We put a birdfeeder in our backyard last year. We love seeing the birds chowing down. We don’t even mind that the squirrels benefit too - they can’t empty the feeder itself, so they eat the considerable spillage.
Well, in the past week, we’ve found two mangled birdie corpses in our backyard :mad:.
I know it’s most likely cats - a few weeks ago, I saw a cat lying in our backyard, staring at the feeder (which was, fortunately, unoccupied just then). And there’ve been one or two other occasions in which we’ve seen a cat just casually strollin’ through the yard - something we never saw before the Buffet opened for service.
How can we keep the kitties away? I love cats and have no desire to harm them, but dammit I put that feeder in to attract birds for me to enjoy, not to feed the stray cats!
What about humane cat traps? I worry about the responsibility there - what if I caught a cat and didn’t realize it was caught for a few hours? Or what if the animal shelter was closed and I had no place to put the cat? Plus - I guess I’d have to buy the trap myself and I imagine they aren’t cheap.
Anyway - if anyone has any suggestions for non-harmful deterrents, please let me know!
My live animal trap cost about $65. Whether that’s cheap or expensive is a matter of perspective. At times I’ve had to wait over the weekend for animal control, I just left the cats in the cage. When I showed up, I told the officer that the cat was caught (for example) on Friday morning, and this being Monday afternoon, may be dehydrated. I never got berated for animal cruelty or anything like that, and this was an animal cop. In my case, the cats were the result of bad, evil, wicked neighbors whose cats reproduced rapidly, and I was never able to get rid of all of them. Better luck to you.
If your feeder is more than fifteen feet away from anything a cat can hide in, the birds will get a sufficient head start. When a hawk or cat has your feeder staked out, the birds simply go to another feeder, or to a natural food source. Birds are pretty sharp about survival.
I second AskNott’s comment. If a bird can’t get away with that much head start, it is probably sick or defective anyway. Think of it as “improving the breed.”
People should keep their cats inside. It’s not “natural” to have so many competing predators in the community (especially since they are hunting for fun, not because they need food). Our animal control office rents or lends out humane traps specifically for this purpose. You have the right to feed birds without having your neighbors’ cats killing them. Cats also have the right to be protected from hazards like cars, owls, etc.
Yeah… they should be kept inside. Back before my body decided that Cats Are Evil (and responded by attempting self-destruction) we had cats, and they were 100% indoor cats.
Our house backs up to a fairly busy road. Although there’s a solid wall, it’s one a cat could easily scale. It’s simply not safe for them to be loose. And it’s against the community by-laws.
Unfortunately, there are evidently people who either can’t be bothered to follow the bylaws, or who live far enough that those rules don’t apply, and whose cats are willing to go wherever it takes for a bit of fun.
Maybe I should encourage my dog-owning neighbors to let Fido pee in my backyard!!
Interesting point about borrowing / renting traps from Animal Control. I should check into that. I wonder what you’d bait one of them with? (maybe some birdseed to attrack the catbait??? JUST KIDDING!!).
True enough. Unfortunately, there are several shrubs etc. near enough the feeder that a cat has plenty of places to conduct its stakeout and allow it a chance at even healthy birds.
When I was making a living trapping cats, my usual bait was just cheap canned cat food. For the finickey feral, I would use stinky jack mackerel from a can, or warm fried chicken (the greasier the better). If you do set a trap, cover it with an old towel or blanket. This helps prevent the cat from freaking out so badly when he finds out he’s caught.
My babies never go outside. They wouldn’t know what to do with a bird. It would probably scare them to death. We had one come down the chimney in our old house and all the cats ran and hid.
And yes, owls and hawks can carry off a kitten or small cat.
My wife and daughter bought a non-bird proof feeder at Walmart a week ago. The birds come to feed but there is NO spillage.
A squirrel tried to climb the 1/2" dia steel pole support, got half way, fell off, gave up, and left. A squirrel will slide off the roof if he jumps from a tree and large birds close the feed gate. Only the small song birds can get to the food and there is no spillage on the ground to feed on so there is nothing to attract the cat(s).
Eliminate the prey and then there are no predators!
It it best bird feeder I’ve ever run across. It is adjustable to accomodate small birds to some a bit bigger.
