Deterring Cats

Folks, I am an animal lover like most people, but how do I keep the stray cats from using my flower bed as a litter box? Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks.

You might want to consider contacting animal control to see if they have loaner HavAHeart traps. My Village will pick up stray and feral cats for no charge once I call them to let them know my trap has one.

Thanks for your advice. We will contact the city and see what they have to offer.

Are they strays for sure, or do they maybe belong to some of your neighbors? If they belong to the neighbors you might see if there's another approach to try first. I've heard that they don't like the cocoa hull mulch, so if you don't have dogs that might be something to try (if you have dogs though don't use it, it's poisonous to them). I've also seen in places like Gardeners Supply they sell a repellent spray or powder, and I've also seen little spiky things that you can buy and set in the garden, they don't like stepping on the spiky things and will go elsewhere.

Neither dog nor cats will go where:

1) ground red pepper has been sprinkled. Only problem is after each rain it must be reapplied. The good new is, if the cats are from the neighborhood which is most likely, they will eventually get out of the habit of going to the area.

2) doggie poop, which is not strong enough to hurt most plants. It doesn't take much and if you are concerned about your plants use a small piece of clear plastic as a barrier.

3) motion detector sprayer. You could set it so that when the cats come into your yard it goes off, trust me they will clear the area.

Either of the above is a lot easier to do than take a chance of ticking off neighbors, some people do act crazy when it comes to their pets, even if it is their fault that the pet is loose.

We have several cats and dogs, who have "come to stay" and I resorted to using 1 & 2. I basically broke them from getting into the flower beds by spraying them with the water hose when I caught them in it. I tried using moth balls on a new flower bed build last summer but ran out of them and it's a 30 mile trip into town. My DH said have you noticed when we walk the dogs, they make a circle around where another has pooped, why don't I sprinkle a little poop in that flower bed to see if it works. It did.

Good Luck,

Judy

If all else fails, you might consider making a sand pile for them....their own litter box....away from your plants.

I'm not sure I agree on the dog poop--my neighbors cats don't seem bothered by it at all when they're in my yard (or maybe it's because they live with 5 dogs and are used to it, or they've seen my dog and they know he doesn't represent a threat to them!)

ecrane3 - agreement not necessary, we are just here to offer suggestions and if they work that is wonderful. If they don't it's time to try another. Cats are like people they have their individual personalities and what will work with one might not work with another.

Indy - I love your possible simple solution. The same concept might work with one of my "strays that came to stay" he likes to dig a hole in the new flower bed, lay low and wait for rabbits to sneak into the yard. We could build him an above the ground sand box which might work just fine, he'd get the rabbits and I won't have to worry about the freshing up the poop in that bed. Thanks so much well, worth the effort to try.

Judy

Thanks for the suggestions. I believe I did try the red pepper last year and it did work well.

Quick way to tell if you have a stray or a feral is to take a pencil and stick it through the trap. If the animal attacks the pencil, you've got a feral. This is the "test" the animal shelters taught us a long time ago.

One slight problem with this test, some ferals are too ill or injured to attack a pencil. Unfortunately, if you trap a feral that is in this condition and you take it to a no-kill it is not discovered until after it has been tranquilized to be vetted... meaning your contribution to get it in a no-kill shelter is out the door plus hundreds of dollars have been spent to provide it with medical care, spay/neuter it, de-louse it, de-worm it, and vaccinate it only for it to recover and some poor unsuspecting shelter volunteer ends up learning they've got a feral on their hands that has to be put down. All money that could have been better used offsetting the costs of low-cost spay/neuter programs for low income families in my area and all money that could have been better used to fund companion animal programming for seniors and differently abled who desperately want a companion pet but need a little extra monetary help maintaining one. Although I have not made a mistake mis-identifying a stray, I have goofed on a few ferals.

