Tom cat repellent?

Surbybird

I have an unpleasant problem and need advice, please.

I have recently moved into a house where there have been no cats in the past. I bought my two with me, had a cat flap installed for them and noticed that every morning when we get up and every evening when I get home from work there is a strong smell of urine in my kitchen. We sat and watched through the window one day late at night and saw a large tom cat coming into the house, eating the cat food that is out for our cats and then spraying the ktichen for good measure.

I have asked around and nobody wants to claim ownership of this filthy tom so I need to know what I can do to deter him. In addition to being sick of feeding someone else's cat and having mine terrorised by it (he is twice the size of my two and very aggressive) I am totally fed up with bleaching my kitchen twice a day to clean up where he has sprayed urine.

We've tried chucking buckets of water over him (he was back the next day), used every cat repellent that we can find and short of confining our cats to the house (which is impractical as they are 14 years old and have always been outdoors cats), I don't know what else to do.

Any suggestions? I need something that deters him but doesn't impact on my own two! My ex said that I should poison it or shoot it but I am not that cruel. Yet.

And why don't people just have their pets neutered?

benjo

Ok, dont poison it and dont shoot it or, well, karma baby.;)

Options that wont see you roasting in kitty hell....

You can buy a spray from many high street hardware stores, havent tried it myself but a friend tells me it works.

Go to a local vet/cat protection league, explain the feral cat problem, many local vets participate in schemes to neuter feral animals for free, they usually give you a trap, advise you how to use it, once you capture the offending moggie take it off to the vet and voila... two blue bricks later and your problems are solved, fetch the now docile moggie and release it back into your garden.

Change your catflap for one of those clever thingies that only opens when a cat wearing a clever collar climbs through - cats without clever collars dont get in (in theory - never used em myself).

Goodluck fettling your stinky moggie visitor.

Surbybird

benjo wrote: »

Go to a local vet/cat protection league, explain the feral cat problem, many local vets participate in schemes to neuter feral animals for free, they usually give you a trap, advise you how to use it, once you capture the offending moggie take it off to the vet and voila... two blue bricks later and your problems are solved, fetch the now docile moggie and release it back into your garden.

Unfortunately he is not feral and is impossible to catch - we tried! The plan was that we'd lock him in our shed and put notices through the neighbours doors inviting his owners to come and collect him, as which point we'd hand them our bleach bill and demand that he went off to the vets for castrating. I might speak to the CPL and see if they can recommend a trap though.

benjo wrote: »

Change your catflap for one of those clever thingies that only opens when a cat wearing a clever collar climbs through - cats without clever collars dont get in (in theory - never used em myself).

We had one of those before and they got through half a dozen collars in a week! One of our cats is a regular Houdini and won't keep a collar on so it's not an option for us now.

Thanks for the suggestion about the trap though. I'll look into that.

benjo

I would say if nobody owns the cat and he is reluctant to be caught - that is feral enough for me and since nobody is taking responsibility to stop him breeding (and peeing in your kitchen) then somebody should.

Regarding catching him, the vets/cats protection places should give you a trap and tell you how to use it. It doesnt hurt the cats, but I suspect you will have to decant your own cats from the trap many times before you get your boy.

Goodluck

RacyRed

Have you considered changing your cat flap to one that is operated by your own cats' microchips? They are called pet porte and there is a thread about them HERE

Try spraying water over him with a plant sprayer while hissing and growling at him whenever you can until you get something more permanent sorted out.

nanokitten

You could always get a dog! I second the pet porte. There's another one (got the offer through when my cat was microchipped but can't think what it's called). You could aslo consider keeping yours in at night and opening the flap in the morning (many people belive cats should be kept in at night especially during the winter).

Surbybird

RacyRed wrote: »

Have you considered changing your cat flap to one that is operated by your own cats' microchips? They are called pet porte and there is a thread about them HERE.

That's excellent! Thank you. I will make enquiries today. I'd never heard of it before but it may be the answer to my problem.

Kate

Surbybird

nanokitten wrote: »

You could always get a dog! I second the pet porte. There's another one (got the offer through when my cat was microchipped but can't think what it's called). You could aslo consider keeping yours in at night and opening the flap in the morning (many people belive cats should be kept in at night especially during the winter).

Eeek! No thanks, to the dog idea! I can't stand them! However, I am going to look at the Pet Porte, which sounds like it could be the answer. As my old girls are getting on a bit and they are used to being out at night and sleeping all day I don't think I could keep them in, as they have a habit of howling if locked in the house (as I discovered when we moved and didn't have the cat flap for the first 2 weeks we were there!).

Surbybird

Nile wrote: »

Hello Surbybird

I'll move your thread to the 'Pets & Pet Care' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Regards

Nile

Thanks, Nile.

Kate