Have Robots Take Care Of Your Cat When You Travel

If you like to take a trip, a cat is the ideal family pet. They do not require consistent walking. They do not require a surplus of interaction (if they desire any), and they do not destroy your house if left alone for a couple of days.

That said, cats are still incapable of feeding or tidying up after themselves. But given that they’re typically okay being left alone (to a point) you do not need to employ a caretaker or pay off the next-door neighbor kid to come and scoop litter. Just purchase a robotic to do it.

While I’m not yet encouraged of the energy of AI, I do believe that good automation, when executed well, can be incredibly advantageous, taking ordinary tasks off our hands and maximizing our time. And completing my cat’s food bowl or scooping his litter certainly falls under the classification of “things that a properly designed robotic can do.”

With a number of business journeys on the calendar, I chose to see what Whisker, maker of the Litter Robot and Feeder Robot, might provide for me and my cat, Loki.

Whisker Litter Robot 4

When I pointed out to my colleagues that I was getting a Litter Robot, they unquestionably applauded it. Now, I utilize flushable corn-based litter (World’s Greatest Litter measures up to its name) and work from home, so litter upkeep isn’t a substantial task. I can scoop numerous times a day and do not need to bag up litter. But if I’m out of town and another person takes control of? Loki’s litter box is a mess by the time I return.

I indicate, is it excessive to ask of others that they scoop within 15 minutes of my cat utilizing the litter, sorting through the whole catbox to make sure that no clumps stay? Yes. Yes it is. But the Litter Robot 4 does precisely that. It’s a compulsive cat owner, however in robotic form.

First things initially, you’ll require to ensure you have space for the robotic. When package got here, I was not gotten ready for how gigantic it was. “Surely this is mainly product packaging,” I informed myself. I was incorrect.

The Litter Robot 4 is the rather big and type of appear like a cleaning device, turning drum and all. It likewise requires power. Loki’s litter remains in the restroom, which just has one outlet by the sink, so I needed to get imaginative to come up with an option that didn’t leave extension cables all over the flooring.

Setup isn’t tough. You put the robotic, power it on, and stroll through the actions in the Whisker app. The app tracks when your cat utilizes the litter and informs you when it stops briefly or finishes a cleansing cycle. It’ll likewise tape-record your family pet’s weight and let you understand when the litter requires refilling or the waste bin is complete.

I was stressed that my cat wouldn’t take to a more enclosed litter box after having an open tray but after connecting everything, Loki immediately hopped in and used the litter as expected. Keeping to the instructions, I didn’t turn on the robot yet and gave him a day to acclimate. Once I did turn the Litter Robot 4 on, he was definitely curious. The entire drum rotates, dumping the clean litter into a repository while sifting out the clumps and dumping them into the waste bin below.

For the first few days I’d get notifications every couple of minutes after he used the litter that the robot had paused. I’d convinced myself that he’d somehow gotten stuck in the robot and there was a problem. But no. It was just Loki, one foot on the entry step, sticking his head in to see what was going on.

I alleviated this by adjusting the cycle to wait longer after he’d finished, you can select a few options in the range of 3-15 minutes. A longer wait cycle seemed to solve for the curiosity. I had to retrain myself as well, trusting that the app was giving me accurate information and telling myself I could just dump out the waste box once at the end of the day. It was a welcome change.

Is everything purr-fect (sorry not sorry)? No. I have a recurring issue with the Litter Robot 4 where it decides there’s nothing in the waste bin. Luckily, since the 4 relies on a laser to detect and measure waste levels, it’s easily recalibrated with a piece of white paper and a Konami-code style button sequence on the main panel (you can operate the robot manually in addition to the app). Talking to Whisker’s technical support, it’s a big improvement over the Litter Robot 3 that relied on mechanical sensors and required considerably more hands-on effort to troubleshoot.

All that said, the Litter Robot 4 is a phenomenal edition to my growing staff of household robots. I don’t have to worry about litter. I can easily keep an eye on my cat’s weight (an added bonus), and when I’m out of town I know that his litter’s being taken care of. Plus, it’s a lot nicer for pet sitters to just throw out a plastic bag as opposed to asking them to regularly scoop.

Another benefit?. In Loki’s case it stopped the obsessive “It’s 4 AM and I’m bored, so I’m going to dig in my litter” behavior. Since the litter robot is slightly enclosed and doesn’t give easy access to the litter unless he’s in it, he can’t just dig in an open litter box.

One thing, if you’re going to pick up the Litter Robot 4, I’d get a mat to go along with it. My kitty tends to leap from the litter drum, causing a lot more scatter than with his previous litter box (luckily Whisker sells a bundle with just that).

Whisker Feeder Robot

The other “robot” I welcomed into the fold was Whisker’s Feeder Robot. This one has decidedly less bells and whistles, but does exactly what you’d expect. You fill up the clear hopper with food, it dispenses said food either at regular intervals you choose or it will check the food level every 6 hours and keep the bowl topped off (make sure your pet isn’t prone to chonkiness before enabling).

The Whisker app is easy to use. I had a feeder already, but it would not stay connected to wifi and the app started pestering me to buy the company’s other products. And a feeder that isn’t reporting when it dispenses meals because it’s offline and discourages you from using the app isn’t very effective.

The Feeder Robot connected to the app quickly and has reliably let me know when it dispenses Loki’s meals. I’ve set up a custom schedule and have it dispense the minimum a few times a day so as to avoid overeating (for digestive as well as chonk reasons). This is where I ran into my one issue with the feeder

The Feeder Robot, for all of its utility, falls surprisingly short when it comes to dispensing small amounts of food. Unlike dogs, cats don’t (or at least shouldn’t) eat a ton in one sitting. The minimum amount of food the Feeder Robot can dispense is 1/8 of a cup, which is exactly what I need, however it hangs out right at the top of the chute where it’s dispensed and only partially falls into the bowl.