Keeping cats away

[loveykatie]

I have a nice little container garden in my back yard. I have a ton of stray cats around, and I worry that there will be an issue with them wanting to eat my plants.

Any suggestions on how to keep them away would be wonderful!

[Dillbert]

put out a (sacrificial) pot of catnip.

they will most definitely prefer that to anything else you've got in containers....

[jal_ut]

I like to have some cats around, they keep the rodent population down. There are three cats that are hanging out around here. They have the run of the yard, and can come in the sheds and garage, but do not come in the house. I do feed them a bit of dry cat food.

[imafan26]

Cats do like mints, but not most plants. They do like large areas of freshly dug up soil though. If the planters are full and you don't have a lot of bare ground it will be safe enough. If you have mint, a cat will curl up and sleep in it all day. Mints would need a cage built over it or have a patch of mint just for the cats. When I start a new garden bed. I put orange temporary fence over it until it is planted and the plants begin to grow.

My cats are inside and don't get into the plants, but occasionally a stray will be in my yard. Usually they don't stay in the garden and prefer to be under my orchid benches.

[jal_ut]

Cats are hunters and eat meat. Ya I guess they will eat a bit of other things at times. Make sure they have water available and give them some dry catfood and let them keep the rodents under control. Enjoy!

[HoneyBerry]

I think there are special sprinklers for cat problems. Cat's hate water. I have not tried out the sprinklers. I saw a video a while back. I'll see if I can find it.
Cat's can be a nuisance. I don't like that they kill the birds that I love.
And then there's dog poop problems as well. I accidentally weed-whacked some dog poop just the other day. Just about ruined my day. I didn't see the dog that pooped so I just have to shrug it off.
One of the regular dog walkers put their dog poop filled baggie in my empty garbage can that was sitting out by the curb on pickip day. I hate that. Today I saw one of the regular dog walkers put his dog poop filled baggie in my neighbors yard waste recycle bin. So I think that must be who put it in mine. Not sure what to do about this.
People can be so irritating. It's not the animals. It's the people.

[HoneyBerry]

You can get motion activated sprinklers for cat problems. They are easy to find online. There are some videos that demonstrate how they work.

[Gary350]

Cats don't eat garden plants. I have 6 cats they never bother my garden. Cats will keep other animals away.

[imafan26]

I think the problem is that cats like to do their business in bare soft soil. I try not to have a lot of that around. When I till up the garden, and don't plant it right away, I cover it with the orange construction fencing. They don't like to go through that or in thick plants.

Pet owners do need to be more responsible about spaying and neutering pets so there are not so many homeless animals. I do have cats but they are indoor cats. I adopted them from a feral colony with the help (actually begging ) from the feral feeder.

The two I have now were at the colony since they were kittens. One was two years old when I brought her home (she is twelve now) and the other is five years old (I got him when he was about 4 months old). Feral cats are considered unadoptable if they have been in a colony for more than a few weeks. Any animals turned into the humane society here would be killed because they would not trust people and few of them are even considered adoptable. Most of the cats at the colony are abandoned military pets. The chickens come from people who raise fighting chickens and they just drop them off. Someone told me the one that was making a home behind my shed was let go because he was too small to fight. Feral chickens cause more problems than cats. They have mites, they compete with the cats for food, they eat the young seedlings, and they don't bury their poop. fighting cocks are used to being picked up but the jungle fowl hens are really wild. Not to mention the cocks crow at any hour of the day or night.

It took almost 3 years before I could pet the older cat from the front. Although she has always been sociable, so many people tried to grab her that she does not like hands or faces coming toward her. She only likes to be petted with feet.

The younger cat (I did not know he was a boy until I got his chip certificate), the feral feeder caught and had him neutered for me. I saw him but could not get within 10 feet of him. He is very different. He spent most of his time hiding under the shrubs and the feral feeder and her daughter made sure he got to eat undisturbed by the other cats and wild chickens at the colony. He actually assimilated very easily. After about a week he was climbing all over me like a cat that had always lived with people.
He only likes it when it is his idea. He actually does answer to his name most of the time. My cats have no interest in being outside now.

[webmaster]

Try a Do it Yourself Cat Fence to keep out cats. The product I link to is reasonably priced and made in the USA. You can use it around a small area and configure it to be portable, permanent and/or gated.

I'm using their products to keep my dog in the yard.

[applestar]

The direction the discussion is going prompted me to post these links to a blog. Her main topic is not cats, but she blogged a sub series detailing when her family adopted a stray kitten after her husband fell in love with it and worked very patiently to tame her.

The blog is in Japanese, and her cartoon captions and dialogs won’t be translated even if you use a webpage translator, but maybe the illustrations will be enough to get the gist of what’s going on. If you are super curious, I think could translate panels that need additional explanation.

白い猫 <White Cat>
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -45a1.html


白い猫（２）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -e7f5.html

白い猫（３）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -3bbe.html
— the last panel: “You’re going to be late for work.”

白い猫（４）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -8033.html

白い猫（５）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -21ed.html
— middle panel: “The white kitten got out of the storage shed.”

白い猫（６）— 1st attempts to capture for vet visit
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -a17b.html

白い猫（７）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -c616.html

白い猫（８）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -469c.html


白い猫（９）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -927c.html
— last illustration is reaction of the resident cat Nyarumi : “I’ve never seen Nyarumi like this...”

白い猫（10）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -ffa3.html

白い猫（１１）
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -a294.html
— middle panel: incident when Nyarumi marked on the grand-mother’s bed

白い猫改めしろ美（終）<“White Cat” officially renamed Shiromi (end)>
https://carmine-appice.cocolog-nifty.com ... -b727.html

[HoneyBerry]

mistake post

[jal_ut]

There is always the obvious solution: Just shoot the damned cats!