Cat Poo in the compost !

Lilly

Hi,

I am new to this so please bare with me.

I have built up a huge amount of compost over a few years. Grass cuttings etc. were dumped at the top of my garden and ignored while we decorated the house. We are now starting on the Garden and I thought the compost would be ideal. Problem now is I find the cats have been using it as a toilet. Can I still use the compost ? If not what do I do with it ?  

Thanks in advance 

 

 

 

Tootles

Hi SV, my cat drops some mighty stink bombs in my flower beds and I've found it can scorch young plants and older plants certainly don't gain anything from it. I remove it all every couple of weeks. It also honks! Especially when I've missed a bit and only discover it when I'm on my hands and knees digging over the soil! If I were you I'd try and pick it out rather than dig it in.

Tootsietim

If you are going to dig it into the soil, then I wouldn't be too concerned, particularly if you are growing ornamentals. I would be less inclined to use it as a mulch with the mess in it, generally due to the smell and unpleasantness of it all. ( you could clear the mess out)

I would not want to use it around edibles unless it had been rotted for at least a year without any more additions from the cat.

You say that the compost heap is large and has accumulated over time. I suspect that it hasn't rotted down too well and so I think that I would pull the whole lot out, and then rebuild the heap in as compact a shape as possible, if the matter is dry it can be watered as you rebuild. This would aerate the heap and should encourage a good compost. You could cover the heap to keep the cats out while it was composting (old carpet, polythene, cardboard etc).

 

Lilly

Yeah, everything is well rotted. Thats the shame as it would have been perfect to use. I have made a start digging it over and sorting out the " bits I don't want " but the smell is not good ! Also worried that if I transfer it to other parts of the garden it will encourage the cats to use new areas

Thanks for your help

BenDover

One sure way to stop a cat from pooing in a spot in the garden is to have another cat's poo there. Even if its their own, they won't keep going back to the same spot if its been used several times before. Cats are very particular about where they drop and won't use an area that has been used by another cat. My cat poos in MY garden (too fat, old and lazy to jump fences) and I feed her dry food which means she actually poos less (frequency and volume), they break down a lot quicker, and there is no smell. Wet cat feeds are notoriously bad in smell and volume when it comes out the other end. It's sometimes smells just as bad going in. I don't have to worry about my cat pooing in my garden, I have to worry about foxes dropping presents on the lawn. Now they do stink!

cotty1000

don't forget that the poo of these verminous animals are a health risk.if silly lazy owners don't use litter trays then these animals will act wild.

my advice is get rid of the contaminated area by digging it in deep down,then get a gun for these free roaming animals.a pet is contained,one that isn't is wild.

Lilly

Thanks for your reply Tim. A big help.

 

BenDover

Actually Cotty100, it's not really the cats fault. They do the decent thing by burying their dung, whereas we go around and dig it up again. Who's the more intelligent? Cats must think we're disgusting creatures. How many other animals bury their dung. We don't. And up until 30 years ago, we thought it was perfectly normal to flush ours into the rivers and seas. Most places East of Dover still do!



As for your comment about shooting them. We're in England, not the wilds of Africa, and even there it's illegal to shoot animals without just cause, including wild ones.

Tootles

Cotty1000, please don't post silly comments like that.

cotty1000

sorry.i do get over emotional sometimes

pr1mr0se

Hello!  I don't post often - but have been around since the demise of the old Beeb board.  It seems that there are now two of us (Shrinking Violets, that is).  A bit confusing?