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?

Suggested alternative for conscience-stricken cat owners - do things to help replenish the bird population by a similar number to those eaten by naughty Tiddles. A bit like trying to achieve carbon neutrality by continuing to burn fossil fuels, but planting some trees to compensate.

Not at all, I understand the circles of life even if I don’t like them. Nature is vicious, it isn’t up to us to interfere.

Consider a carnivorous pet’s impact on the climate emergency too.
phys.org/news/2021-03-carbon-pawprint-friend-planet-enemy.html

🤣

Some do some don't. If they don't want a collar on it won't take them long sod it off. Unless you want to keep them in there isn't really anything you can do

Just remembered, mind mine once caught a squirrel and brought in a slow worm snake thing and another time a frog.

@lasagnelle maybe you have more luck creating a petition for Parliament to make roaming cats illegal.
MN cat owners are notoriously ignorant when it comes to their pets = 🙈🙉🙊!

I don't know why I clicked on this thread, I find the attitude of the lolz I'll-have-a-word-with-my-cat owners depressing. The best thing to do is not get a cat. Otherwise give them a collar with several bells on so they can't find a way of avoiding making them ring out a warning. Keep them in for a couple of days if you see fledglings in your or your neighbours gardens. Take responsibility for your choice of pet basically. Of course cats decimate birds in non natural numbers, we have destroyed bird habitat on mass and got loads of pets. There's nothing natural about the predator prey balance.

Well done puss, good riddance to squirrels, they also eat eggs and fledglings (not too mention my fucking daffodil bulbs).

I think you may have misunderstood my post. I see people griping all the time about cats killing the poor little birdies. The less beloved creatures such as mice and rats, no one seems to care about. In fact it seems to be encouraged if someone has mice or rats in an area where they’re not wanted, the first suggestion is to get a cat. We either accept that they’re hunters or we don’t. I very much do. And it’s our fault they’re even here, too late to be pearl clutching imo.

@ProvincialLady24 he says he’ll see what he can do, but he’s not making any promises.

He does point out that they’re irritating pecky little shits.

but tasty.

Find it hard to believe cats eat frogs. I thought they tasted awful.

My 14lb white Persian wore a collar with a bell, it made no difference.

None of us owners are thrilled about it either but a bell isn’t going to make a difference and can strangle our pets who we love like family members.

@Crunchymum no pasting here, I think indoor/outdoor is a totally contextual decision. It depends on the cat and the location. My senior girl could be an indoor cat, in the winter she mostly is, by her own choosing. She'll go for a quick check of the gardens when the sun appears, but that's enough for her. She doesn't hunt. I don't think she can. She's lovely, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. This little one is a proper cat though. She absolutely loves being outside, she's incredibly savvy, really capable, knows about cars, and unfortunately yes - she can hunt. She does wear a safety collar, and I don't let her out at dawn and dusk. This limits her success but it doesn't stop her completely. I don't think there is a way to stop her completely. If anyone has one I'm all ears.

Lol at training them to leave birds alone though. She doesn't take orders. Its all I can do to keep a collar on her, she considers it an offense against her person.

@Quintette

Maybe he just eat gamma pigeons and the odd seagull? No one would mind that surely?

And all the other wild animals that eat wildlife?
All the humans that eat meat? Most house cats don’t kill very much from my experience 😂 neutered toms are particularly lazy

The flippant ("I'll do what the fuck I like and sod you") responses show why we have a climate and ecological emergency.

Find it hard to believe cats eat frogs. I thought they tasted awful.

Cats are deeply philosophical, it's about the journey, not the destination.

Or maybe they're french.

Mate, we can't even stop people owning child killing dog breeds.

Okay, OP.

I'll definitely bring it up in Any Other Business when I have my weekly meeting with my cats.

My parents are dog lovers, always big breeds. They’ve also killed birds aswell as voles, squirrels, hedgehogs, rabbits and fox cubs. There’s never threads about that 🤷‍♀️

Mumsnetters hate indoor cats, outdoor cats, cats and cat owners.

Millions of birds killed on the roads every year. I don't drive so I think I balance out the odd bird my cats bring home tbf.

Good luck with explaining anything to a cat lol, but yes, a collar with a bell can help. 😉

Fwiw, my cat is an older lady so think she is slowing down.

When we lived in rural Lincolnshire, she did an amazing job at catching pests like rats and mice for our farmer neighbour/landlady.

Like it or not, cats provide an essential role. Without cats, we'd be out of luck and overran with rodents.

If by nature birds are too slow to escape a cat, well I'm afraid the feline is helping weed out the weak and slow

I

Our vets don't recommend collars.

Our cats are now 6 - they don't really bother catching much nowadays - which I am grateful for.