My wife loves birds and we have a bunch of bird feeders in our back yard and even a couple out front. The other day she found the remains of a eaten bird, the head and a bunch of feathers, on our patio.
She’s mad. She says “I like my birds a lot more than I like the neighbor’s cat.” She wants to shoot it but not do any real damage. She doesn’t want to use a paintball gun, and I don’t want her to 'cause I don’t want her painting the (six-foot wooden) fence. Besides, I think they have too much power.
Where we used to live our neighbors kids had these guns that shot little plastic pellets and they used to shoot each other with them. They might be just the thing, but I don’t remember what they are called.
Anyway, does anybody have any experience with such a thing? How far do they shoot? Can you get biodegradable pellets?
Any other ideas?
My experience with cats (my first wife had cats) is that they are extremely stubborn, or else extremely stupid, and will not be deterred for any reasonable period of time by squirting them with water.
May take too much time to get set up. There are some great water guns operated by air pressure that can be deployed quickly and that release a lot of water under high pressure. It won’t harm the cat but it will definitely be a teaching moment for it.
I’d check on the force of the stream those emit; presumably it’s not strong enough to do real harm to a kid, or they wouldn’t still be sold, but you don’t want to shoot kitty’s eye out (I assume!!).
When we were owned by cats (indoor only), we kept a water bottle at hand to unwanted discourage behavior. We referred to it as The Hand of God.
The only downside to a manually-operated water spray is that the cat just learns “don’t do that while the human is looking”.
Yes, just the thing – I had forgotten the name. In fact I had a couple of Super Soakers years ago. It’s not going to harm the cat but will – as the name implies – get it pretty thoroughly soaked with high-pressure water.
Yes, you can get biodegradable Airsoft pellets. Depending on the Airsoft gun, they can sting quite a bit, even at a distance. I would not use one on a cat.
I suggest raising the bird feeders so the cat can’t reach birds who gather there. I don’t think your deterrence will work. And cats who are accustomed to bring outdoor cats don’t usually like being confined.
Absolutely. Please don’t - it takes very little force to put out an eye. Water and lots of it is the way to go.
It’s probably futile, though. Domestic cats kill billions of small animals every year and you’ve set up a buffet for all the local cats - not just the one that lives next door.
There are bird feeders that make it more difficult for cats/squirrels to access them. After that, it’s up to the birds to not get eaten. You can’t really help them unless you’re willing to hurt the cats, and they’re just doing what cats do. The blame lays in folks who let their cats wander, especially folks who let their unfixed cats wander.
Airsoft pellets sting to the point that Airsoft players are required to wear helmets and thick clothes. Thirding @ZonexandScout and @Johnny_Bravo - they’re too dangerous to use on cats.
