The last straw - advice desperately needed

[mintandcoral]

I'm not a very active user on here but today have reached the end of my tether with one of our cats.

We have two cats, one of which is a (spayed) ginger tom and the other a tortoiseshell. The ginger tom is lovely and cuddly but also quite neurotic and very vocal (he will wander around the house loudly calling until he gets attention), whereas the tortoiseshell is much lower maintenance (although she does love a good game of fetch with her little red ball).

We moved somewhere fairly rural about 3 years ago and in this time it feels like both cats have absolutely decimated the bird population in our garden and surrounding area. To the point where I feel horrendously guilty about it.

However, this summer the ginger tom has taken it to a whole new level. It was getting quite bad around spring and after one week where we had several birds, frogs and a mouse we put THREE huge copper bells on his collar in an effort to slow him down. This seemed to work for a few weeks. Then he brought in a fledgling, then the next week a sparrow and now it's completely gone down hill....I don't know how he has managed it but in the last week he has killed 4 baby sparrows and 2 adult birds (that we know of). I've seen him outside before sat on huge pigeons, plucking them...!!!

The last straw for me was earlier... I had just put the baby down for a nap in her pram in the utility room and I could hear crunching. It was the crunching of bones. He was sat in a corner of the kitchen literally crunching on another baby sparrow. I have no idea when he brought it in today or how long its been there, given that he had managed to hide it quite well in the corner of the kitchen, which has really given me the heebie jeebies.

I am sick of clearing up these sad little corpses. It literally is making my skin crawl even thinking about the last one. How can he be stopped? We feed both cats Aldi economy cat food and I'm even wondering if we need to start feeding him something a bit nicer? He is 3 and I feel like we probably have a while of this yet...

My farmer friend told me if I wanted my dcats to be self sufficient then the food at home had to be rubbish and scarce!
So maybe try alternative tactics? Tuna /salmon at home?? My dcats have discovered cat milk. One dcat camps out in the kitchen next to the fridge if I am busy in there!
You need to Get Gormet op!!

Thank you! - That's what I started thinking today.

It's got so much worse since we've had a baby- we are probably feeding them more sporadically now- and we are giving them the cheapest food. We do give them treats occasionally but clearly it's not enough! I've just given him some fresh chicken for lunch and he's currently sat on my lap purring!

I really don't think there is any alternative other than to keeping him in - which I doubt would work for you or him. I seems unlikely that he is doing it because he's hungry, especially if he doesn't even eat all of them. they do it because they enjoy it and it's instinctive.

Cats have almost certainly been selectively bred to kill more than they can eat, it will have made them very useful to grain farmers down the millenia.

Mine mostly catch rodents as far as I know, which troubles me less especially when it is clearly a baby rat they are tucking into.

I mentioned their habits to my vet once (when one of my murderous litttle darling had tapeworms [not envy, oh no]) and he said birds and mice were the best possible food for my cat so I should be pleased!!

Apart from breeding rats for him to murder, I'm not sure there is anything you can do except wait for him to get old and slow down.

Ah just seen the update! Well, worth a try!

@candycane222 he broke his leg late last year (the vet thought he had possibly been attacked by a fox as he also had a punctured lung and other wounds) which we thought might slow him down a bit but he's just wound back up again. He was the laziest kitten I've ever had!

You need to be the best food source ever op!! My lazy buggars (2)have only caught 1 bird between them in 7 years!! Previous dcat woke me up clattering one night trying to get a seagull through the cat flap!

thanks for your experience anyway! @candycane222 - It strangely makes me feel better that there are others having to clear up these little messes. I feel like an accomplice to a serial killer...

The image of a cat dragging a seagull through the cat flap has just made me laugh ...even though that must have been horrifying! The way things are headed, I wouldn't be surprised if that was next for me to be honest! Gourmet food it is.

If you Google 'birdsbesafe' it will show the latest fabulous discovery about collars. It is basically like a big soft very brightly coloured scrunchie that the car wears. Birds are very alert to bright colours. My friend has one for his cat and it has made a HUGE difference! Sorry, I can't do links, but please do Google it.

Have a look on zooplus, they have cans of cat food with lots of meat and no filler. We get one called Bozita, it's pretty well priced and the cats love it.

I've seen the birdsbesafe @missmouse101 collars and think they're a great idea but unfortunately we do have some teenagers in our area with BB guns and I feel like I'd be turning the cat into a walking target...we're moving in November so I might consider them then.

Thanks @pigear - looking this up now

Mmm, intersting point about upping the meat content. I know that's supposed to be better for their health too, so I might look into it myself - ty pigear

(PS is your user name another high protein food for your pets??)

No advice, but sympathy, OP. Our cat is five, and suddenly this summer has started to kill - not on your cat’s level, but she’s definitely a willing apprentice. She doesn’t eat what she catches, she tosses them about in the air, and will “play” with them for hours. Fortunately she hasn’t brought anything in to the house, and my DP is good about dealing with the bodies, but I find it really upsetting.

Ours definitely sees it as sport/fun and it is nothing to do with being hungry. She has quite a number of “mice” we play with her with, and she behaves in the exact same way with them as the birds - I almost feel like I have trained her! She won’t tolerate a collar, and the best I can do is keep an eye on her in the garden - she doesn’t roam - and clap loudly if I see her stalking so the birds fly away.

I feed my cat a good quality diet, she gets good quality food and there is always food available.

She does skill birds, but only about once a fortnight.

It sounds like they need a relaible, good quality food source,.

Doesn’t have to cost the earth, but a high meat content wet diet fed twice a day with dry food available to snack on during the night could make a difference.

Make sure they are regularly treated for fleas and worms. Once a month,

Your ginger Tom sounds exactly like ours. He's a lovely boy, also walks around the house hollering until someone stops to chat with him and pet him.

We once had 9 kills in a week, but it's mostly shrews and mice. Bird ratio is only about 10/1. But it's very unpleasant coming down in the morning and standing on a half eaten dead rat.

Not much you can do, it's their nature.

Do you play with him much? Not sure if that would help? Our boy cat loves to hunt, we try to play with him quite a lot but he still occasionally brings things in, his favourite are squirrels