Doing What It Needs To, The Petmate Hooded Litter Pan Works!

The Good: It fits both Elim and Timber, Easy to clean, Durable, Affordable
The Bad: Comparatively large footprint.
The Basics: Having two cats has necessitated a third litterbox and the Petmate Hooded Litter Pan is an excellent addition for our cats!


Not long ago, our newer rescue cat, Elim, began giving us unfortunate surprises around the house. He is a longhaired cat and in our first year of having him as a member of the family, we would occasionally find cat poop around the house. It was always in such small quantities that we easily assumed that Elim just had the occasional piece of poop stuck to his hair near his butt when he left the litterbox and tracked it out of the box. Recently, though, we were surprised (read "appalled") to find greater quantities of poop from Elim in weird places (halfway up a wall was arguably the most surprising and unfortunate). So, despite a year of generally good bathroom behavior, the sudden, new issue, led us to get a third litterbox (the general rule for cats is that one should have a litterbox for each cat plus one). Despite the lack of a lot of room in our apartment, we went with the Petmate Hooded Litter Pan for our new litterbox.

The Petmate Jumbo Hooded Litter Pan seemed like a good fit for us as we wanted a litterbox that would afford our cats some privacy and would leave less of a mess. As a hooded litterbox, the Petmate Hooded Litter Pan works to prevent cats from flinging litter out of the box. As well, the top on the litterbox prevents Elim from leaping on Timber when he is in the litterbox, which is a good thing given how Elim does not have much in the way of boundaries for play.

The Petmate Hooded Litter Pan is an 18” wide, 22” long, 19” tall litterbox, when the hood is on it. There is a vent on the top of the hood and a simple mesh filter that slips into the vent. This prevents litterdust from coming out the bulk of the litterbox when cats try to bury their waste. There is also a handle on the top of the hood of the Petmate Jumbo Hooded Litter Pan, which allows the user to easily transport the litterbox from one room to another. This is a good thing because part of the appeal of the hooded litterbox is that it will allow less litter to escape, so it encourages people to use the litterbox in rooms other than the bathroom.

Because of the rather large footprint of the Jumbo Hooded Litter Pan, we use ours in one of the rooms that is carpeted and it has worked perfectly to keep litter (and cats using the box) contained! Unfortunately, because of the ridiculously large size of this litterbox, we must use it in a room other than the bathroom - there is just not enough floor space in our bathroom for us to place the litterbox and sit on the toilet!

The hood for the Petmate Jumbo Hooded Litter Pan is easy enough to use; there are grooves on the sides of the litterbox that the top of the hood slides into. Then, simply push the sides of the top into the tab on the bottom and the hood locks on. After a few weeks of use, the top remains strong enough to carry the litterbox using the handle from one room to another, even when it is full of litter. I'm wary of it regardless, because if the top does come off, the litterbox detaching will make quite a mess. That said, the only way we've been able to get the top off so far is pressing the release buttons on either side of the base to release the top.

This is a very easy-to-use litterbox and after weeks of use, the litter pan portion seems to remain unscratched. The cats have been burying their waste pretty consistently, but the pan appears to be durable enough to resist their scratching, which is pretty great.

As well, the Petmate Jumbo Hooded Litter Pan is very easy to clean; our scoopable litter does not stick to the sides or bottom excessively. This is a good litterbox for multiple cats, even if it does take up quite a bit of space.

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

7/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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