cats
Alan4711
Posts: 1,657
Hi everybody,i have just moved into a new house and the small back garden is being used by cats for there toilet,i have cleaned up and they have simply carried on, both my neighbours have cats so i dont want to fall out with them,So are there any plants cats dont like that i can place in pots around the garden or has anyone ever managed to stop them apart from fencing of which would be almost impossable at present some one suggested Jeyes fluid might help any ideas please
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There is a plant that is sold as being fisliked by cats, I think it is a coleus family member. Lots and lots of white pepper helps, they don't like sneezing when they wee, and plastic rug holders, and wide thick plastic mesh just under the soil make it difficult for them to dig there. It is a cats nature to do this, so making it as unpleasant an experiene as possible should help. Some people swear by the apparatus that squirts water at the cat when it crosses the sensor, which is fine as long as it is only cats that set it off - small children and welcome dogs are unlikely to appreciate it. When you plant bulbs put cuttings of holly, berberis or pyracantha sticks pushed into the ground, very prickly and they won't like that - you can easily remove them later when the bulbs are up. Whatever you do about it, please do not hurt the cats as that is illegal and I'm sure you don't want to go there. i have gardened in the company of cats for many years, and they can go together,f with a bit of thought on your part. Once your planting gets thick they will go away, becasue there will be nowhere to dig.
I know cats can be annoying as slugs but in their defence I have to say thankyou to my neighbours cat who has kept the rat population down which poison coundt and I dont like using.You can use things like orange peel around special spots a s cats dont like the smell .
i have been told lavender puts them off too. but pepper is good one.. also spike sin the soil. i had to do this near my bird feeders.. as one down road kept getting them.. dont have it much now..
Yikes spikes
If you have cats in the neighbourhood its very hard to stop them doing what unfortunaltly comes natural to them.
I have had to strike a balance also. I feed black birds and have many kitties trying to get them. I use a water squirter and chase them out to the front garden where i give a reward them in the way of treaties and this trains them to wait out the front and not enter the back.
I use to have a cat that chased all the others out of the garden and sat next to the black bird whilst he munched his way through his breakfast. Unfortuanatly he passed away and now the jobs mine. So if you want to scare the kitties out your garden - get a tom cat and he will see them all off.
Failing that stop feeding the birds if looks like its going to mean the demise of them.
No matter how many birds your cats appear to catch, feeding them saves far, far more - the RSPB has a good study about this, I don't know if it still on their web site. We always had cats and bird feeders, they soon get used to each other, after a bit the cat didn't worry the birds and the birds kept an eye or two on the cats and both were OK with it. It is visiting cats that use the garden as a loo about which 4711 was asking ( interesting name - very secretive!). The plastic carpet spikes about which I wrote do no-ones paws any harm, the cats just cannot dig there, and that keeps them from bothering, ditto the holly and berberis cuttings.