Help! My neighbor is complaining that my cat is digging in his garden. Is there anything that can deter this?

g'day deb,

on my remedies page i have a link to the dirt doctor, there's bound to be a remedy there, but failing that you may have to keep your cat at home, you are showing a lot more concern than some other pet owners i've come across.

check at your local garden center also there may be something made commercilay i have heard of things but don't know how effective they are.

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Cats are said to dislike fresh citrus peelings if your neighbour wouldn't mind some scattered in the favoured area.

Do you have a area in your garden you'd like to dig over freshly in the hope of him prefering that?

There is a product called SCAT which does a good job also deters dogs and birds.

Deb,
This is often recommended by some Vets and is around 90% sucessful. If the cat is tame enough for you to handle, sit the cat with you behind the cat and while patting the animal spray an aerosol can of deodorant or similar PAST the cat's ear. Don't let the cat associate the spraying to you, keep patting and re-assuring the cat. Cats hate the sound of aerosols close to their ears.

Now spray the area of the garden where the cat digs. Every time the cat goes to the garden it will smell the deodorant and this triggers off the unpleasant memory of the sray near its ear and deters the cat. ie.the cats will think it is getting another dose. You will have to respray the garden when the smell wears off and you may have to reinforce the lesson to the cat every so often. This also works on cars etc. Find a spray which is long lasting and aromatic.

The act of doing wrong is what must "punish" the animal 100% of the time or it will learn when it can get away with it. All we are doing is training the cat by reward and punishment.

Doug.

I work in a garden centre & one of my customers has a wonderful technique to stop his dogs digging in his garden.
He fills waterballoons with 4711 (the old cooling cologne; remember the ads!!) and buries them where the dogs are concentrating their efforts. Needless to say, when digging the balloon bursts & they get an awful smell up the nose. Not sure how well it works on cats though..
Supply your neighbour with a water pistol; a harmless yet effective way of deterring (works great with my two moggies). Obviously this is not going to work at night but puss shouldn't be out in the first place.
Another option is napthalene flakes (Warning- poison) placed in old vitamin containers with holes in the lids (use plumbing thread to seal bottle better if you wish). The smell is an effective deterrant to both cats & dogs (the container is for safety and to protect from elements longer). Placed in the areas targeted it should last for a month or so.
Hope this helps.

I have found this has worked so far for me with my cats, try (cat mint.)A herb that is available at most garden centers.
It might work for you. No promises, but
after many tries with all the remedies suggested it has kept them out of the part of the garden that I have just planted. My cats seem to love any new dug soil.

Aspro and Milk fed to the cat will stop the cat digging in any garden permanently. It will also stop you cat killing birds and anoying your neighbours.

Jed you are a nasty piece of work. Your so-called "remedy" leads to a very slow painful death by internal bleeding and more. It is a very inhumane treatment. You're obviously not a pet owner & I'd hate to see your parenting skills. There is such a thing as being a responsible pet owner and the majority who are should not suffer at the hands of an ignorant few.

To Mret,

Couldn't agree more even if Jed mean't this as a sick joke.

While on the subject of cats.

While I don't dislike cats, they are appealing. I don't believe cats are an appropriate pet in most areas of Australia and there should be legislation or licencing to control them. This would help stop people impulsive buying kittens then dump them when the novelty wears off. OZ is overrun with unwanted animals now turned feral. eg. cats, rabbits, livestock etc which cost us the taxpayer zillions as well as destroying our native animals.

Doug.

Dear Doug
Can't resist: can we add humans to that list please?

This one is fairly imperfect but I'm trying! (to be lower impact)

Rose

Dear Doug
I understand your concern and it is very legitimate one. In Brisbane and some surrounding shires there is already legislation in place regarding max number of cats (two), options available to householders to trap nuisance/feral cats humanely, and in some shires (Redlands is one) they must be contained at night. Unfortunately there is no registration or real encouragement to desex cats which would lessen the impact considerably. Personally, I would prefer to register mine for peace of mind if something did happen to them as well as doing the right thing. As a responsible cat owner, they are both desexed, kept inside at night and fed a diet that includes fresh meat which really deters the killings. And it's important to spend time interacting as you would with any dog. On the subject of desexing; there was a letter in the Bayside Bulletin from a reader who complained that it cost more to register a dog that hadn't been desexed (because they were "thinking about breeding it in the future").... they honestly couldn't understand why it worked this way. Now that's definately NOT the signs of responsible pet ownership!!!
Cheers
Mret

To Mret,

Good to see a responsible cat owner. I am aware on the various bylaws you speak of and I commend the Redlands Shire on some of their initiatives particularly with the koala populations. I am on the other side of the city in another environmentally sensitive area and cats are definitely inappropriate. If someone was in an inner city then a cat may be OK. The cat is only doing a natural thing ie.hunt. What I would like to see is people would have to apply for a permit to own one.

Rose,

If we did that we would be politically incorrect shock,horror) have nothing to complain about. You may stay providing you are environmentally sustainable.

Doug.

PS. Just joking. (Someone will probably get off their tree for this.)

