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Cat mess

(100 Posts)
Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 07:47:57

My daughter has just moved into her first home and is three months pregnant, next door have two cats who constantly use her back garden as a toilet - a lot. Her fiancé will be away for four weeks with his band very soon. My question is: is it reasonable to ask the neighbour to clean up the mess due to the risk of my daughter doing it? She has tried various over the counter deterrents but nothing seems to work. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance (smile)

mumofmadboys Sat 16-Sep-17 07:50:29

Could she just ignore it? Is it on soil?

Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 07:56:43

It is on the grass and she loves spending time in the garden and is probably having about five 'parcels' a day so it would soon mount up. As she has only been in for a few weeks there is no way she wants to upset the neighbour but she is high risk with her pregnancy.

sunseeker Sat 16-Sep-17 08:01:36

Cats don't like citrus so she could try placing orange peel around the garden or block the areas where they are coming in if she can. An alternative is to arm herself with a water pistol and spray them whenever they are in her garden. Does she feel able to have a friendly chat with her neighbour and explain the situation?

loopyloo Sat 16-Sep-17 08:04:04

Water pistols. Shoo the cats away. They will gradually learn. I don't think you can ask the neighbours without creating difficulties. Plastic bottles with water also is supposed to help.

Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 08:07:13

The neighbours seem friendly enough. But very wary about upsetting them. If she was not expecting I think she would just put up with it.

Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 08:08:22

They seem to do it mostly in the evening and night as she does not catch them in the act very often. But I will get her a water pistol. Thanks for the idea.

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 08:08:54

I've got the same problem Leemaria (I started a thread on it way back) and it really gets on my nerves. I have now put plastic (not sharp) spikes around my perimeter fence (at the back) to make it harder for them to get in although next doors still manages to do it via my shed roof. I have also put 3 battery operated cats carers in various places and its slighly better. The problem I have is that I have a proper garden whereas most of the other houses have paved theirs so the cats us my garden as their toilet. I think it would be better for your DD to take steps to try and stop them coming in to her garden in the first place which is what we have done.

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 08:09:31

Cat scares not cat carers !

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 08:10:34

Bloomin' heck....... cat SCARERS !!!

Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 08:21:03

My daughter has a dog, would the battery operated cat scarrers effect the dog. The dog is disabled so not good at scaring off the cats. She has put some Astro turf down by the back door for the disabled dog, which she hoses every couple of days and the days have also started using this! Just worried about the danger for my daughter while pregnant. I will obviously help out with the cleaning up as much as possible.

Leemaria Sat 16-Sep-17 08:22:12

I am at it now. Lol cats not days!!

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 08:30:09

No They definitely don't effect dogs. My sister has a little Chihuahua that comes to mine regularly and it doesn't effect her at all.

loopyloo Sat 16-Sep-17 08:54:15

If your daughter digs a deep ish hole then wearing gloves and using a long handled trowel puts the stuff in and covers it she should be OK. Then spraying the soil with dettol?? From a distance if poss .
Gillybob, do you find cut up citrus helps?
Something else, would a weed wand help sterilise the soil?

Auntieflo Sat 16-Sep-17 08:57:03

We found a product called something like "Lions Roar". It has/had a picture of a lion on the packet. It contains dried lion poo! , but doesn't smell to us. They are granules and are scattered, sparsely, around the affected areas. It worked for us, but do not use too much, I can't remember why.

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 08:59:23

The area I would need to cover is quite large loopyloo and whilst things like orange peel and indeed pepper do work they aren't ideal for larger areas. I can't understand why cat owners don't train their animals to use cat litter?

shysal Sat 16-Sep-17 09:12:52

I have read that lengths of hose pipe left on the ground will scare away cats who think they are snakes. No idea whether it works!
gillybob, have you ever owned a cat and tried to persuade it to do something it doesn't want to? If they are indoor cats they will use a litter tray but the outdoors comes more naturally to them. I have one cat who comes indoors to use her tray, but the other always goes outside to relieve himself, usually in my garden I am pleased to say, but if he fancied next door there isn't a lot I could do but apologise and arm them with a spray bottle.

loopyloo Sat 16-Sep-17 09:17:53

Even the law accepts that cats can't be trained and owners are not held responsible.

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 09:23:07

No I have never owned a cat shysal or any other animal for that matter . Which is why I object so strongly to being subject to a filthy scat sh*tting all over my garden ! Sorry to be do angry but it's disgusting and my grandchildren love to play and dig in the garden. From what I have read on the internet cats rarely ever sh*t in their own territory.

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 09:24:50

I wonder how my neighbours would feel if I started giving them their precious moggies parcels back ?

sunseeker Sat 16-Sep-17 09:32:17

It IS possible to train a cat to use a litter tray - I have done it! We were adopted by a feral cat which we took in. He was definitely an outdoor cat but by keeping him in for several days and praising and rewarding him whenever he used the litter tray he got into the habit of using it every day. Obviously I can't be sure he never used neighbours gardens but I never received any complaints (and I had to clean the litter tray every day!).

gillybob Sat 16-Sep-17 09:36:34

Exactly what my cousin says sunseeker she has 2 cats and whilst she can't be 100% certain they don't do their business outside she says that cleaning the litter trays is proof enough that they probably don't.

valeriej43 Sat 16-Sep-17 11:58:23

Please dont spray the ground with Dettol,its poisonous to cats, and the cats could suffer or even die, then the neighbours could prosecute for cat poisoning

valeriej43 Sat 16-Sep-17 12:01:39

Meant to say also,its rare for cats to do it on grass,they usually do it on soil then bury it

silversurf Sat 16-Sep-17 12:03:16

Try mothballs, they don't deteriorate quickly like pepper or chilli powder. I used these before I had my own cat.