OK, it’s not glamorous and not even all that interesting and maybe a little weird even, but it works! Wanted a top-entry litter box but needed one with a sifting tray so it would work with my pine pellet litter. Glowforge+acrylic = Voilà! Happy cat, happy life!
LMAO Genius !!!
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actually i think your onto something
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Right! I paid for a small shifting tray and couldn’t find a large one to suit my needs. The choices are so expensive and limited. It’s working great.
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How do you lift it? I see cutouts on the side - did you build arms as well? I’m fascinated (and tired of walking on litter)!
Also, definitely a Practical cuts
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Fantastic! A great solution and extremely practical. Well Done…
Nice job on that! And lucky you having cats willing to use pine litter. So tired of the clay…
I love cats! They taste just like chicken! … JK.
I got over cats a while back… shortly after them marking my shoes. 
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Seems like the gauge of what would be contributed by the cats would allow a larger sieve, but I think that is a great design.
Great picture by the way.
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The little black things on the end are handles. It’s still a bit of a work in progress as I figure out the best way to empty it. I split it in two and for now use tape as a hinge, but planned on adding real hinges eventually. I scoop the solids every day and when it’s time to empty everything, I just lift the tray out and dump. I was thinking I would be able to lift up one side of he tray and fold it over the other piece to keep the good pellets on top from falling out, but it’s not worth the effort to try and save them. A giant bag is like $6 from Tractor Supply so now I don’t bother trying to economize it. There are big feet on the bottom of the tray to keep it elevated. If I was to do it again, I’d try gluing little acrylic ledges to the side of the pan to keep it suspended as that’d probably be easier than feet. I’d also work on a taller handle maybe. But for a prototype, this works good enough that I haven’t wanted to cut the improved version I designed.
Right! I adore the pine litter and the odor has much improved. Cheap as heck too. It is kinda big though and I’m sure come cats wouldn’t like it.
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Aww, but this is not a poop sieve, it’s a pine pellet sieve! The pellets turn into sawdust when the get wet and as the cat scratches it falls through the tray. The solids stay on top, but the cat isn’t walking in wet litter.
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Excellent!
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They do not! More like teriyaki beef skewers 
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This is so brilliant! Any chance you’re sharing the specs? We just got a top entry box for our cat and use the pine litter, I’m was planning exactly this and thought to myself - I should check the forums. Lo and behold. The forums provide.
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This is an excellent design, and I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of a sift system + pine pellet litter. We’ve been doing the combo with the Tidy Cats Breeze Litter System boxes for over 10 years now. It’s designed to work with pellets that don’t dissolve, just absorb odor, and the liquid all falls onto an absorbent pad in the bottom tray. By using pine pellets and those pads together, urine smell is virtually nonexistent provided we stay on top of cleaning out sawdust and replacing the pads.
I’m not sure what you’re using for the pine pellets, but if it’s a product marketed for cat litter use, I almost guarantee you are paying too much. If you have a feed/farm store near you, check to see if they sell pellet horse bedding. It’s the exact same stuff for a fraction of the price. Our local place sells 40-lb bags for only $7.50. 
The only drawback I have ever noticed is that the pellets aren’t as uniformly cut as Feline Pine and other similar brands, so sometimes sifting them through the scoop is a bit tricky. But at that price, I just toss whatever doesn’t go through after 3-5 shakes. Best of all, the sawdust and pellets can go straight in the toilet with poop. No clogs or plumbing issues in over a decade of doing this.
As far as pads go, there is a compatible Amazon Basics version that is much cheaper than the name brand ones (and it’s an odd size for those kinds of pads). But if you incorporate pads into your system here, your dimensions may be big enough to accommodate standard “puppy pads”, or “chucks” as they are known in the human medical field. Those are insanely cheap and available everywhere.
Anyway, that’s all. Just reviving a 2-year-old thread to say all that. lol
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I know this thread is quite old, but I’m curious: have you ever attempted a gradual transition from clay to pine by mixing the two, and slowly phasing out the clay over time?
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I use either chicken feed (pellets, not crumble) or small animal bedding (wood shavings). Cheaper and environmentally friendly compared to clay litter. Added advantage is that I can bury it after mixing w/compost into an area that will be a flower bed in a few years. The poop gets flushed, the rest gets slowly recycled.
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Thanks, I’m glad you like it! I’m still using an updated version of the tray, but it’s basically the same. And great minds think alike, because somewhere buried in my comments is info about the $7 bag of pellets from Tractor Supply. 
(I even mention it being so cheap that I don’t worry about wasting any during clean-up lol.) And FWIW, I don’t use any pads at all, but I don’t have any urine smell. All the wet sawdust just falls through the tray as Wheezer scratches at it, and any little bit of odor that may escape the sawdust seems to be contained by the dry stuff that’s still on top of the tray. But, I only have one cat, and that’s probably a big factor too.
Here’s and updated pic Wheezer all grown up. (Because who would pass by the opportunity to show off their cat!)
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Unfortunately, when our girl Espana was a pup she assumed I designed this ‘kitty-rocha’ dispenser just for her. She climbed up onto a desk, over a computer, printer and all kinds off stuff to crawl into Wheezer’s crate to help herself. 
(We found feral Wheezer when he was around 4 weeks old and he was kept in an elevated dog crate during socialization, but he loved his little cat condo so much that it’s his now.)
,
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Omigod…I thought we were the only family that ever called it Kitty Rocha. 
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