Eh. I have two cats and I scoop twice daily and change the litter and clean out the box once a week. And it really doesn't take that long.

So my thought is...no way.

300 dollars is bananas. I just threw a fit for spending 40 dollars on mine, and I'm a person who buy expensive bougie cat food. Also, my cats would kick out the litter onto the floor in the pictured-model.

I had a friend who bought this. When it flushed, it freaked out her cats so bad that they wouldn't go near it - and so they used her couch as a litterbox for the rest of the day.

This thing is so ugly, if your going to put the time and effort into creating a product why not try and make it something people won't want to hide. Especially something that is pushing 300 dollars.

I would never.

The worst thing about this machine is that cat hair inevitably clogs the drain pipe and it fills up (and possibly overflows?) with poopy water. Apparently there is quite a lot of hair in cat poop. I really, really wanted one until I found out the nasty details.

erin k, i am SO not surpsied! your cat litter box should be very quiet, but skittish cats (like my fatcat) would get so afraid of it that they'd find other, less scary, facilities!

Yikes. This is weird...it looks like a little toilet bowl. I think you could possibly train a kitten to use this, but I doubt a cat would make the transition from a traditional litter box to this.

We had the self-scooping box, and it freaked our cats out. Plus, the urinated litter always ends up sticking to the equipment.

My eyes saw, "March is Kitten & Catroom month on AT."

This machine is a curiosity. Is the drain that tube that resembels a rope along the base of the tub? Because I can't see cat products going through there. Maybe that's a curly supply line, and a slender waste tube? Clunky design, and many potential points for foul overflow, so just say no.

I have had two Cat Genies for over a year now, yes it is a big investment, but over the year I have saved money and time with them.

I have one cat that before we got the Cat Genie she would not use the littler box if it had not been clean at least three times a day. She would use soft fabric that was on the floor, then she started going on furniture. We tried different types of litter, used litter attraction, and it just kept getting worst. We took her to vet to find out if there was something wrong with her, nothing was, and she is just very, very picky. So, for her it has helped, we don’t go though a bag of little a week.

You can set it to go from one to four times a day. The one in the laundry room go twice a day and the one in the bathroom to go once a day. So, we spend $150.00 every six months need supplies, instead of the $40-$60 we were spending on litter before.

If you have a cat that is not as picky as my, you would mostly only spend $150.00 for a year worth of supplies.

Also, when the company did an update to their product, they sold new piece to update older products for only a penny shipping, but still most company do not do this.

This is stupid. So many complicated, expensive ways to avoid cleaning up after your pet cat. If you have cats, you scoop litter. If you don't want to scoop litter, don't get a cat.

My cats would go to the bathroom over the sides of it, kick litter all over the place...no way. I have two cats, two boxes in different locations. As long as you clean them out regularly, what is the issue?

my fatties would crap out off the side. I have 3 cats, two boxes and clean them daily - everyother day if I'm lazy. It's not that hard.

That's too small for that cat. The size might be right for a kitten.

I don't think I even get how this works. It has litter but it flushes? I think there's some environmental and plumbing issues here too.

I would get this for my dog a JRT I could teach him in a day to go in it and flush it. um

Can't resist saying that one is owned by cats -- not the other way around.

why not just train your cats to use the toilet?

there are detailed instructions online all over the place...

If I were to get kittens, I would definitely housebreak them with a genie.

But the cats I grew up with would never have wanted to use this: too much going on! And if the texture of the granules were not up to snuff, you'd better believe they'd just go on the rug.

After wasting too much $$ on that self cleaning litter box that didnt do as promised, and scared my kitty besides.....this $300 monster would be an absolute no no! and i know it would freak my cats.
Like everyone says scooping and cleaning the litter box is not that difficult.

I bought one of these last summer. It has been GREAT! I was tired of throwing tons of litter in the trash every few weeks. Litter has to go to the landfill, and it doesn't really break down. I thought this would be a great "green" alternative. Also, I had an extra bathroom to put it in. It sits in the shower, behind a curtain, and the pipes run from behind the sink to the toilet. Sure it's loud, and it took my cat a little while to get used to it, but I set it to auto-run while I'm gone. She kicks out the litter into the shower, but I just replenish it as it gets low. The initial cost was a lot, but I've already saved in the cost of litter. PLUS: it doesn't stink!!! There is almost no maintenance for me!

the picture says it all.. that cat is OBVIOUSLY photoshoped in there. look at the shadows- they are really inaccurate. if they couldnt even get a cat in there for the photos.. good luck getting one to pee in it.

