It's a cat poo one

[leavethewallalone]

Every day this week I have gone outside and picked up cat poo from our flower bed in the front garden. 2/3 lots per time. This flower bed is for DD. She likes gardening and wanted to plant her own plants, in her words, so butterflies and bees might come. She is 3. Her dad built it for her and she went and chose some little flowers to grow, every day she goes and tends to them with us supervising.

I know exactly what cat is doing it because I've seen them and nothing I do deters them. The most annoying part is the cats owner lives next door and recently I spotted her watching her cat pooing in this flower bed, but she did nothing about it, just carried on. She knows full well this is DDs little project as she has mentioned how nice it is. She's seen it doing it more than once.

Before it's suggested, I won't use one of those sonic things as they hurt dogs ears just as much as they are supposed to deter cats and we have a dog that would need to walk past it at least twice daily. Nothing else we have done has deterred the cat. I've tried literally everything. Coffee, orange peel, chilli, lion poo apparently works but we still have the issue of DDs flower bed being full of poo.

I'm getting really fed up because she knows full well it's happening. I've never had cats but if I did I'd be offering to pick up after the cat if I'd seen it doing it in an area that I know my neighbours kids use ("I've noticed my cat is pooing in your DDs flower bed and I'm sorry about that, would you mind if I popped round a couple of times a week and cleaned up any for you?" Flower bed is easily accessible without needing to come through a gate etc). Or I'd be posting some poo bags through the door with a sorry note.

AIBU? It's really getting on my nerves now. A neighbour the other day asked if I have been letting my dog poo in our front garden as they noticed the smell!! DH is fully up for putting it in their front garden every time it happens but I don't want to do that.

And before anyone says use the dog as a deterrent, ddog is scared of the cat, it's bloody horrible to him.

Sorry they are called cat scat mats.

My cats will poo on bark chips. But I do agree with the wooden kebab skewers - they work! Just pull em out, put em back in. They are not anti slug tho 🤬

Motion activated water sprayer? Saw one in Lidl this week.

You just have to deter them for two weeks or so and they will form a new habit of going elsewhere. So netting for a couple of weeks? Use canes to raise it off the ground.

Or a motion-sensor water spray.

We've just "won" our own battle against next door's two cats and I feel confident that, as they haven't been back for the past 3 or 4 weeks, they're unlikely to come back now. Unless whichever poor sod who's garden they're pooing in now puts up their own deterrent and they come back to ours!

It's horrible, having to check every day for cat poo (even on our LAWN) and having new plants just dug up by the bastards. And I'm a cat lover!

This! We had a cat using our back garden ad it’s litter tray, just got the kids nerf water pistols and after a couple of days of being fired at it never came back.

@Everafter20 beat me to it! The spiky mats are the only thing that has worked for me. I put a piece where the cats come in through a gap in the hedge. You could put some around the flowerbed and maybe leave a section you can move out of the way for access.
I was indifferent to cats but since moving here I hate them. So sick of their mess.

Have you tried sitting the cat down and explaining the situation?

Have a word with your neighbour! Her cat, her cat shit.

As for the idea cats always bury their shit - they don't. Got a huge dump of cat shit on my lawn today (and I have no cat). Garden fully fenced in so it's not a dog.

Can you tie old CDs on twine with knots inbetween to space them and hang them around flower beds, as it reflects the light in an irregular way and cats don't like that so will avoid.

Anyway lots of tips on here if you scroll down to the part you want

www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/cat-deterrents/

I find that chicken wire works - whether laid flat over newly dug soil, or used as a flimsy fence around a bed.

Can you cat proof your garden. Not ideal but would solve your problem you can get spikes.

I'm not a massive fan of these but my neighbours have these on both my fences. It stops my cat going in there.

My cat comes home to poo. Costs me a fortune in cat litter and he probably does poo elsewhere but I'm doing what I can to not piss anyone off.

