Is it possible to encourage toileting outside?

[IvanaCake]

We adopted 2 year old sisters from a sanctuary a couple of months ago. They were at the sanctuary for 4 or 5 months and previously lived as house cats. We started to let them into the garden a few weeks ago and they are gradually getting used to the outside world and exploring their surroundings, but come back in to use the litter tray.

I don't mind having the litter tray at all, but obviously with two of them using it it needs changing a lot, and it would be nice to reduce the frequency! DH thinks we should just take the litter tray away but I don't want to upset them by doing the wrong thing!

We also have an 8 year old cat who has been with us for years but he has never used a tray so we have no experience of this. Should I just remove the tray? Or just leave things be in the hope that they eventually start doing it in the garden?

TIA.

I wouldn't remove the tray. Your girls may decide they want to use outside (and you should dig over any earth beds in the garden so that they're nice and fluffy and inviting) but I have to warn you that at least two of my boys went outside but did their duty, out of preference, inside the house. I think they thought that inside was safe, dry, warm and - of course - was cleaned up by the Litter Fairy. (Huh!)

(One of those two, by the way, was The Lodger who was an ex street cat and decided off his own bat, after using outside, that coming inside was far more pleasant. He still went out to strut his stuff but came back in for his tray.)

You could try moving the tray to closer to the door or sprinkling a bit of their clean litter (which will have a faint smell to their sensitive noses) on earth beds outside. That might help give them the idea.

Do you have a cat flap for their use?

They will probably start going outside in time.

I wouldn't remove the tray.

And yes, try sprinkling some of their litter outside to encourage them.

Thank you for your replies

Yes we do have a cat flap. They don't use it at the moment (why open a cat flap yourself when a human can open a door for you? )

I will definitely try sprinkling some litter on a patch of garden, thanks for that suggestion.