I hate barn cats!!!!!

[JokerGirl]

Last night after buying a pair of tree pruners, I decided to go around pruning stuff away from the trunks of the trees in the yard. I began whacking away some mulberry from an apple tree and accidentally disturbed a Mourning Dove's nest inside the mulberry. At that point, I decided to stop clipping and leave it alone as there were two babies there with maybe another week or two until they were booted out.

Well... today, I was walking by it and there's feathers all over the ground. A predator had gotten up in the nest, torn it apart, one baby was obviously gone/dead, and another was lying in the ground.

I've dealt with this before, so I made a makeshift nest out of an old gladware container, put as much of the old nest in it, tied it to the tree and set the baby up there. I also filled the container with old grass clippings that had been in the sun all day to try to keep the bird warm until the parents came back.

Not within five minutes after leaving it, I go to water a tree, and I see our neighbour's orange barn cat jumping into the apple tree.

I scared it off, and my neighbour is watching for it with his pellet gun... but geezus christ... neighbour says if he didn't know it was owned by someone, he'd get his .22 out and shoot it.


The parents did come back to the nest, but at this point as soon as it gets dark I can almost guarantee you the cat will be back up in there.


I took the clippings from last night and tried to section everything off with the brush, but cats are good at getting into things anyways.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Here's the baby BTW

[IMG][/IMG]

[Randall_James]

careful you will make the cat lovers mad.......(easily offended group ya know)

[Gawain1974]

Originally posted by Randall_James
careful you will make the cat lovers mad.......(easily offended group ya know)

Hehe, you should have seen how the cat people reacted here when they considered opening a hunting season on feral cats.

[Nina51]

i feel your pain. it's not that i don't like cats, i just don't like cats getting into the wild birds.

from what i can see, his flight feathers are not nearly developed enough for him to be out on his own. there is virtually no chance that this baby will survive in the makeshift nest, as you already know. there is also pretty much no chance of it surviving without it's parents so bringing him inside won't help. you might try contacting a rehabber if there are any in your area.

a lot of people will say for pete's sake, it's just a silly bird and doves are everywhere, hardly endangered, but i would be as upset as you are if this was happening in my yard.

[dc]

LOL, well I wish a cat would come and get this baby bunny out of my garage. He's obviously been in there quite awhile. There is little baby bunny turds all over the place. I've seen him a couple times, will fit in the palm of my hand, but I want him out...

[Nina51]

JG, scroll down to indianapolis, there are several rehabbers in that area. some specialize in birds of prey or raccoons (go figure! eww) but somebody at one of these should be able to point you in the right direction should you decide to go that route.

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactA.htm

[Randall_James]

Is actually pretty funny how that happened, it did happen to me as well... and today no less.. and another morning dove too...

I was trimming bushes around the back of the house and this magnolia thing, well dang if there was not a dove with a nest (2 eggs) right at eye level... Just as I was turning around to leave, the dove broke loose and scared the bejesus out of me... I doubt you will find much in the way of Rehabs for the dove, they can be domesticated but they are regulated by state law in most areas (they are legal game birds) Call your local game and fish dept see if they can advise you

You know they are pretty good eating.... (a bit larger is better )

[davidryder]

Well I'm not a cat lover, in fact I don't really care for them. I'm a dog lover

Although I don't understand why the bird is valued over the cat. What if it was the other way around? Cats being hunted by birds hahaha

In return of the cat doing what it has to survive you have decided to hunt it - not to survive, but to continue to appreciate wild birds. Who will hunt you?

[dc]

Too deep there David.

[davidryder]

Dangit!! I tried not to get deep... oh well

What I meant to say was those darn cats!!!

[jenlovesty]

Originally posted by Randall_James
careful you will make the cat lovers mad.......(easily offended group ya know)

I am a cat lover, but I dont think cats should be left outside. Cats like to kill for fun and are a threat to wildlife. We dont let our cats outside, but we do have a screened porch that they hang out on most of the day. At least once a week I have to take a lizard from my siamese because she caught it. I dont let her kill the lizards. They get bored and like to play with them until they have a heart attack. So any time they catch one, I have to chase them around until the drop it. But of I let her, she would love to kill the blue bird nest right outside. We have alot of outdoor cats in our neighborhood. I think it should be illegal to let your cat roam personally.

