Cats killings birds

[chickedeee]

Please help!

My cats keep killing birds, any suggestions? Contemplating collar with a bell, but worried about their well-being with strangulation etc.

Anyone solved this!

Help

I feel your pain, our cat is an excellent hunter and brings all sorts of maimed and shredded wildlife in although thankfully she seems to favour rodents over birds so it is at least vermin rather than songbirds

I think the quick release collars are pretty safe but the trouble is that if the cat works out that they snap then they can remove them pretty easily, ours is not the brightest but when we tried one she had it off within half an hour. Also I have heard it said that if they are good enough hunters the bell doesn't do much to protect birds because they move so stealthily and the birds look more for visual clues for predators anyway (not sure if that is true or not). I have seen this company advertising as apparently much more effective to protect birds than a bell, but it does make the cat look pretty silly , never mind the costs of shipping from USA. They do say it is safe for the cat though, but again I am not confident ours wouldn't find a way to remove it!

www.birdsbesafe.com/

Otherwise I think the only truly effective thing is to cat proof your garden so they can't get up onto/over fences or climb trees to get at the birds which has its own problems?

Thanks maxelly they look amazing 😂

Not sure I can stretch to that! Hoping for a solution but fear there is not

Cat proof your garden and keep it in.

There is a theory, supported by the RSPB, that cats tend to kill unwell or already injured birds. This is why cat kills don't have a significant impact on wild birds in the UK.

I'm not sure how you stop them, other than bell on collar.

A suggestion to keep a previously free roaming cat inside is going to cause great distress to the cat.

try and keep them in at dusk and dawn, that's when cats do their best work.

my two are not good hunters and I can't think when we last had something, but they definitely do catch more if dh lets them out when he goes off to work on an early shift ...5AM-ish...so they don't get out till I am up.

Yes agree, I only ever get presents if my girl is out overnight (she's a twat who refuses to come in at night when the weather is nice! I spend all night worrying about her safety and she strolls in the next morning without a care in the world!)

So you want a solution for an animal behaving like an animal?

You don't own the animal and you cannot control its instinctual behaviour. You just provide for its needs and it decides to keep returning.

Get a cat collar which has a quick release feature. Mine never catch birds due to the bells on the collar and thats partly the reason i make sure they're always wearing one! (I do keep them in at night also)

Cat-proofing your garden isn't going to work, is it? The birds can still fly into the garden.

Agree with safety collar + bell.

I got my first (and hopefully last) dead bird brought in a couple of days ago . Well one of the cats brought it in and my 3 year old brought it to me . Both cats always wear safety collars with bells.