Stray cat problems

[Zxsong]

A lot of stray animals have been wandering into my yard lately and even though my fences are about 6 feet high the stray cats around the neighborhood still get into the yard. Is there any way to stop them from constantly coming every day? I want to try and fix having so many stray animals in my yard before my sulcata gets big enough to live outside. I know that might be a while from now but I think it's better to prepare for problems that might occur. I don't want her to get harassed by some curious cats!

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

My standard answer is to install a hotline like this used to keep horses in. For the horses, I use flagged wire, but for stray and or wild animals, I use the electric tape. The tape gives a good visual that animals learn to avoid. I have mine 2-4" above the top of my out door enclosure. This works great for me and I have 7 cats we care greatly for. Like you though, I don't want my russian yard used as a cat box. This also keeps wild critters out of the yard. One hit from the hotline and the animal learns without any injury. Hope this helps.

 

[Pokeymeg]

Around my area, there are rescue leagues that will come in and trap stray animals and take them away for treatment/adoption. Is there anything like that in your area?

Another option is to make your yard unappealing.... It's a bit gross, but if you lay down the pee of a larger predator animal, they'll stay away. We used to do that in the garden to keep the little critters away.

 

[Barista5261]

Another "natural" option - cats HATE hot pepper of any kind. When I had a my Maine coon, I left an open jar of dried pepper flakes on the counter and the smell kept him from jumping up on the counter.

So if you have any shrubs or plants around the perimeter of your house, you can always sprinkle some crushed red pepper at the base of the shrubs and that should help deter them [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

 

[T33's Torts]

We get daily presents from the stray cat around our area. With cat poop in the yard we couldn't have a sulcata roaming, so i did what was mentioned above, chili powder. I did that a month ago (ONCE) and no more kitty.

 

[Zxsong]

I've tried cayenne pepper a couple of times but it hasn't worked so far maybe it's just too fine. Yea I don't want to hurt them I just want them not to hurt my babies haha. I'll look farther into the any animal hotlines we may have in Southern California. Electrical tape seems promising! Thanks for all the advice!

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Would the pepper flakes interfere with the tortoise?

 

[Barista5261]

I have no idea if pepper would be appealing to any grass/veggie eating tort, since it's not a normal food for them.

But for the cats- it won't hurt them, they just can't stand the smell of it. Worst it'll do to them is make them sneeze. Try dried pepper flakes. All the hotness of the pepper is in the seed (compound is called capsaesin). The dried pepper flakes contain dried seeds as well as the skin.