Cats

[rosheen]

Tell me people, as a cat lover (Hattie the Cattie and Anubis the beast of Bodmin), how do keep these adorable little beasts from defacating upon ones newly dug drills etc. I have tried some commercial products, pine needles, coffee grounds and so on. To no avail. Is this a case of choosing between my beloved Veg plot or my darling Kitties ?


Ro

[Jaxom]

Twigs.... they dont like to sit on twigs. As Corperal Jones used to say "They don't like it up um."

[Shortie]

Cocktails Sticks

I saw a tip on that Steve Brookes DVD that said to put cocktail sticks in the ground. Gices them a sharp shock the first time and they won't go in that area again! Sorry to laugh, but I chuckle at the image. You can talk the stick out soon after as they won't try again....

I kept my two cats off my area last year with pea netting (but it has to be raised off the ground or they treat it like it's not there) and in other areas, some fencing.. Not sure if that will help

[Sunbeam]

If you catch them in the act a pump action water pistol will do the trick - y'know the ones they advertise during kidlets programmes on a saturday morning!! It will soon put them off!

[Nicos]

How about Holly leaves dotted about the place? You'd certainly have to wear gloves though for gardening, but you would have to be careful with cocktail sticks too!
You could put them on a string like an Xmas decoration and drape them around the crops! (just thought that one up... and they would be easy to lift out of the way for weeding too.) Blue Peter moment over now!

[rosheen]

Thank you everyone, After seeing the damage done overnight I really, really like the idea of the cocktail sticks !!! How did Shortie get to be member of the month? I sorted out the problem of all my pots being used as special compost toilets by cutting circles of chicken wire, stuff grows through and the cats can't dig so they go elsewhere - to the neighbours hopefully - Ro

[andrewo]

The electronic alarms seem to work, also netting, water being chucked at them and generally chasing them away - also landmines...I don't have enough room to swing a cat, so I have to go vertical with them.

[SueA]

I use netting over a frame on the veg patch, you have to make sure it's fastened down well round the edges or they wriggle under commando style! I also use sticks dotted about (a pack of cheap green ones about 1ft long from the £1 shop or just twigs) & the chicken wire over pots method which you use Rosheen.

[blackkitty]

If you own cats its a good idea to give them a space of their own for their ablutions, its also fairer on the neighbours. We have a spot behind the greenhouse which is out of public view, I dump lots of spent compost from pots etc there and they love it as its soft for their little paws If they use a litter tray indoors at all, sprinkle a little of the litter where you want them to go and that'll encourage them.
Having said that I find just sticking a few canes around and amongst plants I want to protect deters them. once the plants have grown they aren't interested either.

[Alice]

I'm with black kitty on this one. Sadly I have no cats now but when I did have they had their own special area , loose compost, cat litter, ashes, anything clean and soft to dig in and they never went anywhere else. I beleive you can buy special outdoor litter now which can be shovelled out and replaced as necessary. Its about training the cat.

[eskymo]

You might want to check out this thread as there was quite a lively debate about cats a while back:

Damn Cats

[blackkitty]

Alice, I admit I'm a bit bemused by using the words'training' and 'cat' in the same sentence.

[eskymo]

Cats can be trained!

[blackkitty]

Eskymo, how?

[eskymo]

depends what your don't want them to do - I trained mine to do stop doing a lot of stuff and she understood when I said 'don't even think about it!'

I've got a dog now and realise that cats are so much easier to train!