Cat Litterbox study!
Back in February my wife and I were really struggling with cleaning all the traditional litterboxes that 10 cats require. Our cat Steve’s fans were kind enough to send us one LitterRobot, and then the company themselves reached out to send us two more! We were SO lucky. We kept one traditional litterbox around for our older cat, Samba, who has arthritis and hip dysplasia, and I decided to collect some data and look at litterbox preference among our cohort of 10 cats.
Early into the study I realized that Samba was using the restroom with greater frequency than anyone else, so we took him to the vet and he had a UTI. Because of his UTI, I had to remove him from the study cohort, but I’m very glad I was paying such close attention to his comings and goings as he wasn’t vocalizing or urinating inappropriately (other obvious UTI signs).
The video below shows the results of the study. I had hypothesized that the cats would prefer the litter robots as the traditional box got dirtier (it was scooped daily and fully changed once a week - the litter robots scoop themselves after every use). However, as generally happens with science experiments, my hypothesis was incorrect! Time and date had no statistical significance on litterbox usage.
It seems as though cats simply have a preference for one box type over another - however no cat (aside from Samba) exclusively used one box type over another. The traditional box was more popular, especially among our cats that are high-urinators and like to do a lot of scratching around in the box itself. One reason for this may be the depth of substrate (5cm in the robots vs around 6.5 in the traditional box) or the depth of the boxes themselves. Our traditional box is significantly deeper than the litter robots, leaving more room for cats to navigate inside.
Should these findings paint litter robots in a negative light? Absolutely not. All the cats (aside from Samba) used them happily, and without any complaint (ie inappropriate elimination). Litter Robots alleviate the physical stress of box cleaning for cat owners, and provide a cleaner environment for cats themselves. While I would not recommend automatic boxes for older or infirm cats, I think these are amazing tools for multi-cat homes and/or owners with physical limitations.
Other findings:
the average amount of bathroom visits per day for a cat in my household was 2.74. This is great information to have, so that I can note in the future if any of our pets are visiting more frequently and may require medical intervention.
Peak restroom usages were around 9am and 7pm (following mealtimes)
Cats DO have statistically significant preferences for certain restrooms. Steve and Babby had clear preferences for the traditional box, and Uncle Dad and Pam had preferences for the Litter Robot.
Cats did have a statistically significant tendency to use one box and then immediately enter a second box, presumably for two different forms of elimination - thus, doing all their business in the same visit.