Cat Deterrent

[kshotton45]

I need a cat deterrent and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with electronic cat deterrents? Are they any good. I dislike cats, but don't wish them any harm, I just want to keep them away from the birds.
My best deterrent to date are two dogs! but they're not always out. I read of Ultrasonic scarers that scare cats but not dogs. Has anyone had any success with one?
Any other tips on (legal) ways to keep cats away ??

Keith.

[Thorrun]

I have tried an electronic cat scarer which runs on four D size batteries and can be expensive to run continuously. Regret unable to determine whether effective or not but then 180ft.garden ending with ditch and fields, with two cats each side and plenty of others in the area I'm not sure if anything but a couple of greyhounds or well placed land mines will solve the problem! Have recently seen advertised a scarer which shoots a water jet but wonder what happens when one needs to pass it. The same mag is advertising a sonic/ultra-sonic hand held gun which I have just ordered to lower my blood pressure when these evil creatures walk across my field of vision with a look of distain.

[clicka15]

I know of a rather strange, low-tech, low-cost cat deterrent, which is also harmless:

1. Fill some empty 1 or 2 litre bottles with a solution of water and washing-up liquid.

2. Make sure the labels are removed from the bottles.

3. Place them on their side on your lawn or border (with the lids firmly on, of course).

You will find that cats avoid the bottles and your garden and go to annoy your neighbours instead!

I'm not sure how it works, but someone suggested that the slight colouration to the solution creates a reflection and scares the cat off. I'm open to other explanations though...

Give it a go - if it doesn't work, it hasn't cost you much money (unless the cat kills the roses in the meantime).

Best wishes.

[Thorrun]

Tried it, scattered a dozen half filled 2litre lemonade bottles around the garden. One at the bottom of the bordering tree the neighbours cats use to invade and both cats just step over the bottles. Maybe they prefer a different flavour, they can't tell its cheap lemonade when I take off the labels. Found the other neighbour's cat defecating on a flower bed today, didn't even bother to dig a hole.

[Thorrun]

Short lengths of hosepipe said to resemble snakes to half blind cats do not work either,

[RogerTheCat]

The herb Rue is supposed to work and I am going to be trying it in the next few weeks. In the past I tried ground pepper which worked for a while. If you ever see the cats in your garden try a water pistol as the hate that. Vinegar is also supposed to work if poured on the ground. You can also buy strips of little spikes that you attached to the top of walls and fences to stop cats climbing into your garden. The do not harm the cat. The cat proetction league have some usful tips on thier website. I think in the long term the answer is to try a combination of things and change them for time to time so that the cats do not become too familiar and therefore not scared of them.

[Caitlinbeardmore]

Sorry to do it like this, but i have no idea how to post a new message.

Yesterday, on the way home, i slowed down to see whats seems like a baby Rabbit (6" long)
being flopped around on a main road (luckily cars were going over it).

i ran across the road and picked it up carefully and took it home, Place it gently in my guinea pigs winter hutch in the garage (not with the pigs). bathed its somewhat swollen eye with cotton wool and cooled down boiled water. to my amazement it has survived the night.

However, alarmingly, it does not seem to be able to use its back legs. there are no marks on the Rabbit to suggest that a car did actually knock it over and i have made arrangements to see the vet tommorrow with him/her. I presume he will advise me to have it euthanised, but i don;t see why. does anyone know of any centres which home them until they are well. (it does have momentary movement in one back leg sometimes) and it doesn't seem broken.

Any suggestions?

I am happy to look after it, but then won;t it be too old to put back in its own habitat?


Cait

[delboyarthur]

hi
i have an electronic scarer and it does the job the cats wont stay near it says on the instructions that it can take up to 3 mths to work as well hard cats will sit near it lol not for long tho they soon get sick i bought mine from a well known internet auction site - bay it works for me the woman next door has 3 cats and thats were they stay now

allan (teesside)

[Thorrun]

I have to admit this cat aversion is becoming an obsession. Spikey strips for top of fences and walls not an option as the fence belongs to the cat doting neighbour and I would rather not spoil an otherwise good relationship. Cat deterrent spray which interferes with their sense of smell and any liquid treatment lasts only until the first rain shower. Herb Rue sounds interesting but needs handling with gloves as I understand it can affect sensitive skin, guess I might need a 180ft hedge of it though! However I may try a few pots. There is another plant on the market that they apparently dislike but it is an annual. They certainly do not like water pistols but unless it is possible to hit them when they cannot see where its coming from it does not remain a deterrent.
Why should my pleasure of watching the wildlife that normally visits my garden, frogs, birds, squirrels etc. be compromised by a domesticated beast that has been imported into a rural area and over which no one has any control, and in the case of the owner, any care.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Thorrun

Why should my pleasure of watching the wildlife that normally visits my garden, frogs, birds, squirrels etc. be compromised by a domesticated beast that has been imported into a rural area and over which no one has any control, and in the case of the owner, any care.

