My cat keeps killing birds

[savagebaggagemaster]

We have recently adopted a one year old stray who turned out to be a Turkish Van. I've had rescue cats before who were very much homebodies and mostly stayed indoors. They caught the occasional bird or rodent, but this was very rare. This boy has turned out to be a prolific hunter and I'm finding it very hard to deal with his murderous ways. He's a lovely and very affectionate puss, but he keeps bringing in birds through the cat flap. This can be a daily occurrence! I've read the RSPB advice plus other online sites. He's well fed and kept in at night (before dusk) though recently he's started miaowing to be let out after we've all gone to bed and I've had to feed him to get him to settle indoors (bad habit, I know!) He prefers to use the outside toilet rather than the litter box. He will just not tolerate any collar and whips it off within seconds. We have tried!

Does anyone have any experience or advice on what I could do about this as this is heartbreaking? He's such a gorgeous cat, it's hard to believe how lethal he is.

@Fancymice

We had a Turkish van! He was very VERY vocal, and luckily didn't have a bird catching talent but did bring rabbits home which was hideous he always had a streak of feral in him, but settled down a lot after the age of about 6/7, and in the end would content himself to catch crickets and grasshoppers (and eat them)

Pic for cat tax

Lovely! Ours is a noisy devil too. Sometimes at 1am miaowing to be fed! He's relentless!

Ours would come in from outside at about midnight every night and loudly sing the song of this people! You could also have little conversations with him. I think Turkish vans must be noisy cats in general, I've seen others on Instagram who are super vocal too.

Ours would also go out and get completely drenched in the rain, and tell until someone would get up and give him a run down with his own personal towel

Oh god, I've just remembered the worst thing he ever did.... He was soaking wet, dismembering someone's poor koi fish on the patio. The shit must have been in someone's pond. Just to warn you, they're. It very bothered by water! I think some even swim.

[quote savagebaggagemaster]@Alwaystired99 but he looks so innocent as if he wouldn't harm a soul! [/quote]
He's far from innocent! Been known to bring in headless rabbits that are almost as big as he is! He's been much nicer since he started killing though, he was a very aggressive kitten.

@Fancymice

Ours would also go out and get completely drenched in the rain, and tell until someone would get up and give him a run down with his own personal towel

Oh god, I've just remembered the worst thing he ever did.... He was soaking wet, dismembering someone's poor koi fish on the patio. The shit must have been in someone's pond. Just to warn you, they're. It very bothered by water! I think some even swim.

I've heard they love water - he always jumps up to join me when I'm washing dishes and is fascinated by running taps. He has a fountain water bowl. Our neighbours used to have a fish pond but I think they filled it in - thankfully!

@Alwaystired99 That's interesting. We found him to be a bit bitey when he was kept indoors (we were advised to keep him in for six weeks when he joined us) He sometimes grabs my wrist with both paws and gnaws on it! He hasn't actually properly bitten me thankfully. More like an indentation, iyswim? He also goes for my ankles, but it seems to be like he's playing. All of this has definitely toned down since we started allowing him outside.

I've had 5 cats over the years. Currently have 3. One is a major killer. Sometimes. Brings multiple birds in multiple birds a day. We have tired collars and bells and he either gets the bell off or loses the collars completely. We don't let him out over night.

We don't know what else to do.

The lazy thing sitting next to me apparently once hunted but now she's too lazy to even go outside to toilet, preferring the door mat not the litter box. Other than ensuring there's no low branches and netting to prevent getting over your fence there's little you can do

@savagebaggagemaster he’s just beautiful!

Just a muse but I wonder if there are any cat toys adaptable to outside? Something to satisfy his prey instinct. If you had a dog I’d suggest hiding a kong thing in the garden but I don’t know if there’s a cat equivalent.

Other than that I’d echo suggestions to at least make your garden less appealing to birds. I’m fortunate not to have this problem as my old girl only torments moths these days!

@savagebaggagemaster he is gorgeous. That little innocent fluffy face hides the fact he is a lethal killing machine very well!!

Can you secure your garden? Then put bells on the cat flap and on the fences generally make your garden not friendly to birds?

We locked our cat flap at dusk, and opened it when we got up. This stopped the main killing, as they are crepuscular hunters. We have had two prolific hunters, both females and by the age of 5, it wears off! I don't think my current female has caught one bird this summer! She doesn't believe in going out in the winter! We do have squishy balls in the house for them to play with!

