How do I stop our cats from pooing all over our lawn? :(

[xkr]

Hi, with spring here our children are really keen to play outside in the garden, the problem is both of cats are constantly pooing all over the lawn (and on the stones in the area we keep our bins which is even more of a nightmare to clean up) and I just don’t know how to stop them

We’ve tried keeping the grass really short (mowed daily), we’ve tried putting all of the poo into a particular area hoping it’ll encourage them there, we’ve tried various sprays that are supposed to act as a deterrent, but so far nothing has helped :(

Please does anyone have some suggestions on how we can fix this? Thank you

Where would you like them to poo?

Typical cat owner response 🙄

OP owns the cats! They’re not random cats!

Do they have enough litter trays indoors, cleaned very regularly? You could try sprinkling some of the used litter into areas in the garden that you would prefer them to go in. Sometimes that works. Otherwise unfortunately cats just do what they like…!

Keep them indoors or sell them.

St least they are yours unlike the ones that poo on my lawn.

Can you make them a nice bed with some freshly dug soil in? Local cats seem to like to poo in my beds when I do this.

I would like to know too! Our neighbour's cat poos in our garden. We've installed an ultrasonic alarm - for about 3 weeks I haven't seen any poo on the lawn, however yesterday I saw the darn cat digging about in the flowerbed so not sure how effective it is.

@Geneticsbunny - interestingly, we had just put fresh compost in the flowerbed.

Most cats poo in other people's gardens! Make sure you don't put them off yours at the expense of your neighbours. They want their kids to play in their gardens too!

It's unusual for cats to just poo on grass or a surface. They normally prefer to dig a hole and then bury it. Make sure you have an area of loose soil, or gravel or even bark chippings and then they are far more likely to use that.

You create a good alternative for them.
If you want them to go outside then you pick a nice location. Turn over the earth, maybe add sand, put little stones or strips of wood round to mark it out and go out there every day to clear the poo. Regularly turn the earth and sprinkle more soil or sand and you will have created the perfect loo for your cats.
And every other cat around but there's not much you can do about that unless you have cat proof fencing.

You need to put the effort in.
Clean their outside area just as you would an indoor litter box.

Give them an outdoor litter tray

If you are a gardener, laying holly ovee the freshly turned soil prevents cats using them to toilet till you can plant them up.

Pardon? I don't own cats. The OP owns the cats. Reading comprehension not a strength of yours?

This basically. When our cat was pooing in the neighbour's garden we did this and it worked. She started using that instead.

It's really not. There are lots of cats on our street and several of the fuckers regularly poo in the middle of our lawn. So at least in this case it's the cat owner's garden!

Get a litter tray (if you don't have one already).

Be grateful that it’s your garden and they’re not completing pissing your neighbours off by shitting on their lawns - yes, I despise my neighbours and their cats for this!

You need to create a cat toilet paradise for them and maintain it to keep them using it. Either that or keep them in and get them using a litter tray.

Please, whatever you do,find a solution that means they'll still crap in your garden and not become a filthy nuisance to your neighbours. With a toddler tow I now have to navigate a whole spring and summer of a crap filled garden because of next doors cats. It's so unfair and unsanitary.

Sand pit. Cats love to poo in sand, I think partly as easy to bury.

Encourage them to poo on your lawn not your neighbours.

Every time you clear poo from anywhere you don't want the cat to poo, spray the spot with diluted ammonia. Cats hate the smell, so they won't want to return to that spot.

Sprinkle the entire lawn, and anywhere else you don't want them to poo, with Silent Roar
https://amzn.eu/d/2chqaQi . But you have to have cleared the area and ammonia'd it first.

Set up an area where you are happy for your cats to poo. My cat likes to poo behind a particular shrub in my garden, so I have sacrificed that area to him. Most cats prefer a sheltered area, it probably feels safer. Your cats may prefer to each have their own area. They definitely like freshly dug soil and compost mulches, so lay a sheet of chicken wire over any such areas if you don’t want them to pop there.

You will need to keep doing the clearing and spraying every day, and repeat the sprinkling every few weeks at first. Especially if it rains.

Thank you all so much for the responses! Going to try digging a few areas around the garden each day - should I be burying their poo there too? Will also try getting some sand and bark. Also going to spray around the lawn to hopefully deter them from that. I have absolutely no idea why they just go on the lawn and not somewhere they can dig… we even got a robot mower to try to keep the grass down but it hasn’t helped 🙈

Surely cleaning up a few patches of poo every day is not much effort in return for having a pet. Unless you want your garden to stink, you will have to pick it up if they poo elsewhere too.

My cat goes behind a tree over by the fence. You have to give them somewhere to go - a freshly dug patch of earth?

Response to a slightly different quesiton, but for others reading. Next door's cats have been pooing in my new raised veg beds :( But I seem to have deterred them by removing the poo, and sprinkling smelly spices (ginger which I had lots of), and later a natural oils orange deterrent from ironmonger I can't now remember the name of. Very effective. There is hope :)