New cat owner - how to encourage toileting outside

[CatNinja]

Hello!
I'm new here having adopted our first cat - a 3 year old Tortie.

The rescue didn't know a huge amount about her history - she was handed in pregnant and spent about 4 months living in an outdoor cat house whilst she was pregnant/caring for kittens/awaiting adoption.

She is great with the litter tray - never goes anywhere else. However, for the past 5 days we've been letting her outside. She mostly stays in our garden, or perhaps hops the fence to next door. I hoped she would start going to the toilet outside (I've put down used litter on an area of soil that I hoped she'd use in a corner of the garden) but she still comes in to use the litter try, even just for wees.

Any tips on other ways to encourage her to 'go' outside would be great. I was hoping to have the neighbours teenager come in and feed her whilst we're away for a few days next month, but not sure if it's too much of an ask if there's litter duties to be done too!

Some cats like using a tray - my two always come in. It's good really, as they aren't digging up my (or the neighbours!) flowers, and you can keep an eye on things health-wise.
We use a catsitter (found her on Cat in a Flat) who is a qualified veterinary nurse, so no issues with doing the trays.
That said, I'm sure a teen could manage to scoop of needed (I use a biodegradable flushable litter, so it goes straight down the loo).

Give it time. I had three down in the same room as my boys were shut in there at night initially. I slowly took it down to one. Boris soon took to going outside, Ollie was a bit slower. I knew Boris was totally going outside, but Ollie was a mix. During a wamer period, I took removed the litter tray (but have to admit I put something in it's place). Haven't had any accidents.

My teenage daughter wasn't happy about litter tray duties, luckily we got them off it before going away. If you pay a teenager enough, if not a cat sitter may be a good option.

Some cats never do and even if they go outside sometimes, you should always have a litter tray available. I mean would you want to go and do your business in the garden in all weathers?

By the way it's much safer to keep a cat indoors with catflap locked when you go away as they are more likely to wander and stray if there is no one to come home to, and if anything did happen outside no one might notice for a long time if you only have someone popping in.

We have the opposite problem. Since we started letting our cat out, she refuses to use the tray at all, despite having used it as her only option until we got her at three. She’s five and a half now. Normally it’s fine, but if we go away she will hold on until she is desperate, then go in the bath! MIL comes in twice a day to feed and fuss her, but she’s reluctant to go out, presumably because she knows MIL is not her “person” and feels a bit lost. I suppose the bath is the least worst option!

Meh, some cats like trays. Mine won't go outside even in gorgeous weather like today little twat watched me scoop the poop then graced the tray with a stinker just as I tied the nappy bag I have no idea if they occasionally do go outside but if they do it's rarely.
It's not too much to ask for a teen to scoop the poop daily, as well as feeding and giving attention. I would personally pay well for the right teen who actually you know, likes cats.

Thanks for all of the tips and advice, much appreciated! I've never had a cat before (although my DH grew up with cats at home) so it's all new to me.

We lock the cat flap at night as the rescue that we got her from was adamant that we mustn't let her out after dark. I was planning to pay the neighbour £10 a day to come in the morning to give breakfast/water/empty litter tray/ and open the cat flap, then again in the evening to feed/litter try/lock cat flap. But perhaps keeping her in altogether might be best. I will give it some more thought.