just had the garden re-done a few weeks ago and now it seems that the local cat population has taken a fancy to leaving their turd deposits there…
it always seems to happen at night so i cant even catch the culprits at it…i’m sure next doors cat is also to blame but without actually seeing it do the deed its hard to prove…
i found 5 separate little piles of it this morning…
any suggestions other than getting the super soaker/bb gun with laser sight out?

As an owner of three cats, I can testify that a good soaking works wonders if done regularly. Other than that, some sort of dog would help.

i’m sure next doors cat is to blame

and

i found 5 separate little piles of it this morning…

😯

Dagnabit, what do your neighbours feed this beast?

Sounds like more than one cat to me.

Lots of previous threads on the subject, they all end up with some cat hating tosser saying you should inflict some kind of physical harm upon the cat, cat owners retaliate by saying do that to my cat and I’ll kill you, and repeat…..

I find a tennis ball by the back door helps, or having easy access to the hose… they soon get the idea once they have been bullseyed with either a couple of times!

So perhaps an overnight stakeout is required…

Same here. 😐

Had to clear over a dozen turds off the lawn after a week away before the kids could go out and play.

they all end up with some cat hating tosser saying you should inflict some kind of physical harm upon the cat, cat owners retaliate by saying do that to my cat and I’ll kill you, and repeat…..

I wouldn’t like to inflict physical harm on the cat, but I would like to speak to the owner and explain my displeasure.

we had a cat problem when we first moved in 2 years ago but i got rid of them using the water method and never had a problem since but in the last week or so they seem to have come back….
i found some yesterday as well…then this morning one of the samples looked the same as yesterdays….the other 4 samples from this morning looked like 2 separate deposits by 2 different cats….so i’m looking for 3 feline culprits!!

a dog is out of the question as the wife is absolutely petrified of anything that’s living and non-human!!

it normally wouldnt bother me but my 5 year old boy like to play in the back garden and now that my daughter is starting to walk i dont want her wandering out into a cat poop infested garden

Cats tend to dig in their crap, and prefer loose, freshly turned soil so if it’s on the surface or on grass, it’s probably worth thinking about other culprits.

Often people blame cats for crapping on their lawn when in fact it’s foxes marking their territory. Cat crap is flat/rounded at the ends, whereas fox crap is tapered.

These?

How’s about putting up chicken wire on your garden walls/fence?

Cats – so I hear anyway – hate walking on chicken wire…

Otherwise, there’s loads of sonic/smelly ideas out there that are supposed to deter cats.

Get your own cat/cats. Nothing else worked, I tried every hair-brained scheme I read about/was told. This worked a treat for me in a previous home. My cats didn’t poop in our garden, and nor did anyone else’s after I got them. Its a better solution to getting dogs, as cats tend to be out and about doing their own thing in the garden whereas dogs are just stoopid and want to be wherever their owners are. Also dogs kill cats. Cats just scrap with other cats.

Okay I see your comment re : your wife being petrified of non-human animals, but it really does work!

Edit : I love my dogs, but they are definitely stoopid

dan1980 – Member

Cats tend to dig in their crap, and prefer loose, freshly turned soil so if it’s on the surface or on grass, it’s probably worth thinking about other culprits.

Often people blame cats for crapping on their lawn when in fact it’s foxes marking their territory. Cat crap is flat/rounded at the ends, whereas fox crap is tapered.

Complete & absolute rubbish, cats crap anywhere: grass, gravel, window boxes, even witnessed one laying one down on the pavement a while back.
They do not bury their mess (another myth) You sound like a typical cat owner who doesn’t give a stuff about YOUR animals creating problems for other folk & their kids.
Oh no, can’t possibly be Mr Tiddles sh1tting all over the neighbours lawn/vegetable patch etc. Must be a fox, or a wolf. Actually I remember seeing a bear passing by yesterday, could have been that. Nothing to do with me……………

schrickvr6 – Member

Lots of previous threads on the subject, they all end up with some cat hating tosser saying you should inflict some kind of physical harm upon the cat, cat owners retaliate by saying do that to my cat and I’ll kill you, and repeat…..
Indeed and if you replace “cat” with “dog” you have the usual ending to a dog poo thread as well.