Personally I think sacking off the cat flap is the obvious solution. Yes it's a pain constantly getting up to open doors but it will stop the dead bodies being brought into the house.

There are 10.5 million cats in the UK. Approx. That is not a natural number. Think of all the birds killed by well fed cats. It is horrific.

Put something on the top of the back fence - there is burglar proof black non drying paint which the cat will only jump on once as cats are pretty savvy, a leaning in length of netting that is available for people wanting to keep their cats in the garden, or the type I have linked to, put up plastic owls, snakes, raptors - all available online to keep birds off gardens - that will mean fewer birds in the garden, though you will have to move them about as they can get accustomed to them. The local McDs has a kite raptor floating to keep seagulls away, they are relatively cheap.

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@user1497787065

I think you may have to accept that this is normal cat behaviour. My cats bring in the odd bird and mouse but I have a friend who will often find the remains of a rabbit or squirrel on her kitchen floor and her cats looking rather proud of themselves beside them.

It’s not normal for the birds. We are loosing bird populations and species at a catastrophic rate (no pun intended). The RSPB state that 27 million birds get caught by cats per year, some estimates are as high as 55 million. Some will survive, but that is a decimation on a massive scale. If you include other prey as well the figure is 100 million. This is far in excess that birds natural predators would have killed ( e.g. wild cats pre domestication) given there are around 8 million cats in the uk. You need to take action to stop your cat adding to this death knell. And discouraging birds, as some people have said, is not the way. Birds desperately need protecting and their habitats are already shrinking- you are suggesting that people do things to make that even worse Birds are our native, natural species. These cats aren’t and their population exceeds anything that could be supported naturally. If you are going to have a cat, then you need to have already thought about how to protect wildlife from it.

If you are going to have a cat, then you need to have already thought about how to protect wildlife from it.

DH's major obsession hobby is birdwatching, so I am familiar with all the statistics and arguments; but in our case the cats already existed. They were born feral and caught as small kittens in a TNR, by a cat rescue charity. It's not like we fed the demand for breeding kittens by getting them - quite the opposite, the feral colony would have kept on producing new kittens every 3 months indefinitely, if it weren't for the TNR by man. The cat rescue charity was not going to do anything with the kittens except look for homes for them; and we promised to have them neutered as soon as they were old enough.

This is a major issue for me. I adore birds and feed them daily. They are in decline for many reasons one if them being too many cats as pets. Our old cat does not hunt birdsbut our new cat dies which really upset me. So now I keep her in all day until evening. Then she gets out for 4 or 5 hours till bedtime. I take down all the feeders every evening and chase the birds away before I let her out. If a bird lands in the garden I knock the windows at it! I also have a fake cat (it looks real) that I put on the decking as a scarecrow. Yes I am mad. She has two bells and I also try to supervise her and keep calling her home.This is the only way I can tolerate her. Otherwise she would have to stay in or be rehomed. I admit I would not mind if she caught prey that is not threatened like mice, grey squirrels, rabbits but birds are struggling to thrive. Cats aren’t. So I am supervigilant verging on crazy in how I protect birds.

Also some say if you play with the cat fir an hour every morning and feed it high protein food it may decrease its instinct to hunt.

BIRD BE SAFE !!! It’s amazing - I’m evangelical about this. It’s just a ruff that goes over the top of a normal quick release collar. My cat was prolific, and since wearing this has never caught a bird again. Still catches rabbits and mice however. Every cat should be made to wear them - absolutely brilliant.

You can buy online, or you can find people making snd selling own versions on Etsy etc.

Honestly please try it. I can’t recommend highly enough.

Daftvader I had thought about getting a ruff but some reviews said they were useless. Also I thought my cat would hate it and it would cause her stress. I may buy one if you think it works.

My cat wears one - we got it off ebay. He's had a few now. The quick release collars are hopeless, he loses them immediately. He has a proper collar which has an elastic insert (so it can come off if he gets stuck, etc) and he is so far keeping this one on. The ruff part is bright yellow and red and he looks a picture. It doesn't stop him from catching birds unfortunately, but I'm sure it must save a few. Better than nothing that's for sure!