I bought a littermaid electric one a few years back, and it was the worst purchase ever. The litter was always sticking and clumping, it would scare the cats ... Now I use a $5 litter box and change it every day. It takes 5 minutes, and everyone's happy.

I had a cat door installed between the house and the screened-in porch, and my handyman installed a lattice screen behind which the litterbox and some of the garden supplies are stowed. Problem solved. It's so easy to scoop when the lumps are frozen solid. Though when it got down to -10 one night this winter, I took the box inside.

The only civilized thing to do would be to not keep animals as pets.

This is the height of laziness. Only in America do people pay big bucks for a fancy machine to do what can be done manually in about 5 minutes a day.

...OK, maybe also in France.

I like the idea of the self-cleaning granules, but it would use up a lot of water. My cats would toss those self-cleaning granules out and play with them all day. I think I'll stick to my compostable litter and rubbermaid tubs!

The granules and Sani solution are SO not green. They are made of noxious chemicals that goes into the water table and also into your cat when it licks its paws .

Also - would YOU like to use a toilet of chemically rinsed and rerinsed toxic nuggets? Esp.if your sense of smell were 200 times stronger than it is now?

Feline Pine and daily scooping FTW, it is 100% biodegradable. Also, if your cat hates the litter you use, try a box full of SOIL - they love it - then slowly mix litter into the soil until you have an all-litter litter box.

Way too small for most cats. Tons of litter would get kicked out all over the place. Blargh. Before going to the trouble of training your cats to use this $300 greige plastic monstrosity, why not toilet train them if you can't stand normal litter boxes?

PLEASE DON'T USE THIS!
Flushing cat waste introduces toxoplasmosis (which is not killed by our water cleaning processes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis ) and then passes this on to our waterways. This parasite is responsible for sea otter deaths and probably other problems that we haven't found yet. Please use Feline Pine or some other green product.
thanks

The idea of animals pooping indoors is a little gross IMO. I walk my dog and pick up her poo outside and also throw it out in trash containers outside.... I think I would freak if I lived near any poo just...sitting there....

Now if cats could be trained to go in the toilet AND flush, then I would be fine....or if they could be walked on leashes outside. But poop in the house? gross.

I had guinea pigs as a child and kept them very clean but the thought of having something similar now bothers me in my pristine place :)

But I am not a cat person so its totally my opinion.

lame and ugly. would go perfectly with a giant ugly beige-carpeted cat tree. feline pine plastic tub under the sink is good enough for me and my cat.

I shouldn't be reading about this at lunch. Yuck!

It looks like a Japanese washlet, but turning on a hot water spray for kitty's behind.... well, hilarity ensues.

To all those that think a person would be lazy not to want to scoop their cats poo or that this kind of contraption is ridiculous, try using a chamber pot for yourself for a week instead of a toilet. I'm sure there were people that said toilets were a bourgeois indulgence back in the day too... Now, not that I would spend $300 on this particular brand of monstrosity, but if they came up with an elegant solution that actually worked I would pay for it in a second; especially since I am a woman of child bearing age and I want to have a child, and the bacteria in cat poo can be deadly to a developing fetus.

On a lighter note, that reminds me... I have to scoop the poo! :)

This reminds me of an Onion headline I saw a few years back. It was on my fridge forever.

"Like boxes of sh*t in your house? Get a cat!"

antimatt's comment is spot-on.

msjessiemeghan - Some cats can, in fact, be trained to do just that, and photographic proof can be found all over the web.

My cats are toilet trained, though they haven't yet mastered flushing. (Where I live, waste water is treated instead of pumped into the ocean. Otherwise I'd still be using Swheat Scoop.)

PLEASE DON'T USE THIS!
Flushing cat waste introduces toxoplasmosis (which is not killed by our water cleaning processes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis ) and then passes this on to our waterways. This parasite is responsible for sea otter deaths and probably other problems that we haven't found yet. Please use Feline Pine or some other green product.
thanks
-------------------
Why don't they just start filtering it out? Before the cat Genie, there was "flushable" litter, so even if this product didn't exist, people would still be unknowingly flushing their cat waste (or at least trying to, the stuff clogged my toilet). I mean, obviously it's a problem and I hate hearing about otters dying and such.

Also, I wish there were better green litters... I tried feline pine and it wasn't 5 mins after my cat used it the first time that my entire apt smelled like the inside of a pet mouse/hamster cage. Ick.

cleaning the cat litter box is smillar to unloading the dishwasher... every hates doing it, but in reality it takes less than 2 min to actually execute the task.

Pregnant women shouldn't touch cat litter, yes, but geez, it's not so toxic that you can't have it in your house.

And no, this product isn't "green" at all. What a waste of water and introducing things into the water table. Lose lose.

