I Made A Litter Box!

05 February 2009
The litter box has been causing lots of problems the past few months. When we first brought home Annabelle, she refused to use a litter box at all. It seems the one I'd got her was too small for her big, fluffy self. We actually tried three different sizes before she was happy and quit having mishaps. Then we added another cat, so we had more litter to deal with.

Then we discovered that Dixie really likes to "clean" the litter box if you know what I mean. She eats everything out of them, then comes to lick you. Shelby joins the family and starts doing the same thing! It's so gross! So, I've been trying to find a place to put the litter box where the dogs couldn't get to it but the cats could. I really haven't had much luck, so I started looking online. I found this system called the Clevercat, which is basically a plastic tote with a hole cut in the top of the lid. The litter is in the bottom, the cat jumps through the hole, does her business inside, then jumps out. I loved the fact that it should be too deep for the dogs to get into and it eliminates all the sawdust the kitties scatter on the floor. My problem was the $30 price tag. $30 for a cut up plastic tote? Y'all know me better than that.

So, when Lenore and I were at Alco today and I saw plastic totes were "Buy One , Get One 50% Off" I decided to try to make my own. I found several good ideas on how to do this online. Here is one that I went by. This design was different, but it said you could cut the opening into the lid, which is what I did. I traced a dinner plate onto the lid, then cut the circle out. I am almost positive that I did not use the correct tools for this because I had a really hard time doing it, plus it looks nothing like a circle. Anyway, after I did that, I used sandpaper in an effort to file down some of the sharp edges. Then I covered the entire opening with duct tape, just to make sure nothing sharp could rub against my girls. This is the finished product -

I know it's not very pretty, but then neither was the open pan litter box. The old litter box and the bottom of this are exactly the same size, but I'm still questioning if I should have gotten a bigger size. Time will tell I guess. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I already tested it and the dogs cannot get to the stuff inside. So, now we just have to see if the kitties will use it.

1 comment:

lynette355 said...

I think you did a great job. I am glad they had those on sale. I will check out all the babies today. Have a blast at the zoo. Wish I could have made it too.