Sorry totally off thread but how do you grow sweetcorn? Can you grow it in the uk if that's where you are? I really want to try this! Any tips please?

I've found using hydroleca clay pebbles as mulch has stopped my neighbour's cat and it looks nice and decorative.

We've covered our beds with fruit netting on bamboo poles. Cats can't get into the area as the netting is Iver the top of the plants and pegged at the bottom. You could then just lift up the front to work on the area.

The best advice I ever got when I was at the end of my tether with my neighbour’s cats pooing in my garden was to feed them kitty treats.

Apparently if you feed them in your garden they don’t use it as a toilet.

I went from cleaning up poo 1-2 times every single day to it stopping altogether!

Yes I have to buy a few packets of Dreamies every month to keep the cats happy but it’s 100% worth it 😂

motherofchihuahuas Garden isn't fenced unfortunately, one of the reasons it's so easy for it to come in

PaddlingLikeADuck I like this idea! But if the cat starts hanging around I'll have a problem getting ddog out the door again bless him. Right now it poops and leaves.

PaddlingLikeADuck I like this idea! But if the cat starts hanging around I'll have a problem getting ddog out the door again bless him. Right now it poops and leaves.

To be fair, they only come when I call them and as soon as they’ve had their Dreamies they go again 😂

Sometimes I don’t see them for days, sometimes up to a week, but I’m still not having their poo in my garden anymore.

Thank God for Dreamies ❤️

The only thing i found that worked was getting a dog. We had 4 or 5 filthy cats crapping all over our garden. Tried everything. Now if i see a cat in the garden i let the dog out and he scares them off. He's like a greyhound out of a trap out of the back door. We were getting up to 4 or 5 cat poos a day, now it's more like one a week.

Dh did actually resort to lobbing the poo back over the fence once. Like yours, it was in an area my children were trying to grow vegetables. None of the neighbours would take responsibility and pick it up. Now they get huffy if my dog chases the cats but it's their own fault. Should have done something other than just shrug and say "that's what cats do". Well, dogs chase cats my friend. Its what they do.

We use citrus peel with extra orange oil sprinkled on and chopped white onion garlic and egg shell. Like a kind of pot pourri to deter cats 🤣🤣and it works ! Just make a new lot once a week and sprinkle on problem areas had no cat poo for weeks

Oh! I should add I sprinkled cayenne pepper about too, for those few weeks. Cats don't like strong scents and they only return to the same place because of their scent. Replace it with something else and that will help. I looked at expensive pellets and gels and things but in the end used bog standard pepper powder from the spice aisle.

Sorry - I meant put up a mesh fence or something so the cat can't access the beds at all.

Have you asked neighbour to pick it up? I have two cats and if someone had proof it was one of mine, then I'd go and pick it up - in reality I acknowledge it wouldn't work out every day, but at least would go some way to contributing to how much you do it before DD goes there.

@motherofchihuahuas re: sweetcorn definitely can be grown in the UK - lots of maize mazes about!
I started mine off in pots indoor on window sill a couple of months ago - just a generic variety, nothing fancy.

They are ready to be planted now (watch out you blummin cats!) But you can still sow from seed directly at the moment straight outdoors.

Apparently it's best to put a few plants in a grid rather than a row as they pollenate each other (or something!) 🤣 As you can tell, I'm not an expert!

Go grab some seeds and good luck!!

My parents cat never used to venture too far but when they moved they popped their gardener neighbours a water pistol and a bottle of lemon juice and told them if he became a nuisance to give him a squirt. They only had to do it a couple of times before he decided to use his litter tray as intended!

Lion poo doesn't come as great dollops of sh!t. It's dried and you sprinkle round the edges. But yes, a water pistol is much more fun. You could also attach a small battery to some silver foil around the edge (wide enough so it has to stand on it) and the shock will keep t off. Like an electric fence. Doesn't harm but gives a painful snap. You won't need it for log. The cat will learn.