Cats killing all the baby birds

[paperdollar]

There are so many cats in the neighbourhood the baby birds don’t stand a chance. I don’t understand how people can’t take responsibility for their cats and keep them inside during nesting season (at the very least) to stop them butchering all the local wildlife. All that time and energy spent by birds tending to their nest and providing food for them to be killed without even having a chance. One cat in particular has been stalking mine and my 2 neighbours gardens and taken most of the baby birds that have come this year, this is the least we have ever seen. Despite shooing it, chasing it, using water pistols/jugs of water, dogs chasing it, lions poo, high up feeders, removing feeders etc. I have been to the owners door to ask her to keep it inside for a bit to give the birds a chance but she said it is an outdoor cat and it is “nature” and nothing she can do about it. It is nature for birds and other wildlife to prey on baby birds as a means of survival, not your overbred, overfed domesticated cats. One cat owner has 9 cats with a nest in her gutter, next door to that has 3 with a nest also. One of them has a feeding pole in her garden low to the ground, so my stopping feeding the birds means they will be going there to take their chances. I can’t believe foxes are put down for killing cats for survival but nothing can be done about this. It is making me ill to witness, these irresponsible owners are not animal lovers. I post at the end of my rope having just chased one with a screaming baby in it’s mouth and dropping it only once it stopped. I’m wondering if anyone else has ever suffered the same and found something to do about it.

Maybe you could do something about the jays and magpies eating baby birds too?

And as for the birds of prey eating all the mice and voles

I agree OP and would never own a cat because of this. It’s different with wildlife as that’s the natural food chain.

My cat is an indoor cat so she obviously never kills anything.

I've only seen one of my neighbours cats with some prey once (he's aged 2) - it was a dead mouse he presented me with, lovely.

But the others are so pampered they never catch anything.

@mrstt89

Yabu for starting another cat hating thread. The RSPB consistently maintains that there is no evidence of cats causing any significant decline in the song bird population. If you care about songbirds I suggest you look closer to home.

This

Nature is cruel

If you're so bothered, don't eat chicken etc

Blimey, it all goes on where you live doesn't it OP?

If it's making you ill, I suggest you take a step back and perhaps concentrate on something else until nesting season is over.

It IS nature

Most of the time cats only kill birds who would have died anyway

It would be impossible for me to keep my cat inside in warm weather. She can jump out the windows

Could you spray the cats with a hose when you see them to try and deter?

Given the amount of seagulls, pigeons and magpies around here, I think my neighbourhood cats didn't get the memo saying they should be slaughtering baby birds en masse.

There is no way I'd be able to keep my outdoor cat inside. He'd yowl like mad constantly and it would mean not having any windows open or going out of the front or back for without someone holding him down. How long is nesting season?

I've been looking at water gun toys today for my kids and I was surprised by how many reviews are made by people buying them to get the neighbours cats out of their gardens. We have a little fledgling hoping around outside now, he's survived for a few days and mother bird comes to feed him, I would be mortified if he got got by a local cat, however we never see any cats in our garden, the best deterrent = Mans best friend - A dog!

@ShutUpaYourFace

I've been looking at water gun toys today for my kids and I was surprised by how many reviews are made by people buying them to get the neighbours cats out of their gardens. We have a little fledgling hoping around outside now, he's survived for a few days and mother bird comes to feed him, I would be mortified if he got got by a local cat, however we never see any cats in our garden, the best deterrent = Mans best friend - A dog!

More likely to be eaten by a Jay. Sorry.

Nobody should be feeding birds this time of year, there are enough insects and berries about without encouraging birds into gardens.

I have two cats. I also feed birds. Lots of things kill bird, including birds. I admittedly wouldn't put a nesting box in a garden if I owned nine cats but this is not a common scenario.

Not really the point of the thread, but everything I have read on the subject suggests foxes killing cats is rare.

OP this is meant to be very good!
www.amazon.co.uk/Pestbye%C2%AE-Battery-Operated-Activated-Repellent/product-reviews/B004YCUT4W?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

At least they’re eating them

It is nature no matter how much you protest.
Just because they have people homes doesn’t dampen their wild instincts. They are wild animals that humans have domesticated but not completely.

Plus you forget that there are many many feral cats about and often their own kittens succumb to other predators.

it is cruel to confine cats to indoors.
Birds can respond to nature and seek other locations for their nests.

Sorry whilst it is not pleasant you are still bu

@titchy
I have everything crossed I hope our little fledgling makes it!
Whoever his enemies may be!
I'm not cat bashing, although I own a dog and my favourite ever cat, actually thought it was a dog.
My in laws live in the country they have 2 cats, they mostly bring in mice, rarely birds, or so I'm told. Don't they suggest collars with bells during nesting season?

Ps I have 3 feral cats that visit us and hang about our sheds
one hunts mice voles and an occasional bird
Another doesn’t really hunt much but would on occasion
The third never hunts and likes to have company with all other creatures. He happily sleeps in an old coal shed shared with a robin and a blackbird. He thinks they are his friends

Stop eating meat. Stop wearing leather.
They’re wild ffs.
The myth that cats have destroyed bird eco culture is amazing.
It’s humans. It’s ALWAYS HUMANS

YABU. It’s nature. Keeping cats indoors is cruel

The hawks round here kill more little birdies than the cats do. Our neighbour was banging on about the robins nest in their garden complaining our cat might go for them (despite kitty completely ignoring robins in our garden all year).
She put up some crazy wire mesh thing. Looks like a loony. Hope her nesting robins are ok though.

I have a semi feral (took me a long time to get her trust). She would have frozen to death last winter, if she hadn’t have come in. She comes in just at night (we are just a doss house to her). She hunts rabbits sometimes, but mainly mice ...she does eat all of her kills. It’s awful, and I hate it. So I let her out a few hours later in the morning which has reduced the body count. But seriously, nature is awful. Did you know that squirrels raid baby bird nests; my fish eat the tadpoles; the frogs eat all manor of insects; the robins follow me around the garden waiting for easy worms to eat; the sparrow hawk is fucking barbaric; the lovely, gorgeous hedgehog crunches snails quicker than you can blink, the crows hunt through the hedges looking for nests to raid and my ‘wholesome’ free range chickens will kill a frog or a mouse in a heartbeat. I have tried to fight against some of it, but if the sparrow hawk doesn’t eat, it’s chicks will die, who am I to intervene? Nature is awful....and yet we farm animals for eating...I don’t think we are in a position to judge. I used to feed the tadpoles peas to help them get along - but an overpopulation of frogs unbalances everything and causes it’s own problems. I will always help an animal in need though! Wildlife causes me more worry and sleepless nights than anything, but even domesticated cats still have the instinct to kill. And if you stop a cat hunting you are denying it’s natural behaviour which is against rspca guidance (please correct me if I’m wrong). Birds can have several clutches a year, frogs can lay hundreds of spawn - because unfortunately, they instinctively know that it won’t all reach adulthood.

Cats killing birds really isn't "nature", they're a domesticated non-native species.
Its certainly not true that they'll only take birds that would die anyway. They kill fledglings.
I love cats but they're utterly shite for indigenous species. I'm still upset at the pictures of a badly mauled little bushbaby from a wildlife rescue centre I donate to.