You should probably check the laws in your town. I assume that cats also have the right to be protected against people putting out baited traps and then dropping caught kitties off at the local animal shelter. At the very least you might face some pretty upset/angry cat-owners over that.
I doubt that many places have the equivalent of “leash laws” for cats, and the fact of the matter is that many cats are indoor/outdoor animals and cats are hunters. They stalk, kill and chow down on birds, mice, bugs, worms (hey, one of our cats wasn’t exactly the Terror Of The Jungle) and other critters. I’m sure that you have the right to secure your property against other people’s pets but I’d be cautious about trapping them before making sure that it was (a) legal and (b) that I’d warned the neighbors.
We were having a terrible problem with neighborhood cats digging up our yard and vegetable garden and using it as their litter box. It was filthy, smelly, attracted hundreds of flies and was just downright gross. We tried several things, from tarping the entire yard (thinking they wouldn’t shit where they couldn’t dig – HA!), to sprinkling cumin all around the perimiter and the garden edges, to spreading pine needles and pine cones over the garden bed, all to no avail. Finally, one of the neighbors whose cat was one of the culprits bought us this, and we haven’t had a single pile of shit in our yard since we put it up. It’s completely harmless, environmentally friendly, unobtrusive and effective.
I’d love more info on the no-spillage bird feeder, though!
You didn’t say, but I’m assuming that the feeder is off the ground. Mine is hung from a tree branch. I put on a pair of disposable rubber gloves and slathered a six inch circle of petroleum jelly four feet up the tree trunk. No cat wants THAT on their paws, so climbing the tree stopped. Could work for you.
I would argue that it is satifying a primnal drive, which is good for the mental health of the cat. Cats are one of the least domesticated of the ‘standard’ pets and have much of their natural instincts and will act on them one way or another.
Watching a cat take down a bird is facinating and if you get the chance I would recommend observing.
They sell cans of stuff that smells like kerosene or something similar that keeps cats off the garden or from spraying the walls here. I’m not sure what’s in it, but you must have something similar in the States.
You can also get various animals pee that deters cats from getting on things and apparently ground red pepper works too.
This has been debated many, many times. Indoor cats do not go stir crazy. I have 8 totally indoor cats. If they were allowed outside they would be a great risk of death or serious injury from cars, dogs, and disease, not to mention being a danger to birds and small animals. Everyone is safer if the cats stay indoors. Especially the cats.
Google “animals at large” for your municipality. In most incorporated areas, I’d be surprised if animals at large (including cats) weren’t prohibited. As I stated above, I regularly caught my neighbors’ cats and took them to animal control with no ill consequences.
keeping them indoors does not make them stir crazy any more than my two year old because i dont let my two year old play in the street. as far as putting your bird feeder in a place that will help to feed cats, well… as long as you have them outside whether you have a feeder outside or not they will leave you “gifts” often beheaded and mangled. my moms cat which is a smaller furrier outside cat was attacked by a large owl and i had to run outside and shake the owl off the cat. i wouldnt feel bad trapping the neighbors cats and sending them to the pound, not after i learned my lesson the hard way. my last cat i had, we would let outside and she met her demise in my car engine as i started it up. my girlfriends cat, another outside cat, simply got run over. she loved that cat. so now mine stays on my lap. so dont feel bad catching your neighbors cat, its only humane.
Don’t do that! It could be fatal to your tree! A while back I went to a city-sponsored garden seminar about trees and shrubs. The presenter was a Purdue prof. During the question period, I raised my hand, “When I was a kid, a lot of the trees had a ring of goopy stuff around the trunk. Was that to kill bugs, and does it work?”
He said it was Tree Tanglefoot ®. It is sticky, and it traps any bugs climbing up the tree. It does work. He then went on to talk about a guy who mistakenly thought it was axle grease. He put that on his trees, and they all died. After it was too late, he asked the Purdue tree guy for advice. The trees were already dead, so he could only prescribe a chainsaw.
I have used Tree Tanglefoot, by the way. It’s incredibly, permanently sticky, and hard to work with. I used a pair of rubber gloves (the fingers kept sticking together) and a tongue depresser, which I had to throw away afterward.