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?

Well now. I thought cats didn’t shit in their own gardens but apparently they do. If mine does she does a great job in hiding it. When outside she’s either up a wooden ramp (my stepdad built it for her) to the back high wall (she doesn’t really need it, she can still climb and jump) or crawls under next doors fence. I sound totally nuts getting a ramp built for the cat! My stepdad suggested it when he came round.

If their horse shits in my garden then yes absolutely they should pick it up and I'd definetly be pursuing the issue if that unlikey event in my tiny garden happened,

I provide a litter tray. My cat very rarely uses it- only during the very coldest nights each winter. The rest of the time she goes outside. I can’t stop her pooing outside if that’s her choice, and I won’t keep her as an inside cat as she loves being outside. If it makes you feel any better someone else’s cat chooses to poo in my raised beds and right on top of all my ornamental grasses…so I still have to deal with someone else’s cats poo.

You'd have to ask them that - but yeah, if their horses shat in my garden I'd be telling them to pick it up.

They shit on the cycle path, outside their own field, yet no one demands that the rider picks it up

@SirChenjins this replies to your post too.

All our cats have gone to the toilet in our gardens. All over our pots and beds

Last year i got a litter tray shaped and sized plant pot and just put soil in it, she uses that a lot but she uses all the gravel as well round the edges of the garden and probably goes in other gardens, just like other cats come in our garden too

Its nature.

You cant think of many?

Humans and traffic as your starter

I have outdoor cats and they have an outdoor litter tray with a roof, it’s like a pod, it’s brilliant. I bought it when they were kittens and got them used to using it indoors before they were allowed out, then when they were old enough to go outside I moved the cat toilet outside. I did this because we live in a city with tiny back yards and it’s not fair on my neighbours to have them crapping everywhere.

Read my post again.

We have two cats and three trays - youngest cat mostly goes outside, but our old boy will come in deliberately to pee/poo then go back to scorching himself on my patio 🤣

Just to please the cat haters here, I will try not to let the cat out early tomorrow to see if she shits in her litter tray. If I come on here tomorrow with a headache (from her miaowing) I’ll know who to blame!

We didn’t for the vast majority of the time as our cat was happy to go out the cat flap. But toward the end of her life, we put one down again as she had started to pee indoors - indoor litter tray solved it.

Correct I don't really care very much about where my cats shit when outside of the house.

We have a huge rat problem here due to the farm at the back and my 4 year old cat kills loads of them. There are no rats in my house.

I have a litter tray indoors... my cat has access to outside (cat flap)...but she comes in to use her toilet every day....

I have an outside cat, no litter tray and no neighbours.

My cat shits in my garden. I leave some bare soil and cover anywhere else I don’t want her to go. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t go in my neighbour’s gardens as she is fairly elderly but as cats like a routine and to crap in the same place, I’m fairly sure I am the one dealing with it. You can’t control a cat and they can’t tell you where they have been so it is very unreasonable to expect their owner to know anything about it.

If their horse shits in my garden I would be delighted. Horse manure is wonderful for my roses.

My cat used to come in specifically to use the litter tray then go back out again!

I kept the litter tray (it’s in a special built cupboard with a hole in the door and the box is covered with a swinging door so I don’t have to look at it) but they haven’t used it in years except one when it was a bit poorly. They have decided a section of one of the raised flower beds is much more appealing (and consequently nothing grows there but at least I know my neighbours’ gardens are left alone)!

Nice, I’ve started chucking it back over the fence.. take your cat shit back. Just being neighbourly!

Not fresh it isn't - you should know that if you grow roses.

OK, I don't think you are my neighbour though.

Theres so many cats round here I don't think I could identify whose cat had done it even if I was super keen to create neighbourhood conflict

Yes. Cats often don't want to go out, even if they have a cat flap. If it's cold, raining, the ground is frozen, there is a scary cat/fox dog outside etc.

Eh? I didn’t say I’d put it on fresh.