Help with training adult cats to toilet outside please!

[ShutUpAlex]

My SIL has gone away for the week, she’s pregnant and when she gets back my brother is going to be working long, 12 hour shifts.
She wants the litter tarts gone as she can’t deal with them being pregnant and after 12 hours they absolutely stink. My cats were trained to go outside but we did this from when they were kittens, brothers cats are 3+.
I said I’d help him over the next week. He is useless, probably should t have the cats in the first place but he is too soft and has taken them all in off other people. 6 cats altogether.

Does anyone have experience with this?

You should keep litter trays even if they go outside anyway.

Why?

@coogee

You should keep litter trays even if they go outside anyway.

Why?

I have one for a few reasons: if the weather's bad my cat doesnt have to go outside, I can keep her shut in overnight, and if she's ill and has to be kept in she's used to using a tray.

She uses it once every 6 months, on average.

Litter shouldn’t smell if it’s good quality litter, you have enough litter trays and you scoop put the solids.

I can get away with cleaning the tray once a month because the litter doesn’t smell

How many litter trays are there for the 6 cats? If she doesn't like litter trays then 6 cats is a lot of cats. If they're his cats and he is not there to look after them perhaps it's not fair to have that many. Add a newborn baby to the mix and that a hell of a lot of work.

There’s 3 trays but only 3 cats use them.
I do think he should get rid of some of them personally but he loves them.

I agree the issue is too many cats and I would worry now with a baby coming.
I have 2 cats and just about cope with the endless litter and poo and do my best to pick it out straight away.
One of mine always comes in to do his business and never covers it. He also likes to jump in and poo as soon as I change the litter.

Another issue is they’re waking her up in the early hours with it. One of them scrapes the side of the litter tray for about 10 minutes. It’s very irritating! This could be a huge problem when the baby arrives.

3 trays isn’t enough for 6 cats. Even if only 3 use trays you’d still need at least 4 trays.

Cats usually don’t like other cats, it must be very stressful for them all living together. I think they’d be better off finding new homes for some of the cats and then it might be more manageable.

I don’t think you can really train cats, they do what they like 🤷‍♀️ Even if they all go outside you’d need to keep a tray for bad weather / illness etc

The litter trays will need to stay unfortunately. We have 3 cats. 1 exclusive uses the trays, 1 exclusively outside and one uses both.

Best tip is to get 'cats best' cat litter brand. Scoop the clumps once a day and poos immediately. The trays only need a full change monthly if this is done.

For 6 cats you should have a minimum of 7 trays. If that can’t be achieved then you shouldn’t have 6 cats.

Your brother sounds utterly pathetic and clueless. And his wife should be putting her foot down and telling him so.

My cats are trained. They don’t jump on surfaces, they know which rooms they’re allowed in which ones they aren’t, they know not to steal food off of peoples plates. Brothers cats will jump right up onto the dining table in the middle of a meal and try and take the food off your plate. Open plan house so no way to shut them out either unless you round them all up before meals times and lock the cat flap.

He is pathetic yes. I would have left by now.

We have 2 cats that use a litter tray. We scoop as soon as we notice any poo. Our house doesn’t smell.

I'm sure her neighbours don't want to deal with her cats shit either.

This isn’t helpful, but yesterday I was at a house where they kept the litter tray - full of poos - under the kitchen table! I was appalled!

What the other poster said gradually move the trays near the back door and then one by one outdoors. They like covered sand pits.

6 cats is the issue here. Sorry it’s just too many.
You also can’t train cats, they will just go wherever they chose to.
Cat poo stinks, no getting away from it, you need bag it and move it immediately. Cat pee shouldn’t smell if you change the litter and clean the bottom of the tray out frequently. As they have 6 cats this is all going to be multiplied and quickly be unmanageable if you aren’t on top of it.
A wood based litter can absorb pee smell better too, but my cats didn’t like it.

What kind of litter are they using? We use clumping litter, when you empty the tray there is basically nothing left behind to leave a smell. Everything clumps together, so you just scoop out the business.

They use clumping litter. I’m going over in a minute, I’m going to move the trays first and see what they do.

The cats will just relieve themselves in the house if they haven't got a litter tray. It will also cause stress. All cats should have access to a litter tray indoors because, often, this is the only way of identifying there's a health problem when it occurs. All cat owners need to monitor usage. Some cats won't use a tray and that's just one of those things, but it's best to have one set up anyway in case of illness, age related issues or incapacitation.

Cats are often treated like an unwanted nuisance once babies come along and it doesn't need to be like this. If you use disposable gloves and good hand washing, litter can be dealt with during pregnancy if there's no one else available to do the trays.

Some cats will not routinely go outside (especially in bad weather/winter) and can get quite distressed if not provided with a litter tray. You should always provide a cat with a litter tray.

The best you can do to encourage is to dig over a patch in a sheltered corner of your garden so there's plenty of loose soil (preferably a place where where you've seen the cat toilet) and then spread the cat's used litter over the top.

It's also important to chase out other cats to allow your cat to establish the garden as its territory

He may love them but he isn't caring for them which is what people who actually love their animals do.

Cats don't actually like living in a house that smells of cat poo. They are clean animals.

If they are fighting all the time, his cats are miserable and stressed.

Longhaired cats need brushing regularly - if they are dragging litter then presumably their bums are coated in poo which is horrible for them.

Love is not enough. He needs to step up or admit he is not the right owner for these cats.

Try moving the trays gradually along the route the cats would go. Eg from corner of kitchen to next to cat flap, then leave it a couple of days, then just outside the cat flap, then leave it a few days then move it a bit further.

Yanbu to encourage the cat to do its business elsewhere off your property - it's your pet, your shit to deal with so if you want it to go outside, do what you can to ensure it does so in YOUR garden and not your neighbours/public spaces.

I think she’s fine with the litter trays staying four side, so they can continue to use the trays etc. She just doesn’t want them inside the house anymore.

Cat trays do smell. Even good litter. All these people saying they don't are either used to the smell or don't have sensitive noses to start with.

Pregnancy extra sensitive nose really does make them unbearable to some people. It did for me to the point of gagging on entering the house, gagging on the stink in the night if she used the tray two stories down and opposite ends of the house.