[Closed] How to stop cats pooping in my garden

Apparently my husky cross isn’t enough detterent!

It might be that he needs to up the anger level to livid?

Sew their arseholes closed.

Or try pepper.

My mate had a water spray thing attached to the hose pipe and a sensor a few years back. He had cats pooing on his gravel drive. Soon sorted them out / most of them don’t like getting hosed down with water

Get a dog or move house.

We've managed to reduce it from being a weekly occurrence to being so infrequent that it has stopped being a source of annoyance with one of these. I see they've got an updated one now so I think I'll get it for our gravel driveway which seems to have taken over as the poop receptacle of choice.

Those High Frequeny things are a bloody menace for those of us blessed with Human Hearing than picks them up!

The trouble with those ultrasonic cat scarers is that unless you cannot hear very well, they make your garden unpleasant to be near.

The most effective easy and not ear splitting method I've found is putting citrius peel around the garden. Apparently cats hate ferrets, so I used to put sawdust from a neighbours ferret cage around the garden, but said neighbours have now moved even further north to greener pastures, taking their ferrets with them, so it's back to citrus fruit peel.

We had this for years.
Multiple times we had to clean cat shit off the kids' shoes / hands. ☹️

Tried all sorts of gels and peppers, but the ultimate solution involved passing car apparently.

so it’s back to citrus fruit peel.

Does it work?

The RSPB sell an ultrasonic cat repeller that worked really well for us, this thing. It's not cheap - available cheaper elsewhere - but much better than cheapo amazon ones we tried first:<br /><br /> https://shopping.rspb.org.uk/bird-feeders-boxes-tables/bird-care-accessories/cat-deterrent/ca****ch-cat-deterrent.html

Fortunately next door's cat is now so decrepit that it's no longer needed, but it did the job when it was needed.

We have a pair our feral / outdoor cats next door. Luckily we look after the in-laws dog frequently enough to dissuade them from spending too much time in our garden and instead use our other next door neighbours garden. 

This situation has escalated somewhat to the toilet-garden owning neighbour taking a poopscoop full of catshit round to the cat owning neighbours house and depositing it on their doorstep at 7am each morning. 

I would had thought the cat owners would have trained them to use a litter tray by now, but this situation is now in year 2 or 3 now. Cat owner just shrugs his shoulders and doesn't seem to care. 

if it's not too huge an area, the cat repellant mats from Amazon and the like work well.

We had problems with neighbours 2 cats pooping in the borders and our dog, at that stage a pup, digging and eating it.  These sorted it and are still in use.

Just buy yourself a cat. Make sure it's a Bengal or other feisty breed. That'll see the other cats off and it won't shit on it's own doorstep. And the cat-cuddles will make you fell more chilled. Win, win 🙂

Wrong breed of dog OP, no cat has been in our garden since we got a greyhound. They know they can't outrun it so don't take the chance.

The absolute best deterrent for our garden turned out to be one of the cheapest.

I can’t take a pic now as I’m not there.

Cheap car washer bottle kit including two jets, £12 ish on Amazon

12v battery

12v pir with timer. About a fiver I think on amazon.

Assembled the above using an old 25 litre container as a housing, something like an empty adblu container would also work as an enclosure and moved it around the common poo sites, no more cats.

The washer bottle is pretty small and at first needed filling every night.

I did consider attaching it to the water main, but if it jammed on would be a waste of water.

It did accidentally soak a hedgehog looking at the wildlife cam but it was hot at the time and didn’t seem bothered.

This situation has escalated somewhat to the toilet-garden owning neighbour taking a poopscoop full of catshit round to the cat owning neighbours house and depositing it on their doorstep at 7am each morning

Seems fair.

Re: Citrus peel

Does it work?

Yes, it does deter cats. But it's not as good as I'd like and you have to make sure the garden is well covered.

Yes, it does deter cats. But it’s not as good as I’d like and you have to make sure the garden is well covered.

I have a pretty small garden but even so that does seem like a lot of fruit. Maybe I'll give that RSPB gadget a spin.

This situation has escalated somewhat to the toilet-garden owning neighbour taking a poopscoop full of catshit round to the cat owning neighbours house and depositing it on their doorstep at 7am each morning

Seems acceptable to me.

On the citrus peel front, do you not find that changes the soil PH / nutrients affecting what plants will grow?

Just get one of those motion sensor water sprayers, about £20, once it gets wet once it won't come back in the garden.

I’d have no problem with people returning my cats’ shit to me if they did it in an appropriate manner. Happy to put a poo bin out for people to use if they ask. Or they can just stick it bagged in my normal wheelie bin as I do.

I would had thought the cat owners would have trained them to use a litter tray by now, but this situation is now in year 2 or 3 now. Cat owner just shrugs his shoulders and doesn’t seem to care.