Im interested to know what HTS expects the cats owner to do about their cat, given cats are free range animals and aren’t well known for listening to what others tell them to do! 🙄

Cats tend to dig in their crap, and prefer loose, freshly turned soil so if it’s on the surface or on grass, it’s probably worth thinking about other culprits.

oh its definitely a cat….there was one turd slap bang in the middle of the lawn but the rest were on the raised gravel bed…there was also evidence of where the cats had tried to dig into the gravel…

i’ve read that alaskan malamutes (which i would love one of) are quite fond of stalking small animals and cats?
they can also scale 6 foot fences though so cats beware

Im interested to know what HTS expects the cats owner to do about their cat, given cats are free range animals and aren’t well known for listening to what others tell them to do!

Train their cats to use a litter tray? Might not stop them crapping outdoors 100%, but should certainly reduce the amount, unless the cat is an infinite crapping machine…

Cut your grass short and scare them off. Its worked really well for me but I don’t have any flower beds, just grass and a great big bike shed !

We have similar problems with our front garden; they have also now learned to climb up the front of the van, onto and across the garage roof and poo in the back garden now too.

I’m going to get a pet bear. Then when it eats all the cats (and all the neighbours) I can say that it is also a free range animal and doesn’t heed the advice of others, so I am clearly entirely blameless.

i’ve read that alaskan malamutes ..are quite fond of stalking small animals

Well that’s very unusual behaviour for a dog…

I was going to suggest silent roar as well, but it has already been suggested.
It works, although used to be hard to find. Not harmful in any way either.

Leave scraps of food, dish of dog food out at night, the resultant foxes should keep away the cats*

(* – caution, thus may result in foxes crapping in your garden, in which case you should remove the dog food and leave peanuts out**)

(** – caution, this may result in badgers crapping in your garden, and probably digging up the lawn too!)

Been experimenting with a few ideas since asking the same question a little while back.

Grow lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme (or anything else with a citrus oil style), garlic/onions near your garden edges. They don’t like them. It’s good in pots ‘cos you can move it if they change paths through your garden. They don’t like spikey stuff either.
Remove any mint, it’s like catnip, they like it.
Got some cat deterrent granules from asda. Sprinkle on ground anywhere near where they’ve done it. And where they come into your garden.
Got a cat deterrent spray from home bargains, spray tops and bottoms of fences that they climb over. Reach over and spray the neighbours side so they’re put off before they get to yours.
It seems the “deterrent” in these products is usually a garlic/chilli or citrus oil, or both. Make up a garlic/orange/chilli oil mix for a home-made deterrent and use sparingly too.
You may decide to add a bit of your mix to the super soaker if you decide to go down the “stakeout” route.
It’s true, they don’t like chicken wire. They really don’t like holly. Put branches/sprigs of holly along their paths, stapled on the fence, and wherever they do their mess. They won’t walk there twice.
Cut your grass short, even to the point of being “crispy” in this weather.
If you can get hold of that lion poo, it’s got good reviews. I couldn’t.

For best results, get hold of all the cat deterrent measures you can, and try to figure out where they come into your garden. They often follow the same route/path.
Then clear all the mess there is, and put down all the deterrents at the same time. (Keep reapplying the spray/granules for about a week.) Real overkill, but you want to shock them out of their old habits and make them go elsewhere. Once they find a “better” new place, chances are they’ll stay there. This weather’s perfect ‘cos of a lot of it is scent based and can be washed away and need reapplying after rain.

And if you can borrow or dogsit a mate’s hound for the weekend that will really help. You don’t need to keep the dog permanently.

