you have to scoop the waste daily, but you also have to empty and clean the litter box every week or so, depending on how messy your cat might be.
This is why many busy cat parents switch their traditional litter set up to an automatic litter box. This high-tech product will scoop and clean your feline’s waste for you after each use or on a set schedule. With its routine cleanings, it cleans more regularly and effectively to ensure the litter bed is always clean.
With automatic litter boxes, a cleaning cycle takes place after every use. They use highly accurate weight sensors to detect when your kitty enters the unit and when they eliminate. This means the tray will be spotless every time your cat returns to it. Never again will your furry friend have to step onto dirty litter just to take a bathroom break!
2) Frequent Foul Odors
How many times have you come home to a foul-smelling house? Moreover, how many times have guests arrived just as your cat decides to hop in its litter box and well.. do their business?
We know the struggle, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Just because you have a furry companion in the family doesn’t mean your house can’t look, feel, and smell as fresh as possible.
Self-cleaning litter boxes are brilliant at rapidly eliminating cat waste odors, so you’ll never again have to smell cat poop after a trip to the litter box. How is this possible? The system initiates a self-clean promptly after your cat has left the unit. Therefore, they remove the waste before odors can spread through your home. Units such as the Aimicat and AutoEgg have separate waste compartments where soiled litter is scooped and stored to conceal smells until the compartment is full.
Most automatic litter boxes use either a rotating globe or a raking method to clean the box and remove waste. These systems sift through the litter to scoop the waste and then deposit it into the waste drawer below. This compartment as mentioned before is an air-tight space, so odor cannot escape.
3) Litter Mess And Tracking
The last thing you want is to have to clean your house more. Unfortunately, though, many traditional litter trays do a subpar job of keeping the litter inside the box itself. This is because many standard boxes have an open-top design and low sides. So, every time your kitty covers their waste or leaves the litter box, litter particles spread all over the floor.
Litter tracking is incredibly frustrating as you can find yourself sweeping or vacuuming that area of the house far too often. It’s also extremely unhygienic, as waste particles can escape from the box, spreading bacteria all-around your home.
The makers of the AutoEgg designed their litter box with this issue in mind. They chose an enclosed, hooded design that stops your cat from kicking litter out the sides or back. They then added a cellular tracking step to the entrance. Strategically placed so your kitty has to walk over it when they leave, the tracking pad can catch the stuck granules from their paws.
4) Distasteful Appearance
Our home is our sanctuary, so, naturally, we want the environment to look nice. We choose the color schemes and furniture that best matches our tastes and decorate our homes to reflect our personalities. Unfortunately, a bulky, plastic litter box does not fit in with our nice decor and usually stands out like a sore thumb.
Finding a hidden space or even hiding the unit away in the basement or laundry room is the typical move to conceal but smells and an unsightly appearance.
Thankfully, automatic litter boxes feature a much more appealing design. Some even boast cool, futuristic looks, like the CatGenie. But these high-tech devices don’t have to appear robotic. Horizontal systems such as the ScoopFree or AutoEgg give a minimalist and compact aesthetic, complimenting all spaces and decor styles beautifully.
5) The Territorial Issues They Cause (In Multi-Cat Homes)
Felines are not always the friendliest with their own species, including the ones they live with. If you have more than one cat in your home, you may experience some territorial behavior between them at some point.
For example, when introducing a new cat to an older feline who is used to being alone, it’s not uncommon for the original one to feel threatened by the new arrival. This can result in them acting in a territorial or aggressive way, such as guarding the litter box to show the other kitty who’s boss.
One of the primary triggers of litter box guarding is the smell of the other cat’s waste in the box. Felines are not keen to share their toilet space in general, but more so with cats they dislike. Automatic litter boxes run a full clean after every use, removing the waste and most of its associated smell. This can reduce territorial behavior with the litter box as the scent of another kitty won’t put off the territorial cat.
Final Thoughts
If you hate dealing with your furry companion’s litter box, it may be time to upgrade to an automatic model. Self-cleaning litter boxes put an end to common frustrations around manual scooping and traditional litter boxes. Without having to do the dirty work, you can fully enjoy parenting your fur child.