Outdoor litter tray

[Jayinthetub]

We have 2 lovely boys - the older one toilets somewhere outside that we don’t see (probably in the woods behind the house) but his brother (8 months old) doesn’t really leave the garden and toilets all over the lawn. He digs little holes and then covers them over with grass and moss that he digs up. It’s making a mess of the lawn and could be hazardous in the summer when we have bbqs outside 😬

Has anyone got any experience of outdoor litter trays? He seems to like being out in the open so I was wondering about some kind of sandpit structure rather than lidded box??

Cat tax included!

I have a lawn shitter too. I'm afraid to tell you we also put a litter tray out to see if he would use that instead. Still going strong on the lawn 🙈

I find if we keep him in longer and time his food he will then go in the inside litter tray. Still not my ideal but better than the lawn. Not sure there is anyway to train him to go in the woods/fields behind our house.

Hopefully someone might be along with some more ideas.

We had one outdoors but it was a bit of a pain, kept forgetting about it, got all mildewy inside etc. Wasn’t sure how much it was used as a result. Worth a try, but think it should be one that is intended for outdoor use, can be kept covered or out of the rain, and change it as often as you would an indoor one so your kitty is more tempted to use it would be my advice! I’d imagine a sandbox may be harder to manage upkeep wise.

Hmm….seems like a tricky ask! Maybe we’re just destined to keep picking his offerings out of the lawn. C’est la vie I guess!

Yes, I have an outdoor litter tray (well, two). I had to do some experimenting to find out what worked.

I found the trick was to put the tray in right place i.e. the right place for the cat, not where you find it most convenient (of course!) I had a huge plastic pot with sweet peas in, I took the plants out in autumn and the cats used the dry earth in it as a litter tray. So they chose it, and it's still their litter tray! And next to it I added a deep sided litter tray

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079YX5BP9?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5

They next to the house so quite sheltered from the rain. I fill them with a mix of old potting compost and sharp sand, and clean out the solids as necessary.

We sort of have two outdoor litter trays

Several cats ago one of ours started to use a certain area of garden so we have cultivated it as his toilet. Subsequent cats took it on and latest cat also has her own area taken over a bit of raised border

I used to refill with topsoil but have recently gone to play sand as it doesn't freeze in winter

Thank you @Oldraver@Saysayonara They sound like good ideas and I’ll give it a go. If you used pots and litter trays did you put holes in the bottom of them for drainage?

A friend built me a dog kennel type structure with a cat flap in it and the door opened in order to get to the tray to clean it out.

At the time I had three cats and they did use it all the time.

My last cat, I bought a heavy duty plastic dog kennel, medium dog sized to get the litter tray in, would have worked fantastically except the blighter wouldn't use it, he just liked to lay in the front and ignored the litter tray.

Kennel that I bought

Both of my cats used to use indoor tray despite going out quite a lot. I moved litter tray closer to the door then outside door. They kept using it (and mostly ignoring second tray). Over time I moved preferred tray to corner of the garden. Then I emptied contents of the tray onto a pile of soil and sand mix. Cats started using that spot. Each week DH digs it over and adds a bit more sand. Happy kitties.

Great ideas thank you all 😊