It's way too small, for one thing. My cats would be hanging their fat butts over the side and there'd be cat pee all over the floor.

Cats need big, deep litterboxes with 2-3 inches of litter in which to scratch. Scooping takes next to no time and keeps the box clean and odor-free between complete litter changes.

the fact that they had to photoshop a picture of a cat into there product makes me say...

.... NO

oh and the price

I used a Littermaid, similar concept, until it broke (the second time.) (It was a gift, I'd never spend the money...)

These systems have their pros and cons. To me they aren't worth the trouble, and the cost of the experiment is too high. (I suspect my cats would be afraid...)

For some of us, having companion animals (dn) is an important part of a happy life and is QUITE civilized. As is rescuing shelter animals abandoned by other people. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Yep. My Mr Big Handsome would beat this up, not crap in it.

The "ick! Crap in the house!" response is understandable, but I'm equally squicked out picking up dog poop in plastic bags.
Litter dries poop out quite quickly; it doesn't smell that much.

CatGenie is the greenest cat box out there. CatGenie’s uses washable, reusable granules eliminate the need to buy clay litter, which goes through strip mining, which is terrible for the environment. The reusable granules also prevent tons of kitty litter from ending up in land fills every year. The Granules and Sani-Solution cartridges are both biodegradable.

Well, its not the ONLY civilized alternative! (thats a lofty claim if ive ever heard one... :D)

I use ScoopFree, which is another self-cleaning box. No risk of contributing to toxoplasmosis as you just toss the trays at the end of use (no flushing/water involved, thus no contamination). Cant think of anything easier... or less smelly... than our wonderful box! I just got on their litter subscription service, so they'll ship my litter to me and charge my card - i literally dont have to do a thing (well, besides putting in a new tray. which is small potatoes.)

the website is www.scoopfree.com (if you wanna see it in action). And their number is 888.726.MEOW (6369) - if you call to order your subscription trays like i just did, you will get a few extra perks that arent on their website yet (like free shipping and money off your first order).

It is a little disappointing to see some people so fundamentally opposed to the CatGenie when they have never tried it. CatGenie is partially about being lazy and not wanting to scoop stinky litter--sure. I admit that part of it. I had a cat for 20 years and scooped several times per day. Not having to do that is definitely nice. Since when is something that makes you a little lazy a crime? How many of you who wrote hostile e-mails about CatGenie use a remote control for your TVs? Isn't that lazy? Shouldn't you get up and walk over to the TV every time you want to change a channel? Come on--being lazy is okay. But, CatGenie is more than just a lazy-person's delight. It is the right thing for your pocketbook and the environment. Have you ever stopped to think how much litter costs? It is very expensive. And, it poses a serious long-term challenge to landfills. All of our trash does the same thing, so why not do something eco-friendly? And, for the writer who said that the cat was photoshopped, I agree with you. It does look that way, but have you ever tried to get a cat to stand still while you take its picture? None of mine would ever do that. My dog will, but not the cats. And, for those of you who think I'm some CatGenie spokesperson disguised as a regular user, it isn't true. I got my CatGenie last week and we just got a new kittie yesterday from the breeder, since our 18 year-old cat died 3 months ago. I had a lot of concerns about the CatGenie: would it be too noisy, would it scare the cat, would the cat use it (since it was using regular litter at the breeder's), would it control odor, etc. And, I'm really pleased after 1 day already. Yes, the CatGenie is somewhat noisy. I would say it sounds about 1/3 as loud as running an average vacuum cleaner. In a small room, it clearly makes some noise. Did our brand new kittie use it? He sure did. I was very worried that he wouldn't use it after we ran the wash cycle because he would be scared of it, but in the middle of the night he left us proof that he is still using it even after having heard it run through the wash cycle. And, finally, it really does control the odor. Of course, the room stinks when the cat goes, but once the cycle completes, the smell of the cleaning solution actually fills the room with a freshly-cleaned smell. It is a little antiseptic, but not like a hospital or anything. At this point in the experience, it is exactly what we wanted. We will recoup the cost in less than 1 year and we now have an eco-friendly alternative to scooping smelly litter. Before condemning it, you might want to give it a try.

As life long cat lovers and litter box cleaners, dear husband and I can tell you the Cat Genie is WONDERFUL. It works very well to take care of the litter needs of our three [yes 3] cats, two of whom are over 15 pounds.

Previously, we used a giant sized littermaid [self scooping litter box] for multiple cats. It was, quite simply, not up to the task of taking care of the excreta of our three big boys. It required at least as much time as a regular litter box to care for and did not take care of the odor problem at all. By contrast, the cat genie is a an outstanding device. Rather than being a litter box, the Cat Genie is truly a functioning, self flushing toilet for cats.

