Reducing cats catching wildlife

[beccahamlet]

Has anyone got any input. I'm getting collars with bells on and keeping in dawn and dusk. Any more ideas please?

Hi OP, thank you for protecting wildlife. This might have some suggestions, my neighbours were talking about it yesterday RSPB advice to cat owners

Feed them a high meat, grain free cat food
Keep them in overnight
Get them neutered
Don't have a Bengal/Arabian Mau
Don't set up a killing field eg bird table in easy range of cat

Personally not in favour of collars with bells and a serious killer will mange despite the bell. Mine spends his time hanging around a neighbour's bird table which he treats like an all you can eat buffet.

How much they kill also depends on the personality of the cat. One of mine is very very fast but doesn't leave the patio so is limited to the occasional shrew.

I wouldn't put a collar on any of my cats - if they get caught on something they can strangle themselves trying to escape.

You can't.

This is what cats do.

On the plus side, no rodent problems!

I need to know this too. My 11 month old kitten stole a baby bird from a nest the other day

We currently have a pair of Red kites flying around taking out a ton of baby birds, it's not just cats that are the problem concerning birds.

I could do with help with this. We have taken in a rescue who is lovely but keeps showing us appreciation of her new home by bringing us pigeons. We went away last week and on our first night home we woke up to a headless pigeon in the lounge that she had managed to bring in through the cat flap .
I honestly don't know how she did it as she's not a big cat.

I had my dog stand guard over the bird box, and when they fledged into the tree, the neighbours cats, the crows, the seagulls and the magpie all keep a wide berth from him! He likes watching birds but doesn't hurt any creatures

The problem with birds, is loss of food and habitat due to modern farming methods and people destroying their gardens.

We've had cats in this country for hundreds of years. They're useful for keeping down rat and mice populations.

Yes it's not just cats that kill birds. We've got a magpie nest in a tree and they will raid other birds nests

If you want birds- have wild bits in your garden, do not get plastic grass, do not use pesticides. Basically, allow their food source (bugs, worms etc) to thrive.

My cat stays in before dusk, has a collar with a bell on but still catches mice and shrews unfortunately, and will eat the majority of them, leaving bits for me to clean up :(

We've had two today 😳 a sparrow this morning & a fledging this evening. Dcat will not tolerate a collar, he must have worn one before as had bald patches from rubbing /previous trauma. He bolts as soon as he hears it. We'll be limiting his outdoor time for now to avoid peak times. The baby sparrow was so small, thankfully unharmed & put back into the tree to be reunited with mum

Mine are either too stupid or too fat to bother with birds, thankfully.

It's that time if the year unfortunately.

Our naughty cat has managed to catch all sorts and we caught her and forced her to let go of a baby blue tit the other day.

Not keen on getting a collar with bell as I've seen a cat with its feont leg tangled in one before. Sadly, it hopped pff before I was able to help them.

A cat is going to cat I'm afraid. We just lock-out cat flap in the evening and I am feeding her a bit more now, in the hope that she won't hunt for food.

Agree with this, I think there are collars that automatically release if it's pulled otherwise there's the risk it might strangle the cat. When we recently pruned a large tree in our garden we found a green collar that had released and thankfully it had, otherwise the neighbours cat (my two actively choose not to go outside) would obviously have died not being seen up there.

Yes we do this as well, we have a nature area under a bush and along the back wall where we let grass grow longer and have a bird feeder there too. The neighbourhood cats don't bother them and it's really worked, we get a whole range of birds (goldfinchs, blackbirds, blue tits, coal tits) and we've got a resident hedgehog now so it can be the little things that help nature even without doing doing anything in relation to cats.

I think there are collars that automatically release if it's pulled otherwise there's the risk it might strangle the cat

Bastard cat can take these off in under 15 minutes.

We reluctantly got him a collar with a buckle and elastic to keep his tracker on. He can undo the flipping buckle!

play with them for ten minutes a day and feed a high protein diet- use a feather on a string and dangle it BUT allow them to catch it at some point

In a decade of having cats with free access to outdoors, we've had two birds brought in. But an absolute fuckton of mice and small rats.

They always have free access to grain free food, so they're hunting instincts aren't triggered/exacerbated by hunger or cravings. And they fulfil a very useful function in keeping mice and rats out of the house and from eating the produce in our garden.

And that's despite some of those years living in an area with a nature reserve full of birds out back.

(Also all our cats have been collared, but with quick release collars. We do have to factor them into the grocery shop!)

Last year Bastard Cat went through a phase of specializing in goldfinches which made us feel pretty guilty.

Our neighbour told us that goldfinches were suffering from some sort of disease last year which made them struggle to move so it's likely the cat was hoovering up the sick ones.

This year the baby shrews have started to arrive.

Both of our cats were indoor until they were over a year old, they are very interested in the birds in the garden but never get near them. Neither of them can climb a tree! Probably not helpful if your cat has gone out since it was younger though.

Ours are collarless I don’t like them , I cannot feed birds as it’s just bringing them into the cat danger zone.
Would something like wind chimes keep the birds out of your garden so the cats won’t see them ?

When does 'bird season' end??

Weve had a constant stream of birds being brought in by our little terror, shes just over a year old so this is our first summer with her.

Weve had to keep them downstairs at night as she likes to bring her presents into the bedroom to show us...

If your cat will tolerate a collar (always use a quick release one), my tip would be to attach 2-3 bells at different points on the collar. This works much better than a single bell for our cat.