# Cat pooping in own garden



## Xelawitch (Jul 7, 2014)

Hi. First time cat owner. Got her from the RSPCA. She is thought to be aged 1 or 2 years old. Very clean and good with her litter tray but as soon as we let her out she started pooping in the back garden (which is small and I have two very young children). I can't seem to stop her doing it. I bring her in and put her in the tray when I see her digging and now I'm not able to let her out until she has used her litter tray (for about 12 hours afterwards). She is hating not having free run as she used to but I don't know what else to do. I can't have her pooing right outside my back door and in my herb garden as she has been doing. When I first realised she was doing it, I picked up 10 lots from the flower beds barely buried. Hoping for advice! Thank you.


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

Try putting a litter tray in the garden, where she likes to go.


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## Lilylass (Sep 13, 2012)

I'm sorry but that's pretty much normal cat behaviour! 

What kind of litter are you using?

It could be that it's not as soft as earth so, if not using already, switch to one with a sand like texture

Other suggestion would be to put a tray outside as Lurcherlad suggests - you could fill with nice soft earth - but no guarantees she'll go there I'm afraid


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

convert her to an indoor-only cat. :001_smile:

Start giving her the fun activities that she expects outdoors, using a flirt pole to offer her things to pounce on,
stalk, & "kill".

Find a way to give her sunbathing spots in the house: a bay-window with a pillow or resting shelf
installed with clips on the windowsill, a cat-tree under a skylight, etc.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi, as you are a first time cat owner you may not have realised that it is completely instinctive, natural behaviour for a cat to toilet outdoors once they start going outside.

Yes, it's true there are a few cats who prefer to continue using an indoor litter tray once they're allowed outside, but they are very much the exception rather than the rule, in my experience. And the point is, it is their _choice_ to continue using an indoor litter tray - they are not being forced to by humans.

You cannot break a cat of its natural instinctive behaviour, and if you try you may cause the cat to develop behavioural problems. This is the very last thing you want to risk when it comes to toiletting. If you keep your poor cat indoors until she has had a poo every day you are going to end up with a frustrated unhappy cat, which is hardly fair on her when she is only doing what comes naturally to cats.

What you can do is to make the flowerbeds unattractive to your cat and at the same time offer a more appealing alternative as an outdoor toilet. But you MUST do both.

If you just make the flowerbeds unattractive (without offering a realistic alternative) you risk your cat going off to do her business in a neighbour's garden.  That would be far, far worse than her doing it in your garden, and could lead to active hostility from the neighbour towards your cat. People who do not own cats often detest having them poo in their gardens and who can blame them?. As responsible cat owners we take that on board.

To make flowerbeds unattractive you can put rotted lion manure on them. It does not smell nasty to humans (has a musty compost smell) but cats seem to dislike it. Garden Centres sell it.

Or you can spread dried lemon and orange peel all around your plants.

Do not put down anything that could be toxic to a cat.

Then provide your cat with an outdoor loo, and hope she will use it. You can use one of the ready made outdoor loos such as this one:

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Locate it somewhere with a bit of shelter and privacy. You will need to be scrupulous about scooping constantly or your cat will use it once and then go off looking for a fresh place in the soil. Perhaps you'd need two of these trays.

The alternative to the ready made tray is to do what I did when I had a small garden and wanted to protect my plants. I marked out a small area (the size of say 4 large litter trays) in a quiet part of the garden, away from the house,and put wooden planks round it. Then dug out the soil to a depth of about 4 inches and filled in the dug-out area with sand, the type that is used in sandpits. Then put some of the used cat litter on top of the sand, so your cat gets the idea she is meant to use the area as a toilet (she will have no idea otherwise).

This outdoor toilet will be a larger area than a tray, but you'll still need to scoop rigorously every day. If the toilet is allowed to get full up your cat will simply go somewhere else, cats being fastidiously clean animals.

As I say, you can offer one or both of these alternatives, and hope she will use them. Be patient with her, and remember you can't force her to change her natural behaviour in this respect.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

leashedForLife said:


> > convert her to an indoor-only cat. :001_smile:
> 
> 
> The RSPCA would have homed the cat to the OP on the basis the cat would be allowed outdoors. That is their policy, as it is of many UK rescues, unless the cat has special needs such as e.g. deafness.
> ...


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## Xelawitch (Jul 7, 2014)

Thank you everybody. It is very important to me and my cat that she be allowed outdoors and I would like this to continue. What you have all said is really helpful! There is lots of open land over my back fence with trees and I thought she would go there rather than right outside the back door but I've heard you can't make cats do what you want them to do  Very grateful for all the replies with some really great solutions.


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