End of my tether with the cats

[Cleaningismycardio]

Posting for traffic as I am out of options and hoping someone will have an idea of how to help me. I live in a lovely street but we have quite a few cats. They constantly use my garden as a toilet. I could cope with this if it were just in the soil, but it is all over my grass - back and front. Sometimes they also go on my path. Definitely cats as a dog would not be able to get through my gate into the back and the dogs here are never out without their owners. I have spent a small fortune on deterring them in humane ways. I have done the following so far: got an electronic sound sensor (they crap right in front of it), changed to plants recommended to deter (e.g. tons of lavender plants back and front), sprinkled coffee, peppercorns, shop bought cat repellent, have jars of vinegar dotted about, sponges soaked in oil dotted about, chicken wire over the grass, lion manure on grass and in soil. Nothing works and since I have started doing all the work to the front, this past 6 months they have now started to go on my back grass too!! No deterrents working there either. I have a child who can't play in their own garden and guinea pigs who will not be able to go out on the grass in the nice weather (the parasites in cat mess are dangerous to them). I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of cleaning up their mess, to the point it is actually starting to affect me - I actually just want to cry when I go and scoop it all up. At present I have 7 'deposits' in my small front garden and 6 at the back (possibly more in the soil), all in random places, not in one spot, but it is so soggy and wet I will have to wait until another frost for it to freeze before I can clean it. It is a modern estate so the gardens are roomy enough to play in but not huge so this amount of mess means they are out of bounds. Spraying cats with water is the only one I haven't tried because they come in the middle of the night.
My neighbour is an early riser and have chased them a few times about 5/6am. My non-cat owning neighbours have the same issue with mess, but it seems to be only me and next door who have it on our actual grass. Apparently there was never any bother until a neighbour took in a stray and it started messing on the grass. So sorry for the long post. Please help me!!!! I really don't know how much more I can take!

Normally I'd say YABU. Cats need to poop just the the rest of us and sadly they don't understand property boundaries being animals as such. However it does sound extreme in your particular instance. You say it started after the neighbour took in a stray so is it just one culprit, or multiple felines?

If it's just one or two culprits then I'd be speaking to the owner. I would explain the scale of the problem and exactly how this is effecting you. Ideally the owner should have a litter tray per cat, and some loose soil in their own garden for kitty to poop in as often cats prefer to go outside.

Some things you may not have tried...Motion activated sprinklers? Get your own cat or dog if all else fails...

www.rspca.org.uk/documents/1494939/7712578/CAT_adviceondeterringcats.pdf/c46be843-2921-59a6-2c86-ad812d905681?t=1552668627868&download=true

No advice, I'm sorry, but feel your pain. Sick of picking up cat poo and worrying that my toddler will fall in some I've missed when he's playing. Most of our neighbours have astro turf or paved their gardens because they were sick of the mess too.
I've been looking up things to scare but not harm them, in the hope that having a bloody big fright will deter them from our garden. Going to try a motion-activated sprinkler, as been recommended to squirt them with water but that's just luck if you happen to catch them in the act.
When our dog had free roam of the garden before she passed, we didn't have this problem. We'll be getting another when our babies are older if we haven't moved before that point, as it's the only thing that's worked for us so far!

If cats can get into your back garden, so can foxes, especially if there's the smell of little squeaky, furry snacks in the air.

This isn't saying it isn't cats, but it could be foxes as well (or just foxes), especially as it happens in the middle of the night.

Hi OP.

Only two things we’ve discovered worked to discourage cats are:

Slate chippings.
Going out and chasing them away noisily so they decide there’s better places to take a dump.

We have to repeat the chasing every month or so.

Good luck.

Slate chipping don't deter cats. My cat can't get out of my garden because I have her cat fenced in because I don't want her run over on the main road or wandering off. I have slate chippings instead of grass and she's quite happy to shit on them.

I also meant to say motion detector sprinkler should work, they all hate being sprayed with water.

Only thing that worked for me was getting a lurcher. That wasn't our main reason for getting her, but it was certainly a selling point!

There is a device with a motion sensor that sprays water, but that's pricey and potentially unreliable. Can you buy a powerful water gun and stake out the garden for a couple of days once in a while? One good thing about cats is that they do learn quite fast when it's not worth the risk of crapping in a particular spot.

