Oddly enough, the methods used for stopping your cat from catching birds will also help your cat live a longer and happier life.
As you read this article, you will notice the links between methods for stopping your cat from hunting and keeping your cat healthy and alive.
Contents
1. Put a Bell on Your Cats Collar
If your cat has a bell on his or her cat collar, then your cat will be unable to sneak up on birds and most types of rodents.
In fact, all your cat will be able to hunt are baby pigeons who don’t know any better, and frogs. Everything runs or flies away when it hears a cat’s collar, with the exception of hedgehogs.
The fact that everything runs from the sound of a cat’s tinkly collar is exactly why putting a bell on your cat’s collar helps to stop flea infestations. In fact, a flea collar that has a bell on it will offer almost complete protection from fleas.
If your cat has a bell on its collar, then it will not catch rats and rodents, and will not catch their fleas, ticks, mites and skin diseases.
It is true that a cat may still catch fleas from a hedgehog, but typically it is only very young cats who try to play with a balled up hedgehog; most older cats know better.
The only other way a cat can catch fleas is if the cat hangs around with other cats, and if you bring your cat in at night, then this is less likely to occur since it is often the nighttime when cats get frisky.
2. Make Sure Your Cat Is Well Fed
The notion that cats go out hunting because they are hungry is up for debate. Many cats hunt because they are bored, but a cat will not hunt on a full stomach.
In addition, a well fed, slightly overweight cat, will often avoid hunting all together and opt for more pleasurable activities like sitting in the sun, rolling in car park dust, and singing to other cats.
There is no solid evidence that a cat will stop hunting birds if it is fed wet food at night and has dry food during the day.
This is probably because all cats are a little different to the point where some cats simply won’t hunt birds because they don’t fancy it.
Nevertheless, there is a good chance that yours is the type of cat that will avoid hunting if it is well fed, so it is worth a try.
3. Do Not Use Sonic Collars
All versions of sonic device, be it used to keep cats away, or to warn other animals, are cruel because they emit a sound that drives animals crazy.
They have been known to make dogs stressed despite being houses away from the noise, and the same has been shown for cats, wild birds, rabbits, ferrets, and even guinea pigs.
They scare birds away from their nests and cause cats to change their patrol routes.
Perhaps you hate cats and want them to stay away from your garden, so you install a cat noise device. Not only will it keep cats away, but all forms of wildlife.
They have even been known to confuse homing pigeons and scare away frogs, hedgehogs, and all sorts of other wildlife, and where this may seem good to some people, it has negative effects.
The absence of wildlife means that such gardens are invaded by slugs, snails and a whole host of greenfly and various unpleasant insects.
4. Keep Your Cats Indoors When Birds are Vulnerable
Birds are most vulnerable around sunrise early morning, and sunset afternoon time.
Simply bring your cat indoors before the sun sets and let your cat out again when the sun has risen and the morning has truly begun. Doing this has several benefits.
Firstly, it stops your cat from wandering too far, which also keeps your cat out of trouble.
Plus, it keeps your cats off the roads during the time when it is most dangerous.
Most people think that cats are hit during the day when traffic is heavy and fast, but even a dopey cat is not going to try to cross a busy street.
However, during the morning and noon when the light is getting low, cats figure they can cross the road, and drivers cannot see them in time to swerve or stop.
Another added benefit of keeping this time/routine is that wild cats are more likely to attack and kill your cat at night, and nighttime predators will happily chew a leg off your cat during the early and late hours.
5. Install Rims On Bird Tables
A flat bird table is the enemy of birds around the world. What happens is that the cut-up bacon rind, the fatty nuts, the grass seed and bread you put onto your table will get knocked and blown onto the floor.
The smaller birds will happily eat off the floor rather than tangle with the pigeons, magpies, and crows on the table.
These happy birds hop around the floor, meanwhile your cat is waiting behind a rockery for the right time to pounce.
All it takes is a rim around the table to keep the food from being blown off or knocked off and keeps birds who visit your bird feeder safe from your cat. Some say that you shouldn’t have bird tables in your garden if you have a cat, but if the food stays on the table, then you are actually doing the birds a favour in your area.
The birds are happily being fed without having to scavenge on other gardens where cats may be sitting. Plus, it is far nicer having your cat in your own garden watching the birds rather than in somebody else’s garden hunting the birds.
6. Design Your Garden Around Your Cat
Think tree stumps, posts, low trees, tables, open areas, and maybe even dusty areas to roll around in. Design your garden with your cat in mind, and your cat will hang around your garden more often rather than going down near rivers and sewers to hunt birds and rats.
What’s more, if your garden is cat friendly, then other cats will visit your garden rather than your cat going out trying to find other cats and getting run over in the process.
To protect the birds in your garden, try to leave your cat a little exposed. Do not give your cat too many hiding places.
Your cat will want to hunt in long grass, shrubs, ferns, and so forth. If you have a compost heap or area, then try to leave no areas nearby where your cat can sit and stalk.
Also Read: Should cats wear collars?
7. Have Your Cat Neutered
There are no reasons why you shouldn’t have your cat neutered, with the exception of the cost. Other than the cost, having your cat neutered is full of benefits.
It stops them humping other cats and catching skin diseases, fleas, and feline aids. It also stops them wandering too far from home, which also results in your cat being far less likely to go missing.
In addition, a neutered cat is far less likely to be aggressive to humans, and less likely to act out and cause noise and destruction. Plus, it lowers a cat’s desire to go hunting.
This is because your cat becomes far less sexually frustrated, and so will not try to cheer itself up by torturing small creatures. It will also stop your cat from bringing you little half-dead gifts.
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