to not expect b*^£"rd cats to use my garden as a toilet??

[lucyellensmum]

I know i am being unreasonable, cats will be cats but since our dog died we have done our garden for the baby to play in and now it is full of cat shit. i'll paste this in gardening to see if there are any child friendly cat detterants on the market. I know about lion poo but the zoo here wont give it out anymore (health and safety!)

Cat owners? would you be horribly offended if someone knocked on your door, having never spoken to you before (newish neighbours) and asked if your cats had worms, i am worried about the health implications and could easily get them some wormers.

Gardeners - any child safe, veggie plot safe cat detterants - that work?

trice because there is no way to rpevent a cat wandering- with a dog (and I love and have owned both) fences do the trick normally (I say normally as I remember the Irish Wolfhound at the family my sister used to Nanny for...) but a cat just goes over the top. Or through. Or over the shed, or out the window. Short of keeping them in- which is only fine for cats who have been kept as house cats since birth- there is no choice.

Both of mine go out, it took 6 months to get Tripod to that stage but he will go in the garden and sit in the dog kennel or the sun. Lily however wanders up and down the road begging cudles off passing strangers.

"Cats will be cats" True but in some other countries cats aren't granted the 'right to roam' that cats are here and people are allowed to trap nuisance cats. I assume the owners then have to pay a fee to have the cat released. At least that causes some inconvenience to the owner and they might try to train the cat to use a litter tray or keep the cat in at night.

lucyellensmum I would rather you knocked on my door & explained your concerns. tenalady there must a hundred of cats shitting in your garden. I have two & it's never smelt of shit.
If one of my cats shits in our back garden and it's too lazy cover it up we clear it up if it hasn't been buried. If we see them in our neighbours gardens we chase them. If any person tried to poison one of my cats I would very
lucyellensmum it could be a stray?
Also one of our next door neighbour has sonic motion sensor which when triggered emits a high sound (too high for humans) which cats don't like. I am not offended by this is the slightest not everyone loves cat. We have a cat flap so they can come & go & I am certainly not keeping them in the house 24 hours a day.

EHM - We only have one or two offenders pooing in our garden. Honestly, one turd poorly covered and the garden reeks for the rest of the day.

Do those noise things really work?

But how are you suposed to stop them wandering? Its all very wells aying 'youa re allowed to trap them' but you need a solution, and also to the thousands of cats that would be abandoned rather than the owners having the hassle.

Also, as ours are litter trained, how can the neighbours tell which poo is ourcats or another cats? And should we be punished for other cats owners?

I don't know Peachy. It's sad to me that I live d in the most densely populated city in England and the woman a few doors away kept 4 cats. It seems like a ridiculous choice of pet for a very built up urban area.

I honestly would not mind if my garden was 100ft long but it's about 20ft by 30ft so every single little piece of crap in my garden is a nuisance to me and my family. Why should the cats have more rights than us?!

I hope all these cats that people love so much have bells on their collars to try to stop them killing so many wild birds.

I feed the birds and a couple of cats love to hide near my bird feeder, in my garden. Why is this acceptable?

Is it just because it's got fur, it's rated higher than an creature with feathers?

ekra the noise thing does appear to work, my cats don't go into their garden they scale the fence around it. I love cats, but I love my dd more & if I thought for one minute they would harm her or any other little one I would want to do something about it. They do have bells on their collars, sadly although they are domesticated they still have the instinct to catch birds/mice.

One of mine has a collar, the other one hasn't since he was found dangling from our tree by it, he hurts himself trying to get it off.

I don't think its the fur over the birds, its nature. One of mine doesn't hunt anyway 9and before you say Oh I bet he does... remember he is missinga front limb so cant jump up or sneak up). The other does, but its not really birds- its mainly mice.

Wasn't there a survey recently after people said that cats were causing a huge downturn in the bird population, that showed it was related to a hge increase in the number of magpies in actuality?

I dont think cats have any right, but its wrong to deliberately poison or hurt an animal. For your own food is one thing: because you dont like it is another! I am phobic of snakes, but when I have come across them (hailing from close to the Somerset levels) i have never ahrmed one.

I also wonder why we, as Humans, can assume to divvy up the planet we share with all living things between us, call it 'ours' and then refuse access to other species who had no say in the system. Seems a bit weird.

I see your point wrt your last sentence but using that argument we'd all have to be happy with dog owners not pciking up their dog's poo when they go on the pavement.

Not really, because I'd be quite happy to clean up after my cats if I was asked, but if Ijust climbed over the fence into your property I'd be trespassing

Whereas dog poo is usually in a shared space where the owner has access. Dogs are (or should be) also supervised when out and about, whereas cats aren't

But as I said, if you knocked on my door and said there was a problem i'd be happy to clear it up.

