Do most owners of outdoor cats provide a litter tray indoors?

[SylvanMoon]

I was just listening to Sliced Bread on Radio 4 about kitty litter. The woman who was being introduced as wanting to know which type of litter was best to use said that she was new to having to deal with kitty litter as this was the first time she'd owned an "inside cat". The implication was that she'd previously owned "outside cats" and didn't ever provide a kitty litter for them. I was quite surprised by this and wondered how common it is that cat owners just expect their cats to defecate on other people's property. My neighbour has two cats who roam around outside, but have a litter that they use inside. (They also poo outside.) I don't have a cat or dog, but I do have a front and back garden where I grow fruit and vegetables. And it's cost me quite a lot to cat-proof my soil with scat mats and netting so that the neighbourhood outside cats don't use it as their toilet. Are cat owners comfortable with that or do they think their cats are considerate and only poo on wasteland rather than in their neighbours' gardens?

My cat has a tray. She prefers to shite right in the middle of our lawn instead though. She only goes in our garden, she doesn’t leave. The rest of the streets cats also think our lawn is their toilet too.

The OP complained about cat shit. Cats are a threat to UK indigenous wildlife, which has the right to shit wherever it likes, in the interest of preserving the ecosystem. Cats disrupt the ecosystem.

I cycle and have always been able to easily navigate around horse shit.

My cat stopped using the litter tray when he was a kitten and always defecates outside, most likely in neighbours' gardens. To be honest I don't care at all if he shits in other people's gardens, there are several cats round here and they shit in my flowerbeds and love newly planted ones. If you live near cats I think you have to expect some shit in your garden.

Yes, frankly. My cat doesn't use a litter box, so even if I gave him one he would still shit outside. Cats exist, get over it!

I'm well aware of my responsibilities as a dog owner - but that wasn't what mu post was about.

so @RoseField1 @ExOptimist - just like the pro-smoking lobby before smoking was banned in public places, your argument is 'my choice' above 'externalised harm'.

Cats aren't cigarettes. HTH

90% of CatOfHate's prey is the legally-vermin, invasive species known as "brown rat".

Op is on a hiding to nothing with hating cats. Too many cat lovers on MN.

I wouldn't be so rude as to go into a dog owners' forum to berate them about dog poo or the neighbours' (plural) dogs barking when I have a migraine. OP's rudeness is what most of my posts have been about.

This is cat owners' space. Invading to berate us is rude.

I cycle and have always been able to easily navigate around horse shit.

That ability depends on the density of the shit, the width of the path, and whether you ride a tadpole trike...

I can think of so many more threats to wildlife and birds than my cats. I think a lot of people on here mistake fox poo for cat poo. Foxes poo in the middle of the garden, cats typically don’t unless they want to piss you off.

I had a lovely black cat who had been abandoned and lived as a stray for a while. When I took him in and finally got him neutered, he decided, in his more mature years, to venture outside and then come in for a wee in his tray. He did make me chuckle. The thing is, I’ve got a black kitten that does exactly the same thing.

My cat caught 2 brown rats outside recently the first for ages.

You would hardly be berating dog owners if you went onto that forum and complained about dogs shitting in your garden - the majority of posters would tell you you were quite right to complain. Most of us there agree that owners who don't pick up after their dogs are scumbags - and even more so if you let your dog out of the front door to roam your street and shit on your neighbours' gardens.

I’ve had cats for 50 years and I’ve got 2 litter trays. My daughter’s young cat is here at the moment and up and about from 5 am - I don’t open the cat flap until I am up, about 8.30 am. She does use the tray.

And the Tack Room? Should riders be forced to pick up after their horses?

Or do we recognise that different species get differing legal treatment?

Please someone tell my cat this news, because she only ever shites right in the middle of the lawn. Every. Single. Time.

My cats are indoor/outdoor pets and I still have litter boxes in the house.

They wee outside but use the trays for their poos.

I've seen more rats than normal recently and I'm not sure why. CatOfHate is doing his job killing them 😻

Nope never had a litter tray for ours. Honestly I’m sorry but I don’t give it a second thought where they poop, but I’m laughing at a pp who suggested we should “encourage cats to poop in our own gardens” as if they care what a garden boundary is. Sorry op, I think life is full of little inconveniences and cat poop isn’t something I could bring myself to care about.

I have never known a cat of mine poo I. Their own garden. My ladies are very private about their business.

Yes, we have three trays and cat generally comes in to use one. He loves to come in, do a poo, shout to get it cleaned up/the kitchen floor swept, supervise tidying, then go straight back out. He’s also kept in overnight so has to have a tray. Our previous cat toileted outside (at the “wild patch” at the back of our garden) 99% of the time, but we always kept a tray for her just in case. She was also in overnight and would dash straight out for a wee first thing when we got up rather than use the litter.

Cats are at their most vulnerable while toileting so I wouldn’t want a situation where the cat was spooked by something outdoors and didn’t have an inside option that felt safe.

Passive smoking was proven to be a serious health hazard( i.e. carcinogenic) which is why smoking was banned in certain public places where non smokers might be.

Cat faeces may contain toxoplasmosis which is a mild, not dangerous disease, in most people, apart from certain immunocompromised people or pregnant women where it can cause problems with the foetus.
As the gardener Rachel de Thame advised decades ago, no woman of childbearing age should be gardening or touching soil with bare hands, gloves should always be worn. I thought that was common knowledge. I was first pregnant 37 years ago and it was common knowledge then.
It is easy to avoid catching toxoplasmosis, I've had cats for over 50 years and have known many many people with cats, I've never heard of anyone catching it.

Smoking and cat shit are not the same thing.

I’m the same. More rats in the open. Can’t be the neighbors on other street further up who have chickens. One Bloody rat was way too near my French window but cat was inside then. I wrote a post here shocked that she’d recently caught 2 - thankfully outside. I thought she was past it at 12. 🤣