If you have a cat you have to stop it scaring and eating birds

[lasagnelle]

Get a bell collar or something. Give the wildlife a chance. Can you train cats to leave birds alone?

My cat has probably killed about 2 birds in her entire life, although I have had previous cats who were prolific hunters even with multiple bells on.
You can't 'tell' a cat anything, that's why they're cats.

If my sons cat didn't kill wildlife he would have starved to death when he was lost for 7 weeks (and no, he wasn't being fed by another household as he was a skeleton when he was found, but luckily alive)

You can't stop them. Cats aren't trainable like dogs are. Bells don't work.

The best thing to do is keep them in at night and in the early mornings, espcially during the seaon fledglings will be on the ground. I do this with my (elderly) rescue cats, and in the four years I've had them, they have only caught two birds (two too many, I know).

Cats are either hunters or incompetent hunters.
I’ve had 7 cats in my life. Actually only 2 were avid killers. The rest attempted occasionally but gave up completely after they were about two years old.

I always take preventative precautions with hunters. Never have a bird feeder & shut the offender in for longer periods if any fledglings are about.
Mainly the birds are in charge. We do have magpies in the garden & they often gang up & chase our cats, who then slink off feeling stupid.
YABU re hunter cats. However whilst I’m the original cat woman, bird killing certainly isn’t one of their pleasant traits.

Do you understand basic English?

The wording was 'at minimum', you're arguing as if I'm wrong and you are correcting me with you superior wisdom but you are literally repeating the exact same thing my post said which shows you must be struggling to understand it.

I bet he told you to eff right off. Bells
dont work on cats have you ever seen them stalk something ? Their heads are dead still

Cats are native to this Island - see felis sylvestris. I think we all know the main culprit species in the decimation of wildlife in this country - including the now endangered hedgehog - and its not Tiddles. Let’s concentrate on that, shall we? BTW when I have had cats they have been indoor ones.

Bells on collars are dangerous as they can alert a dog to the cat's presence. Be careful also with collars which should be quick release.
Cats chase birds and sometimes eat them - ditto mice (which is why we allowed cats into our homes in the first place). Cats are obligate carnivores. Why is anyone surprised they eat birds?

And I know, everyone blames cats for the falling bird population. Apropos of not much a while back I watched an episode of The Avengers, which featured a scientist bent on removing the bird population as birds ate the crops etc. Fanciful. Late DH and I discussed it and came to the conclusion that in a world with a growing population removal of birds by some means (possibly without the knowledge of most people) would be an objective - especially if a more vegetarian diet was promoted (as is now the case). So maybe not blame the cats, but governments and industry that wants us (not them) to give up eating meat and become vegetarian. Birds eat crops. To have an entirely or mostly vegetarian population birds are apparently a hazard.
Governments should beware, however, for Maoist China took the 'no bird' route and ended up with plagues of locusts and widespread and devastating famine.
Leave nature alone is a good rule.
If you want to stop a cat chasing birds (or mice) feed very well. It will then not be bothered to hunt.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13602777/amp/cat-ban-perth-wa.html

You’ll be interested to learn that many councils in Australia have made outdoor cat owning illegal. Most people have a cat run or “catio” made to allow them outside space without free reign to kill wildlife.

The UK isn't Australia

No matter how domesticated, animals are still predatory. You are asking them to go against their nature.

About the Australian ban - Again, cats ARE native to Britain - the Scottish Wildcat felis sylvestris is native and interbreeds readily with feral domestic cats. The Australian approach is due to cats being non-native and the marsupials being completely unequipped to handle them. Totally different.

Wow. Thanks for that insight.

Well it was about as pointless as the article you shared about a country that's already been discussed

could you imagine how stress full it would be if someone put a collar round your neck and every time you moved or walked the bell tinkled in your ears , bell collars are very stress full to cats as their hearing is much more sensitive then ours

Hmm. I know that’s what they say but neighbour’s cat got every songbird chick from nest in DGP’s garden. We have a cat cos DD randomly rescued one but I wouldn’t want one otherwise.

Ah yes, Australia, famous for its high standards in animal welfare 🙄

As always. First comment. Nail on head.

What’s on tonight with cat eating birds?

Mine kills rats, is that an issue? It is his kill of choice we live rurally and then are a pest.

on a more serious note we have always worked hard to reduce our cats impact on the local environment. He does not get let out until later in the morning and gets called in early evening. These are the times that birds are more focused on gathering food and less on predictors.

It's the natural order of things.

Cats are predators.

I’d be more wary an alligator find my cat OR a giant tarentula bites it.

I don’t have any thoughts that comes when I think of Australia which isn’t about punching kangooroos, stuff with fengs, teeth or creepy just creepy. Apart of that, yeah, leave the cat out 🐈‍⬛🐊🐊🕸️🕷️🥵

I hate that people poo, fgs stop eating and give fresh air a chance. Can they not train themselves to not need to poo?

See also the first syllable of wildlife.

Sorry…history moment (not sure why)

but did you know that still to this day, cats are known to be the pets of witches because when when the pest arrived, it was mostly through rats. Of course, people owning a cat were safe coz the cat were killing them. Turned out a lot of them were women (older women and cats were already a thing), boom : witches own cats.

Crazy.
There is no story where a woman survives and she isn’t a witch to kill 🧙

Could you provide the research for that?