How do I protect my garden frogs from cats?

[DingyHall2026]

I adopted two kittens last year who have grown into strong healthy 1 year old cats. However they love staring into my small pond, and one of them has now killed 3 frogs. I'm really upset as i love my frogs. Luckily there was a loud of frogspawn laid in Feb and hundreds of tadpoles, which the cats really enjoy watching 😕

I'm worried about when the tads grow legs and start hopping around, also the few who make it to adulthood.

The garden has plenty of long grass and weedy bits for frogs to hide in, I'm not sure what I can do to make their habitat safer.

Any pond protection ideas gratefully received

the frog laid so much sporn as it knows most of it’s offspring will die, not just from cats but birds/foxes….

I have a big net and when my girls torment a frog and I can hear the frogs high pitched scream I scoop it up and put it in the pond, there’s no way they would risk getting wet to go after the poor frog!

Thanks for the reply. My cats have killed adult frogs and good knows how many of the babies they will kill if I can't protect the pond somehow

Has anyone else had this problem? Any solutions worked for anyone?

I’m not sure there is a solution as you’re basically trying to fight nature.

My cats caught frogs but luckily I rescued them. That’s all you can do really.

can you fence off the pond and its margins with a bamboo-canes-threaded-through-chickenwire fence for a few weeks - too tall for the cats to jump over and too wobbly for them to climb? Most of the carnage will be over the next month or two as the froglets leave their natal pond and look for new homes. After that, you will have your resident frogs which will be in the water for most of the time

Keep the cats indoors

A net might work. With gaps for frogs to crawl out of.

We had toads in our garden. My mum used to put broken pots around for shelter and for somewhere to go where the cats couldn't get at them.

I love the idea of broken pots, I have plenty of contenders I've but yet thrown away, thanks!

Sadly they've killed 3 adults already, we find them in the morning when we come down, so rescuing isn't an option.

We've found some 5cm netting and will try covering the pond with that. At least they'll have somewhere safe to retreat to then. I love frogs and dug the pond to have some so I'm just sad these new cats think they're a toy to chase. My old cat left them well alone.

Keep your cats in from dusk to dawn to limit the damage and give the wildlife in your garden a better chance.

Get a sprinkler near the pond to deter the cats https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pestbye%C2%AE-Battery-Operated-Activated-Repellent/dp/B004YCUT4W/