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?

I grew up rurally, and we had cats as pets not to control the rodents.

Now that I live in suburbia, my cats are indoors, but I have had cats before who had outdoor access.

The miserable tuxedo stray who couldn't mew when he came to our door aged about 8 and lived to be over 20, literally never caught anything. The birds in the garden that took flight when another cat came in actually ignored him.

The gorgeous ginger stray who rocked up onto our windowsill with the biggest set I have ever seen on a cat (we soon had the vet see to that!) cornered a rabbit once with his partner in crime (of whom more later!) but didn't do anything to it and they were both ignominiously grabbed by the scruff of their necks and removed from the situation! He brought us an empty cigarette packet, a cheese wrapper and a used teabag.

Our beautiful blue tabby, who we inherited when his hateful owners moved house and left him behind, was a partner in the above-mentioned rabbit scenario. He also cornered a baby robin once, and we took it to a vet who took in waifs and strays but it sadly died. He came home a couple of times with a nice freshly cooked chicken breast, which he devoured on our patio, and another time with a pork chop. I knew he was inclined to go in neighbours' open windows but I never found out where he got the lovely food! I remember one Christmas Day when he sat on the windowsill for hours because he could smell the turkey cooking, but when I passed him some out the window, he fell off the windowsill in his excitement and couldn't find the turkey!

How do you do that though? I'm pretty sure all my indoor/outdoor cats came in to poo, due to the evidence in the litter tray, but I don't know how you would train them? We gave our stray tuxedo boy a litter tray for what was meant to be a couple of nights indoors after he was neutered as a teenager!

When we removed the litter tray, the little get just peed on the floor where the litter tray had been, so we had to reinstate it!

This! Astonishing how wilfully ignorant/ "could care less" some cat owners are regarding the damage that an unbelled cat can do. Belled they will still try, but give the wildlife a fighting chance FFS! (Or stop thinking you're an 'animal lover')

🤣

20 pages of ignored posts

If the bird species are not being rendered extinct, or indeed anywhere close to extinct, what is the problem? The ecosystems in urban areas are entirely artificial anyway.

First, check your facts regarding the decimation of the bird population. Maybe apply that thinking to the human population. Your attitude and opinion is arrogant , entitled , and uninformed.

No way will I be putting a collar or a bell on my cat (that I don't have yet). Do you know anything about collar injuries? Besides that, a bell would be torture for a cat - how would you like a bloody bell ringing every time you move?

To be fair, you have made a very cogent point here @daleylama . If cats do indeed start indiscriminate killing of the human population I will reconsider and possibly buy a bell

😂😂

Nah I want to see if my cat's have got a list first, once I've seen the list I may or may not consider buying a bell 😼

Quintette , bet he says "on your bike" !!!! 🤣

Have just found out our treacherous cat has been living on and off at a house behind us for the last 7 years. The lady calls him Paws and thought he was female as he's neutered. He was shocking for killing birds when younger , doesn't bother now but it made me feel dismayed when he didn't. I don't know the answer as cats are supreme killing machines I'm afraid. I stopped having bird tables/ feeders for years so he didn't think I'd laid on a banquet for him. He's had a car accident recently and has had to be confined to barracks while he heals. He's not too happy with this but heigh ho.

Above error,When he did it.

If it’s indiscriminate, yes.

Otherwise, not necessarily.

If, as the OP suggests, you can train cats to refrain from killing birds but still to prey on (or ‘predate’ as someone said) housemice, then it might be possible to direct them towards selected humans.

My feeling, however, is that the OP would rather that no living thing killed any other living thing, ever. So I’m unlikely to get approval for my plan to have Snooky and Mittens take out the arsehole Audi man at number 29.

@daleylama The facts have been shared on this thread multiple times. Perhaps you should check them?

The facts have been shared on this thread multiple times. Perhaps you should check them?

That bird species are not not being rendered extinct or anywhere close to extinct?

@daleylama agreed with that fact (from an RSPB link) yesterday at 17:22, but then had a rethink when the facts no longer suited her

Haha, bad boy! An ex-stray might be different, we adopted ours as a kitten. We basically kept her indoors until she was about 9 months old (she was spayed late due to very small size), gave her a biscuit after using the litter tray each time we actually saw her using it, and now she just comes in to use it. She never goes to the loo outside (and my garden has a very tempting bark path and sandpit) - which I know because she poops in the litter box exactly once a day around 7pm whether she’s gone out or not lol. Think she associates using the indoor box with biscuits and they are creatures of habit!

Your cats are vegan?

Isn’t this the natural order of things? Why stop the natural order.

Im far more worried about a scally dogs murdering children TBH.

A cat can’t be vegan you’ll kill the cat with that diet

It isn’t the natural order for domestic pets to decimate wildlife.

It’s possible to be concerned about more than one thing at a time.

The birds in your garden are as much (or as little) a part of the natural order as domestic cats! We've created ecosystems which would not exist but for us.

Keep the cat in your garden then, and don't allow it to the actual nature.

I can assure you there is nothing natural on the Kingsland Rd

My current three mostly poo overnight!! Love the biscuit!

I haven't had kittens for more than 30 years! They were my furbabies when I didn't seem to be able to have human babies and I adored them! They lived to be 16/17 but they wrecked the flipping house including climbing the curtains! Every cat I've had since has either just found us (one ginger, one blue tabby whose bastard owners abandoned him when the moved - his gain! - and one tuxedo boy) or a rescue (current three).

One was a stray in a city centre (she was 5), one was neglected and living on the streets (18 months, and she'd had a litter of kittens!!) and the other boy (18 months) had had several homes before finding what was supposed to be his forever home with a lady who sadly passed away late last year, but who had given him outdoor access).

Not one of them asks to go out. The older one (now 7) runs if she hears a key in the front door!

Mine kept losing collars so I gave up. On the plus side I rarely found evidence of him killing birds - almost all of his victims are mammals.