Bad Bertie !

Like the old woman who swallowed the fly, It’s looking like I’m gonna have to get a cow or a horse or rhinosaurus sometime soon .

We have seagulls too gillybob and flippin' magpies which take eggs and baby birds.
Cats never seem to go for magpies.

Gillybob have you tried garlic? I’ve tried everything you have and I bought garlic powder from the garden centre and put chopped up raw garlic in my flower beds. I’ve had
More success with garlic than any of the other stuff. Apparently they hate the smell of garlic.

I live close to the sea Callistemon so lots of seagulls already plaguing the life of the poor little birds . I have a bird table that My DGC keep stocked all year around but I feel that I should probably get rid of it as maybe I am encouraging little birds into a cat infested area. My neighbours horrible cat sits and waits for them and knows when I have moved the bird table as it just moves with it . My older DGC are RSPB members and get so much pleasure from watching the birds and charting their antics . I bloody hate that cat !

It makes me very sad, gillybob to see the slaughter wreaked on beautiful birds by well-fed cats - blue tit fledgings, other lovely birds and not for food.
Fox hunting is illegal, watermeadow and foxes wreak havoc on birds too, not always for food.

I think there are rules regarding shared fences nina ? I’ve tried explaining that the spikes are soft plastic so harmless but cats can’t/won’t walk on them . Deaf ears I’m afraid . She’s alright though because her beloved moggie doesn’t leave horrible shit parcels all over her paved back garden . She even had the cheek to suggest we should follow her lead and pave our back ! No way I love my little garden.

I haven’t tried lion poo willow but wonder if that in itself might be harmful to a one year old? Will look into it though . Thank you x

Gillybob have you tried Lion Poo - it's on Amazon and is supposed to work well as it scares the out of the offending cats thinking there's a real big cat in there. Might be worth a try.

If it's your fence gillybob how can the neighbour stop you.
We put plastic spikes along part of our fence to prevent our cat getting on next doors conservatory roof. They didn't ask, we just thought it the right thing to do.

I’m not one of those “barbaric humans who slaughter game birds for sport” watermeadow which is just plain sick in my opinion .

I’ve tried everything available sodapop lemon rind, orange peel, coffee grounds, pepper, cat scarers that omit a high pitcher sound ( I have 5 dotted around but they manage to get round them) and everything else under the sun. Not sure there’s much else really . I would like to put plastic spikes on the fences to stop them getting in but my neighbour who’s cat is the worst offender said no . Obviously her cat doesn’t shit in her paved paradise .

My cat won't 'go' outside - she prefers the privacy of her litter tray - she doesn't leave the garden either. Neither has she ever caught or killed anything in the 8 years we've had her - she's just too slow and clumsy. My other boy kills mice but not birds - in fact he will sit in the garden and just watch them hopping around right in front of him. I'm sure we should be pleased he keeps the mice population down. I love my cats and all the others who have gone before them. Dogs are fine - we've had several over the years but give me a cat any day.

Yes I can see how that can be really annoying gillybob. There was a thread a while ago about cat proofing your garden. There seemed to be some good ideas on there as I remember. Don't expect anything will work totally though.

I’m sure the figures for birds killed by cats are inaccurate. I’ve lived with cats all my life and have had just two which were keen hunters. Several others have caught a few young birds in spring. The majority have caught few or none over their whole lives.
Gillybob, how about the barbaric humans who slaughter millions of game birds for “sport” or chase terrified foxes and deer until they are ripped apart by hounds?

I don’t have a cat as a pet ( or any other pet for that matter) but I still have cat shit in my garden everyday sodapop which simply isn’t fair. I have one of just a handful of “proper” gardens in the area so my garden is obviously the local toilet for all the horrible cats in the area .

That's what cats do as GrandetanteJE65 says. It's nature and the cycle of life we can't change that. I have a friend who has stopped keeping cats because he hated the fact they killed birds. If you are concerned about that then don't have a cat as a pet.

I doubt it grantante unless of course he is trained to use cat litter instead of doing it in other people’s gardens and he wears a collar with a bell to give the poor birds a fighting chance . I wonder if perhaps he “eats what he catches” because you don’t feed him enough?

Perhaps gillybob you would prefer my cat?

He eats what he catches!

It is after all their nature to hunt and I rather suspect the world would be overstocked with mice, rats and birds if cats and foxes didn't hunt them.

Nature usually manages to strike a balance after all.

The difference being quizqueen that I eat the chicken ( rarely ever any red meat) I don’t just catch it, shake it up, pull its head off, feathers out etc. And then dump it .

I also don’t shit in other people’s gardens or any garden for that matter .

Not quite sure what hating cats has to do with saving our beautiful planet mind you

gillybob says she hates cats because they kill beautiful birds. I agree that is sad but wonder if she ever eats chicken or fish or any animals for that matter, they are all beautiful. Also, it is humans who are destroying the planet, so save your angst for them!

I appreciate not everyone likes cats or dogs for that matter. I do prefer dogs but neither DH or I could do the walking.
It's all down to animal instinct, just like the fox cub that walked across my lawn a couple of days ago with a rabbit in it's mouth. Some people think vermin deter them but although we don't feed or encourage them, we love to see them.

Years ago, before the spaniel, had a hunter of a pusscat, anything that moved really, worse case, bought in live biggish bird, held it down and proceeded to pluck its feathers from its head, fortunately wonderful sil was within screaming distance, rescued bird after a while let it go and it flew off almost completely bald, we wondered if it was allowed back into its flock looking so odd.

I’m with you gillybob. I am constantly clearing cat crap from my garden curtesy of my neighbours two cats. Not to mention dead birds found in my garden. Not a cat lover at all!

?shysal

Shabba Ranks, one of my old cats, sadly no longer with us, brought a fillet of frozen fish home several Fridays in a row! I never found out which neighbour they belonged to. He was a hunter of live prey too, presenting grass snakes, slow worms, lizards, baby pheasants, rabbits and once the tail of a mink. My most memorable 'present' was a half-eaten turkey carcass which he brought through the top bathroom window while I was soaking beneath.

I am with gillybob on this, although I have to say little because the DGC have cats.

^The most recent figures of how many creatures are killed by cats are from the Mammal Society. They estimate that cats in the UK catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 27 million are birds.
This is the number of prey items which were known to have been caught. We don't know how many more the cats caught, but didn't bring home, or how many escaped but subsequently died.
The most frequently caught birds, according to the Mammal Society, are probably:
house sparrows
blue tits
blackbirds
starlings

Read more at www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines/#TSotUpqeMPE0LJ0M.99

I can deal with mice, even rats, being brought in by our cats but anything with wings freaks me out. The worst one was when a bat was brought through the cat flap flapping.