Grow Your Own Magazine

Cats dump on my front lawn all the time and I have to go and clear up after them. Disgusting. GET A LITTER TRAY AND KEEP THEM IN - half of the day at least. in new Zealand they have a curfew and no cat is allowed out at night. Irresponsible pet owners make my blood boil - dog owners who don't clean up their dogs yuck- vile individuals. I hear Jack russels don't like cats and will rid your garden of them, permanently......

There were some flat panels that go along the top of a fence with long 'spikes' on in the kleeneze catalogue that I got last week. It said they were to keep cats out of the garden. They weren't sharp spikes but long enough so a cat couldn't land and leap off the top of the fence

hi trishy i have used them in the past plastic spikes years ago. i think they were £10 for 9 foot of them.a much cheaper way is to use carpet grippers

a cork?!

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Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.

I have the plastic spikes all along the fences in the rear garden and they do seem to work...they are blunt enough not to harm animals but prove difficult for them to negotiate....they seem to keep the squirrels out of the garden too

Unfortunately we have no fences around the front garden ...I took note of the comment in another thread about using citrus cat mint...if it works as stated then I will be happier

But my cat is perfectly happy and secure in her own garden, sticks to the same area, but DOES bury it?? She's old, maybe its the younger ones who are 'mutating'!?

One trick that does seem to work in my area is to sprinkle a little chilli powder where you dont want cats - it irritates their noses and whiskers and they do seem to remember after a few gos and leave the area alone!

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

Was going to write that we're lucky and have no cat issues where we are.... but then realised it's because we have 2 great big dogs who tear round the garden.... tends to put the mogs off a bit!

I can't believe that cat's are pretty much allowed to roam free, toilet wherever and worry other animals (rabbits, guineas, chickens etc).

If one of my dogs even goes near livestock (for example) a farmer has the right to shoot first, ask questions later. By law I'm required to have a collar and id tags on the dogs at all times in public, pick up and dispose of my animals mess; and keep them under control at all times in public places. But cat owners don't have to do any of this!!

If my dogs escaped and killed someone's chickens or rabbit etc, there'd probably be hell to pay, but it seems like cats could do this and just saunter off with no repercussions for the owners? Is this right?

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"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you" - Bruce Wayne

My mum used to put lime wedges in her plant pots to deter my cat from using them as loos. They seemed to work, but they have to be replaced when they are dry. Also garlic and onion seem to work, cats hate the smell of them.

I am no cat expert but I was told that cats hate strong smell such as : pepper powder, chili powder (I think more that it irritates their nose). Would coffe powder work as it has strong smell ? But if they easily get wash away by rain it will be pretty expensive to be use as a cat detterent.

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

Those cat spikes are nearly £5 a metre! Wowzer. Keep cats away | Cat deterrent | Cat scarer | Catwatch

Perhaps some Grapes can rig up a Heath Robinson affair?

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I came, I saw, I planted

I planted my sweet peas in the border and put a wire mesh frame over them to keep the cats off. Went out today and one of the little b*****s has wormed it's way behind the mesh and done it's business!!!!! Also done some token digging but the s**t is still on the surface. Sweet peas seem OK, but what do you do?????

How about the grip strips you put down when laying carpet? I considered using them all over the chook run roof as a fox deterrent.

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I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

Maybe to protect your chickens its ok but for keeping cats out of a garden even I think its a bit harsh. If you've never used gripper rods they are very sharp and shed your knuckles. It would do a lot of damage to a cats paw.

It might not be legal either if you have in on your boundary but I don't know the specifics?

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http://plot62.blogspot.com/

cats are not dull .if they step on them they wont do it again and its not going to rip its feet to bits. jump on and straight back off i love cats myself but am only trying to give some advice and its a very cheap way of keeping them out of your garden.

Carpet gripper rods are really nasty...I don't like cats but I wouldn't subject them to injury from them...now human vandals...that's another matter!"

I'm a cat lover, have 3 of the them, so am probably a bit more forgiving, but they do the same thing in my garden! Very frustrating and I appreciate totally where you are coming from. However I think Matt is right about the legalities...I'm sure there is a law or by-law that gives cats the right to roam! One of my friend's old neighbours put shards of glass sticking up in his garden, but I'm sure the police got involved eventually!

I think I've said previously on the forum, I'm using netting on (as opposed to above and over) the ground/raised beds as they don't like netting under their paws and will move on! Hopefully this will work!

I was speaking to a friend this week, he's having a problem with cats digging at his new fruit trees and is none too happy, and not really a cat lover! I mentioned the lions roar to him but he also said that real lion dung was available from Blair Drummond Safari Park (near Stirling) - but there is a waiting list for years! Seems there are quite a few people then suffering with our felines' toilet habits!

My old neighbour (as in previous, not old) dropped by last evening for an apero. She told me her new cat, under a year old, has just produced 5 kittens, so I gave her 'the look' and asked about having the cat speyed. She told me that she'd been to the pharmacy to buy a bottle of ether to put the kittens down as she didn't want to keep any of them. I was horrified.

Anyway, she told me that another mutual friend doesn't agree with having cats speyed and when her female cats have litters she BEHEADS those that she can't rehome - and it isn't a rumour, she's actually seen her doing it to the poor little buggers.

This thread started being about cats and bad owners - cats need to be speyed before they reproduce to keep the population down, no problem about that but the French attitude to domestic animals can be just awful - you see so many wholly pampered dogs and cats here but the other side of the coin is the number that are abandoned by their owners just before the summer holidays and people just being cruel to their animals - cutting their heads off is just f****** barbaric.

Good news is that the 5 kittens were rehomed today and the woman who came for the apero last evening is currently on the 'maybe' Xmas card list!

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TonyF, Dordogne 24220