To not want neighbours cats in my garden?

Two brothers from the same litter, around 12 weeks old when we got them, I put collars on them both. One decided that he was absolutely not going to be wearing a collar and took it off almost immediately, his brother wasn't bothered by his in the slightest. Collarless kitten however was not going to have his brother wearing such an atrocity and removed his as well. I did try again on several occasions but let's just say it was futile!

Genuine answer. You keep inside, or build a cat run. Or YOU go to the trouble and expense of cat proofing someone else’s garden, or setting up motion sprinklers. Has anyone suggested lion poo yet? 🙄

Get a dog.

????
& you don't think that will be a lot more work than deterring the neighbours cats??

🤣🤣🤣

@Rainbow3210

the neighbours doesn't have indoor cats. Cats have the legal right to roam, it's down to you to prevent them coming in to your garden if that's what you want.

there are plenty of options on line fir you to try, but I would definitely not allow your children to use supersoakers etc, it's not good to teach them that kind of thing. I wouldn't use one either as the pressure of them could hurt a cat.

your kids enjoy them visiting, what harm are they really doing?

I am 100% not advocating for this as I'm sure it's terribly distressing and not great for the animals, but where I grew up you'd never have a strange pet in your garden - cats were indoors or kept within their own property with either a fence or an electric collar thing. I KNOW this isn't good for them but it's what I was used to so it was a surprise when we got our first house here to just find all sorts of random cats and cat leavings all over our garden. We had to go through the garden every single morning before my daughter could go play for years - now the kids are old enough to deal with it themselves thankfully but it was very, very annoying.

I really hate how I can't leave the doors open without finding a cat inside. We have a couple rooms in the house that have doors and no windows and they get really stuffy in the summer. I don't complain to our neighbours and I know there's nothing to be done but it's still very irritating so I do understand how this would be frustrating.

Urban (housing estates) areas are not a natural ecosystem by any means - and the impact of humans and their hobbies, pets and lifestyles become part of it; the rubbish bins being a food source for a variety of species, ponds and flower beds supporting insects and invertebrates, etc.

So, cats in urban areas are very much part of this unnatural ecosystem, such as it is. Where I live, there are a large number of cats, which will kill a fair amount of birds, mice, frogs etc. Yet the number of birds, especially, never seems to decline, same with frogs and mice. So it could be reasonably thought that there's a good prey-predator balance - remember also, that these lovely 'wild' animals are all doing their own killing along the way.

So roaming household cats, supported by law, are unlikely to be decimating bird. mice or frog populations, unless something else has changed to unbalance them.

As for them annoying us humans, a well-aimed super-soaker, consistently applied, will deter most cats eventually.

Add to that, it wasn't their cats shit, you are wrong it was definitely a fox. It was ALWAYS a fox. Because cats are SOOOO CLEEEEEEEEAN

Even though their cat made intense awkward eye contact with you whilst shitting in your flower pot, and cat shit and fox shit aren't even that similar!

Honestly this is why I don't think people should have cats as pets! I really do like them but they cause so much destruction to wildlife and like you we have tons coming into our garden, more than I can even count. We constantly have to shoo them away before they start pooing and we recently went away for a couple of weeks and I had to go out to the garden and clear up 30 cat poos before my kids could go out and play! I don't even know if I got it all as we keep a few areas of longer grass for wildlife

Cats 🐈 😻 are free spirits. I don't really think there's much their people can do.

We had cats in our garden when we moved in. I throw a large bottle of water and soaked one. They never come in now. Throwing the water near them won’t work.
I’m an animal lover, but I didn’t want cat shit all over my garden.

We understand you don’t like the cats in your house and garden. But what you haven’t said is what do you expect your neighbours to do about it?

What do you expect the neighbours to do actually. Cats have their own set of rules and don’t tend to listen to humans very well

Genuine question - what would you like your neighbours to do? Seriously.

If you have very young children, you have to be careful with high pitched noises as they can often hear them. A friend got one of these for their vegetable patch. It stop the cats but their teenager complained. The younger the child, the more high pitched sounds they can hear.

how do you propose the neighbour is stopping the cats from coming? Having a word with them?

I totally understand it is annoying but ultimately, loads of people keep cats who go outdoors and if you have a garden, it's just part of that garden package that you may get cats.

There are battery operated sonic devices. I would get one of those. Cats don't like the noise bit the frequency is too high for human ears. We did that when we had a similar issue. But it's today bonkers to expect the neighbour to stop them coming.

Given your user name, I am not surprised.
You can just throw footballs back. They are not nasty and smelly and they don’t kill birds.

We sprinkled vinegar everywhere when we first moved in and that, along with the our kids often playing in the garden, seems to have deterred them from using our garden as their toilet

I rather have cats jumping in my garden instead of kids footballs.

Cats are legally protected to roam, just a part of life. Nothing any owner can do so down to you.

Your DH should aim for them and give them a soaking, especially as weather is warm. Or scatter used filtered coffee grounds around the bird bush.

Cats are legally protected to roam, just a part of life. Nothing any owner can do so down to you.

Your DH should aim for them and give them a soaking, especially as weather is warm. Or scatter used filtered coffee grounds around the bird bush.

Because they’re a whole different species? You can’t train a cat like you can a dog!

Do you have high fence panels all round your own garden? Just cat proof it yourself.

Buy 3ft high mesh fencing with holes small enough that a cat cant get through. I have stout plastic covered mesh with big gaps but still not big enough a cat can get through.

Attach to the side of the fence with screws and washers or horizontal batons of wood so it’s sticking up by two feet. Bend over the two feet so it’s a horizontal L shape with no support right along the length of your fence at the same height as the top of your fence.

Alternatively bend it into the L shape before attaching to the fence. Whatever’s easiest for you.

It should stay like that. If a cat tries to climb down it, it will bend and the cat will change its mind as it feels it will fall. Nothing gets in. Nothing gets out. Except wildlife. Bend the fence into the right position if it does bend in the wind or a big cat decides to try it’s luck.

Mines held for over a year. No visitors and my own feline has stayed in as the overhang is on our side so it’s defo not escaping.

Don’t grow nepeta

Scatter chillies

Squirt with water

You are ignoring the easy fix

You need to squirt them with water every time they come in your garden.

Well that's the law.

I really feel for you, OP. I can't believe the way that people just shrug and say "That's the way it is". On some threads you even get people coming on and saying that no-one should be planting anything in their garden that could upset a cat's stomach, just in case a cat gets in there. Well, this is where I will reply with a shrug and say "not my problem, that's the way it is."

I am sick of kneeling down to do some weeding in my garden and finding cat shit in the beds. It absolutely stinks, and what am I supposed to do with it? Why should I have to clear it up? Also there is quite often a smell of cat piss by our front door, turns my stomahc.

I've lost count of the number of plants that have been ruined by cats wandering over them squashing them or lying on them.