Neighbours cat sh*ting in our garden

[Sasha818]

Does anyone know how I can stop this from happening pls? I have a toddler who loves to be outside playing in the garden. Next doors cat for months now has decided our garden is it’s toilet.

There is sh*t everywhere around my child’s toys, on our cobblestones just everywhere around the grass in the garden really. My partner is picking it up every night.

they have 2 small kids 2 big dogs and artificial grass so I’m guessing that’s why the cat comes to ours (was told they don’t usually toilet on artificial grass?)

please give me some tips to get this creature out of our garden without me constantly being afraid of my child falling or rolling in it’s poo! It’s also a very scruffy outdoor cat.

Have you asked your neighbours to give their cats a sandbox in their own garden?

I confess to fantasies of getting a Bengal cat and training it to shit elsewhere sometimes (they are so aggressive to other cats that not only will they not tolerate others on their turf but have been known to climb through other cats’ cat flaps to attack them in their own homes.

i mean obviously this is not a real solution, but basically you need an aggressively territorial cat that doesn’t shit in your garden, or a dog.

You need to keep it out. Buy some garden netting and some drawing pins cut a long strip of netting a foot or so wide pin it along the fence top and put sticks in to keep it up or just out - the cat won't like it and will stay off the fence . Cats are intelligent and avoid the netting.

You can’t to be honest . We had same issues for years next door they had two cats who shat in the garden and it’s really annoying especially as I’m picking up after a animal I don’t own. You say you already got 2 dogs but ours only stopped when we our dog .

Put something along the top of your fence all the way round to stop them getting in like tall netting or spikes or something.

My NDN thought my cat was popping in his lawn so I bought lion poo online for them, gave the a squirty water bottle spray, went round collecting poop for a week and offered to arrange reflective CD discs on a stick to go at two places in the garden (they declined)

It turned out it wasn't my cat at all (as I kept him in for 3 weeks) but another unknown neighbours' similar looking cat. (14 black and white cats in our road!!)

My NDN had started off before even talking to me by leaving poo in a bag on my porch mat (walking past my bin)- I wasn't best pleased (as I'm disabled with DCs) with NDN's behaviour as that was first we knew of any issue, my cats are 9 years old, had never before pooped in middle of a lawn & they seem to go in my garden as we keep "poop places" of dug up earth at side of my large garden - but I took it all very seriously.

Anyway the lion poo and water spray - that arrived after I found out wasn't even my cat! So I still took round- seemed to help divert the naughty poopy cat to another garden.

And I'm still waiting for an apology!!

It's not OP's responsibility to ensure that someone else's pet remains safe in her garden. Anti cat spikes are a perfectly reasonable solution.

Just to mention ignore anyone saying "return the poo"

Because Four lots of a random cats poop in an bag left oozing on my welcome mat on my porch was not the way for friendly neighbours to start a discussion. On fourth day he left a note with it to say it was him! (Remember it wasn't even any of my cat's poo!!) So I went straight round and say why didn't you talk to me first? No need for the poo!

That's what he owes me an apology for, since after a week I kept my cats in for 3 weeks to find out was never my cats anyway!

Motion activated water sprinkler. You don’t need to be watching it, and it won’t hurt it. I say this as a cat owner. I’d rather my cat gets a dousing than some of the other suggestions on this thread (he’s indoor only, but that’s by the by. I’ve had outdoor cats before him).

You need a range of deterrents. There isn't one solution that solves it. I use granules in the grass but I reapply them every time it rains. It's expensive sadly.

I have bamboo skewers every 5cm in my flowerbeds and pots to make it impossible for the cats to get comfortable. Plus citrus peel, coffee grounds etc. I've also used chilli powder and lion poo.

You have to reapply these things regularly and keep on top of it. It also helps if you have a child who is willing to chase off any cat that comes into the garden. Eventually they get the message but they will still keep trying to return. I hate them. They ruined so many plants before I realised what was going on.

