Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For years my cats & tortoises have gotten along just fine. The redfoot has even learned where the cats' food bowls are located & makes a beeline to the kitchen to forage for stray food pellets whenever I let him out to roam.

A couple of months ago I took in a young cat that the neighbors had neglected. He fit in just fine with the herd & the only complaint I had with him was that he wouldn't stay out of the redfoot pen. I didn't like that but I could live with it.

A few days ago I noticed a terrible smell coming from the redfoot pen & was horrified to discover that the kitten had been using it as a litter box. Yuck!! Yesterday I removed all of the cypress mulch from the pen, disinfected the tub thoroughly, & set it all back up again using new mulch. Today I'll have to make a cover of some sort to keep the little beast out so that I'll never have to go through this again. I'll also keep a close eye on the redfoot to make sure he didn't get ill due to this.

Never a dull moment when you live with animals, right?

Get a spray bottle. Keep an eye on your torts pen and when you see the cat go in there squirt the heck out of it. They hate that. Do it every time. Soon the cat will learn that when it goes in there its going to get soaked and wont do it anymore. Good luck!

Our cat normally doesn't learn from the spray bottle, but it seemed to this last time when we used it to keep her from sitting on top of the lizard cage. Now she just sits in front of it and stares at them for hours. They walk up to the glass and bob their heads at her and go about their business.

Still doesn't work for keeping her off counters, tables, and other things I don't want her on.

One thing that worked for some things she'd climb on was to make loops of duct tape that were sticky all around the outside and put them on those things. She hates sticky stuff and now leaves those things alone (at least when I can see)

I guess it just depends on the cat. Mine do well with the squirt bottle.

It doesn't seem to work at all with this one. I'm hoping the other cats will clue him in on acceptable behavior!

try putting some mint extract in the water. They don't like the smell and it makes my cat wigg out.

pieces of orange peel strewn about will keep cats away I have heard. You could put some around the outside of the pen. Also, putting foil on surfaces you don't want cats on can help train them (but they don't stay trained long it seems in my experience). They seem to hate walking on foil. (cats are insane)