I reckon it's all a case of getting a balance - allowing each species its rights whilst bearing in mind how it impinges on another - and taking steps where possible to limit that. Like cleaning up after your dog, or taking steps to prevent your cats messing in other people's gardens. Yes, it's impossible to stop them wandering, but if they're trained right from the start that they can't go out after dusk (which is the riskiest time for bird-catching), they may (allowing for exceptions) get used to the routine of only going out during the day.

My cats vary in habit - and appearance - you wouldn't think they were siblings. Jess the tom always showed an interest in going out, Pixie his sister is a homebody. They were house cats for 4 years as we were in a flat, planning to move, and I didn't want them to get used to their territory if we were due to move to a different one. However, Jess tended to bolt outside whenever he got the chance. Our new house has a cat flap, which I lock at dusk and open after breakfast. Both cats seem content with this. Jess likes going out but doesn't wander far because he's had several run-ins with an aggressive mog who's literally thrown himself at the back door to try to get at Jess (for a boy, he's very placid and never hisses or scratches). I have been known to chase this cat up the garden in my dressing gown, wielding the potato peeler that was in my hand when he attacked Jess and screaming 'I'll swing for you!!!' Hope none of you are my neighbours !

Pixie likes to go out when I'm out, but views the flap dubiously and prefers to have the door opened for her - pity she hasn't met the bully - she scratches and hisses with a vengeance!

As for the birds, maybe it's because they've been house cats and therefore voyeaurs most of their lives, but mine sit and watch birds walking about on the grass or using the feeder, but I've never seen them try to stalk one. The only thing they've ever caught was a mouse back in our old flat. Or maybe it's because they don't get to go out at dusk. Either way, I seem to be able to run a bird-friendly garden and have my cats. I just wish it wasn't such a cat friendly garden for the neighbours! The good thing about all this rain is that there are fewer cats about. Otherwise they've loved all the freshly turned soil from my gardening efforts and nearly killed on of my newly planted bleeding hearts.

I shall try one of those sonic things when I can. Do they cover the whole garden or do you have to direct them at one spot?

As I mentioned earlier, the bottles of water don't work (my cats like admiring their reflections!!) and our garden's too small to leave a dedicated poo plot (only 25 x 50 foot long, so all space is precious planting ground)

theprecious - our cat has always been belled as we're members of the RSPB & love watching the birds at our feeders, birdbath etc.

Our cat poos in our garden. She has one spot in a flower bed which isn't frequented by DS...very discreet, usually covered over by her...I don't have a problem with anyone else's cat doing similar, and wonder if she is keeping them away - I think they are pretty territorial.
There was some in the front though, about a year ago - I got pepper dust for that, as it was separate from where DS plays - I'm not sure if it worked, but the problem seemed a temporary one.
I'm sorry for everyone who has this problem, it makes me feel bad as a cat owner and I wish I had an answer that would sort it.
There is a sound-wave repellant, I think, like the one you can get against rats, but on a different wavelength.
They hate lemon...good for keeping them off worktops - or I suppose netting over veges might be one idea.
Awful to have cat poo where your baby wants to play.
Fwiw, I wouldn't recommend offering wormer to anyone, most owners do it anyway and if they don't, they're unlikely to care because you tell them to...I think it'd be trouble.
Plus...most cats do hae worms, regardless - the wormer keeps them in control, but they still exist. (side effect of eating birds/rodents/the muck that's called 'tinned catfood' .) So it would be pretty pointless!
I hope you find a way to keep them off.

The problem where we live now is not as bad as where we used to live. It got worse recently because we dug up some grass and of course, the cats love to go in the freshly turned over earth. We managed to keep the problem under control with orange peel and branches of prickly holly.

We have four cats who all use the outdoor litter trays, however my little grass patch is covered in mess from the neighbouhood moggies. Water pistol has no effect, my cats are all neutered and wimpy (a sob story each) so won't fight or defend territory and can't use detterent as don't want to upset my own old friends.
Some of the mess could be due to foxes.
Poison is just awful, one of my poor mites was poisoned several years ago and watching the suffering he went through is something I'll never get over.
Once one of the neighbours 7 houses away gathered up all the mess in a bag and left it on my doorstep. As if I'm the only cat owner. DH was furious, he was on tray duty and if no outdoor tray mine hold till they come back in so he knew it wasn't from ours.
I have two bells on each cat as they are very crafty and learnt how to stalk silently with just one.