The cat shown in tHe picture provided is out of proportion, our cats, one Maine Coon and two Savannahs, two of whom are over 37" long fit just fine in the Cat Genie. Once installed and the cats are introduced, the Cat Genie works exceedingly well.

Yes, a little amount of the plastic granules which reach the floor, but no more than the amount of regular litter granules that reach the floor. These are easily swept or vacuumed up once a week or so.

Our cats [aged 5 years and 5 months when we bought it] had no problem adapting to the Cat Genie. It relieves our place of the smell inevitably arising from even the most well attended litter box. As we feel is responsible, we feed our cats a 95% meat diet as befits their evolutionary heritage as obligate carnivores. Even the rather stinky poop that arises from feeding cats a meat diet, the Cat Genie has not only relieved, but eliminated that significant odor problem.

Our Cat Genie is installed in our basement furnace closet which has water input and sewer lines easily available and which has a cat door for ease of cat access. DH installed the machine without needing a plumber's assistance.

The machine macerates even the largest of poops so that everything easily flushes down the sewer line. Located where it is, the Cat Genie's operating sounds are rarely heard. This location makes our bathrooms clear of cat smells and provides our felines the privacy that they enjoy for their bathrooming.

Most of the complaints noted above seem to come from people who have no experience with and whose cats have not yet had the opportunity to try the Cat Genie. In our combined over 100 years of cats living with us, we've never found a better solution to the litter box problem.

The Cat Genie is now on the third generation. It now automatically cleans the litter and flushes as soon as the cat is done using the genie. The cost is quickly covered by the savings of time and money realized from no longer having to go out and buy litter box supplies.

This is a GREAT PRODUCT that works exceedingly well. If you have not trained your cat to use your human toilet and to flush after using, the Cat Genie is just the ticket!!!

I'm not one to really post to blogs but this got my attention, so here it goes.

Ok my parents have 3 cats (3 year old male, 12-1/2 yr old male, and a 15-1/2 yr old female [she's kind of anti-social w/ the other cats]) and a year ago I moved back home with my 2 cats (5 yr old male and female 1-1/2 months apart)... so the point of my telling all this is ...is the fact that we have 5 cats totaled all different age ranges. Now you may think, WOW too many cats, am I right? I use to think so too when I heard of others having a lot of cats. All of our cats were found homeless in our yard throughout the years.

Matter of fact my male cat was abandoned by his mom and when I found him he barely opened his little eyes. I raised him having to teach him all the things a mom cats would do, I had to feed him by bottle, teach him to use the bathroom, clean him, so he has bonded to me very closely, when I found him he had just opened his eyes and I was the first thing he saw, being about a week old. So of course I love him so much, and he's doing very well these days and healthy. We have always taken in homeless cats at times since I was little. I don't even know what it’s like to adopt a cat from the pound or the vet. We always seem to attract cats to our family. So yes, 5 cats are a lot, however they all get along, and it's really a lot of fun to see them play and interact with each other.

So my Point is this......As cute and cuddly cats can be to have the litter box with 5 cats is a problem for me right now, even with a couple boxes it’s still a matter of sanitary. Now a lot of you are saying just clean out the litter box and 5 minutes you're done, I agree. But with 5 cats, the litter box and sometimes boxes get so dirty and fast (trust me we clean and empty those boxes morning and night every day). We do go through litter fast, a lot of use. Sometimes it fills like a daycare center for our cats, like a day care with all the diapers. So, several months ago I got fed up when some mornings I would wake up and see that one of the cats went on the floor outside the litter box. I thought ok I'll clean it up, but after the 3rd or 4th time I said that's it, this is too much, there's got to be another way. I felt like this is gross, poop on the floor, come on. It was so unsanitary to me. A cat goes to the litter box, does its thing but with 5 cats sometimes one doesn't cover over with the litter, when it gets over-filled because of so much usage they walk on the litter and then jump on our bed to sleep with us. Do you see where I'm going with this, I know that its normal for cats to use the litter box, but it just seems unsanitary especially when afterwards they walk all over your bed, your pillow, your furniture, and even you. Not to mention my sister-in-law who is pregnant and that is a huge concern for me, I don’t want her to come into any contact what-so-ever with any cat fecal or pee even if on the floor by accident or when we have my little niece almost 2 years old over to visit. Not at all, I needed to figure another way out. So I looked up toilet training a cat and found videos to help. I loved it because I thought, wow this is wonderful. So when I saw toilet training a cat, I was excited to start right away but see its great for like one or two cats with 2 months of training but with 5 cats.... 5...at different ages.... it's wasn't going to happen for a while, because they all sort of need to complete one step before moving on. Also the thought of my sister-in-law being pregnant, maybe that might not be just a good idea for the cats and her to share the same toilet even if I use Lysol Disinfectant, then I’m just contradicting myself and risking her and the baby’s health.

