Cat Latrines

Introduction

Cats do not share latrine facilities so, in multi-cat households, the optimum number of latrines should be one per cat plus one extra. This number of cat litter trays is obviously a horrific prospect for the owner of a lot of cats. The answer is to provide cats with outdoor latrines in the owner’s garden. With the current fashion for hard landscaping, cats may have few opportunities to use good outdoor latrines and may have to travel across several gardens to find somewhere suitable. In winter, these toilets may become sodden or frozen, making them unusable. For this reason, many housesoiling problems are worse during the winter.

Cats have very specific requirements for the places they prefer to go to the toilet. These include:

Privacy: Cats prefer not to share toilets with other cats and do not like to be disturbed whilst going to the toilet.
Substrate: Cats prefer certain kinds of material to go to the toilet on.
Dedicated latrines: Cats prefer not to use the same toilet for urination and defecation.

Owners can make use of this information when they want to provide cats with a suitable toilet as well as when wanting to discourage them from using the wrong places.

Before the use deterrents, cats must be provided with a suitable set of toilet facilities, otherwise the inappropriate house-soiling can be moved to another equally undesirable place.

Outdoor Latrines

House-soiling problems tend to be worse in the winter, probably because the cat’s natural/incidental outdoor toilets start to become difficult to use. Hard, frozen ground is difficult to dig and water logged soil is messy and unpleasant for the cat. Cats are evolved from desert living ancestors so they naturally prefer to dig dry, light and sandy soil. Sand latrines do not get wet or frozen and they give the cat an easily accessible toilet close to the house. This stops the cat from needing to travel away from the garden, and reduces the nuisance to neighbours.

There are often concerns that other cats will come into the territory to use the outdoor latrines. This is a possibility but rarely causes a problem. In fact, the presence of nearby latrines tends to strengthen the boundary of the resident cat’s own territory.

If the cat is provided with an outdoor toilet close to the house, it will reduce its need to have an indoor litter tray and can help to reduce the number of indoor litter trays needed if there are several cats living in the same house. Outdoor toilets are easy to make and maintain and the cat can use them all year round. These outdoor toilets should be hidden in flowerbeds behind shrubs and tall plants to give the cat privacy. These latrines are essentially self-cleaning but it is sensible to regularly use a litter scoop to remove faeces in the same way as with a conventional litter tray. The sandy part of the latrine should be dug out and replaced every six months. One outdoor latrine is unlikely to be enough, and different cats will have different preferences for location. At least two latrines should be provided.

Simple outdoor toilet:

Find a suitable location for the latrine, preferably at the edge of the garden, obscured by flowerbeds and bushes to give the cat some privacy.
Dig a hole that is approximately 90 cm deep, and 90cm square.
Fill the bottom 60cm of the hole with pea-sized gravel, to create drainage.
Top up the hole with soft, white sand like that used in playgrounds. Don’t use the orange sand used for building (also known as sharp sand).
Once the cat is using the latrine regularly, you can scatter a little earth over the top to help disguise it.
Use a litter scoop to remove any faeces every couple of days, as you would with an indoor tray.
Dig out and replace the sand every few months to refresh the latrine.

Indoor Latrines

Indoor latrines should be made as appealing as possible. They should be positioned in quiet locations and deep filled with a scent free mineral based litter. In some cases, soft sand or a mixture of soft sand and litter is attractive to cats, and the sand content can be reduced gradually once the cat has shifted its location preference to the designated litter tray.

Cats do vary in their preferences, but here is a general indication of what cats would regard as an ideal litter tray:

Deep sided and large enough for the cat to turn around in.
Filled to a depth of at least 3 cm with a dry, soft mineral based litter (not wood chips, or litter made from wood pulp or scented). You may try using soft white sand or a 50% mixture of litter + sand as this is more attractive to some cats.
Position the tray in a quiet place where the cat will not be disturbed.
Try having litter trays open and covered to see which the cat prefers. To test this, cover one tray with a large cardboard box with a hole in the side.

Inappropriate facilities may be at the root of inappropriate toileting problems and it is important to consider the type of litter used in the tray, the sort of tray that is being offered and also the location of that tray. The cleaning regime may also be relevant since most cats are reluctant to use trays that are dirty and some others will fail to bond successfully to their latrine if it is cleaned too frequently. Other potential causes of a breakdown in house training include challenges to security in nervous individuals, overcrowding within a small-sized territory where there is competition over the resource of the latrines or access to the trays is controlled and manipulated by one individual within the household. There is also the issue of old age and debilitation.

Deterrent Methods for Inappropriate Latrine Locations

Once the cat is regularly using the appropriate latrines, deterrent methods ca be used to stop the cat from using the wrong places.

Here are some suggestions:

Cover the location with thick polythene: urine will then drain towards the cat’s feet when it is standing on the sheet.
Cover the location with a large sheet of silver foil: some cats do not like to stand on this.
Apply strips of double-sided sticky tape to either of the above to make them even more repellent.
Place small bowls of food on top of the latrine sites, so that they become feeding stations. Cats are usually reluctant to urinate near sources of food.
Illuminate dark corners with a bright spot lamp so that any privacy is taken away. The same effect can be achieved using a small, battery powered infra-red activated lamp, which will turn on each time the cat approaches.