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Gking1651

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My guy was living in a condo behind a grocery. There were a lot of stray cats there and he ended up feeding several and tried to catch the momma cat to get her fixed. She had a few litters and disappeared. One of her girl kittens ended up having a couple of litters before we could catch her to get fixed. There were 9 cats almost all related that he ended up feeding on his patio. He got threatening letters from the property management to stop feeding them. He ended up moving out and brought the clan to my place. We built a 16'x32' enclosure to keep them because the road and coyotes. 2 strays also showed up on my property the day he moved all the kitties in. Those 2 remain loose. I also already have an indoor/outdoor female. I am not a fan of caging. They do have high and dry sleeping, shade, plants and walkways off the ground. A water fountain and logs for scratching. It's been since September and they all seem healthy and not freaked out. I'd like to know if anyone has heard of caging like this? I feel like we are winging it and hope we are doing it right.
 

Norachan

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Hi G Gking1651

Thank you for helping all of those cats. I have 20 semi feral cats that have the run of my small house, plus a large enclosure. We've been here for six years now and they all seem very happy and healthy.

I'm trying to imagine your enclosure. That's 16 foot long by 32 foot wide? If that's as much ground space as you have you could always extend upwards. Cat's appreciate vertical space, so even putting in another level of walkways would make a difference.

I think the area you have provided is way better than a life on the streets. Could you post some pictures of your set up? Are there any specific problems that you've noticed?
 
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Gking1651

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Thank you. The catio is 16wide x 32long and 8ft high. There are high up walkways around most of it and the roofed area has a large shelf about 4ft off the ground where we have their tote rooms.
 

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Gking1651

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Hi G Gking1651

Thank you for helping all of those cats. I have 20 semi feral cats that have the run of my small house, plus a large enclosure. We've been here for six years now and they all seem very happy and healthy.

I'm trying to imagine your enclosure. That's 16 foot long by 32 foot wide? If that's as much ground space as you have you could always extend upwards. Cat's appreciate vertical space, so even putting in another level of walkways would make a difference.

I think the area you have provided is way better than a life on the streets. Could you post some pictures of your set up? Are there any specific problems that you've noticed?
The biggest issue is the litter system. Right now its a sandbox. We sift out the poop and throw lime over it to cut the smell and we change out the sand after awhile. I need to build a bigger sifter because it takes me too long to clean and my nose can't take the smell.
 

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Wow! It's amazing!

:thud:

You've done a really nice job with that. My enclosure is in a forested area, so I don't have to worry too much about a litter box. The earth is really soft, it rains all the time and there are so many beetles around I only need to clean up after the cats when it snows a lot.

I've heard of people using aquarium gravel in outdoor litter boxes, not sure how well that works.

Maybe jcat jcat has some ideas?

How friendly are the cats? Can you handle them at all?
 

jcat

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Perhaps something like this would work?
Outdoor Potty
Unfortunately, the member who posted that hasn't been back in over 4 years.

betsygee betsygee came up with something similar for her catio:
Catio Unveiled!

Our shelter has around 25 ferals in a 1/2 acre enclosure, but doesn't have anything special in the way of outdoor litter boxes. The cats have access to an indoor room with covered litter boxes, plus one open shed and two cabins with multiple cement mixing troughs filled with clumping litter (Cat's Best Öko Plus). The vast majority of them use the litter boxes rather than the grass.
 
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Gking1651

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Wow! It's amazing!

:thud:

You've done a really nice job with that. My enclosure is in a forested area, so I don't have to worry too much about a litter box. The earth is really soft, it rains all the time and there are so many beetles around I only need to clean up after the cats when it snows a lot.

I've heard of people using aquarium gravel in outdoor litter boxes, not sure how well that works.

Maybe jcat jcat has some ideas?

How friendly are the cats? Can you handle them at all?
I can only pick up maybe 4 out of the 9. There is only one that won't come near me. My guy can pick up and handle most of them.
 

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I can pet 19 of my 21 all the time, the other two only if I've offered them something very yummy. They don't like to be picked up, there are at least 7 of them that I've never picked up at all. They'll come and lie on top of me if I'm on the sofa watching something though.

:lol:

How's it going with your litter box problem? Did you come up with anything that works?
 
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Gking1651

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I can pet 19 of my 21 all the time, the other two only if I've offered them something very yummy. They don't like to be picked up, there are at least 7 of them that I've never picked up at all. They'll come and lie on top of me if I'm on the sofa watching something though.

:lol:

How's it going with your litter box problem? Did you come up with anything that works?
So recently I came up with an idea to buy an enameled bathtub and build it up like a toilet with the aquarium gravel, screen and an actual toilet beside it for flushing and tie it into my septic system. I have a well so hopefully this can streamline the system and we shall have harmony. I love harmony. This is my own idea and hopefully it goes as well as I've dreamed it to be.
 
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