Cut your grass short and scare them off. Its worked really well for me but I don’t have any flower beds, just grass and a great big bike shed !

grass is as short as it can be…

I’m going to get a pet bear. Then when it eats all the cats (and all the neighbours) I can say that it is also a free range animal and doesn’t heed the advice of others, so I am clearly entirely blameless.

hmmmmm….that sounds tempting…

has anyone used one of those sonic cat repellers? are they any good?

Complete and absolute rubbish, cats crap anywhere: grass, gravel, window boxes, even witnessed one laying one down on the pavement a while back.
They do not bury their mess (another myth) You sound like a typical cat owner who doesn’t give a stuff about YOUR animals creating problems for other folk and their kids.
Oh no, can’t possibly be Mr Tiddles sh1tting all over the neighbours lawn/vegetable patch etc. Must be a fox, or a wolf. Actually I remember seeing a bear passing by yesterday, could have been that. Nothing to do with me……………

Sorry for all this, but it’s a slow day at work… Anyways:

You seem angry about this, can I suggest a stop at http://www.reddit.com/r/aww to calm you down, all though there are cute pictures of ickle pussy cats there.

Domestic cats are quite timid animals, the reason for this is due to an instinctive throwback from the mists of time when they weren’t fed out of a can, or murdering garden birds off the feeder and had to put some effort into getting a meal. Sadly for Mr (Or Miss/Mrs, lets not gender stereotype) Fluffy, other things would also quite happily like to turn his/her/its fuzzy backside into a tasty snack.

Now your average diet of voles, bunnies and various insects gives you exceptionally stinky stools (try it and find out!), and on top of this, in general predators have quite sensitive senses of smell. As a result, pre-domestic kitties would bury their poop so as to not signal to bigger, meaner, and hungrier animals that they were about.

The only time a moggy would normally be prepared to take a dump in an obvious place would be to mark its territory for hunting rights.

Now, fast forwards a few thousand years, and suddenly, Mr or Mrs Tiddles is surrounded by humans, who, because they are much bigger, and generally man handle them, ruffle them and make cooing baby noises, are considered more dominant. Because they are a bit stupid and can’t think like anything other than a cat, believe that we go out hunting and like to chew on small rodents and birds too. So as they believe we are the dominant creatures, with the hunting rights to the local territory, cats don’t normally have a pop at challenging things by taking a crap in the middle of your lawn because in cat behavior terms it means “**** off, this is my garden, and I’ll ‘ave your eyes out if I see you”, and lets be honest, cats aren’t stupid enough to think they’d win in a fight with a 4ft plus biped when they’re only a ft or so high.

It’s possible that new cats in the neighborhood can start a territorial dispute (especially if they’re intact), but it’s probably worth bearing in mind that the average male moggy with his nuts chopped off (and lady cats that have been done) will rarely stray more than 300m from their owners house, so the likelihood of cats getting into territorial disputes with neighbors is fairly low (especially as male and female cats will normally share their territories) when there is the possibility of serial crapping to mark territories, but this is normally short lived until the dispute is sorted. Intact males with roam further, but then it’s arguably irresponsible ownership to keep a male cat intact unless there’s a very good reason for it.

Occasionally, when cats get ill, the poor little things might take a crap wherever they are when they feel the urge, but generally we’re talking produce that would score very highly on the Bristol Scale. And occasionally, if cats have been removed from their mummies too early on in their life, and haven’t learned to cover their poop, they may have bad habits and crap casually in places they shouldn’t, but a responsible owner can overcome this.

That silent roar stuff makes domestic moggies believe there is a much larger cat about, and so if the crapping is from a territorial point of view, should stop it. If it’s for other reasons, like the cat is a bit dumb and hasn’t been taught to bury it’s crap, or in fact the poop is coming from a fox (which incidentally don’t have any issues with having a dump wherever they feel like it) then it wont.

So in summary, the vast majority of cats can, and do bury their crap, and generally they prefer freshly dug soil, because frankly, cats are lazy, and will go for the easy life given half the chance.