Would your neighbours mind if you catproofed your garden? If you have 6ft fences then you can get netting that makes it impossible for cats to jump out of your garden - but I do reckon it'd also stop them coming in too. Then it's a case of boarding up any holes/gaps that are big enough for them to squeeze through.

Other than that all I can think of it motion-activated sprayers/sprinklers as someone else suggested. www.primrose.co.uk/-p-1907.html

Just to add this is an example of the netting you can get.

Try this
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393020185756?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-153316-527457-8&mkcid=2&itemid=393020185756&targetid=4585238371038824&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=398826048&mkgroupid=1306220073419050&rlsatarget=pla-4585238371038824&abcId=9300501&merchantid=87779&msclkid=fdb1255f431b11b95eb9457253fab29f

My cat will go outside the back door into my own garden, stoop on my grass and have a poo then come back in. They say cats don't shit in their own garden but they do so getting your own cat wont necessarily fix it 🙈

I love cats (don't have any) but this sounds hard. Could get fit humane cat proofing for fences? Like the revolving cylinder?

excitedcats.com/cat-proof-fence/

I am 99% sure it won't be a cat doing most of this. It'll most likely be a fox - they are territorial and will crap to mark territory. This is why they are coming back over and over and re-making the same space.

You may be on the edge of two fox territories, which is making it doubly bad.

Cats will occasionally poo in the open but only if stressed or ill, and not usually repeatedly.

@MissMarpleDarling This! Our cats only ‘leave’ the garden to skulk around on the fence and definitely use our garden and no neighbours - I did actually mention it when we moved in to next door and let her know I’d always be happy to come and clear it up if she knows it’s ours but she just finds it hilarious they won’t go to visit her!

In terms of deterrents, before we had cats but did have a phantom cat poo problem we planted citrus scented plants around the place and that stopped it.

Please don’t use an electronic cat scarer. My parents neighbours have one and it was proven to be the cause of mine and Dsis’s migraines!

I can't bear it either.
They say cats won't Poo on grass, but we regularly have 5-6 cat poos on our front lawn every week.
We have one of the high pitched deterrents which is the only thing that's helped slightly.

I have a cat and I'd it if my cat were making someone so upset. We actually had a cat toilet problem with a neighbours cat and we put down lemon shavings in the spot it kept going in and slices of lemon. Its never gone there since. Could be an option? They also hate water and foil - reflections, could you put some foil somewhere on the gate they use to get in just for now? Might be unsightly but if it stops them going for a week or so, they may find a new place to go in away from yours?

Those cat alarms are supposed to be good, motion sensitive and out of adult human hearing range cats (and my kids) can hear the noise and hate it

@Curiosity101

Just to add this is an example of the netting you can get.

Thank you Curiosity!! I actually think this might work. I am sure it's not foxes.

Moon cup - back garden is enclosed by 6ft fences so can't see how it would be foxes. Neighbours have never seen foxes either - but we have seen lots of cats! The guineas are in a fully enclosed run (fox proof on the instructions!) when out in the nicer weather but they are brought indoors in the evening. They are permanently in during winter.

I am allergic to cats so won't be getting one!! I would love a dog but I work full time and I wouldn't want to leave it on its own all day.

Thank you for your replies. I have had visions of me being a mad crazy lady doing a stake-out with the garden hose in the middle of the night to catch them at it. I realise cats have a right to roam but this is beyond a joke!

Sprinkler was next thought on my list so thanks to those who posted recommendations. I think I might need to invest in one for the front if I am putting netting in the back.

You are probably right about it being cats but a six door fence would be a mere hop to a fox.

I think you're likely to be looking at foxes marking their territory here, not cats. It sounds like an excess amount of mess, which is why I think it's more likely to be foxes than cats - competing territories probably.

Water sprinkler??

I'm surprised a cat would shit and not bury it tbh. We had our own and visiting cats for years and I can't think of a single instance of any of them shitting on the grass. Foxes on the other hand crap everywhere. We regularly have to clear fox poo off our drive and lawn. Are you sure it's cats?

My mum sprinkles used coffee beans everywhere (she doesn't drink coffee so we give a cafe a big tupperware box to fill up).

That and chasing them every time she sees them works for her.