I take all cats with collars and "strays" that pass the pencil test to a no kill animal shelter and pay the fee to get them in as opposed to allowing animal control to pick them up. I'm not saying this is for everyone but it is best for me. The fee is $40 and it comes out of my pocket. Some Villages have no-kill shelters that will take strays in for no fee but we don't because our animal control has a no-fee pound, albeit not a no-kill but they will take both strays and ferals for no fee. I consider that pretty darn neighborly of me to be paying the fee to get these strays into a no-kill shelter given all the grief and damage stray cats have done on my property. The ferals I allow to be picked up by animal control. Ferals are humanely destroyed by animal control. Me personally, I'm done expending energy and done spending money on bulk red pepper or bulk chili powder and countless other products and gadgets (those scarecrow motion detectors were around $70 a piece plus shipping and handling only for strays and ferals to find ways around them or to choose other unprotected areas of my property) so that people who own cats or dump cats can allow them to roam where ever they please. These people need to please try to consider the flip side of the coin in that there are people out there like me who are ticked off and resent running across their cat's feces in our garden beds, resent having to clean up cat feces out of our kids' sand boxes, resent when our dogs darn near pull our arms out of their sockets trying to go after their cats when walking them, resent that they can't allow their indoor only cats to go out into a screened in porch, and resent their kids finding mangled dead critters in their yards left behind from stray cats, or worse yet... cat heads that coyotes left behind after they dined.

I own my own HavAHart traps. I gave up checking them out and paying the deposit for the ones provided by Animal Control. In the longrun, I saved money on gas driving to and from animal control to pick up the loaner traps.

I'm with ecrane on the dog poop. Dog poop definitely doesn't work for me. I've got 2 Great Danes and a Mastiff and that doesn't include all the coyote poop around here. That's tons of canine poop. The ferals and strays around here could care less.

Equil, why do you/the shelters say that feral cats have to be put down? They can be rehabilitated. We trapped one in Fall 2005, thinking it was a neighbors stray. It turned out to be a feral that was displaced due to a new housing development behind our property. The shelters here wouldn't take him because he was feral, so we kept him rather than have this beautiful animal destroyed. He's now a very companionable indoor pet. I've also learned that there are feral cat societies in many areas that will either rehabilitate or manage the ferals. If you google on feral cat guardians/societies in your area you will find contact and and handling information.

I could see why my Sheltie's poop might not scare off the kitties, but if they're not scared by the Great Danes and the Mastiff then I don't know what it would take! Maybe wolf poop?

Here are the things I was mentioning from Gardeners Supply:s
Dog & cat repellant
http://www.gardeners.com/Dog-and-Cat-Repellent/default/StandardCatalog.GardenPests_DeerRabbits.33-848.cpd
And the spiky thing:
http://www.gardeners.com/Safe-Cat-Deterrent/default/StandardCatalog.YardPests_DogsCats.31-954.cpd
And some info on deterring dogs & cats from going in the garden:
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Link-Page?id=5450

There's just not enough money left to fund everything. Certainly not enough homes to go around for the cats that are already socialized and it's becoming a matter of cage space. There are quite a few shelters around here that are no-kill, just not animal control's pound. If you call animal control, it's either going to be put down if it's a feral or transferred to a shelter that isn't a no kill if it's a former pet. The no-kill shelters will put down animals that can't be adopted as companion pets.

I've had some luck with second, third, and forth generation ferals that were very young when I fostered but I've never had luck with them once they're past a certain age. I guess it comes down to budgetary restrictions and volunteer resources which are taxed to the max these days. Shelters need foster homes for orphaned kittens and convalescing adults that would otherwise be subject to secondary infections if left at a shelter to regain their strength.

I'm not a proponent of TNR. Too many issues with that and around here where they require all animals to be vaccinated for rabies annually. Pretty difficult if not down right impossible to re-trap a feral cat a second time. They don't seem to forget the first round when they were darted then spayed or neutered and left with a notched ear. Fines for not revaccinating domestic animals are high. If you practice TNR around here, you're responsible for getting them re-vaccinated and then there are leash laws and all.

I'm just going to call PETA to take care of my stray/feral cats from now on. They seem to do good work:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

Thank you for the clarification Equil. The rabies vaccines here are good for three years. We have a couple of feral groups that practice rehabiliation rather than TNR although it does take time & attention. There is a definite difference of view point between the TNR and rehab feral groups here. The vet said the cat we trapped was ~ 2.5 - 3 years old at the time we trapped him.
At least all of the local rescue groups help promote spaying & neutering & education programs to try to reduce the overpopulation programs. Our county has a leash requirement for cats as well as dogs.

My friend, who lives in florida, has a huge feral cat colony living next to their condo complex. She installed these just under the mulch in her flower beds.

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=2&p=10302&cat=2,51555&ap=2

joepyeweed

Great information!!!

Judy

If you're looking to save money, the Gardeners Supply link I have a few posts up offers the same thing as Lee Valley but instead of 4 mats for $17.50 you get 5 for $18.95. Not a huge difference, but if you have to buy a lot of them it'll add up!