Cats

[bauerline]

It seems that the worst pest I have that take out my quail that I have in a johnny house are the @#!# cats. A property near by feeds the cats but they come and look at the quail like its a buffet. I see hawks flying around, hear the owls and know there are foxes but its the cats that do the most damage. Hate them!

[1pheas4]

I'm with on that one. Cat's can be quit a nuisance.

Something that may make you be thankful for the cat problem is that your issue is not mink.:D

I talked with a friend earlier in the week who lost 2,000 birds to a mink this past spring.:eek:

[beaglebob1]

It seems that the worst pest I have that take out my quail that I have in a johnny house are the @#!# cats. A property near by feeds the cats but they come and look at the quail like its a buffet. I see hawks flying around, hear the owls and know there are foxes but its the cats that do the most damage. Hate them!

cats kill everything they can catch and they are really good at it. not many in my area very long after spotted. they should not leave the house, once they do that get wild then they come on my land they are in trouble. dont get me wrong my wife has 3 of them but they stay in the house.

[Phil V.]

Get a good rat terrier or fox terrier. They do a number on cats.

[blackcloud27]

cats are kind of like praire dogs. biodegradable reproducing targets.:D

[onpoint]

I have a person I know that that keeps buying cats, then just gets a real kick out of watching them kill Ruff grouse on the edge of his yard, rabbits, song birds, squirrel's, Etc. I Tell him they get shot at my place. He goes into, it's just a ^&^%$ Grouse, who cares. I have a very hard time with his approach to keeping control of his pets.

Fox have been my problem with my pen raised birds. They have killed between 60 and 100 birds this year. I see fox evertday

[Lazlo]

[/QUOTE] I Tell him they get shot at my place. He goes into, it's just a ^&^%$ Grouse, who cares. I have a very hard time with his approach to keeping control of his pets.

Fox have been my problem with my pen raised birds. They have killed between 60 and 100 birds this year. I see fox evertday[/QUOTE]

2 things- if you can, unless you have to worry about your dogs, set out traps. I would catch the neighbors cats all the time.

Why wait till they come to you??? ;)

[Lazlo]

I Tell him they get shot at my place. He goes into, it's just a ^&^%$ Grouse, who cares. I have a very hard time with his approach to keeping control of his pets.

Fox have been my problem with my pen raised birds. They have killed between 60 and 100 birds this year. I see fox everyday

2 things- if you can, unless you have to worry about your dogs, set out traps. I would catch the neighbors cats all the time.

Why wait till they come to you??? ;)

[1GB]

I have a person I know that that keeps buying cats, then just gets a real kick out of watching them kill Ruff grouse on the edge of his yard, rabbits, song birds, squirrel's, Etc. I Tell him they get shot at my place. He goes into, it's just a ^&^%$ Grouse, who cares. I have a very hard time with his approach to keeping control of his pets.

I'm always blown away by how people don't seem to see anything wrong with letting cats roam. I've even known people who won't eat meat, but have no issues with letting their cats run and bring home dead animals to the porch step. How did cats become the one animal that's acceptable to allow roam and kill anything?!
Fox have been my problem with my pen raised birds. They have killed between 60 and 100 birds this year. I see fox evertday
If you see them every day, I'm assuming you lack state laws allowing you to protect the birds on your farm? Otherwise I'd assuming you'd start seeing fewer as time went on ...

[onpoint]

Can't set traps, we raise bird dogs and to hard to keep them out of them. A good flashlight and a shotgun with #4 Buck works as well as anything, along with a rabbit distress call.

[Kismet]

I may be misinformed, but as I recall, cats are one of the few critters who kill instinctively, for no purpose except as a response to a stimulus. So a well-fed cat is always willing to kill songbirds, quail...etc. It's not like the domestic dog "pack instinct" killing sheep one after the other because they run, but stalking, pouching, playing and killing.

If my recollection is correct, that leaves one solution available, and I don't see it being havahart traps.

Best wishes. Be circumspect if you think your solution might put you in hazard.

(was that vague enough? :) )

[onpoint]

I may be misinformed, but as I recall, cats are one of the few critters who kill instinctively, for no purpose except as a response to a stimulus. So a well-fed cat is always willing to kill songbirds, quail...etc. It's not like the domestic dog "pack instinct" killing sheep one after the other because they run, but stalking, pouching, playing and killing.

If my recollection is correct, that leaves one solution available, and I don't see it being havahart traps.

Best wishes. Be circumspect if you think your solution might put you in hazard.

(was that vague enough? :) )

Wolves kill for sport also, Fox will kill far more then then need if killing is easy. Seen a fox kill 60 birds in one night

[bauerline]

Thanks for the tips. I think this problem will get taken care of one way or another. I do have some live traps set up in the area so I'll see what happens.

