Two years ago when we moved my 8 year old indoor siamese all of the sudden was desperate to get outside. After replacing many many ripped, shredded and torn screens on every single main floor window we gave up and started letting him go out. Turns out he never goes far. Our front step and on our back patio.
Now, beacuse he does not go far, he has taken to pooping in my front garden. He now uses this as opposed to his litterbox. It is making us nuts. The spot in the garden he’s chosen is RIGHT next to the front door. It smells terrible! It’s costing us a fortune in dirt (digging out the poops and replacing the dirt)
We have tried that “cat away” granular stuff you shake on the dirt that is supposed to keep them out of there. He thinks its great we decorate his chosen litterbox with little white balls. We have put about 100 popsicle sticks, sticking straight up out of the ground, in there so he can’t walk in there to poop. He swatted all the middle ones away so now he has his own little wooden privacey fence while he poops. I put pepper all over the ground to make him sneeze so he won’t like it there anymore. He thought I was crazy. He sniffed, never sneezed, and left me more poops to add whatever seasoning I like to.
My neighbour is getting annoyed. It smells. Smells Bad.
If I catch him at it I tell him “NO!” and take him in and put him in his box. He just gives me that siamese “Make Me” look and stalks off.
Does anyone know of something that works??? Is there some home remedy or commercial product that cats really really hate but won’t hurt them???
(I’ll issue an apology right now in case this is the wrong forum. I’ll issue an even bigger one if this has been discussed before, but I did a search and spent 3 1/2 hours reading things that came up about cats and I didn’t see anything about cat poop.)
I imagine a powerful hose blast would discourage him if applied reguarly when he poos where he ought not. He would soon get the message that garden pooing = unpleasant gush of cold water. If you a cooperative local zoo keeper lion or tiger feces would probably discourage him but the smell would probably discourage you too.
You might be able to get “Silent Roar”, which is dried essence of lion shit.
My parents’ cat used to climb onto low lying shrubs and shit right on top of them. We never understood why he felt the need to go to such effort. Occasionally, we’d catch him, balancing with his paws and straining with his arse.
I have heard that the peels of citrus fruits like oranges or lemons will keeps cats away from an area, but it is only something I have heard and have no concrete evidence to offer you. Good luck in your search.
try putting kitty snack food there. clear the area, place a bowl level with the dirt. before kitty goes out place food there. kitties don’t poop near thier food. you should only have to do this for a week before kitty will have it ingrained as a food spot. strange, i know but it worked like a charm here.
Thanks for the ideas. I’m going to give the orange peels a try first thing tommorow morning and if that does not work I plan on hunting down some mothballs.
As far as using any kind of lion or tiger feces from the zoo, well…I’d rather not destroy the cats illusion that he IS a big game lion.
Tying a dog to the front porch will also have no effect as we own 2 dogs that the cat is Supreme Ruler over. He also has no fear of unknown dogs and occasionally leaves our porch to try to groom and bathe our neighbour’s german shepard.
The squirt gun is also worth a shot because he hates to get wet and it will keep my hubby occupied at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone type of deal
If all else fails I will try the cat food idea. I’m a little hesitant though as we have about a kabillion squirrels here and would hate to have them think my place is the spot for Sunday brunch gatherings.
I’m going to check the anti-pest stuff we bought and tried (and did not work) to see if it contained capsaicin. What is capsaicin anyhow?
So, thanks again all and if anyone else has anymore ideas I’d love to hear them. I’ll try anything. (Except the burlap bag thing CK…although my husband was all for that one)
Cats hate the smell of lemon. The most effective, longest lasting cat repellent is Lemon Pledge furniture polish. There used to be little waxy dog and cat repellent pellets with citrus smell sold in garden centers, but I haven’t seen them in years.
However, there may be more effective strategies. Try some chicken wire.
Chas.E Weird that you mention that as today I went outside and noticed that the neighbour had put a black window screen in the dirt on her side of the garden adjacent to ours. Apparently my cat has been pooping in her garden as well. I went next door and apologized (which I found kind of sureal as it is not me who is doing the pooping) and she was very nice about the whole thing. I will be trying the lemon pledge idea.
rocking chair Just as a note to the cat food bowl in the garden thing. Friday night my husband went to work and accidentally closed the basement door. The cat, being in the house, could not get down to his litter box. When I got up in the morning there was a big crap in the kitchen right in his food bowl half covered with dry kibble. On the floor beside his dish was a rather large pile of vomit. I was glad to see that he had at the very least grossed himself out.
I bought a large bag of oranges and will put all the peels in the garden the minute I figure out what to do with all the unpeeled oranges. Any suggestions?
