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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

cat stopped using litter tray since going outdoors

13 replies

coffeemachine · 01/07/2016 20:31

we have a 5 year old rescue cat. only had him for 3 months. about 2 months ago we started to let him go outside but he was still using the litter tray up until 10 days ago. since the nada (great actually) but I wonder if this is something to worry about. he is frequently outside during the day for up to 2h but spends a good 10h at home from evening till 7 am when I let him out. he doesn't use the litter at all during this time. no accidents though .

he appears very will in himself. no concerns at all.

OP posts:

sizeofalentil · 01/07/2016 20:31

Some cats prefer to pee and poo wild and free. I wouldnt worry tbh.

Palomb · 01/07/2016 20:33

Mine mostly poo outside too. They're in at night so we do get the odd dirty tray but we're only talking once a week or so. They do most of their business in my flower beds 😡

Original poster

coffeemachine · 01/07/2016 20:34

that's good to hear. thanks.

OP posts:

Original poster

coffeemachine · 01/07/2016 20:35

I noticed a lot of digging in our flower beds lately too. wonder if this is coffeecat

OP posts:

Banana99 · 01/07/2016 20:38

My rescue cat had to be kept in for first 2 months and used litter tray a lot! Since he's been our hardly even, just the odd wee
Although he did come in the other day, had a wee in it, went out straight away!

Redactio · 01/07/2016 21:07

Once they stop using the litter tray, get rid of it.

Exploretheunexplored23 · 01/07/2016 21:21

My kitten was always an indoor cat until she was 18 months, once let out she never used the litter tray again.

We live near a few other houses so knew she must be going in someones garden as there was no sign in ours, mentioned it to the neighbour who said that she had become a frequent "visitor" to their garden! Offered to buy some cat repelling stone but they said it didnt bother them - result!

tigerdriverII · 01/07/2016 21:29

Ours are outdoor cats and won't use the litter tray at all if they have to stay in. This had been interesting over the last few days when one of them has had to be kept in after an op.

DramaAlpaca · 01/07/2016 21:33

Ours stopped using the litter tray at about six or seven months when they were going outside regularly. They have free access via the cat flap and obviously preferred to do their business outside. I left the litter tray for a while, but put it away when it became obvious it wasn't being used. It's up in the attic in case we ever need it again.

RubbishMantra · 01/07/2016 21:51

My 2 prefer to piss in the litter-box, but hold in the poo until they can crap outside - depending on curfew (dusk til dawn) or urgency. Always in my flowerbeds, which is preferable to them crapping in neighbour's gardens, and creating (even more) hatred towards cats.

Good to have a cat used to a litter-box/tray, in case they become ill or elderly.

Oldraver · 02/07/2016 02:22

Our cat is 10 months old and now does everything outside, we still have the trays indoors but he hasn't used them for ages apart from last week when he had some diarrhea.

He has claimed a spot in front of the bamboo so I have made sure its been fine tilled...I think he has the best soil in the garden..I did put him a little modesty fence up but he wasn't impressed

cozietoesie · 02/07/2016 08:18

A modesty fence?

Oldraver · 02/07/2016 11:05

Well it was just an odd bit of (DS's) fence, the 18" high white slats...I thought it would mark out his area but it got shoved over..

I realise cats are so fickle that if I interfered too much he would bugger off elsewhere so have left him to it ...well he has a bit of wood round the edges as he was wandering off towards my potato plants. The soil is so fine when he digs he ends up in a huge hole up to his hocks.

I have to really dig around to find the poo

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