[dvmweb]

Live trap 'em and then tend to them. May catch a skunk or coon too. we have tons of coyotes and foxes that are getting our grouse.

[Lazlo]

Can't set traps, we raise bird dogs and to hard to keep them out of them. A good flashlight and a shotgun with #4 Buck works as well as anything, along with a rabbit distress call.

Now your talking!:10sign:

[1GB]

we have tons of coyotes and foxes that are getting our grouse.
I disagree. Habitat is the root cause of the problem. In proper habitat, the size of coyotes and even foxes would prevent them from having a significant impact on the grouse population. People stand around watching the trees grow up without resetting succession and wonder where the grouse are going ... much like pheasants as well!

[beaglebob1]

I disagree. Habitat is the root cause of the problem. In proper habitat, the size of coyotes and even foxes would prevent them from having a significant impact on the grouse population. People stand around watching the trees grow up without resetting succession and wonder where the grouse are going ... much like pheasants as well!

predator control is very crucial. in the old days when trapping helped pay the bills the trapper helped keep the fox and yotes in check. the fur market died in the 80s and not profitable so not many run a trap line. fox and yotes multiply rapidly and compete for the next meal. ground birds are an easy target. cats really do a number on song birds as well and kill anything they can catch. habitat is a must but so is predator control. my 2 cents;)

[koja48]

Box traps work well. I live in a residential area & am surrounded on 3 sides by folks who have "outdoor cats" (2 toms on 2 sides & FIVE behind me!). My yard became "No Cat's Land" & was constantly the prize in a territorial dispute. I spoke with all of the owners, but only one family is keeping theirs indoors now. One got a citation for allowing his cats to destroy my property (flowers) & for crapping on my property (yes, we DO have a cat ordinance; I took pics with my trail cam, so there was no "he said, she said."). The neighbors don't talk to me anymore, so it was a win/win all the way around. When I trap strays, well, they just leave. When I trap pets/collared cats, I either soak 'em down with the hose, which has proven sufficiently traumatic to keep them away OR . . . I put a few drops of skunk or coyote scent on 'em & release "kitty" to go home thru the dog/cat door to share the hazards of nature with the owners . . . there IS some vicarious satifaction & a reckoning in the scent approach (if I'm inconvenienced, then the irresponsible cat owners are also going to be inconvenienced . . . I bet bathing a cat is tons of fun!). After a couple skunkings, the folks next door suddenly decided to keep theirs indoors. Works for me . . .

[FCSpringer]

OH God here is the cats thread again. I love the little furry things, please don't hurt one, I will cry.:rolleyes:


NOT!!!!!!:D I think box 220 conni bears with fish, smelt especialy work great. It will get them over night. You will rid your trouble quick. OP you can use them if you be smart about it. Set them at night and just saftey switch them during the day, cover them with a plywood box or spring them in the morning before the hounds go out. Your cat trouble will be gone quick in a couple days and put them away. I catch them over night every time. End of problem. When one pops back up I simply repeat. One time I caught 13 in a row for another guy that thought coon were eating his minnows every night. After that he never lost a minnow and peace followed on the Lake Ida fishing hole.:thumbsup:

[Ranger Rick]

I love koja48's approach with the scent treatment. Hilarious and a great example of American ingenuity!

[Shadow]

last thing I'd want is grab a cat in a trap, squirt something on it, and let it go-
how many here have actually handled a cat in a trap

as kids dad gave us 4 traps- "catch the cats, do what you want with them"
nasty critters in a trap

we prefered slingshot- got quite good- but weren't against setting out a 1/2 leg hold trap and carrying our catch into the house- great fun with big sisters- but then again- we had to get by mom and then toss it into big sisters room and run

haven't seen any cats out here on the farm for some time now- got a couple leg traps ready-
think it would be like childhood days to catch one- can you guess what I'm going to do when I catch one- we grew up with cherri bombs and M80's

[FCSpringer]

Well there is plenty of SPORTSMEN, who believe feral cats are a huge problem in some areas, including mine. They are varmints. I am not talking poor little girls fluffy cat named rags with bells and pink collars. It is a problem with wild cats here. I have thousands invested and time in birds all year. Wild cats are unwelcome disease ridden varmints. A bigger percentage of sportsmen around here realize the problem, and so has the state of MN, they have discused season for wild ferral cats. Trapping and or eradication of problems should be done humainly when necessary.

[Kismet]

Googling "cat predation" pops up a bunch of sites, many quoting the same study. These are house cats. I know of at least one group which advocates capturing feral cats, neutering them, and then releasing them back to the wild. That makes no sense to me.

Here's an excerpt from one site on ?responsible cat ownership:

Cat Facts - Effects of House Cat Predation on Our Native Wildlife

While many cat owners may believe that their pet cannot possibly have a significant impact just because it hunts, the cumulative devastation of cat attacks on wildlife is substantial. With many species in danger due to habitat loss, predation by our house cats is yet one more hardship we humans impose on wild animals already struggling to survive.