There's an extensive thread on this issue in the Gardening forum -http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/wildlife-gardening/187-how-keep-cats-out-garden.html

As atleady noted in this thread, the key with cat deterrents is to keep varying the range of disturbing factors. Coleus Canina is the annual plant that is supposed to be effective, it is expensive to buy but seeds readily. Rue can be a irritant for some people but as long its handled carefully is not usually a problem - though I wouldn't have it around young children.

I think you are correct to raise the issue about the spoiling of your 'quiet enjoyment' which is now an accepted right in law. It will however take numbers of Civil cases before the Courts start handing out ASBO's to cat owners, but although the law gives a peculiar protection to cats, it does not make their owners immune from liability for what the cats do. Suing for damage to plants or harming wildlife in private gardens must be a possibility.

CM

[GazNewt]

I have had a cat obsession like this for years, I've tried everything to stop them getting at my pond and mutiliating or killing the frogs and newts. Everything except an electronic scarer.

Now I just buy extra eggs every week and chuck them at the cats when I see one. I don't aim at them I am near them, the egg smashes and they run out of the garden.

Works for me!

[mallain]

I would have thought a 'Super Soaker' would be the best method of persuading cats to keep away!

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...ster-intro.jpg

It will not harm a cat and they do learn to avoid being sprayed by keeping away!!

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by Caitlinbeardmore

Sorry to do it like this, but i have no idea how to post a new message.

Yesterday, on the way home, i slowed down to see whats seems like a baby Rabbit (6" long)
being flopped around on a main road (luckily cars were going over it).

i ran across the road and picked it up carefully and took it home, Place it gently in my guinea pigs winter hutch in the garage (not with the pigs). bathed its somewhat swollen eye with cotton wool and cooled down boiled water. to my amazement it has survived the night.

However, alarmingly, it does not seem to be able to use its back legs. there are no marks on the Rabbit to suggest that a car did actually knock it over and i have made arrangements to see the vet tommorrow with him/her. I presume he will advise me to have it euthanised, but i don;t see why. does anyone know of any centres which home them until they are well. (it does have momentary movement in one back leg sometimes) and it doesn't seem broken.

Any suggestions?

I am happy to look after it, but then won;t it be too old to put back in its own habitat?


Cait

]

Hi and welcome to WAB,

To start a new thread go into the section that the thread applies to and near the top of the page on the left should be a button saying 'new thread', just click that and carry on.

Your Rabbit possibly sounds like it's got mixamitosis, a nasty disease that's killed loads of Rabbits in Britain and I don't think there's any cure or vaccination for it. Rabbits suffered from sore eyes and start losing their senses so don't run away from danger (probably why it was in the road).
If it is mixamitosis, as sad as it is it would probably be best to have the Rabbit put down. Otherwise it will suffer a long and painful death.
Fingers crossed it's not mixamitosis, and well done for rescuing it.
Guy

[Caitlinbeardmore]

Hi Guy

Thanks for your reply. I took "Barney" to the vets tonight and i am so pleased to say that it is not mixamatosis, Just concussion and a "black eye". it is a wild Rabbit but only 6 months old. no broken bones just exceptionally shocked. I have antibiotics and eye cream.

We have decided to keep him after the vet said at his age it would not be cruel, he will forget his wildlife days.

At the moment he is eating well. I have two rescued guinea pigs (from a cruel owner who starved them). and six rescue cats so he will have a number of brothers and sisters.


I have to take him back the vets in six weeks, so fingers crossed. Any more RTA's and i will have to move.

Caitlin

[Caitlinbeardmore]

Sorry - its 6 weeks old.

[Caitlinbeardmore]

To all the members who don't want cats on their land.

My neighbour has birds and i respect that, i have six cats, having spoken to my neighbour about the problem we have compromised

I keep my cats in during the day and let them out at 10.00pm each night, they return at 7am in the morning.