[JokerGirl]

Sorry for the late replies, I went to bed after I posted this.

I'm sorry if I offended any cat lovers, but that's also why I said barn cats because in the country they are a little bit of a different story. I don't hate ALL cats, but I don't think they should be allowed to roam outside. They do pose a threat to most of the wildlife around here..... and generally in the country the rules are if it's on my property it's fair game, even though I would never personally kill any any animal. My neighbour, the one who said he would shoot it, owns 4 cats, but they stay indoors.

Nina,

thanks for the website, but it's okay. My avian vet will actually take in stranded wildlife if need be. When I came home from the movies last night, the baby was still in the makeshift nest and one of the parents were sitting on him. I'll go outside in a few minutes here to see if he's still alright. It was a rehabber that told me how to make a new nest for the birds outisde.

I've had hands on experience with hand feeding and rearing baby birds in the past (one was my own parrot), but he did have a full crop when I initially found him, so the parents were feeding him. Leaving it with the parents is always the best choice for a baby bird as outside it would be getting fed every 20 minutes.

[davidryder]

I hate bums

[coyoteseven]

Predator and prey... ... ... not always neat, clean, fair or kind.

It's been going on since the first microbes inhabited the universe and will continue until the end of time.

Mankind can try to control it, but will never stop it.

[Nina51]

Originally posted by coyoteseven
Predator and prey... ... ... not always neat, clean, fair or kind.

It's been going on since the first microbes inhabited the universe and will continue until the end of time.

Mankind can try to control it, but will never stop it.

i've pretty much stopped it on our 5 acres, at least as far as the bluebird nest boxes. stovepipe baffles and live traps are my friends.

[jenlovesty]

Originally posted by coyoteseven
Predator and prey... ... ... not always neat, clean, fair or kind.

It's been going on since the first microbes inhabited the universe and will continue until the end of time.

Mankind can try to control it, but will never stop it.

Yes but feral cats are OUR problem. We created the issue. Feral house cats are not a natural phenomenon. If you have an outdoor cat you should spay or neuter your animal so that the population of feral cats does not increase.

[JokerGirl]

Originally posted by jenlovesty
Yes but feral cats are OUR problem. We created the issue. Feral house cats are not a natural phenomenon. If you have an outdoor cat you should spay or neuter your animal so that the population of feral cats does not increase.

I couldn't agree with you more Jen. What we consider housecats did not exist on this continent before man. Yes, there are still other predators like birds, foxes etc... Feral cats have become a real problem to the natural wildlife in the world, thus it is not the natural order of predator and prey. They are a problem because of man, so it is up to man to control this problem in any means necessary.

I live on what used to be a farm, and everything around us is farmland. There is such an enormous problem with feral/barn cats around here that you wouldn't believe. The four cats that my neighbour has were strays from the neighbourhood. All four of them were not spayed/neutered. It is ridiculous how irresponsible people are with their animals. If I go home tonight, and that baby bird is no longer there, then the next time I catch the cat in my trash it'll probably be no more. Sad, but true.

[Nykademus]

I'm curious. Exactly what would you prefer that feral cats eat? Cats by nature are carnivorous and since man did, in fact, create the issue with feral cats, can we really expect them not to act accordingly?

I "have" a feral cat, actually. I have no idea where "she" came from, but I feed her so I no longer hear baby rabbits screaming from my back yard (ghastly sound) and she allows me to pet her, when she is feeling civil.

Honestly though, if she swore off commercial cat food for her own hunting spoils again, I dont think I would be inclined to interfere.

And for the record, the only mouse I have ever seen anywhere near my house is the one she brought me as a present last winter.

[Fat Man]

Couple of things. I try to avoid pruning until after nesting season. This way I avoid disturbing nests. What should a feral cat eat? My answer is nothing. We should do our best to remove feral cats from the ecosystem.

[coralnut99]

I'd really like to think I have all the bases covered in my situation, but I know we don't. We now have 3 semi-domesticated, mostly-outdoor, neutered male cats.

