Is there a way to prevent cats using your garden as a toilet?

[Chickpeasorchips]

Fed up with clearing up my neighbour's cat's poo. I don't mind the cat itself obviously but is there anything I can do to prevent my garden being the cat loo?

Chilli powder works.

Do you have the style of gardening that has a plant then a bare area of soil, then another plant?

Cats look at bare soil and think oh great, a toilet.

I cover bare earth with uneven chicken wire or any other mesh, I cover seedlings and young plants with larger-spaced grids like square plant supports, basically anything that allows the plant to grow through it but doesn't allow a cat to scrabble and dig to bury what they've done.

Do NOT get your own cat FFS.
I despair at all the comments suggesting this.
I grew up with cats, so did DH and we used to have our own cat together and they ALL used to toilet in their own gardens!

My own front garden has always been popular with cats, at least two toms and 4 females/neutered (plus our own previous cat) are/were regularly seen in there.
I don’t think most cats are anywhere close to as territorial as most people think.

Covering a lot of my garden in large stone chips has helped, I don’t see or smell any evidence of toileting.
The rest of my garden is fairly densely planted so I don’t tend to encounter much mess there either.

The two toms do like to spray areas sometimes though which is way worse than poo!
At least with poo you bag it and it’s gone, Tom cat urine has some impressive staying power.

I would say, try and plant as densely as you can leaving no bare earth and/or use large gravel chips, none of that fine pea gravel stuff!
Large, weighty chips.

Getting a large dog helped. Not seen a cat since.

@MrsDThomas

Chilli powder works.

I used to use it. Just don't spread it around in gale force winds 😬

I agree with a PP the "get off" gel is excellent.

I've had 5 cats over the years. They have all shite in my garden or their litter tray. So the whole get your own cat comments are just pointless

@PigletJohn

cats watch the dog from on top of the fence. When it has yapped enough and is taken inside, they jump down into the garden.

We have three cats living round me and they all go in other peoples gardens. They don’t step a foot in my garden.

Male urine……. I talked DH into peeing into bottles then would errrr sprinkle the garden with it. You need to clean up all the poo and ideally clean the area. If you can get those wooden kebab sticks, stick them in the ground and wind some thread around the sticks, they don’t like it.

The suggestion of get your own cat always makes me laugh. Make life technically easier for yourself but cause some other poor sod a load of stress instead. Lovely.

@PigletJohn

yes, but you might not like it.

cat's are territorial and tend not to poo in their own gardens.

they are also fairly polite and tend not to poo in their neighbours' gardens.

Obviously they only recognise and respect ownership by cats.

So a garden that is not owned and occupied by a cat is vacant ground, not deserving of cat respect.

Get your own cat.

Or befriend a neighbor's cat so it feels at home in your garden and will warn off intruders.

Trust me, I've a cat and I still have them squatting in my pots.

Lots and lots of poky things so they won't squat should do it. Like plant markers upside down.

All the posters advocating poky bits so they won't squat, in my last but one house, I had to have the chimney taken down as it was unsafe. I saw a cat squatting in the rubble that had been left in the corner of the yard til the builders took it away! It must have been so uncomfortable..

Honestly, just bite the bullet like we did and cat proof your garden.

It's made a huge difference.

@SpindleWhorl

Honestly, just bite the bullet like we did and cat proof your garden.

It's made a huge difference.

I've cat proofed my garden to keep them in. Neighbour's cat can still get into the garden. Just means we have to let him out via the gate.

I’m in the same position OP. Right by my front door too. Absolutely sick to death of it. It’s no different to dog poo and we don’t let dogs poo and not clear it up. I’ve tried everything and yet they still shxx there daily. Buckets of water thrown at them if I see them doing it,

I can only suppose that cats are not all the same.

It works for me.

@MoseSchrute

Male urine……. I talked DH into peeing into bottles then would errrr sprinkle the garden with it. You need to clean up all the poo and ideally clean the area. If you can get those wooden kebab sticks, stick them in the ground and wind some thread around the sticks, they don’t like it.

This is how we got rid of foxes . We sprinkled the edges of the garden with male urinr

Has anyone tried citronella?

Owners should really ensure they have two things... an indoor litter box and an area in their own gardens where the cats are encouraged to go such as some loose soil, ect. I think if people did this it would reduce the number of complaints significantly. I love cats.

@catswhiskers89

Owners should really ensure they have two things... an indoor litter box and an area in their own gardens where the cats are encouraged to go such as some loose soil, ect. I think if people did this it would reduce the number of complaints significantly. I love cats.

Mine have litter trays and loads of gravel outside. They all use my garden. Can't say they never use someone else's, but I think it's mostly mine.

Cat defenders x 2 from Argos. Worth every penny. Make sure all garden covered we haven't had any cat shit since we put them in in January. All our neighbors have been asking about them because said kitty cat is now shitting in their gardens