Isn't hunting by cats a natural thing? While it may be instinctive for a cat to hunt, house cats are not native to North America and they cause an imbalance in the ecology of an area by killing so many wild animals. Because their population numbers are artificially large due to being kept as pets, cats are far more common than natural selection would normally allow native predators, such as fox or bobcat, to be. Predators are supposed to be rare, not abundant, in nature.

Consider these studies:

Researchers studying 70 cats in a small English village estimated that pet cats in England were responsible for killing 70 million native animals per year, including 20 million wild birds.

In a study of radio-collared farm cats in Wisconsin, researchers Stanley Temple & John Coleman estimated that each year cats kll at least 19 million songbirds and 140,000 game birds in the state of Wisconsin.

A researcher at Point Reyes Bird Observatory in California, noting that there are approximately 55 million cats in the U.S., of which 44 million are permitted outdoors, suggested that the toll may be as high as 4.4 million songbirds per day in the U.S.

Cat predation can also negatively impact our native predators, especially hawks and owls. A study in Illinois concluded that cats wwere taking 5.5 million rodents and 2.5 billion other vertebrates from a 26,000 square mile area, effectively depleting the prey base necessary to sustain wintering raptors and other native predators.

Animal intake data from wildlife rehab centers across the U.S. corroborates the toll of cat predation that the above findings document.

Overwhelmingly, cat predation (including cat attack cases and animals orphaned by cats) is the single largest reason for admission to many wildlife centers. Typically, less than 10-20% of cat attack victims survive. Even when external damage appears minor, there is usually massive internal hemorrhaging & sift tissue damage from crushing and even minor puncture wounds expose the victim to over 60 types of bacteria known to exist in cat saliva.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects native birds from being killed or kept by people. Any person who willfully allows his or her cat to injure or kill migratory birds is, in effect, in violation of this federal law. While this may seem like an extreme interpretation of the law, the "sport" hunting of wildlife by our well-fed pet cats is a waste of life.

[koja48]

Reckon I'll just keep right on live trapping them. Ferals/unidentified pets will leave; collared pets will either get a free bath or a free "perfume" application before release to go home. Persistent offenders will earn their owners an (or another) visit from the animal control officer (I love that municipal statute!).

[1GB]

Well there is plenty of SPORTSMEN, who believe feral cats are a huge problem in some areas, including mine.
So you delete my post because I spoke out against catching cats and attaching M80s to them?!

I believe they are a problem too, but excess cruelty is not sportsmen-like.

[moellermd]

I believe they are a problem too, but excess cruelty is not sportsmen-like.


I am not much of a cat fan either. But I do believe you are correct.

[oldandnew]

I don't mind cats within reason, but they need to be controlled, fact is there are just to darn many! I don't want to shoot anybody's petcat,and the sad fact is that well fed sleep in the kids bed by night, is likely to be the biggest offender when it comes to songbirds and gamebirds. Quail in particular are walking banquets for cats. I won't cry any tears over the cats impact on raptors, since the mantel of Federal protection was bestowed upon raptors, you can't pass a fence post without seeing a hunting hawk of some variety. There are quite a few of those which are highly efficient songbird and gamebird predators as well. Can't leave out the coons, possums, skunks, weasels, minks, foxes et. al. which collectively do a number on nesting gamebirds. We need to make a choice,lack of habitat makes the birds more vulnerable, protection of predators either privately or governmental tilts the table in favor of the predators. We used to have government trappers!

[kansasbrittany]

I am not much of a cat fan either. But I do believe you are correct.

I'm with you guys on this one! I also feel feral cats should be exterminated. However, M-80's on cats....really? I won't get into how I feel about that from a moral stand-point b/c I'll get kicked off the site, BUT as an outdoorsman and member of the site I ask that you please not post things of this nature; be it here or on any other site, you're not doing us any favors.


I ask that if any of you decide to exterminate me that you do so quickly. Don't use me for entertainment before dispatching me:thumbsup:

[FCSpringer]

So you delete my post because I spoke out against catching cats and attaching M80s to them?!

I believe they are a problem too, but excess cruelty is not sportsmen-like.


I thought you were trying to take this thread to a argument again just like last time. Calling people horrible sportsmen I believe should do the job of leading to that. If you wish to take this to further discusion please do it via PM instead of public arguing that will not be tollerated as the rules state. I agree as said also problem animals should be dealt with humainly.

[FCSpringer]

I saw no post of M 80 nature, and agree as well about cruelity and posting it. I also saw the way this subject went before. The first time someone calls another out it goes down hill to a big bashing session. Forgive me if you feel Violated. Not my intention, just trying to my best ability to avoid conflict.