My wife and I were never "cat people". But when our home which borders a huge state forest, and is built on essentially an extension thereof, became a rodent magnet, we became cat people out of necessity at first. So we got "slash" from an irresponsible friend to control a REALLY serious mouse problem. The little buggers actually chewed thruogh the phone lines to the upstairs bedroom. We literally could not sleep at night since the little vermin would hold nightly drag races in the attic right above our bed. There were even more issues, but you get the picture. We had slash neutered, and fed her regularly, but her home was outside, and she knew her job and took it seriously. Mice disappeared, Chipmunks and squirrels went deeper into the woods and we could now grow strawberries in the garden, and the skunks no longer considered our shed the best place to raise their litter. The bad side...........slash would regularly leave us a bird carcass on the doorstep. I'm normally in tune to the fact that what goes on in nature isn't always pretty, but this was hard to take.

When Slash passed away prematurely because of a heart abnormality, we thought long and hard about replacing her. But when the midnight drag races in attic started again, and I had to go to work sleep-deprived, the answer wasn't hard to figure out. We replaced slash with three male cats from a shelter, that we also had neutered. When you go to a shelter with your kids try to bring home just one cat! Besides they actually made a real flock for our German shepherd to look over! These guys are nowhere near as prolific as slash was, but have kept the rodent population in check. We only see one or two bird carcasses a year now, when it was almost a weekly thing. Our German Shepherd is extremely protective of "the flock" and won't let occasional ferral /stray cats anywhere near the others.

But the one or two bird carcasses we still see aren't easy to get over. But in our case the choices aren't too great.

[spoiledcats]

If I go home tonight, and that baby bird is no longer there, then the next time I catch the cat in my trash it'll probably be no more. Sad, but true.

I find it somewhat disturbing that you think nothing of killing a cat who is just trying to survive, but have a problem with a cat killing a bird. I don't like when any animal kills any other animal, but I don't see the need to then kill that animal for doing what is natural. Let's say a fox got the bird-would you then kill the fox if you saw it on your property? I don't care if you are a cat person or not, why is a bird's life more valuable than a cat's?

[Nina51]

Originally posted by spoiledcats
I find it somewhat disturbing that you think nothing of killing a cat who is just trying to survive, but have a problem with a cat killing a bird. I don't like when any animal kills any other animal, but I don't see the need to then kill that animal for doing what is natural. Let's say a fox got the bird-would you then kill the fox if you saw it on your property? I don't care if you are a cat person or not, why is a bird's life more valuable than a cat's?

i think jenlovesty said it best. feral cats are a manmade problem. obviously, humans can't do anything about a fox killing a wild bird unless the fox was a house pet in which case, it shouldn't be allowed outside for anything other than potty time or supervised play, much like a responsible dog or cat owner does.

i think it's a no-brainer than cats kept indoors are obviously healthier and live longer lives than cats allowed to roam outside where they are likely, sooner or later, to meet an untimely death either by vehicle, disease or by the dog that the irresponsible owner lets run loose.

it's a no-win situation. feral cats and irresponsible pet owners are a fact of life and will be forever.

[Aliie]

I just wish people would stop driving down my dirt road to drop off thier unwanted cats. Somehow they end up at my house and I have the exspence of feeding them and getting them fixed to revent more cats. I have in the past gotten them fixed and then taken them to the animal shelter just because it's easier to adopt out a cat that has already been fixed. Still doesn't help the number of cats I end up with at my house. The bigger problem is the ferrel cats that must be trapped and cannot be adopted. Those I hate to send to the shelter becasue I know it will be terminated but when they start hurting the others and it costs outragous amounts of money for abses bites and other wounds I have no choice. I don't like it but I have to do it.

[Randall_James]

Feral cats will kill off the baby rabbits? dang never thought about that part.... you know how many hundreds of dollars we spend on flowers that the lousy rabbits eat? Send me the feral cats then..... I will video the hunt and with the money we make off pay per view, we can start feeding someone else's feral cats, (I want mine to LOVE bunny)

[dkh0331]