This sounded like such a wonderful idea when I was a new mom and owner of 3 cats: the LitterMaid is designed to scoop the box clean itself every time a cat uses it. The output is stored in a separate plastic container which can either be disposed of entirely or emptied and used again.

Great on paper, a waste of $200 on our floor.

The main thing they don't show or tell you in any of the ads is this machine is loud. I would jump most of the time when it began its scooping. This, of course, did not sit well with the cats, who eyed this box with much suspicion. Of course, they're cats, and cats eye almost everything with suspicion, so I suppose I could live with that. They did deign to use the box, since it was the only thing around with litter in it. However, if you have one of those really picky cats (the really picky variety, not run of the mill picky cat variety) who is wont to go anywhere besides the litter box on occasion if conditions to not suit it, this is NOT the box for you.

My other complaint is that it just didn't work very well! In order to know when to make its rake of the box to scoop out the various clumps, there are several visual sensors around the interior of the box. If something comes in front of it, the box senses a cat has been in it, and will rake the litter a couple of minutes later. But these are very sensitive sensors - the product even comes with a small brush for keeping the sensors clean, since built up dust can set it off. And if the cats dig around in the litterbox (as all 6 cats I've had in my lifetime have) to get the litter "just so," piles can end up in front of the sensors, setting them off. So now we have a loud product that not only goes off and makes the cats (and me) twitchy after a cat has eliminated, but one that goes off at totally random intervals making the cats (and me) twitchy.

You would think with all this raking, we would have the world's cleanest litterbox. Not even close. The LitterMaid will only allow you to put a very thin layer of litter down (again, to avoid setting off the sensors). Once the cat steps in and digs around a bit before, um, relieving itself, there are "bald spots" on the floor of the box with no litter. If you have clumping litter that's just barely there, it clumps and sticks to the box itself when wet. And if it's just a tiny barely there layer on the bottom of the box, the rake doesn't even touch it.

When the litter is thick enough to clump properly, do you think all is well then? Not even close. Unless you use the ultimate premium of clumping litter (Super Scoop, I believe, was the only one that worked for us), the litter just doesn't clump fast enough between the time the cat exits the litterbox and the raking begins, so the clump disintegrates. This leaves moist clumping clay stuck to the rake, and some lose urine-soaked litter still in the box. As for anything that comes OUT of the cat in a clump? Again, it often doesn't have enough time to solidify before the raking begins; I'll leave what happens there to your imagination.

So, by a couple of rakings, the raking mechanism is covered in clumps of various kitty eliminations, and pushing massive quantities of unused litter into the receptacle. This leads to an overflowing container that needs to be cleaned up by hand anyhow, which completely eliminates (no pun intended!) the benefit of sending the litter into a sealed container - not only do the smells escape, you must touch the litter when changing the container (it was a much dirtier process to change the container than to just scoop a normal litterbox).

Finally, with three cats, we were just filling the thing so often it was easier to go back to our old litter box.

I will admit, if you only have one cat, and are willing to shell out the money for the super expensive cat litter (on TOP of the $200 for the litter box itself), and your cat is adaptable, and you don't mind startling noises, this litter box might work fine for you. I should have saved the $200, though, and just bought a gas mask. ;)



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