Over the past couple of years, I've taken a very keen interest in feeding the wild birds visiting my back garden. I take great interest & pleasure by watching a variety of birds paying us a visit. Even better, when my two soft dogs are out in the garden, the birds still come in and feed, dogs & birds totally indifferent to one another. It's a common sight for our German Shepherd, Sable, to be laid outside whilst numerous sparrows are hopping all round her on the ground! However, this wonderful serenity has now been interrupted by a cat. This past week, a particular cat has been coming into the garden, resulting in a huge drop off in the number of birds coming in to be fed. Unfortunately, the soft gentle nature of our dogs which is a positive thing with regards to the birds, is proving a negative aspect with regards to this cat. They show no aggression towards it, sometimes ignoring it completely! Now, this cat is an unwelcome visitor to our garden and I want to remove it and return to the bird friendly garden we had before. But, being an animal lover, I want to do so without any harm coming to the cat. So that discounts injuring or harming the cat, or doing anything that could also bring harm to my dogs & visiting birds. Has anyone got a practical suggestion which doesn't result in death, destruction & maiming of said feline, please?
I am surprised your German Shepherd dogs aren't deterring the cat.......I had same dog breed and she was awesome at "bossing" her territory.
Never seemed to bother our dogs too much. However if you spread it around teh edge of your garden or along fences where cats climb over then the dogs probably wouldn't be that bothered.
None that I'm aware of. We used to have it on rags tied to sticks around the edge of the garden, dogs weren't bothered by it and still had birds, although we did have a decent sized garden. obviously the dogs were in the garden and not fussed about the boundaries so they tended to stay away from the areas that the Renardine was anyway. Hence a bigger garden helps. Not sure where to get it at the moment. always used o be garden centres i think.
Ours is a small, former yard. The cat in entering via our brick wall & the roof of what was once, many years ago, a large outhouse used for storing coal . What my late Father would've called a "Coyl Oyl". Provided there were no problems for our pets & wildlife, it may well be worth considering. Thank you, mate.
Had the same problem, though of late a couple of neighbours who had cats have sold up (so you could try driving the neighbours with cats out!!!) The water pistol is the only thing that works. Get a supersoaker with the best distance on it you can and bring out your inner child!!! best £10 we ever spent... though when workmen visit and i see a cat from the kitchen... they obvious think i have issues!
Just found this aswell, bit of an updated twist to the water pistol mentioned earlier. http://www.cat-repellant.info/html/scarecrows.htm
Big Lil, depending on the size of the garden, take 2 or 3 empty (clear) plastic pop bottles. Half fill them with water and leave them at random places in the garden, on their sides, where the cats will pass. God knows how it works but cats hate them (something to do with reflections ?)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100045788/keeping-cats-out-of-your-garden/ A few years old but lots of options for you
I bought a sonic scarer type machine from Wentworth Garden Centre last year. It is battery powered and has different settings for cats, rabbits, birds etc on a dial on the front. It is extremely effective as I was having problems with a field rabbit digging up my plants and cats crapping on the lawn. I positioned it at the bottom of the garden (it is good up to 10 metres and comes with a mounting spike) and never had another problem.