Short of not having cats, or keeping them permanently in, it’s impossible to control where they go. My cats have litter trays, they’re always clean, and they know how to use them. They will use them if locked in, but otherwise they go elsewhere, and there no way I can stop them. I’m not locking them in, they’re outdoor cats, as cats should be.

Short of not having cats, or keeping them permanently in, it’s impossible to control where they go. My cats have litter trays, they’re always clean, and they know how to use them. They will use them if locked in, but otherwise they go elsewhere, and there no way I can stop them. I’m not locking them in, they’re outdoor cats, as cats should be.

So you are quite happy with your situation of your cats causing an antisocial nuisance to your neighbours?

Just buy yourself a cat. Make sure it’s a Bengal or other feisty breed. That’ll see the other cats off and it won’t shit on it’s own doorstep. And the cat-cuddles will make you fell more chilled. Win, win 🙂

This. Our deceptively diminutive little bugger was found feral and is hard as nails. None of the neighbours cats, of which there are many, would dare to shit in ‘his’ garden. I don’t know where he goes for a dump, but it isn’t here.

As a bonus, if any rodents fancied their chances around the vicinity of our house, he puts paid to that pretty sharpish too. He’s like the Angel of death! Win/win! 😃

So you are quite happy with your situation of your cats causing an antisocial nuisance to your neighbours?

And we're away.

Happy to put a poo bin out for people to use if they ask.

Yeah ok, the problem with this is that I didn't mean to sign up for picking up other people's cat poo, or wiping other people's cat poo off my shoes if I put my bins out in the dark without checking first, or cleaning other people's cat poo off my children because I let them go outside before checking.

I now realise of course that this is part of the deal you make if you want to live somewhere other people exist. However in my naive little mind, not owning a pet meant I wouldn't have to deal with the associated crap.

On a related note, I've just come up with a great idea to reduce the amount of nappies I'll have to deal with from my one year old. My neighbours won't mind right?

There are plenty of things cats don't like, including other cats. A mate of mine had a similar issue a few years back, solved by ordering a shipment of lion poo off the Internet.

Anyone advocating animal cruelty against any animal, let alone someone else's beloved pets, needs to have a good long think about what they've become.

Just buy the repellent plastic matting strips from Amazon for a few quid and get on with life.

The most effective easy and not ear splitting method I’ve found is putting citrius peel around the garden.

Makes you think.

So you are quite happy with your situation of your cats causing an antisocial nuisance to your neighbours?

Other than locking them in the house permanently or having them put down, tell me what I should do?

Other than locking them in the house permanently or having them put down, tell me what I should do?

Sadly, I believe you already know the answer you're going to get to that.

A bit like an analogue to cyclists, people who don't like cats often really don't like cats to a point of sociopathy. There is no reasoning with these people.

Where I live there's a big problem with (huge) dog turds being left on the pavement. I wonder how the usual smug pricks posting here would react were I to suggest leaving out poisoned meat for them.

Cats don’t just shit anywhere. They go in hidden places as they don’t like being watched and they try to cover it. If there’s a shit in the middle of your garden it’s most likely a fox.<br /><br />

false. My neighbours cat has gone for a shit right in the middle of my lawn, under the clothes line whilst looking me in the eye. <br /><br />

Other than locking them in the house permanently or having them put down, tell me what I should do?

keep them on your property by creating a cat run / enclosure. <br /><br />

If it’s on the middle of the path outside your house, then like mine, it’ll be an inconsiderate dog owner.<br /><br />

so a dog owner not picking up shit is inconsiderate, but you not picking up your cat shit is somehow OK? How does that work? 

My neighbour keeps her cat in the house, doesn't seem to do the cat any harm. The other neighbours are less considerate. Cats shit everywhere in our garden and make no effort to hide it and even if they did it's only hidden under a thin layer of soil which is of no consequence when you're working in the garden and end up with cat shit all over the gloves you have to wear because of the shit. I hate cats, there's too many and they scare away the birds. If a cat is an outdoor animal why are you keeping it as a pet.

Cats don’t just shit anywhere. They go in hidden places as they don’t like being watched and they try to cover it. If there’s a shit in the middle of your garden it’s most likely a fox.

Our wildlife camera would disagree.

In the summer we returned from a two week holiday to 25 cat shits. We had to clear them up before unloading the car as the gravel path round the side of the house was heavily mined.
It’s what made me build the water sentry gun.
If I knew whose houses the cats came from I’d have invited the owners to clear it up and on refusal returned their leavings at high velocity.

We don’t dislike cats and have others house cats stay on occasion, but even my other half who really likes cats was close to anti cat violence.

Hyperbole, much?

Dude if only.

