[Hayls]

We are currently cleaning out the outside area of the catrun, it has trees, plants and basic bark chips in it...... We have decided that we want to remove all the bark chips and put some sort of other product down..... I was thinking of some sort of rock, maybe scoria (sp?) - its small and red and we would like it not to be attractive to dig in and do their business, was also reading somewhere about having an area for that and we might box an area so they could use if they require as well, but will continue with the kitty litter trays also.....

Currently it has agapanthas, 1 palm tree, and 2 big native trees (the ones with the little spiky leaves) I was hoping that we remove them...... Looking at planting it up heaps so there are heaps of hidy spots too....

Was thinking of putting in an area for catgrass, catnip etc as well (they have it in a pot in the cattery out the side of the house)

What other plants are good for catteries, as we are pretty much removing all plants that are there already,.....

Are diosma? ok too, and conifers like the rockery ones.....

Any ideas as what to put down for the base too?

Thanks heaps

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[sealhope]

All mints (not just catnip), daisies, roses, lemon grass, treeferns, rabbit's ears, anything grassy, rosemary, lavender.

[sealhope]

Also - thick beds of hay or straw for the base - the cats will love it and it won't tangle in their coats.

[Jann M]

We did a good base for an enclosure with the basic cheap concrete tiles (about 12 inch squares?) laid on blue metal/sand

[Hayls]

Thanks for your ideas! We headed over to the Nursery and have got some plants, grass', lavendar, conifer, diasoma's, daisy, and we are going to move to tree ferns in there as well, will hopefully look ok.

[Furkidz]

I wouldn't recommend the small rocks - one of my runs has them and my boys use it as a toilet!
Woodchip, grass, pebbles etc are all attractive toilets for cats - stick to pavers or concrete blocks with minimal garden beds - maybe space the pavers/blocks and plant cat grass, mint, mondo etc in between.

[Trubador]

I would also avoid the scoria. The cats dont like to walk on it and they may try to use it as a toilet.
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As for the outside toilet I do have one here. My cats have an area in their enclosure which I have made for them. It measures 1.7m L x 1m W. I used pine to make an edging for the above measurements. I dug it out approx 6 inches. I laid down plastic with some holes in it. I then put in several bags of animal manure and 2000 compost worms. On top of this I laid 2 bags (so a thin layer) of fine pine mulch.
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All of my cats, with the exception of 1 naughty girl, use this area as a toilet. The compost worms dig up the the surface and find the poo, then they dig under the poo to bring it down into the animal manure layer to cpmpost it. You need to keep the toilet moist so give it a water every other day and more often in hot weather, so the worms dont die. The pine mulch eliminates smell. This I know as a fact as I have 8 cats using this area as a toilet with no litter trays in sight.
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To maintain the toilet, you need to rake the top layer of pine mulch and shovel off as needed. Some people say every few months as the worms are doing the work, I do it every week. It is such a quick job to quickly remove the top layer and replace with new mulch, and cheap. In my opinion, it is more healthy to replace weekly. If you have any cats which are sick or new to your home, please quarantine them and do not let them near an outside toilet like this to ensure virus' arent transmitted to your other cats.
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There are pro's and con's of the outside toilet. We have not had any problems transmitting anything through using this type of toilet for our cats, but if you do have something lurking in one of your cats, it would so easily be transmitted to all of them.

[Hayls]

Thanks for all the advice, fantastic tips and ideas, I am going out to buy some more cat grass seed to plant up in there also

Bella we were looking at an outdoor toilet area, but were just looking at ideas on how to go about it, thanks for the tips.