So that didn't work, and one day.... a true awesome invention caught my attention, I saw the “Cat Genie”, oh my goodness, I was so excited, I thought Yup that is exactly what we need. I would absolutely love the Cat Genie, it’s fantastic that it hooks up right to the same septic system at the toilet does and ok so what that the remains go into the toilet. I would take that and just flush it simply when I get home any day over having to scoop up a lot of #1's & #2's from 5 cats, and believe me it’s a lot. Not to mention the dust that lifts into the air as you're scooping and breathing that in. Forget it. The Cat Genie seems like a dream come true for our family. Right now we can't afford it but definitely saving up for it to buy in the near future. So well worth the cost for sanitary peace of mind for not only myself and my parents but definetly for all of our cats. I have no problem transitioning them from the litter box to this Fantastic Automatic Litter Box.... excuse me ....Fantastic cat toilet.

I bought a Catgenie 1 year ago, i'm and my 2 cats are very happy with it.

For me this appliance i a real progress in term of hygiene.

Of course you can scoop their litter 3, 4 ... 5 ... 10 times a day if you enjoy to, but actually you will keep the problem of having a litter that is not 100% clean. I personally better like to think that my cats put their paws on a perfectly clean litter that is washed after each of their visit.

The supplies are not more expensive than a regular stock of litter and they definitely take less space and logistic needs.

As all is never white and black, i would say that 2 improvements could make the catgenie the perfect must have for me :

- A quieter washing cycle (the impeller is a bit noisy)
- A special shape to the granules to prevent them sticking to the cat paws (as most of the litter granules, you always find some of them around the box) ... nothing bigger than with a regular litter, but if they find the good way to shape them, i'm sure it can be better.

I didn't read all the comments, but I bought the cat genie a month ago and couldn't be happier. My cats love it, are absolutely not bothered by the noise of the wash cycle, and will watch it half the time it is running. The hookup and assembly was incredibly easy, it took me maybe half an hour of on-and-off effort. The genie breaks down the waste as it is washing, so it does not clog the tube. One of my cats would hardly use the litter box, most of the time she would poop on the floor near the box, but even immediately after I cleaned it she would not use it. Now? Never see any poop on the floor. My cats are happy and so am I. I've owned cats for the last 13 years and have tried everything from feline pine, to corn, to newspaper-based granules. This is the best system I've ever owned, and its not because I'm lazy, but I do have a very busy life so not being able to scoop the litter 4 times a day used to be a problem, when I got home it smelled awful. Now? Never, it always smells pleasant and my cats love it.

My two cats love the Cat Genie. Am I lazy for having an automatic litterbox? Probably. Just like I'm lazy for using a toilet instead of a chamber pot, or driving a car instead of riding a bike, or shopping for groceries instead of growing my own food, or using a washing machine instead of scrubbing by hand on a washboard, etc.

The Cat Genie macerates and liquefies the waste, so there's no worry about the hose getting clogged.

There's absolutely no dust, as with regular litter. The litter is cleaned (literally, cleaned with sanitizing solution, not just scooped) after every use which makes the litter box much healthier to use for our little fur buddies.

Several people commented that the machine is ugly. To me, it looks exactly like a toilet, but with a low base. It's no worse looking than any traditional litter box.

The entire thing is about the size of a traditional litter box, and the litter area is maybe 2/3 the size or a traditional. Unless your cat is some kind of freak of nature giant, it's not going to have a problem using the Cat Genie. There are numerous videos on YouTube showing cats using the Cat Genie. I can't say whether the photo on this article was Photoshopped or not, but cats definitely can and will use the Cat Genie.

If you're worried about litter being tossed out on the floor (really? You don't find this an issue with a traditional litter box? Typically their sides are much lower than the Cat Genie's), you can get the optional dome cover.

The cleaning cycle is about the same as my dishwasher and half the volume of my washing machine. One of my cats is extremely nervous and high-strung, he's had no issues with the Cat Genie.

Yes, it's a little expensive initially. How much are you spending every year on litter?

Cat poo in the house is gross? No more so than your poo, and I bet anything you have no issues crapping in the toilet in your house.

If you like scooping cat poo and washing the box weekly, go for it. Don't be hating on those of us who choose to spend our time in other ways. I'm sure back in the day they said toilets were a waste of money and using one was being lazy when a chamber pot worked just fine, too.