No more scooping -- the CatGenie is a toilet for cats

A Toilet for Cats

What is is

The CatGenie ($270 on Amazon) is an ingenious toilet for cats. Your cat does his business and after ten minutes the bowl slowly spins, and the rake picks up any solid wastes, plunking them into a little bin. Then water fills the bowl and the impeller in the bin breaks up the waste so it can go through a tube into your toilet where you flush it away.

Installation

photo from Amazon

Installation is fairly easy. You need to attach a tube to the toilet and you'll need to plug the CatGenie in for power. You also need to attach the included water line to your toilet's incoming water. No special tools are required, just a wrench and patience. The only difficulty is in manuevering the unwield thing into place.

photo credit: Chris Hugh

Analysis

The CatGenie relieves you of having to clean the litterbox. It really is a toilet for cats.

It sounds like heaven, but there are a couple problems.

First the reusable plastic litter is not to every cat's liking. My Mr. Kitten goes piddle in the CatGenie, but goes poopy on the tile floor in front of it. Thanks, Kitten.

Another problem is that it's not entirely reliable. Sometimes the tube gets clogged and the dirty water won't drain. It's easy to fix, but until you do, you've got poop soup and the cat has nowhere to do his business. Nowhere nice, anyway. If he holds in his pee, he can get a bladder infection and bladder infections in male cats are a life-threatening emergency. If he doesn't hold in his pee, he makes a mess. In either case, you really need a backup potty.

Third problem, as mentioned, the tube gets clogged. To fix it, you just shove the end of the hose (the part that was hanging into the toilet) against your faucet, run the water and blow out the clog. It's no big deal, but isn't super pleasant or sanitary.

Last minor problem, when the CatGenie cleans itself it will drain foamy poopy water into your toilet, leaving nasty looking stains. You'll need to clean your toilet more often to keep it looking okay.

Overall

Despite a few negatives, if you've got the space and the money, this is a great, great gadget. The best way to do this is to have two of them.

Helpful hints

• Read the directions. Seriously. I had the hose installed not-quite-right for over a year. It had too tight a kink in it, and it was clogging up.
• Write down or take a picture of the serial number before you set the machine up.
• You really need a backup litterbox. I got two CatGenie. Expensive, but very worth it to not have to scoop.

Links

Click here to read my review on examiner.com
Click here to read a review of the ScoopFree automatic litter box, another super pooper scooper