Shaker Thumbs

We haven't had a Shaker Thumbs in more than a year (!), so we're long overdue. Shaker Thumbs is your opportunity to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to a product or service you have used and that you'd recommend to other Shakers or warn them away from.

I'm giving a big THUMBS UP to the Litter Spinner, which is advertised as the "world's greatest cat litter box," and I am inclined to agree!


The premise of the box is that is that you can manually roll it in the rounded base, and, during the revolution, the clumps get trapped in a slide-out drawer from which you can then easily remove the waste. The weight of the litter in the bottom of the barrel keeps it from spinning when the cats step in and out, so there's no danger of them getting injured or freaked out.

The Litter Spinner isn't automated, so there's no risk of your cat getting feetsies caught in any mechanism, and there are no electronic parts to break. There are no special bags or liners you need to buy. And unlike the litter boxes that roll on one side, this one rolls a complete revolution, so all the clumps make it into the disposal tray.

They are more expensive than traditional litter boxes, but less expensive than the mechanical ones. And after only a couple months of use, we're seeing how quickly it pays for itself in saved litter. We have to dump out the entirety of the Litter Spinner a lot less frequently. We also need one less box than we had before.

The cats took to them with no problem. They are super easy to put together and made from recycled materials. We really like them a lot.

The only not-perfect thing I've experienced with them is that if the litter goes over the "litter line" even a bit, some litter tends to spill out when you do the rotation. So we've had to vacuum up a little litter in front of the boxes, but we always needed to do that anyway, since our cats are slobs, lol. I've had cats who didn't drag out as much litter as ours tend to, though, so I wanted to give a heads-up about that.

It's been a really terrific solution for us, and I find them much easier to maintain than our old boxes, which required removing the lids, and repeatedly bending to scoop, which aggravated the chondritis in my ribcage. It's a lot more accommodating of back problems, too, and here's video of a guy talking about how the Litter Spinner is useful because of his visual impairment. It's a nifty little item!

So that's my review. Have at it in comments with your reviews, Shakers!