They are then snoozing all day and they don;t actually bother anyone, may not be the ideal solution, but unless you talk to your neighbour how will you ever know whether she would compromise.

Our compromise is that at weekends i let my cats out in the day and they soak them with water if they appear on their fence, after a period of time, they stopped going over there at all.

Caitlin

[Tara]

There is nothing a cat hates more than being sprayed with water. It is the best deterrent, and is how I trained my own cats to 'behave'.

I am amazed at the hatred of cats on this forum. They are beautiful animals and very affectionate. It is not true to say you can't train them.

[Karlos78]

I am amazed at the hatred of cats on this forum. They are beautiful animals and very affectionate. It is not true to say you can't train them.[/quote]


Good point Tara! The best way to deter cats is to get your own male cat. Suddenly the vision of seeing your neighbours cat pooing in the garden and eating your prize fish becomes a distant memory

[RogerTheCat]

If I do not want a cat in my garden why should I be the one that has to go to the expense, time and hassle of stopping it. I do not want a cat or any pets for that matter so why should I get one to stop other peoples cats spoiling my enjoyment of MY garden? Surely the owners should be required to keep thier pets under control. (This is the law for dogs.) If they can not control thier pets why should it become my problem.

A friend of mine had cats and made his garden cat escape proof. This was ideal as he incured all the costs. Even better it worked. Unfortunatley he did not do it out of any sense of social responsibility. His garden backed on to field used by dog walkers most of whom seemed to have staff bull terriers or similar dogs and he was afriend his cats would get attached. Of course it was still ok for his cats to attack any birds in his garden.

I believe that in some Countries cat owners are legally required to make thier gardens cat escape proof. If only it was so in this Country

[Thorrun]

Well said Roger. A dog is the only certain deterrent and I would love another one but circumstances no longer permit. The cat lover in this thread who disagrees that cats cannot be trained is probably correct but the real point is that it is the owner that needs to be trained. That lovely cuddly bundle of hair and fleas in their home is a thieving defecating vandal and killer in someone else's garden, but then they do not want to know about that, once out of the back door and over the fence, out of sight out of mind. I have the choice to either clean up after someone else's moggy (5 of them between three households)and grit my teeth or live with an ever escalating feud with a neighbour. I am sure I can think of something sooner or later, on the bright side it is keeping my brain active.

[Caitlinbeardmore]

In reply to "thorrun"

What Brain??

[Caitlinbeardmore]

Originally Posted by RogerTheCat

If I do not want a cat in my garden why should I be the one that has to go to the expense, time and hassle of stopping it. I do not want a cat or any pets for that matter so why should I get one to stop other peoples cats spoiling my enjoyment of MY garden? Surely the owners should be required to keep thier pets under control. (This is the law for dogs.) If they can not control thier pets why should it become my problem.

A friend of mine had cats and made his garden cat escape proof. This was ideal as he incured all the costs. Even better it worked. Unfortunatley he did not do it out of any sense of social responsibility. His garden backed on to field used by dog walkers most of whom seemed to have staff bull terriers or similar dogs and he was afriend his cats would get attached. Of course it was still ok for his cats to attack any birds in his garden.

I believe that in some Countries cat owners are legally required to make thier gardens cat escape proof. If only it was so in this Country

If only so many things occurred in this country......especially being subjected to forums where the spelling is so atrocious that how on earth can it be taken seriously.

[ChrisJB]

Thanks for the egg tactic Gaz. Although I have taken it one step further, I'm afraid I aim for them!

The neighbours cat must be really thick too. If I see it out on the street, it still comes up to me and purrs. Strangely though, it doesn't come in the garden anymore.

Chris

[RogerTheCat]

Originally Posted by Caitlinbeardmore

If only so many things occurred in this country......especially being subjected to forums where the spelling is so atrocious that how on earth can it be taken seriously.

My spelling has always been poor and made worse by the use of spell checkers which means I am even lazier although I still mange to get my point across.

[oceanroc]

I think it is a shame that such an interesting thread where people are stating their opinions freeely (as is their right) is being used as a forum for unnecessary personal comments. What do a few spelling mistakes matter? And just becuase you disagree with someone does not mean they don't have a brain.
I hope I have misunderstood the tone of these messages which has genuinely saddened me and lessened my enjoyment of this forum.