cat deterrent

[ColonelBlimp]

Does anyone have any effective ideas of how to deter cats from the garden?

Reason is I went outside and found a poor little juvenile female blackbird absolutely mashed up by a cat (head wrecked plus massive puncture wound to throat) -apparently my Dad disturbed the cat preventing it taking the body away. Luckily it was dead so I didn't have to finish it off.

They take them pretty frequently from the garden, and I do the usual of covering EVERYTHING in orange peel but it is quite hard as where I feed them backs onto a little beck and they just come up from there where I can't get them. Also I have already developed the water pistol tactic but I'm not always there.

Honestly, it does make me wonder about the human race-what have we done for birds in Britain over the past 100 years? Oh yes, concreted over much of their habitat, introduced the grey squirrel and caused an increase in domestic cat numbers. Great

[nightshade]

It is very upsetting to find these victims,as there is not much you can do Legally the judicious use of water as you have discovered is best.Restrict access where you can
Regarding the birds,as individuals we can plant trees and shrubs and each do as much
as we can to help them

[Cazzie]

Oh no... another victim today

It really is so saddening to find a cat with it's kill, but unfortunatley they're doing what 'comes naturally' to them

Although the water pistol is indeed a good deterrant (when you're there, and I've got one to hand just for that purpose) I've heard good things about sonic cat deterrants too and they're supposed to work well. Maybe worth a thought if the moggies are really taking your wild bird numbers down?!?

[jdurbo]

Damn cats!!! they made me so angry!!!
Maybe a bucket of water!!!

jen xxx

[galanthus]

Originally Posted by jdurbo

Damn cats!!! they made me so angry!!!
Maybe a bucket of water!!!

jen xxx

Oooh fab, connected to the mains electric

[demicav]

I don't have cats but we have a few in the area. Some of them like to sleep and lounge around on top of my shed, unfortunately that's the same area in which I focus all the bird feeding, it's the best spot for it. So there is a sure recipe for disaster, yet I've never witnessed a bird being caught. I think that's mainly down to my two dogs. The birds still come down to feed in their presence, however the cats are a bit chicken and who can blame them. My youngest dog is a hater of cats and would love the chance to sink her teeth in. My older dog loves everything and would probably just lick it to death . There is one particular cat though who sits on the shed and just stares at my younger dog why she growls and barks, this cat is not fazed by it at all but thankfully it's a very lazy cat and doesn't visit too often.

[Purplepixii]

In response to the original poster's question, there are plants and devices which can be bought to deter cats - your local garden centre should be able to advise.

Purplepixii
(a cat-lover contemplating setting up a water & electricity device for use on humans )

[DaiTheDragon]

Humans kill more birds than cats. Just because cats are not considered wildlife that does not give us the right to persicute or harm them. Cats are company for and give a lot of people pleasure. Yes I am a cat owner and my 2 cats often sleep underneath the feeders and since I put the feeders up 2 years ago they have not taken one bird.

Dai

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

I'm not a big cat fan, i think i may have mentioned it before

We've just bought a car deterent from a wildlife shop and that seems to work, it's certainly stopped the local moggies using our garden as a watering hole I think if you get one of these and just generally keep an eye out for cats, chasing them off when they do come into your garden, generally making it not a nice place to be

[naturelover]

i have said this befor,but i will say it again,i got a rat, cat detector gives off a high pitch sound that us humans cant hear,i got it for rats but i still have one or two under my decking,they dont cause any trouble atall,but since i got the detector i havnt seen a cat getting on for a year, which is good because i have birds,squirrels cant hear it because one has taken all the walnut off the neighbours tree that hangs over my fence that the detector is fixed to,dont bother with batterys you have to change them every four days,better to run on electric,hope this helps.