With Growth In Our Family, We Upgrade To The Sterilite 1303 Litterbox!

The Good: It fits Gollum and Timber, Comparatively inexpensive, Durable
The Bad: Easily scratched
The Basics: With the addition of Timber to our family, we upgraded the litterbox to the Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox and they are much happier about it!


Last week, rather out of the blue, my family grew by one. My wife, who has been recovering from the trauma of her favorite place in the world closing (that’s not sarcastic; it was one of the big reasons we moved to Michigan and a place she has loved since her teenage years), began working on an art project/fundraiser for the local animal shelter. That was how she got me to break my rule of no going to pet stores or animal shelters with her (she is something of an impulse buyer). Well, rather predictably (yes, I felt stupid), she found a rescue cat that melted her heart and she absolutely wanted to buy. I am not entirely convinced that the purchase of Timber was not just to give her some company for when I was at the Janis Ian concert (reviewed here!) she was sending me to, whatwith Myah being more work and Gollum being emotionally reticent to her. So, she bought a rescue cat, a three year-old calico we have since named Timber (his full name is Timbers On The Cut River 2 Swarts, but he goes by Timber) and we have since been adapting to the changes of having a young cat to torment our eight year-old black cat Gollum and five year-old Siberian Husky, Myah.

Timber’s presence has forced us to upgrade from the Pureness CP1 Medium Cat Litter Pan (reviewed here!) to a larger litterbox. For our new two-cat household, for four dollars, Gollum and Timber now share a Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox.

The Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox is an 15 1/4” wide, 18 1/2” long, 5 1/4” deep litterbox and the added length seems to be what is helping Timber hit his mark more often than not. Ours is blue, slightly pearlescent plastic and holds a decent amount of Cat’s Pride Scoopable Litter (reviewed here!), which Gollum likes. Made in America, the Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox is coded as a #5 plastic for recycling, though I imagine it will be quite some time before ours gets to the point where that matters! It is a clean, smooth, relatively stylish litter pan that easily fits either one of our ten pound cats at a time.

In fact, the only real drawback I could find to the Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox is that it is not especially strong. Timber and Gollum, like many cats, scratch when they bury their poop and urine-soaked litter. Already, I’ve noticed several surprisingly deep scratches in the surface of their Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox already.

That said, the Sterilite 1303 Marina Cat Litterbox is very easy to clean; our scoopable litter does not stick to the sides or bottom excessively. This is a good litterpan for larger cats or training new cats when one wants to get a cat used to a new location for bathrooming.

For other cat care products, please visit my reviews of:
Sport Pet Designs Pop Open Kitty Play Cube
Hartz Angry Birds Running Bird Cat Toy
Cat litter scoop

6/10

For other cat products, please be sure to visit my Pet Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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