We have two Bengal Cats in our family, Bagheera Brina Artio (The Spotted Huntress - AKA Princess), and Bridlewood's Thrill DuJour of Gogees (Thrill of the Day - AKA DuGie).
Important Information Regarding Bengals in Georgia
Georgia residents will be happy to know that certain Bengals are, as of July 1, 2005, legal to keep in Georgia without a special permit from the DNR. I had heard that the regulations had changed and when I contacted the Georgia DNR regarding keeping Bengals in Georgia, I received this information. If you are interested in obtaining an official copy, you will need to call the Georgia DNR Permits Division. As far as I can tell, this document is not on the Georgia DNR website. If you find it on the Georgia DNR site, please send me the URL.
Below is our experience with three kinds of automatic litterboxes. NOTE: This is *our* opinion, based on *our* experience with these litterboxes and 5 cats - YMMV. All litterboxes mentioned have a link to their respective websites - this was done for your information only. We are not affiliated with any of the companies, other than having used their products.
Not-So-Good First Experience
We started out looking for an automated box to take over litterbox scooping and purchased the LitterMaid self-scooping litterbox. With 5 cats, we found that these boxes do not hold up under the strain and none (we bought 4 over the years) lasted much over a year - just long enough for the warranty to run out. The motor just doesn't have the power to handle that much work and the unit is difficult to clean because it doesn't come apart. It does have the advantage that the compartment that the waste storage container goes into is bottomless so you can set it up to dump into a larger container, allowing for less frequent emptying of waste when used by multiple cats. FYI, there is a new model out that we have not tried, so things *may* have improved - we won't get one based on past experience.
Things Get Better
Our next automatic box was the Purrforma Self-Cleaning Litter Appliance which has performed very well. These units are more sturdily built than the LitterMaid and the box comes apart, without tools, for easy cleaning. We used 2 of them, quite happily, for well past the 1 year warranty period for all of our cats and one cat is still using one. The only drawback we found is the size of the storage compartment when multiple cats are using it. The waste bag would fill up every couple of days with 4 cats using it, and there is a bottom molded into the compartment that the bag container sits in so you can't modify it easily to dump into a larger container. Other than that, the unit holds up well and is easier to clean and maintain.
***NOTE: It appears that the Purrforma Self-Cleaning Litter Appliance is no longer being produced. I have removed the link because it no longer points to a page on the Petmate website. I also have not seen anything except some parts available for sale. This is a shame, since it's a hands-down winner over the LitterMaids that we tried.
The Best Experience Yet
Then we found CatGenie. We've been using one box for about 8 months (as of Dec '07), and it has performed so well that we purchased another about 5 months after the first. This box eliminates use of litter, as you know it, altogether and disposes of the waste down the drain. It requires a water and drain hookup (limiting where the box can be located somewhat), and uses washable litter and a sanitizing solution to clean the litter and the bowl containing the litter. It has a 2 year warranty (you can purchase an extension for 2 more years) which, to me, is an indicator of a higher quality product.
The instructions say that you can install it in a laundry room or bathroom with a toilet. In addition, I have found that you can install a dishwasher hookup into the drain of any sink, and, using a rubber adapter sold to hook the dishwasher hose into the drain, use that for waste disposal as well. The unit comes with the connectors for most laundry room (washer) or bathroom (toilet or sink) cold water lines.
The CatGenies have performed as described on the website and the cats have adapted well to them. I think that it may have helped that they were already used to automatic boxes so the sound of the CatGenine cycle didn't affect them at all.
We had a defective water level sensor in the second unit, which allowed the bowl to fill too much during the wash cycle and generated an error by the unit. A call to CatGenie's excellent Customer Support quickly diagnosed the problem and they talked me through the fix. A spare is shipped with the unit, along with some O-rings, so the fix was quick and simple - and a new spare was shipped to me within a few days.
These units are very sturdy and easy to clean (take-apart cleaning about every 6 months is recommended). No tools are needed to take the unit apart and there are no small enclosed areas that are difficult to clean, making the job easy and pretty quick. I found that a fingernail brush and an old toothbrush did an excellent job when cleaning time came around. The manual includes an in-depth section detailing all the steps needed to take the unit apart and put it back together.
As far as price, the CatGenie is more expensive than the LitterMaid (to be expected with a higher quality product), but, if you shop around, quite comparable in price to the Purrforma. In my opinion, the CatGenie is well worth any extra paid because of not having to dispose of used litter and waste.
As with everything, there are some drawbacks. See the UPDATES below to see what the company has done about the drawbacks. I left the drawbacks and added updates so you can see that this company seems to be truly interested in listening to their customers and using that information to improve the product.
1) Although you can set the box to wash on a timer, 1 - 4 times per day (evenly spaced over 24 hours), litter is not scooped after a cat does it's business, so the poo sits in the litter (pee runs straight through and is neutralized in a small amount of water/cleaning solution beneath the bowl) until the next auto-cycle or until the button is pressed to manually start a cycle. Customer Service has stated that a scoop-after-use function is a much-requested change. There is a sensor, which is used to make sure that a wash cycle doesn't start while a cat is using the box, which possibly could be used to start a scoop cycle after a cat uses the box. Common sense would dictate running the wash cycles based on CatGenie recommendations for the number of cats using the box, even if they implement a scoop-after-use function.
2) When the sanitizing solution cartridge is running low or is empty, the unit beeps, which irritates our cats, instead of showing how many washes are left. The cartridges last a fairly long time, 60 washes, so it's not a problem that occurs all the time, but, if you're not home when the beeping starts, it will continue until you get home and stop it - or change the cartridge if it is empty. If the problem occurs at night, it can be a rude awakening.
3) Some of the litter is scattered outside the unit by the scoop during the wash cycle. CatGenie now offers sidewalls and a dome to eliminate this problem. We have a dome installed on one unit and it has eliminated all but a small amount of tracking by the 2 cats using it to what is experienced using a regular litterbox and non-tracking litter. We do not have a unit set up with only the sidewalls and cannot verify that the sidewalls alone will prevent litter scatter. Units can be purchased with the dome or the sidewalls and dome can be purchased separately (the dome comes with sidewalls as part of the package).
Even with the drawbacks, the CatGenie is far and away the best litterbox we've found and we highly recommend it. If you don't have a location to install a CatGenie, go with the Purrforma - it's our second choice, and has, in our experience, a much better track record than the LitterMaid.
UPDATE: CatGenie now ofers a rubber mat to help prevent your cat(s) from tracking litter when they exit the box. We purchased a set of these mats and found that they do an excellent job of removing the litter from our cats' feet when they exit. The mats also make it very easy to dump the caught litter back into the box - even with the dome in place. The mats can be purchased individually or in a 3-pack, we purchased the 3-pack.
UPDATE August 2009: CatGenie has come out with a new model that can be set to activate when a cat uses it. There are a number of convenient changes that have been made, particularly in regard to the beeping when cartridges are running low or out. This unit also greatly increases the number of washes that you get with a cartridge of solution - from 60 with the old unit to 120 in timer mode or 240 in cat-activation mode. Sadly, the old cartridges will not work in the new unit. I have one of the new units and it works as advertised, just like the old one. Will be getting a second unit soon. Check out the CatGenie website to learn more about the new unit and for any rebates/trade-ins they're offering.
UPDATE October 2010 CatGenie now has a supply of the cleaning cartridges, for sale, for the new model. This cartridge is good for 4 cleanings, and is supposed to make it so you no longer have to break down the unit to clean it (the take-apart cleaning about every 6 months). I have run 2 cleaning cycles, to date, and they seem to do a good job of cleaning the unit.