Help!cats using my garden as a loo (merged threads)

pastmybest

Well I have read most of this thread and tried some of the suggestions but none of which have worked!!! In fact we are now getting daily dog c-rap as well as cat c-rap. So I have now planted plant tie sticks at 3" centres about 3" out of the ground and it does seem to be working but early days.

I learnt after the first day the cats will try and knock the sticks over so I needed to put them in deeper and more solidly which took longer but if it works - thank goodness!!

It amuses us the way people walk by and stop now as they are trying to work out why we have so many sticks coming from the bare soil areas.

morg_monster

I also stuck green sticks in all parts of my raised bed where there was more than a few inches of bare soil. Our own two cats are little darlings and don't really dig (they kind of shimmy about a bit to get a dip to lie in...) but there's another neighbourhood cat who was digging in the bed - not to poo, as there was nothing there, just a big hole! You do have to stick them down quite far so they can't just push them over but it does work well. Unfortunately its also somewhat awkward to work around but hey ho it doesn't take long to pull the sticks out and push back in at the end of a gardening session. It seemed the best solution for us as we didn't want to drive our own cats out of the garden or put down anything that would be unpleasant for them.

Oh and before anyone has a go, our cats poo mostly in the litter tray but also in just one part of our garden which is set aside for this purpose and dug over regularly. I have been known to count the poos to make sure they aren't doing them anywhere else... they have very regular bowels :-)
And it definitely wasn't our "darling" cats digging the bed as it happened overnight when they are shut inside!

gatita

I asked an old Gardener friend what he did about the cats messing in his garden. He said he had tried everything and the only thing that works is to place bottles of water where the cats go!!!!! Willing to try anything I gave it a go never thinking in a million years it would work, but it DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It isn't going to cost you anything, so give it a go.

george2000

orange peel works...cats hate it :j

cherry76

Try moth balls, smell not nice & not safe if you have got children.

itisme

Hi there,

I think it should be made law that all cat owners have a cat litter box
in their house or garden, and the cat should be trained
to use it.

Don't get me wrong, I love cats and miss not having one, but I've
spent age's picking it up from my front garden, it seems like everyone
around here owns a cat, their are so many.

morg_monster

itisme, the problem is, which is the same problem at the root of all these problems with cats & gardens, you can't control what the cat does. If your cat is allowed outside, even if it has a lovely litter tray in the house, there's a chance it will poo outside. And if it decides it wants to poo outside, its very hard / impossible to get it to use the litter tray regularly again. (an outdoor covered tray, as you say, or set aside toilet area in the flowerbed, like we have, is a good option). Once a cat is used to the freedom of the great outdoors it can be quite distressing to the cat to be kept inside against its will. its all a matter of balance though; and there are usually solutions to be found; unfortunatley as is the case with many animal issues (eg annoying barking & other undesirable behaviour), the solutions usually involve a lot of time, effort and patience which many people don't have :-(

som

What I really need is something that can be chucked in the cat owners gardens that will make the cats poop there? Any suggestions.

Trying to deter cats is a nightmare, they walk past the sonic detector things. Poo next to the green gel and although I used enough organic deterrent to apparently cover a footie pitch worked, it only worked until it rained. We've got veg patches a kid and pets, but spending money all the time clearing up after others starts to annoy after a while.

Sue-UU

som wrote: »

What I really need is something that can be chucked in the cat owners gardens that will make the cats poop there? Any suggestions.

You'll be hard pushed to find anything to chuck next door to entice the cats to mess on their own patch........

......though I could think of something I'd be sorely tempted to chuck there. My hubby is always throwing next door's cats mess back from whence it came - though please spare as there are SEVEN of the little bu@@ers AND another litter about 2 weeks old!!!!! :mad:

Get a dog, or borrow someone else's for a few hours so it marks the territory - it's scent is NOT appreciated by cats.

Please though everyone, DON'T buy a dog unless you REALLY want to love one!

All the best, Sue

ali-t

I have slate chips in my front garden and this morning as I was opening the door to go back in the house after walking the dogs they were having a snuffle round the chips which is highly unusual. A cat had pooped in them and one of my dogs was eating the poo. I am absolutely raging that I have to spend Sunday morning cleaning cat !!!! off my dogs teeth as those creatures won't poo in their own gardens.