Where I live there’s a big problem with (huge) dog turds being left on the pavement.<br /><br />

Again, I do not understand the cognitive dissonance between dog shit in your community = bad but cat shit in the community = perfectly OK? <br /><br />personally, I’d prefer to live in a community with neither - I don’t think that’s a particularly big ask? 

Cats don’t just shit anywhere. They go in hidden places as they don’t like being watched and they try to cover it. If there’s a shit in the middle of your garden it’s most likely a fox.

Another vote for that's complete codswallop.

Any normal cat that’s been brought up in a happy environment will be perfectly satisfied living indoors.

Most cats will bury their poo, the local alpha cat won't, it'll leave it very conspicuously so other cats are aware of it and it's territory, often bang smack in the middle of a lawn etc, my cats bury theirs, neither are very alpha.

We spent a long time throwing tennis balls at next door's cats [ they breed them} and scaring the ****ing life out of them if cornered.

The grown up cats much teach the little ones that our garden is a bad place to be as we no longer have visits.

One of the little ****ers actually shit in my car.

I hate cats.

Cats don’t just shit anywhere. They go in hidden places as they don’t like being watched and they try to cover it. If there’s a shit in the middle of your garden it’s most likely a fox.

I do wish cat owners would stop repeating this myth.

This has worked in our garden which was under similar ASSault.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004YCUT4W?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_shar e"> http://PestBye® Jet Spray Battery... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004YCUT4W?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

false. My neighbours cat has gone for a shit right in the middle of my lawn, under the clothes line whilst looking me in the eye.

+however many we’re up to now.

I used to like cats but having to do the poo patrol in the garden and pick up five or more from the lawn before my toddler can play, tiptoe my way to the shed or just put up with the smell has made me pretty unsympathetic to the little gits.

Ultrasounds have never really worked in our garden/on the local cats. I need to try that battery sprayer though.

If you want to try and break a habit and aren’t using part of the garden, a roll of chicken wire laid out so it ‘hovers’ seems to put them off sitting down

Most cats will bury their poo, the local alpha cat won’t, it’ll leave it very conspicuously so other cats are aware of it and it’s territory,

Is the right answer.

We spent a long time throwing tennis balls at next door’s cats [ they breed them} and scaring the **** life out of them if cornered.

You must be very proud. Do you stamp at pigeons when walking through town also?

You must be very proud. Do you stamp at pigeons when walking through town also?

Providing my family with a shit free garden IS  something I'm proud of.

Pigeons are safe but I do have issues with seagulls.

CougarFull Member
Most cats will bury their poo, the local alpha cat won’t, it’ll leave it very conspicuously so other cats are aware of it and it’s territory,
Is the right answer.

cougar, I respect much of what you post on here, so I am curious as to why you think it’s OK for cats to be a nuisance to your neighbours by shitting in their gardens, yet you take exception to dog owners not picking up after their dogs.

"Think I'll go for my pre-bedtime dump"

I believe this may be a solution

Looking at our wildlife cam footage, a big ginger cat was crapping in the middle of the path or drive, a small tabby would crap under the creeper at the fence line and a black and white cat prefers the flower beds at the rear.

I don’t think cat owners understand the scale of the issue, the 25 craps I mentioned earlier on didn’t include the hidden IEDs. Being away for a couple of weeks means a lot of being somebody else’s litter tray attendant.
Absolutely stinks in the summer.

Pepper or chilli can work, ultrasonics are useless. The ginger would just crap in front of it. The PIR operated water pistol definitely made a difference.

How is pepper/chilli best deployed? Don't want it affecting frogs hedgehogs or squirrels though....

We’ve a resident dog fox who visits our garden frequently. He keeps the cats away, but his leavings are also even more unpleasant than theirs.

How is pepper/chilli best deployed? Don’t want it affecting frogs hedgehogs or squirrels though….

Pepper you just sprinkle in the affected areas. You can buy big containers of it and it is sold as cat repellent. Important to remove any existing turds apparently.

Chilli I used powder or chopped chillies, added to a large container of water, mixed and left it for a couple of days then poured around the affected area (only really useful on paths and driveways).

We stopped using chemical warfare when hedgehogs appeared, although they didn’t seem bothered, just carried on mooching about. No idea about frogs and squirrels, a bit too urban here I think.

Also in the current weather any powders put down will wash away pretty quickly.

Water based sentry guns are definitely the most useful in our small garden. Quite pleasing to hear it go off, then a scrabble as a cat legs it back over the fence. Friendly fire can be an issue though.

cougar, I respect much of what you post on here, so I am curious as to why you think it’s OK for cats to be a nuisance to your neighbours by shitting in their gardens, yet you take exception to dog owners not picking up after their dogs.