And for the record, I’m a fairly typical cat owner who treats/worms/inoculates my fwuffy ‘ickle killer. I’ve taken the time to make sure he was fully litter trained, and burys his turds. When he started going out, I made sure he knew his garden was the best place for him to crap. He now uses my flowerbeds as far as I know exclusively for his toileting. I’ve also taken the time to find out what makes him tick, and to overcome bad and undesirable behaviors by understanding the reasons behind what he does. I’ve also trained him to stay, give me a paw, and to trip me over whenever I’m going down stairs. We’re working on fetch.

Whilst I appreciate you have a downer on cats, probably from personal experience of having crap in places you don’t want it, and possibly because you’re worried about the health of your family, please try and remember your prejudices are based on a tiny subset of human experience, and that many many other folk will be living in and around the 7 million cats in the UK and not even noticing their toiletry habits.

I’d make an apology for length, but I’ve never had any complaints before…. 🙂

Might have been done already, but if you’ve not seen it its well worth a watch!!

(Edit to show link that works)

Forget silent roar – I’m a Tiger (in a Gareth Cheeseman style 😉 )

Just used my own urine – best when it’s most pungent – and orange peel at said little buggers favourite deposit points.

Worked a treat.

So in summary, the vast majority of cats can, and do bury their crap, and generally they prefer freshly dug soil, because frankly, cats are lazy, and will go for the easy life given half the chance.

They don’t in my neighbourhood. In any case, those of us who grow food in our gardens would prefer to have it free of cat poo.

I don’t blame the cats, I blame the lazy, selfish and irresponsible owners.

Get your own cat/cats

I’ve heard people joke about cat owners suggesting this to none cat owners, didn’t think it actually happened tho. Well done.

How to get rid of cat crap? increase the number of cats but possibly keep it out of your own backyard,
go team!

BB gun by the back door, remember not to turn the inside light on when you come in, you’ll get one eventually, very satisfying and no harm done*

*not much

Build two sand pits with covers. Pit one is kept covered at night and is for the kids to play in. Pit two is kept covered during the day and is for the cats to crap in, they’ll prefer it to the rest of the garden.

You could even scoop the cat crap out of pit two and return it to your neighbours……..

D0NK you just properly annoyed me then. Admittedly I’m a little tetchy today, but he asked for suggestions on how to stop cats pooping in his garden and I offered a perfectly legitimate solution that in my experience works, no matter how ridiculous you think it might be. You got anything constructive to add to help the OP?

BB gun by the back door, remember not to turn the inside light on when you come in, you’ll get one eventually, very satisfying and no harm done*

i have two….but one normally has a habit of dismantling itself when you fire…the other has a laser sight attached, so should help with my dodgy aim….do i go for the rump or should i be a bit more humane and fire warning shots?

Have had some success with leaving CDs out in the veg plot they appear to be wary of the light reflecting off them.

right, i’ve ordered one of those sonic cat repellers from amazon for £15….should arrive tomorrow….should see results in a few weeks…but in the meantime i’ll be brushing up on my shooting skills!!

Admittedly I’m a little tetchy today, but he asked for suggestions on how to stop cats pooping in his garden and I offered a perfectly legitimate solution that in my experience works, no matter how ridiculous you think it might be.

Your solution just transfers the problem to some other poor sod. Not very neighbourly, is it?

Unfortunately I can’t really argue with that one, regardless of how much I’d like to, no it’s not particularly neighbourly.

Anyway, in all fairness, my initial post was partly tongue in cheek. Obviously no-one is going to get a cat just to stop others pooping in your garden, it just so happened that when I got two some years ago, that all pooping in my garden ceased. So I decided to relate my experience to the OP as either way it worked for me. I only dug my heels in because D0NK annoyed me. Sensitive and tetchy. Going for a cider in the sun now I think.

This is what I plan to do with the cat that craps in my garden and killed a Bullfinch last week. I intend to snare it, gaffer-tape/zip tie all its legs together for safety, then shave its torso, draw a large target on its flank in permanent marker, and then release it with a rifle bullet attached to its collar. If that doesn’t get the message across to its owners, there’s only one other solution.

😯 😯 😯