How to stop cat killing birds

Redr

My cat keeps killing birds - not vermin - birds. I've lived with cats for years yet I've never had a cat so apt at bird-killing. The bell around his neck makes no difference. What can I do please?

Shanao

I found the bells didn't work either back when I had outside cats so we got them ID tags as well and they made a lot louder jingling sound. Both cats had two tags on because they had their microchip tags as well. No more dead birds after that.

shinikins

Try adding two or three bells to the collar, one can be nestled in the fur and the noise muffled, but the more bells the more noise. I had the same problem with my own, and as he has a long coat the bell on his collar was lost in the scruff of his neck, but now he has a total of 3 bells he can't creep up on the birds in the garden. Most pet stores sell packs of extra bells for under €2.

Kristopherus

Agree totally with Shinikins. We had the same problem and thats how we solved it.

Irish Fire

Kill the cat J….. Just kidding……. On a serious note more bells

Redr

Thank you so much for the advice everyone. The cat now has two bells and a name tag:D Am trying to upload picture on this but things looking dodgy...

irish1967

if kids hear him coming they will think it's Christmas

shinikins

That is one pretty cat!!!

One of the pro's to adding more bells is that i can hear Muffin coming from a mile away! Usually when i go out to call him in for his dinner i'll be able to hear "ching ching ching ching ching" along the walls in seconds!!

Irish Fire

Arm the birds......

golden8

Pete the tv3 vet had a article on the breakfast show with a cat bib

http://tv3.ie/ireland_am.php?video=33395&locID=1.65.74

According to Pete the the cat pounces it goes down and then lunges pushing the bib up in cats face blocking line of vision for a few seconds. the link is self explanatory.

SophieSakura

A bell worked for me when my neighbours had pet doves and my cat wanted to eat them all :eek: so yeah, try more bells

fatmammycat

That bib is ridiculous. I have a hunter here too, two really, but only on consider birds as magnets. But I don't put collars on my cats at ALL after one of them got it caught in a fence and almost strangled himself despite it being so called 'quick release.' Instead I now regulate the hours they are out, natural feeding times like early morning or when birds are bedding down, dusk, I keep my animal inside and so far they have not caught a bird in almost two years. Mice and rats however are taking a pasting.

SophieSakura

That bib is cruel! A cat would hate that.

I tried to put a collar on my cat cos she went missing once (when she was 4 months old) but she kept taking it off so I gave up. If I had one that was killing birds all the time then I'd do something about it, but mine hardly ever hunt, I've seen only two birds in the past year that they caught and one or two mice. And they hopefully only catch the weak/sick birds because they're not very good hunters.

golden8

If you seen the clip with Pete the cat did not hate it why do you say its cruel when it does not impinge the cats movements.

BTW how do you keep bells on cats without using a collar?

Surely killing birds for fun is cruel when they are fed.

edwinkane

Redr wrote: »

My cat keeps killing birds - not vermin - birds. I've lived with cats for years yet I've never had a cat so apt at bird-killing. The bell around his neck makes no difference. What can I do please?

Virtually all cats are killers, and many don't stop at birds and kill baby rabbits and all sorts of vermin.

Were you not aware of then when you got a cat?

seamus

edwinkane wrote: »

Virtually all cats are killers, and many don't stop at birds and kill baby rabbits and all sorts of vermin.

Were you not aware of then when you got a cat?

To be fair, many cats may only land a kill once every so often, so if he's not had an elite hunter before, he probably wasn't expecting this number of kills.

Most cats will be disinterested in doing much killing if their bellies are full. But they will hunt for sport on occasion, and if the cat is good at it, he'll enjoy it more and so do it more often.

edwinkane

Sure, some cats are more prolific killers than others. But they are virtually all killers, and even keeping them in at night or changing their feeding patterns does not, in my experience, do much to change their nature.

SophieSakura

golden8 wrote: »

If you seen the clip with Pete the cat did not hate it why do you say its cruel when it does not impinge the cats movements.
QUOTE]

Well I'm pretty sure my cats (and most cats) wouldn't put up with the bib. Only if they were very laid back, or used to it from a young age. A lot of cats won't even tolerate a collar. It's not cruelty I guess, but it would annoy most cats I think.


And I don't think all cats are killers. If they're old, fat, lazy or young then they might not be. Or if they have any kind of disability. Only one of my 5 cats hunts.

PCros

Traonach wrote: »

How do you know if it's cruel if you haven't tried using it?. I'm going to order a few and try it on my cat. Cruel!! It's better than him killing birds and I don't want to keep him in the whole time. It's worth a try...

Have you seen it? The cats legs would be hitting off it when it walks?

Also it flips up in the line of vision as the cat jumps....imagine your cat on the wall about to jump and that flips up, could easily slip and break something.

Stupid product.

SophieSakura

Traonach wrote: »

How do you know if it's cruel if you haven't tried using it?. I'm going to order a few and try it on my cat. Cruel!! It's better than him killing birds and I don't want to keep him in the whole time. It's worth a try...

Well you're right I've never tried that, but I'm sure my cats would go mad if I put that on them. It looks really annoying.

As other people said, a collar with several bells usually works, so at least try that, cats would more likely put up with that.

sambuka41

That bib is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. :mad::mad: I would never put that on my cat.

I would rather try more bells. Or be sure that there is no one feeding the birds near by. I'd love to feed the birds but between my cat and dog the birds wouldn't stand a chance.

dan_d

Do people not find that with bells, the cats are going nuts trying to pull them off the collar to get rid of the jingling that's following them around all the time???
Ours have collars I've had to take the bells off...they were going absolutely nuts (to the extent of making themselves sick), trying to catch the bells and pull them off with the jaws and paws. It's weird, but there you go!

SophieSakura

Two of my cats had bells on and they didn't seem to mind them. But the dogs had toys with bells so they suddenly thought the cats were toys