Because,

a) cats aren't dogs. This is a false equivalence.

b) in my 50-odd years on this planet I've yet to find a cat turd on my doorstep or the pavement outside, with dogs it's a weekly occurrence. People walk dogs and can pick up after them, folk don't generally walk cats.

c) I never said it was OK. I'm sure it's annoying. I'm not championing the rights for cats to toilet where they like, rather I'm pushing back against the inhumane and frankly evil suggestions from some quarters as to the treatment of other people's beloved pets.

We have three cats, I fixed this issue by keeping them all indoors.

I don't think anyone's arguing that cats = dogs. I suspect people are really just after a consistent application of rule 1 as applied to pet owners. Certainly I do not care whether or not you own a pet in the same way that you don't care if I have kids, I just don't want to have to deal with its poo whether that's walking around it on the pavement or picking it up in my garden.

Personally I don't think that's unreasonable but if you disagree then I have a 1 year old with a nappy that needs changing please.

I think the arguement though is poo = poo and it doesn't matter if it's from cats or dogs. Cat poo is everywhere around here, where as there will be maybe one anti-social dog owner for a while, which the council tends to deal with and stop once it's reported and they're caught.

Therefore I find cats are far more of a problem and it's annoying reading all the rubbish about them finding their special spot and alpha cats etc. as it's a myth made up by cat lovers to ignore the fact that their loving pet is a bloody menace.

I filled my lawn with spikey brash for a month or two, leaving them nowhere to squat without a stick up the arse. Seemed effective and has since not been a problem as they're creatures of habit and clearly moved their poop-pattern to someone else's garden

You could always sell your garden 😁

More seriously this is an issue. My girlfriend (former cat owner) had a problem with cats poo in her garden . She's a keen gardener and was finding cat shit all over the place after her own cat died. Old plastic lemonade bottles (2l size)half filled with water did the trick for her The distorted reflections scare the cats.
Myself I have a cat and a back yard ( slabs)rather than a garden no cat shit anywhere.

a) cats aren’t dogs. This is a false equivalence.

Not really. Their mess is equally unpleasant.

a) cats aren’t dogs. This is a false equivalence.

Not really. Their mess is equally unpleasant.

Their mess is also equally harmful  - In my recent past to my pregnant wife (NHS guidance is to not go near / pick it up) and now with a toddler crawling and stoating about the garden there is a significant risk of Toxoplasmosis.

I don't feel it's unreasonable to wish my neighbours didn't put my family at risk. 

Well who knew cats are a forum hand grenade. Cheers for the replies anyway folks 👍 and I'll never mention cats again!!

Providing my family with a shit free garden IS something I’m proud of.

Have you considered the reality that just because you have a piece of paper saying you own your garden and putting a fence around it doesn't mean you have exclusive rights to it? Cats are no different to wild animals. Do you object to other fauna using your garden? If so then maybe you need to take more proactive action to keep them out, surround it in chicken wire perhaps, or build a big box around it so nothing can get in? Or you know, you can just chill out a bit and accept that your garden is part of the natural environment and stop worrying about it. 🤷‍♂️

No different to wild animals? So we can trap and kill them humanely, like I do with the mice that sometimes break into my house? Are you sure about that?

No different to wild animals? So we can trap and kill them humanely, like I do with the mice that sometimes break into my house? Are you sure about that?

You wouldn't have that problem if you had a cat 🙂

They're no different to wild animals in that they don't respect artificial boundaries. If you want to exclude animals from your garden then it's down to you to put the infrastructure in place to prevent them getting in. It's garden owners who have the problem, not wild animals cats, or their owners.

Cats are no different to wild animals.

Aside from having owners, who house and feed them, yep exactly the same.

It took a little while but I taught our cat to use an outdoor litter tray, which she does. She is 6kg and used to go completely nuts if other cats came near our boundary, I used to feel sorry for them. She then went blind and cats started taking advantage of her, using both our garden and the litter tray to poop in. Water bombs solved that, just thrown near the offending cats, they stay away now. 

They’re no different to wild animals in that they don’t respect artificial boundaries. If you want to exclude animals from your garden then it’s down to you to put the infrastructure in place to prevent them getting in.

This is the argument I'm going to try next time my neighbours complain about my pet elephant.

If you want to exclude animals from your garden then it’s down to you to put the infrastructure in place to prevent them getting in

The law only allows a 6 ft fence. What other wildlife prevention measures do you recommend?

A moat of flaming oil?

Cats are no different to wild animals.

Aside from having owners, who house and feed them, yep exactly the same.

Cats don't have owners, they have staff

A moat of flaming oil?<br /><br />

perhaps I’m mistaken, but I think burning alive the neighbours’ cat both goes against rule 1 and would fairly quickly get the RSPCA and Police at the door! 

perhaps I’m mistaken, but I think burning alive the neighbours’ cat both goes against rule 1 and would fairly quickly get the RSPCA and Police at the door!

Great mood lighting though.