I always swore our house would remain a pet-free zone. Not because I have anything against animals; on the contrary, I love them. But in the same way that some people feel about babies, pets were a commitment that was best observed from a distance. Especially when it came to the less palatable jobs.
I am all for the affectionate head boops and ear scratches; cleaning up after them, however, is less appealing.
It was a promise I failed to keep. After the goldfish – the gateway pet – we managed to adopt a kitten. Three years later, a second one arrived. Two cats means twice the amount of purrs but also double the litter box scooping. Unsurprisingly, no one else in the house is volunteering to take on that task.
But cats are fastidiously clean – and notoriously picky. If they take a dislike to the litter box, you are in trouble. Not clean enough? The wrong litter? Fall for the scented litter trap? The cat won’t use it.
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So an automatic litter tray might either help or hinder. The idea is that the robotic tray senses when your pet has visited, waits the appropriate amount of time and once the coast is clear, scoops away the waste into a sealed, bagged bin underneath.
Your pet gets a nice clean tray within minutes, and you avoid unpleasant smells without having to touch a scoop. Every few days you empty the waste bin, top up the litter and the tray keeps on cleaning for you.
The Litter Robot has been around for a long time, so the company has had time to refine its offering. The Litter Robot 4 is the current version on sale in Ireland and, while it may look intimidating at first, it has two very big bonus points going for it: it is easy to set up and easier to maintain.
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This isn’t our first experience with an auto litter tray. But the previous version looked a little more like a regular litter tray, with an open top and a tray that rolled once the cats were long clear of it. The Litter Robot 4, on the other hand, has a globe for the litter, a step to get in and looks more like a spaceship than a litter tray.
Unlike other automatic litter trays I’ve tried, there is very little set up required as the device is mostly assembled. You just need to strip off some tape that is holding the rolling drum still, plug the robot in and with the addition of the litter and the waste bag in the bin, you are ready to go.
Because it looks so different, the people behind Litter Robot recommend leaving the existing litter tray close by, gradually shifting the cat over to using the new one. That wasn’t an issue here; I hadn’t even plugged it in and the smaller cat (appropriately named Hot Sauce) had jumped in to use it. So refusal wasn’t a problem here.
In fact, it was the opposite. He saw it as a mini playground, one where he could try to fire as much litter out and around the room as possible. The guard that the Litter Robot comes with was no match for that, although going by the older cat’s use, it does prevent the normal amount of litter from being scattered out of the tray.
This is a smart litter tray, which means there is an app to keep an eye on it remotely. It isn’t essential for day-to-day use but it does come in useful at times for the humans in the house.
The app alerts you to any problems, such as a cycle being paused before it has had a chance to complete, or a bin that is rapidly approaching capacity. It will also distinguish between cats based on their weight, giving you stats on which cat went last, although it gets more difficult if they are similar in size.
The cycle pausing is usually caused by a cat entering the tray before the drum has finished its full rotation. That is a concern with automatic trays – that a cat will get caught as the tray moves, injuring the animal.
That has not happened with any of the devices I’ve used. The Litter Robot has sensors that detect when an animal enters and, even if your cat is a sensor-dodging ninja, the weight in the tray will trigger the safety feature. I watched as Hot Sauce, curious about the moving drum, jumped inside and the tray immediately stopped. On the one occasion he sat inside, the drum started moving for a split second and then stopped, sensing his weight.
Good
The Litter Robot takes the hassle out of pet care. Use the right litter and it will do a good job of keeping on top of the litter tray; the incorrect one will leave you with a clean-up job.
It is quiet while operating, so you won’t wake in the middle of the night wondering what the strange noise it.
Bad
This is not very compact, although most of the bulk is in the height rather than physical footprint of the robot. It fits into the same footprint as our covered litter tray but looks bigger. When the box arrives, don’t panic too much about its size, but be aware that it can’t be tucked away inside a cabinet.
It is pricey too, although it might be money well spent if you hate litter scooping.
Everything else
You need to use specific litter with the tray, although it is not a proprietary nightmare. Ditto for the bags for the waste bin – you can buy Litter Robot’s branded bags but there are generic alternatives that will fit.
Verdict
So far, the Litter Robot has lived up to expectations – no smells, a clean litter tray and happy cats. Or at least as happy as they like to let me believe they are.
