Teaching rescue cat to (continue to) poo outside

[Carriedoesntlivehereanymore]

We want to train a rescue cat to come in and out and not poo in the house!

He poos outside - in fact, he has lived completely outside for his whole life, which is one of the reasons we are taking him on - to give him a proper home (agreed with the neighbours that we are adopting him from). But he has already made his way into our house (unbeknownst to us), hidden and then pooped on the floor, a couple of times, despite knowing where the cat flap/exit is. As we officially adopt him, we want him to realise he is free to come and go (I think whenever he's come in, he's thought, 'Well, now I'm in, there's no way I'm leaving!) and want to know the best way to achieve this.

If we initially confine him to one room overnight and get him used to a litter tray that we gradually move outside, plus begin to let him in and out at his convenience during the day, do you think this will be enough to train him to realise this is his home - and not poop on the floors?

Or do we just gradually build things up, letting him in and out, and keeping an eye on him, without a litter tray? It's not a new garden to him - he's already here all the time!

Or is there anything else we could do to aid this transition? Hope this makes sense and thanks in advance for any advice!

Why are you so against having a litter tray?

Cats should (imo) always have a safe, dry and clean space to go to the toilet.

Keep the litter tray. This is much better than using other people’s flower beds.

You can't have a cat and not be prepared to have a tray at least some of the time as even if they prefer to toilet outdoors there will be times when they can't, in awful weather, snow, when ill or convalescing, and when old.

Thank you all. We have a tray. It’s all ready to go. We also have a massive garden with plenty of flowerbeds (and another cat we have loved and successfully looked after for many years).

I think generally cats will poo where they want. Our previous pair would only ever use the tray under sufference (girl cat stuck to our borders and boy cat went further afield 🤦).

Current overlords can be outside, come in to use the tray, then go back outside again. 🤷

Plus sides are that I don't have to worry about upsetting the neighbours and it also makes it easy to pick up any health issues (our new boy had some issues weeing and I would never have noticed so quickly if it wasn't for the fact I spotted him going backwards and forwards to the tray).

Obviously you want him using the tray and not the floor, he but if he's telling you that's what he wants, I'd rock with that. (He could also be doing it to mark out his new territory so he might also go outside once he's settled - you'd still need to keep the tray though).

The thing is, short of locking him out 24-7, you can't force him to go outside, so I would personally just keep a tray out for him - surely it's better than poo all over the floor?

Thank you, Saggy, and thanks all. We’re going with the litter tray and will see how we get on. This new boy will be getting lots of TLC!

You need a litter tray in the house (as it appears you might) and a covered (so it doesn't get muddy wet) sandy area in the garden that you rake over, clean and top up weekly. It raises the chances of no poops on the floor and good relations with the neighbours.

I adopted my girl (now 4) when she was 2. She was a stray so also living outside full-time. When she first came here the new territory was scary for her and she used her trays. Given time, she's found that the garden is very acceptable and only ever uses the tray now if she's stuck inside (even in the snow she prefers to go out). Yours will probably get there, but I'd start with clean, accessible litter trays and let him figure it out in his own time. I think most cats with constant outdoor access and a safe and calm territory outside will ultimately prefer to go out!