cat killing birds

cruais

Hi all

So our cat has obviously found a birds nest and is killing the birds.

Two days ago, we caught her with a dead bird in her mouth and she ran off.

Yesterday we found 2 dead birds in the garden.

Today has been a total of 5, with my dog bringinf one into the house.

I understand its nature and natural for cats to hunt but would preferably love to stop this.

kylith

If your cat is finding nests or fledglings there's not much you can do except keep the cat indoors, in a run, or escape-proofing your garden. Putting a bell on the cat would be useless because nestlings and fledglings can't fly to escape, and this is the season for fledglings.

juneg

I really would keep the cat indoors more during fledgling season,
I had a cat a while back who killed a lot of birds too, its upsetting

Hondo75

Springwatch did a piece last week on this ,cats kill nearly 4 billion birds a year in the US alone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/domestic-cats-kill-billions-mice-birds-annually-study_n_2575833.html

The main thing is to keep them in over night and at dawn and dusk and a good bell as well.

Manach

My worry about collar belling a cat is the chance it could hinder/catch on brambles and hence injure the cat. On the other hand, having a collar would aid both in finding the cat (luminous strip) and have contract info.
Any recommendations?

Pumpkinseeds

I hate the idea of putting a bell on a cat. For some reason most collars come with bells and we always take them off, they must drive the poor cat mad. We only have a collar on one of our cats and it's reflective as he has a tendency to cross the road. We use the quick release collars, never one with a buckle. We have all 4 of ours microchipped as they can ditch a collar very easily but the microchip can't be lost. As another poster said, keeping them indoors at dawn and dusk should help as that's a cats most active hunting time.

I REALLY don't want to get into the usual round of cat versus bird, which usually happens, but all said and done, humans are the major cause of death to birds and other wildlife. Our expansion of towns and cities further and further into the countryside destroys habitat and intensive farming has an awful impact on birds. I don't like it whenever any of ours kills a bird but I do accept that it will happen from time to time.

juneg

Hondo75 wrote: »

Springwatch did a piece last week on this ,cats kill nearly 4 billion birds a year in the US alone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/domestic-cats-kill-billions-mice-birds-annually-study_n_2575833.html

This is all the more reason to TNR feral cats ie trap neuter and return them to where they live outside. A neutered cat cannot reproduce more kittens to kill still more birds.

Pumpkinseeds

juneg wrote: »

This is all the more reason to TNR feral cats ie trap neuter and return them to where they live outside. A neutered cat cannot reproduce more kittens to kill still more birds.

I fully support TNR, but it's important to acknowledge the devestation that our species causes. The link below leads to an article that shows that in the US alone, an estimated 400 million to 1 billion birds are killed by colliding with windows.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1908206/bird_strike_deaths_caused_by_collisions_with_buildings_severely_dent_populations.html

kylith

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I fully support TNR, but it's important to acknowledge the devestation that our species causes. The link below leads to an article that shows that in the US alone, an estimated 400 million to 1 billion birds are killed by colliding with windows.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1908206/bird_strike_deaths_caused_by_collisions_with_buildings_severely_dent_populations.html

But we also need to accept that our domestic animals have an impact on wildlife also, and to work to mitigate that. You can't just say 'X numbers of birds are killed flying into windows so it's ok that Y number of birds are killed by pets'. We need to work out how to minimise the numbers of birds killed by windows/cars and killed by domestic animals.

Pumpkinseeds

kylith wrote: »

But we also need to accept that our domestic animals have an impact on wildlife also, and to work to mitigate that. You can't just say 'X numbers of birds are killed flying into windows so it's ok that Y number of birds are killed by pets'. We need to work out how to minimise the numbers of birds killed by windows/cars and killed by domestic animals.

I agree, I'm just anti-SpringWatch as I hated Bill Oddie and his cat hating views. I know he doesn't present the programme anymore but people like him cause so much damage to the way people view cats. Some cats are prolific hunters and others don't hunt at all. Only 1 of our 4 has any interest in hunting and he's outgrowing that, he mainly killed mice and starlings. There just tends to be this mistaken view that all cats are out there on some kind of mass killing spree slaughtering every wild creature they encounter, when most of them are quite content to just watch them.:)

Capercaillie

Keep cat in at night/dawn/dusk. When young fledgling around keep the cat in. At other times have a quick release collar with multiple large bells. One bell insufficient. The idea that just because people/intensive agriculture/windows/wind turbines kill loads of birds does not make it ok for peoples's pets to kill birds.

boomerang

Manach wrote: »

My worry about collar belling a cat is the chance it could hinder/catch on brambles and hence injure the cat. On the other hand, having a collar would aid both in finding the cat (luminous strip) and have contract info.
Any recommendations?

A quick-release collar with a clasp that opens if enough pressure brought to bear on it - e.g. if it snags on a branch. They are even on sale in Dealz, Eurogiant, Mr Price etc. Just avoid collars that have a buckle or a piece of stretchy elastic built-in.

One of my cats is a divil for losing his safety-release collar so he wears a Rogz cat collar that you can adjust the strength of the clasp. I got it in Mr Price for €2. I buy a few collars at a time when I see them on sale as invariably at least a few collars go missing every year! Ditto on the tags - I buy 12 at a time from ebay, they work out about €1.70 each.

Capercaillie

boomerang wrote: »

A quick-release collar with a clasp that opens if enough pressure brought to bear on it - e.g. if it snags on a branch. They are even on sale in Dealz, Eurogiant, Mr Price etc. Just avoid collars that have a buckle or a piece of stretchy elastic built-in.

One of my cats is a divil for losing his safety-release collar so he wears a Rogz cat collar that you can adjust the strength of the clasp. I got it in Mr Price for €2. I buy a few collars at a time when I see them on sale as invariably at least a few collars go missing every year! Ditto on the tags - I buy 12 at a time from ebay, they work out about €1.70 each.

My fellow loses his collar every 2-3 months. It prevents him killing birds though so it's money well spent. he has three large bells on his collar but doesn't bother him at all. He was a bit upset for the first day he had them on but 100% perfect now (he never tries to take the collar off).