How to stop kitten pooing on our lawn!

[KnockMeDown]

We have 2 7 month old kittens, spayed, neutered etc. They have only been going out properly since their ops, just before Christmas. They currently share a litter tray, but long term I hoped that they would go outside - we have a huge field which our garden backs on to.

Recently I noticed that the girl had slightly runny poo, and I saw her pooing on the lawn in our back garden - I assumed she had been caught short.

But this morning I saw her do it again, so went outside to catch her and try to discourage her. Realised that she must be doing it regularly now, as there is a lot of shit out there!

How do I get her to stop or go the other side of the fence? I want my 5yr old DD to be able to go out in the garden without fear of what she might step in to.

Have done a bit of a search, but all of the answers assume that it is other people's cats.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[RobotMenu]

Can you put a litter tray in the field for now?

We're keeping a tray indoors no matter how much she goes outside.

[cozietoesie]

I'd be making sure, first-off, that she had acceptable indoor facilities - which means at least one extra tray, I fear. I've been blessed with a bunch of cats that prefer to do their duty inside but are also the sort of fusspots who definitely wouldn't use a tray that someone else was using. They all usually have two trays in fact to allow them to have a pee and a poo separately which they mostly like.

Do you have fresh earth beds which are properly dug over by the way? The weather at the moment is such, here, that all of my beds are crusty hard and soggy. No problem for me for the time being but if you had the same, she likely couldn't easily distinguish between lawn and beds.

[RubbishMantra]

Not helpful, but I thank the lucky stars mine are happy to share a tray. I have 2 trays, but they only ever used one. Sadly, this resulted in them killing my lavender and honeysuckle with their excretions. For some bizarre reason, they prefer to poo outside, but like using the (covered) tray for wees. Jasmine and roses seem particularly hardy to cat poo.

Ah well, cats vs lavender and honeysuckle - I'll take the cats, even though they seem to hate plant-life.

[RubbishMantra]

• I tried a spare one in the yard, but they ignored it, preferring to dig and fling my plants about. bastards

[djini]

No answers, I'm afraid, but place marking in case someone can solve this, because we have this problem too and it's rubbish.

I've got a 15 year old tortie who magnanimously decided a couple of years ago to poo in the middle of the lawn - and nowhere else. We think it's part of a quiet ongoing standoff with a local fox or other cats, and we've tried pretty much every natural remedy you can imagine, including DH scattering jam jars of his pee around the periphery, but no avail. The lawn is ruined. Whenever my DC want to play out in the garden, one of us has to go round with a shovel and a nappy bag and rubber gloves and do The Worst Job In The World, and even then I'm not happy about them playing there. Wish there was a way to stop it!

(OP you're right - all solutions I've read assume it's neighbouring cats that are the problem and you want to stop them going in the garden at all. I don't want to stop my tortie from being outside, but I'd like her to poo in her litter tray or outside the garden (even in the flowerbeds would be just about tolerable).

[Icequeen01]

Our cats will sometimes poo on the lawn in the winter months. I think it's as simple as they prefer using the long grass than going on the muddy soil. It's not nice and drives us mad but they seem to stop as soon as the better weather comes and DH keeps the lawn cut short.

[Varya]

A friend said she used to spray cats with vinegar to persuade them to use a different place to poo.

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

We have a small backyard with a raised seating/plants area filled with small pebbles. One of our (mostly indoor) cats has been persistently crapping there all winter despite having 3 nice regularly cleaned litter trays inside. Can't tell which cat as there's no window overlooking the pebbles. Hope to god it stops in the summer

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

And our yard has 6' walls all round & no intruders to my knowledge

Just one infuriating resident cat