Should you buy an automated litter box? LitterMaid Elite Mega vs. Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Boxes

When I brought home Peter, we went all out on him as first time cat owners... before bringing him home, and knowing his personality, and likes and dislikes, we probably spent gobs of money on food, toys, beds, litter and litter box. We learned some lessons here, especially about the litter box, that we wish we knew prior (and before spending a ton of money).

It's my responsibility to make sure Peter's litter box stays clean, for his health and sanity, and also because I don't want him pooping anywhere else.

But I personally want to spend as little time as possible cleaning his litter box because quite frankly, scooping poop and clumped urine is gross, not fun and smelly.

So my first great idea was to buy a LitterMaid Elite Mega automated litter box. This is the type of box that has a motion sensor and will detect if something has been in the box, waits 10 minutes and the clumps into a poop bin.

That was great and all for the first two months, but living inside an apartment, it turned out to not be the best solution because it was difficult for us to take this gargantuan litter box outside to empty out the old litter. And yes, that was a problem, because if you don't do that, the old litter just starts sticking to the bottom of the pan making it difficult for the claw/rake that scoops the poop to get through (you should be using a spray that you can get that you put onto the pan and let it sit for 15 minutes before laying the litter down).

It got to the point where the rake was no longer really scooping poop into the bin anymore and was just allowing the poop to accumulate at the entry way to the box.

Not only that, for this particular litter box, the manufacturer wants you to purchase plastic bins that are replaced on regular intervals. Very expensive. I would avoid any litter box that requires you to purchase pads or bins on a regular interval.

Sucks for my kitten and sucks for me. $300+ down the drain (this included accessories like the canopy, spray, etc).

What I ended up replace it with was a $35 litter box called Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter box

This thing has been absolutely great and it comes highly recommended from me. All you do is you roll the bin onto its head and then roll it back.  All the poop will be collected into a little bin with a handle that you can conveniently dump into a trash bag. Total time to do this is literally about 30 seconds and very sanitary.

So if you're looking for a new litter box, consider one of these Omega Paw litter boxes vs. an expensive one.