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.

I do think pet ownership has reached epic proportions, especially during lockdown. The amount of people I know who have got lockdown puppies and kittens is huge.
I agree and decreasing birth rates in this part of the world.
I hope these pets evolve enough to hold down jobs in the future.

😂😂😂 EmeraldShamrock

I would totally love an 🦦

YANBU

Ban cats.

Love birds. Adore cats.
When we had just one, we let him wander. He thought he was super smart if he found a pigeon feather, which lasted at least three days.
We have four now post adoption and have cat fenced our garden (someone said earlier that they thought their neighbour cat fencing their garden made them look like a fruitcake or something similar . I think it’s the only sensible and fair thing to do.
My neighbours are really nice people. I wouldn’t dream of allowing our dog to crap in their gardens. Cat poop is not more fragrant.)

I’ve also stopped feeding birds, much as I like them. A radio 4 programme last week, maybe More or Less?, can’t remember, said that the UK spends £250 million on bird feed each year. A clever bod did calculations and the bird population needs nowhere near that amount of food (especially things like peanuts which are not indigenous but which songbirds travel up to 3 miles to eat!)
On top of all of that and I admit my main motivation, our adoptees are just beautiful, one especially, never seen a cat like her, and I think someone would pinch them for profit.

That's really good responsible ownership you are practicing @Zgran ! I hope it will become more common.

Re the food. I found out recently that resident wood pigeon doesn't like sunflower seed😱 I thought all birds loved them.
Nuts aren't very popular in mine, but fat balls are a bird crack🙈

I honestly don’t know why more folk don’t do the same. Forgetting the birds and the neighbours for a minute, i know my cats are safe. We did it ourselves, it took a day and it was less than a family (extended admittedly 😁 about £120) meal out.

Sunflower hearts are the thing, I’m told,

Is it the rolling pole thing on top you put up? I agree. It also makes it safer. They still get plenty of exercise and outdoor like that. Superb compromise

That’s a ridiculous statement and just sounds like you’re trying to justify it
I don't own any cats...

especially things like peanuts which are not indigenous but which songbirds travel up to 3 miles to eat!

Wow, interesting fact!

@Zgran Great job.
I do feed the birds their crack - ahem fat balls - The size of the seagulls more city-gulls is concerning they're not shy about snatching your lunch.
I often think they'll be like flying pigs in 10 years.

[quote EmeraldShamrock]@Zgran Great job.
I do feed the birds their crack - ahem fat balls - The size of the seagulls more city-gulls is concerning they're not shy about snatching your lunch.
I often think they'll be like flying pigs in 10 years.[/quote]
They eat pigeons over the first lockdown👀

I always wonder if they taste bit like chips and curry

I always wonder if they taste bit like chips and curry Or chicken every new meat dish is compared to chicken.

I had two brothers (one sadly PTS last year).

They only ever go in the back garden - and only when I’m at home, they have never free-roamed. The surviving brother hasn’t caught anything for weeks. And anything he does catch is alive and well, not a mark on them (he’d probably make a good gun dog with his soft mouth!).

My departed boy was a very, very chilled-out cat. He was definitely a fair-weather only cat, and even then he’d usually pick one spot to chill-out. He only ever caught one bird in his life - and that’s because it was a fledgling blackbird, so wasn’t quick enough fly off. My cat came off worse as the bird pecked him right in the eye before flying off.

As a breed, they’re known as runners rather than climbers - neither of them has ever climbed a tree.

There really are some cats who have zero interest in catching anything.

Do you eat meat OP? If so you can’t possibly complain. And the last baby bird I saw killed was killed by another, larger bird (I think it was a cuckoo or similar).

Cookoo birds are ultimate bad parents. Or good parents?🤔
I guess it depdnds how you look at it.
We used to save baby birds cookoo babies pushed out. They are on red list in UK though apparently only 15000 breeding pairs!

@EmeraldShamrock

I always wonder if they taste bit like chips and curry Or chicken every new meat dish is compared to chicken.

How many meals can be made from a seagull😂 MN seagull

Just saw this and thought sone of you might like it😂

Every single day i see a dead animal of some kind. I really doesn’t bother me. Most down to nature, the odd animal killed by a vehicle.

Lambs killed by foxes
Birds by cats
Rabbits by cats
Rabbits by cars
Badgers by cars

I have loads of rabbits round the place and i find a dead one every day, killed by a cat who lives nearby. I see him sitting in the sun watching them.
Its what happens. 🤷🏼‍♀️

My cats never catch anything, I only adopt cats from shelters that are senior kitizens. I like older cats and my neighbours would be pissed if I had a young cat that was all over their garden as they are all garden proud retirees.
I once caught my last cat Buns looking longingly at a baby bird and chattering at it but was just too old to try giving chase.

SchrodingersImmigrant

Is it the rolling pole thing on top you put up? I agree. It also makes it safer. They still get plenty of exercise and outdoor like that. Superb compromise“

No, unfortunately that really needs to be installed by a professional and is very expensive (for our large gardens it would have been nearly £1,000). So we did some Googling and have used upward metal brackets and rigid, green wire fencing. It’s not a thing of beauty on our side but thankfully our three affected neighbours all have lots of shrubs and tell us it’s not at all intrusive. The only issue was a section of party wall with one neighbour where its only 5ft high. We didn’t think it was fair that her garden looked like cell block H along that section but some very realistic artificial ivy screening, a bargain at just an extra £40 for the 8 metres in question, laid on top on her side has taken care of that and she’s quite happy.
(I probably sound a bit pious but having had poor neighbourly relations in the past, we know how important it is to be on good terms).

OP, do you eat eggs? The egg industry kills almost all the newborn male chicks, as they only need a few roosters to impregnate the hens. There's nothing remotely natural about the process.

It seems to me that on MN, when people complain about animal cruelty, they generally mean "animal cruelty that I can see!"

Oh OP I feel your pain! We didn't really have a cat problem until one of my neighbours got two cats a couple of months ago - and now they seem to constantly be in our garden, hiding under bushes and waiting to pounce on unsuspecting birds. I do chase them away when I see them, but my partner and I work full-time (not in the house), so we're not there most of the time. Our estate has its own online forum, and someone posted on it a while ago asking if the owner could put collars with bells on the cats, as they've witnessed one of the cats killing birds, and have had to dispose of decapitated birds that had been left in their garden. I know the owner would have seen that post, and she always seems nice/reasonable when I see her, but for some reason she didn't respond and she hasn't put collars+bells on her cats...

Our garden gets so many birds, especially on our feeders over the winter, and I love it, so I really need to try to find an effective way to keep the cats out. I'm less fussed about other birds hunting fledglings/smaller birds as I get that as wild animals it's necessary for their survival, which is obviously completely different to a pet cat doing it!

While I would love to live in a cat-free area I know that's not going to happen, so I'm trying to care about the garden birds slightly less for my own sanity, but it's not that easy!

@Meg87 get bramble branches and put th on a ground. Cats are really smart so they don't get hurt, bit it makes it impossible to lie there or sneak so it discourages them in the end. They just don't bother when it's uncomfortable.
Also they seem to hate Helichrysum italicum.

@Zgran that's lovely and smart. I like the compromise woth the fake ivy

@Radziwill

No, I was made aware of this years ago and am disgusted by it and haven’t eaten eggs since. I don’t support animal cruelty in any form and will do whatever I can to lessen my part in it. I agree with others on many issues pointed out on this thread but it doesn’t detract from the original point of my post. I think people should be responsible for their choice of pet and that doesn’t mean I don’t care about anything else going on in the world or that it is the worst.