Surely cats cause so much damage to the native world that they should be considered a pest in Australia. Maybe except for in the cities as suggested.

I respect that Rose is a respectable cat owner but she is one of a few. A large registration fee for cats may help to reduce the problem, but the cat owners who care will be the only owners to register their animals.

Rose, you are right I am not a pet owner, although I am lucky enough to live amongst plenty of wildlife that I cherish and protect where possible. I am a great Dad and I teach my children the damadge that cats do to their favorite natural "pets".

Jed

Sorry Rose I meant to address Mret in the previous dig.

I can see that many children (and many adults) need pets in their lives and it's not legal under normal circumstances to keep a native animal as a pettable pet.

So... education and controls and architect solutions are all needed. Has anyone seen the cat courtyards etc (fully enclosed) which are available? Some of the permaculture people have a design whereby the kitten is reared with the chooks and lives in the chook house/ pen. And presumably "deters" mice from the tucker.

jed your a dickhead

jed is not a dick head. I would be more than happy to shoot any cat that is soiling a garden or hurting a native bird

Rodney
I hope you're just as enthusiastic about taking care of dogs who do the same thing. I've seen some dogs routinely eliminate every lizard they can find, not just skinks but blue-tongues and frillies. Let's face it; all exotic animals are a threat to our native wildlife.

I could also use some help. I'll try some of the tips for keeping my cat off a particular garden bed he likes (citrus peels, keep-off and the aerosol training thing), but the cat's now been doing it for so long that my soil is terrible. When you water it, the water simply runs off the surface and pools at the lowest point (the soil is a bit sandy but plants grow well in other parts of the garden, where it drains well). I was proposing the following process:

1. Remove as many droppings as possible
2. Replace/add potting mix to the top layer and mix it in to improve the soil quality
3. Add some blood and bone and composts
4. Try the citrus/keep-off and other deterrants
5. Mulch the whole garden bed (about 6 metres long and a couple of feet wide). I can only assume the cat will then like the garden bed less.
6. Once mulched, repeat the deterrant process over that top layer

Any comments?

I don't know about large areas, but I've found that bamboo skewers placed in tepee formation around a seedling work wonders - no-one likes a skewer up the bum! You should also ask yourself why is your favourite spot also the cats'? And does it have anywhere else to go?

It's not so much my favourite spot - just one that's a bit sparse. The cat likes it because it's got some small trees and a low (1 foot) fence (and therefore a bit of protection from the dog), and habit has built on habit. We've tried small sticks protruding from the ground but it's too big an area. The cat has all sorts of other places to go - we may try some kitty litter in the yard (in a tray of course) too.

P'raps it could be simplified - my cat doesn't dig in moist soil. He's a 12yr old Burmese who refused to use a litter tray from the day I met him - never has indoor accidents - I just keep one section of a vegie patch dry, rotate faairly frequently depending on crops. I then scoop out 'bout twice a week and straight into the worm bed in a thin strip down the centre (beds are old bathtubs, on a slant for drainage). I only ever feed one bed with the "litter" as well as feed it the same diet as the other beds. When using the castings I do so on a ratio of 4 to 1 (1 being the 'cat'-bed castings). When I want to move Kimba on, firstly I dry out a new section of a vegie patch, give the old spot a deep watering then keep the water up to it along with the rest of the vegie patch. To keep the old spot 'sweet' thru the summer (Kimba is a regular boy and co-operates well, though p'raps unintentionally) I water the area atleast twice weekly, and every few weeks or so lightly dolomite the area before watering. I do this during the hot part of the day so's it has time to dry out. It all just seems to work with less effort and more gain than the litter tray.

DEB, I live in a very rural location in NE UK were every other home has a cat and usually a dog. Looked after properly they do very little harm and often keep down a lot of pests.
Perhaps your nieghbour is being a bit over the top in his protestations, and therfor should be considered as over reacting and perhaps ignored? Enjoy your cat there a wonderfull pet.

A lot has been said about treating cats correctly and in favour of pets but what about those of us who prefer a garden and cannot have one successfully because of neighbours cats continually digging in the garden as soon as I prepare the soil and plant my annuals. I must say I have been tempted to poison but cannot bring myself to it. Yes I have successfully raised 4 children to be responsible adults but they were not allowed to roam the neighbourhood upsetting other peoples property.We have done everything we have ever heard of to deter them even approaching the owners who just have the attitude that I am a bit strange because I dont have a cat. Faye

I have a large native garden, with much bird life, possums, lizards, skinks etc., and I also have six cats. They live inside, and have an outdoor run attached to the house by a tunnel. They love being out in their run, even when the magpies and wattle birds taunt them. This is very safe for the cats and the wildlife.
The problem I have is with a neighbours cat who isn't contained, and has killed birds in my yard.
I don't believe that cats should roam free at any stage, my six are very happy and well adjusted, we made the run ourselves, but the Catnip ones that can be bought look quite good.
Gill

Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Repel

Here is a link that might be useful: Ultrasonic Repellant

Here is a link that might be useful: holes in the yard