to have told off my cat for killing a bird ?

[Summerfruit]

Its the second one in 2 days, yesterday it was alive and she tried to bring it into the house but I have rescued it in time. Today, I was too late. If I tell her off will she get the hint ??

Lol at sending a cat to Coventry. Cats are the very last creatures to try and shame. They have endless reserves of un-remorse..

My kids love inspecting the remains brought in. Its like a little biology lesson in our house during mouse season. I do try to rescue what critters I can but some of these mice are so incredibly dumb.

I think all cats should have bells. They are doing a lot of damage to the songbird population in particular. There are actually too many cats now - everyone in our village has 2 or 3. It's not great for wildlife.
I realise I am on to loser here with the cat lovers, but bells on collars would def be a good thing.

my cats have bells - makes no difference whatsoever. Luckily they usually eat most of their prey - apart from the kidneys (mice) and legs (toads).

But do the bells at least warn the birds, if not the mice etc?

Our cat is the hudini of cat collars, she gets out of them every time we had got them on her.

The bell was no deterent to catching birds she used to just put her chin down and stop it from ringing!!

She has caught numerous birds, mice, water voles, 2 rabbits and a bat!! How I have no idea but a bat encounter at 12.30am was not pleasant!!

why do the cats never eat the kidneys? Mine doesnt either. She cant really be bothered now, just enjoys the chase.

And my cat gets the hump when we go on holiday and the neighbour looks after her. We come home and she gives us the evil eye and meows like some neglected animal. (She isnt, neighbour lets her sleep in her bed and pampers to her every need).

My mum's cat, the one who got sent to coventry, had at one point about six bells, my mum was so desperate to stop the killing spree. They worked not a bit. I also tried bells to no avail. Cats are amazing hunters.

I thought it was the kidneys but apparently it is the spleen, too large for a kidney apparently. I thought it was just my cat - how funny.

As a child, we had a cat who caught a bird, toyed with it until it was almost dead and then left it on the grass. My dad decided he couldn't watch the bird suffer, and strode out into the back garden, shovel in hand, in order to put it out of its misery.

At the very moment he swung the shovel over his head, the cat decided it wanted its prize after all, and darted back to grab the bird. Of course, by this time it was too late and the downswing, although it put the bird out of its misery, took the cat out as well. Bear in mind there were two small children stood at the window, slack-jawed in horror wondering why Daisy wasn't moving. It was a touching and hastily arranged funeral.

Anyway, the point is that's how you tell a cat off for catching a bird. The only effective way, at any rate.

One of our cats was terrible for catching small animals and birds. Now they're both indoor cats mostly as we've no cat flap and it's too arctic most of the time here to have a window open. She's mellowed with age as well, but we still have incidents when she goes out.

The other night DS called down from upstairs that there was a "broken bird" outside his room. The little bugger darling had brought in a dead swallow without her usual miaow announcement (think she's learned not to do that) and had been playing with it on the landing for god knows how long. She got told how disgusted I was with her and sent to coventry for the evening. YANBU.

Our cat Molly has perfected the art of bell silencing too!

Thanfully she is not a big hunter - just one baby bird and a few butterflys in the last year. Though she did go through a bat phase about 2 years ago - 3 in quite quick sucession though I managed to catch and release all of them so it could have been the same stupid bat 3 times!

I was told not to tell a cat off for bringing prey back to the house. In their mind they are bringing you a present/food and if you tell them off the cat thinks you are saying "this is not good enough!". In reality telling a cat off is more likely to result in more things being brought in.

Remember : dogs have owners; cats have staff.

and tethersend!

OMG tethersend

I don't think the cat gives a toss if you tell it off or not. Plus I don't think they understand English.

Tethersend your poor dad and poor Daisy too.

Well, she never caught another bird, so it was a pretty effective method of discipline

It was the way my dad couldn't stop the spade swinging down; like one of those slow-motion sequences in films: "Noo-oo-oo-oo-oo!"

We laugh about it at Christmas now.

You may laugh about it now, tethersend, but you've traumatised the rest of us.

I understand the theory is to act pleased (not too pleased) when presented with prey, and not to be seen disposing of the thing. Unfortunately the practice chez DCMB so far (and the kittens have only dispatched a solitary frog, and not even brought it into the house) is to shriek like little girls*, swoon a bit, and eventually dispose of said frog with dustpan and brush.

• allowable stereotyping, we have a little girl and blimey does she shriek

Blimey that sounds a traumatic day chez Tethers Oh dearie me..as you say though - problem solved

ClaireDeLoon the slow feline blink actually means "I like you." Then the cat looks away to avoid staring at you, which in its mind would be disrespectful. Try blinking back slowly.

cat body language!

Our rescue cat has turned into an awful little birder so now has a safety collar with bell. Since collar, no more birds . . . fingers crossed this continues.

My friend was terribly pleased when she got a slow blink from a lion once. Although I'm not sure if the same body language rules apply.

You'll never stop her from killing things I'm afraid. Mine tried to drag a half dead hare through the cat flap last year until I frightened the life out of him by spraying him with a plant sprayer. It was hideous. I was like a commando in my hallway trying to get him with it before he completed his dastardly plan. I was a nervous wreck for days after it!

I woke one day to the sound of a baby bird tweeting under my bed. Cue an early morning chase around the house, by which time the bird was dead.
My cat then went out and promptly caught another one.
He does do a very good job of keeping the mice population down though, of which I am very grateful.

Our cat tends to bring us 'presents' and then wait for us to feed him his breakfast. Like an exchange.
So I stopped feeding him breakfast. I have one non-walker and can't be doing with blood and guts on the landing first thing in the morning.

Now he hunts, eats his prey in the garden and gets fed in the evening by us.

He hunts alot tho-4/5 rabbits a week plus mice, rats , shrews.

So far since thursday, she is on bird number 4 , I think from the same nest..She is playing with the corpse of bird number 4 as I'm typing...I'm going to try to get a collar which cant get caught...