Yesterday after we picked out our two new kittys, dd was so excited that we just had to stop at the pet store and get some new kitten supplies. While there, we saw this thing called a Litter Maid. It is the coolest thing. It is HUGE which is a plus because our current cat (just over a year old) is already at 16 pounds!! It is self cleaning and I figure, with having 3 cats soon, that can only be a good thing. We got it all set up earlier today and Katie (our current cat) has taken to it great. She has already used it twice and it seems to work great. Does anyone have one of these and is it as great as it seems???

By Trina~moderator on Sunday, January 30, 2005 - 05:08 pm:

*EG* My DH is the litter maid in our house. LOL! He took over the job when I became pregnant with our first child and kind of got stuck with the job. Hee hee. Don't get me wrong, I do scoop and clean the litter boxes, but for the most part DH takes care of it. I do 95% of the housework so I have no problems with that. LOL!

Seriously though, years ago we looked into the Litter Maid and decided against it. Someone we knew had one and didn't like it. Apparently it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We feared it would scare our cats and didn't want to spend the $ to try it out.

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, January 30, 2005 - 05:46 pm:

I'm sorry to tell you that from everything I have read, in Consumer Reports and on the net, it is nowhere near as great as it is cracked up to be. It is noisy, often scares the cats, and runs much more frequently than it really needs to - and, on top of that, doesn't do that great a job. And, you still have to clean out the used litter every week.

I strongly urge you to get a regular box, clumping litter that is advertised as dust free, wear disposable gloves if you are concerned about sanitation, and just resign yourself. And, since you already have an older cat, you might want to get two boxes. I would be very surprised if the older cat deigns to use the litter maid, and s/he may not like sharing boxes for a while.

By Vicki on Sunday, January 30, 2005 - 05:55 pm:

Maybe this is a newer model? It has sensors in it and after the cat leaves, it has a built in timer and runs 10 minutes after the cat leaves. If the cat re-enters, it re-sets itself. So I honestly don't know how it could run more than it had to?? Our older cat has already used it three times and it seemed to work perfectly!! She isn't scared of it at all!! Ugh, I hope it continues!

By Breann on Monday, January 31, 2005 - 12:32 pm:

My inlaws have a litter maid and love it!! Their's isn't terribly noisy? Just kind of a dull hum. Their cats are used to it and don't have a problem with it.

With theirs you just pull out the bottom tray and throw it away. No scooping or anything.

We've considered getting one, but they are expensive ($100 at Wal-Mart).

By Vicki on Thursday, February 10, 2005 - 09:18 am:

Just wanted to post an update about this! So far it has been the greatest thing since sliced bread!! Our older cat actually RUNS to the litter box to watch it while it goes through the cleaning cycle! Today is the first time that I have taken the whole thing apart for a very deep cleaning and that was a breeze. Dumped the old litter and cleaned it out with lysol and put it all back together and all in less than 20 minutes. I have to empty/change the tray that catches all the waste about every 4 days or so. No odor at all! We get the kittens tomorrow night, so I hope they take to it right away too. We did keep the old box just in case they don't, but anyway, so far this thing has been worth it's weight in gold. Just wanted to update in case anyone out there has been pondering getting it. It is the "Litter Maid Mega Deluxe" for multiple cats or large cats. I can't speak about any other self cleaning boxes, but this one has been great!