Sounds horrible though OP
Ugh artificial grass a toddler and play items outside being popped around - eeeeewwww

I was mightily cross at my cat when initially I thought it was him. And asked neighbour to take a photo (he did do this eventually and I could see it wasn't my cat as well besides the fact he was being kept in for naughty behaviour!!)

I have cats. They keep arriving at my door. (I don't steal them, people just know I can't say no)

They have 3 litter trays in the house and use the gravel in our garden but I think they still go elsewhere too.

I think the only thing that would keep a cat out is water and or dogs. But we have a local cat who keeps coming in the house (he isn't mine) and we have a dog, so that's not failsafe either

We had a problem with next door's cats using our garden as a litter tray.
It stopped when we got a dog, a lurcher. Our lurcher is a lot quicker than a cat so the cats learned that entering the garden is high risk.

This too !!!

As a cat owner I'd far rather my cats were deterred by water pistol or water spray gun or even a gentle hosing! (But as you can see I took responsibility to resolve it until it became clear not my cat)

If it was, and they were, then they wouldn't be available to buy.
What about the deliberate harm cats do? Or does that only work one way?
If I don't own a cat why can't I put spikes on my property? I'll put a sign up to warn them shall I?
Free to roam does not mean free from harm. How many dead cats do we see in gutters? Spikes are the least of a roaming moggie's problem.

I personally put bamboo skewers on the entry points into my garden. Still didn't stop the fuckers

I managed to get rid of the cat in our garden with the hose gun. It took a few attempts and more often than not I wasn’t fast enough to get the cat wet, but it was enough that the little fucker realised what was going to happen so he stopped coming back. If that hadn’t worked, I’d have put spikes up.

It sounds mean, but it is a cat owners responsibility to keep their pet safe and out of other peoples gardens, not mine.

Super soaker water pistol. The pump action puts the water under pressure so that it travels a fair distance. Get the cat a couple of times and it will start to find your garden unattractive.

I used to use one to keep some local cats out of my garden because they were bulling my very timid cat. I could reach the bottom fence with fairly decent accuracy!

Exact same problem.

We ended up getting a dog but that's quite drastic, I admit. We would've always got a dog but probably not for a few more years down the line, had it not been for the neighbour's cat.

Our neighbour has three different sorts of spikes on her side gate. I watched as a cat tried to lever itself up and failed. If they are visible from outside you don't need a sign.

@Jc57

If I had that many I would definitely have a try ultrasonics. They don't work for every cat, but for me they have been successful.

You can get RSPB approved models.

Happened to us and next door laughed when we said it was upsetting us having to clean it up every day . Our plants died and the garden was a health hazard. It was shitting and looking at us while it did it

In the end every time I saw the cat I went out with a bag of treats. If it started shitting I went inside and didn’t give it any. After this happened a few times on one occasion it went to shit and stopped , came up to the window and I gave it some treats. Did this daily and it stopped completely and started shitting in its own garden 🤣🤣🤣 neighbour asked us to stop giving treats and I replied with the same tinkly laugh and eye roll we had got from them when we mentioned the problem initially

What about the squirrels, foxes and birds it could harm?

It wouldn't. They are much smaller and lighter than your normally shite factory.

Nothing works - the only thing that made a difference for us was our immediate neighbours getting 2 very loud dogs. PLEASE don't buy those sonic cat deterrent things - they give me and other people that can hear them incredible headaches and they don't actually stop the cats!

Please don't use jeyes fluid or anything else toxic or likely to cause harm. I get that it's annoying but please remember a cat is just an animal with no concept that they are doing anything wrong. It would take a very sick individual to think deliberately hurting them is ok.

Cats are legally allowed to roam. Cat owners aren't lazy if they let them out. There are many things in life they annoy and inconvenience me. I don't expect to see them outlawed, I recognise that the planet doesn't solely belong to me.

Citrus peel works well.