Frequently Asked Questions

No, and we say so on every page that recommends something. We have no test lab and no units in hand. What we do instead is compile the published specifications, read the manuals, and do the arithmetic on what this gear costs to run -- with every sum shown so you can redo it.

No. Nothing on this site is medically reviewed. Where a question is medical we cite and link to the Cornell Feline Health Center or the Ohio State Indoor Pet Initiative rather than answering it ourselves.

Sawyer V., an enthusiast who reads the manuals, compiles the published specs and does the math. There is no team of reviewers and no expert panel -- one person, a lot of manufacturer PDFs and a spreadsheet.

Affiliate commission. If you buy through a link here, the retailer pays us a share of the sale at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. No brand has paid for placement and we accept no free products.

No. Where two products are close and one pays more, we link the one that is better for the reader, and where Amazon is cheaper than a higher-paying alternative we link Amazon. Every roundup also names at least one product we would not buy.

Because we only print a price we have verified within the last 48 hours. Beyond that the number disappears rather than showing you something that may be out of date. It is the same reason we never print a price from memory.

Because the manufacturer does not publish that figure. We could estimate it from a similar product, and we will not -- an invented number would look identical on the page to a sourced one. A visible blank is a finding, not an oversight.

Our own figure: the shortest base dimension divided by the height, multiplied by the assembled weight -- all three published on the listing. Higher is harder to tip. It is a shopping heuristic rather than a physics simulation, and we label it as ours every time it appears.

Email info@perchandpurr.com with the page and the figure, and ideally where the correct number comes from. We can check a manufacturer's page in a minute, so a source turns a message into a fix the same day.

One more than the number of cats. The Cornell Feline Health Center recommends 'an adequate number of litter boxes, usually one more than the number of cats in the household', and the Ohio State Indoor Pet Initiative states the same rule. Two cats need three boxes; three cats need four.

Physically yes, and many do. But it is below the published guidance and it removes the margin that keeps the arrangement working when one box is occupied, guarded or unpleasant. Sharing works until it suddenly does not.

For three or more cats, often. For one cat, rarely on cost -- a machine plus consumables against two plain pans. And an automatic box is one box: it does not replace the one-per-cat-plus-one rule, it fills one of those slots.

Electricity is negligible -- the Litter-Robot's published supply spec caps at 15 W, which is $24.10 a year even running continuously. The consumables are the cost: roughly $228 a year for a Litter-Robot with three cats, and roughly $882 a year for a PetSafe ScoopFree, both at the makers' own listed prices.

About $105 a year for a PETLIBRO stainless fountain on published figures -- $8.03 of electricity and $97.44 of filters. The filters cost roughly twelve times the power, which is the opposite of how the category is usually described.

The Ohio State Indoor Pet Initiative reports that most cats prefer fine-grained, unscented litter, and that many are deterred by scented or deodorant products. That rules out a surprising amount of what is marketed on odor control.

Usually urine soaked into scratches in the plastic, which scooping cannot reach, or simply too much waste in too few boxes. The published guidance is to scoop daily and wash weekly with mild dish detergent -- and to have one more box than you have cats.

Taller than your cat's full stretch, which for a large domestic cat is around 30 inches. Most retail posts are about 20 inches, which is why the cat goes back to the sofa arm -- the sofa is tall enough and the post is not.

Sisal on the posts. A carpet-covered post teaches a cat that carpeted vertical surfaces are for scratching, and your stairs and sofa back are carpeted vertical surfaces. Carpet or plush is fine on the platforms, where the cat lies rather than scratches.

Most often placement -- wrong room, no view, or a dead-end corner it can be cornered in. After that, instability: a tree that rocks under a landing cat gets abandoned. Try moving it next to a window in the room you actually sit in before concluding anything.

Anything sudden is a veterinary question first, because pain changes behavior. After that, much of what looks like aggression is resource competition -- one cat controlling access to a box, a bowl or the only high place. Adding and separating resources addresses it where correcting a cat does not.

You cannot tell from behavior alone, and neither can we. Over-grooming, appetite changes, litter box avoidance and sudden vocalizing all have medical explanations as well as behavioral ones. Anything sudden or escalating goes to a vet before it goes on a shopping list.