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What is the best way to harass free roaming cats that stalk our bird feeders?
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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Perhaps try raising your feeders above their jump height? Although that may be a tall order.
Birds are messy eaters, they knock the seeds to the ground and half the time there's more eating off the ground as off the feeder.
True. Natural selection it is, then. Bird side first, then cat side when the raptors show up.
Pun intended?
Didn't fall short, that's for sure
I see what you did there. LoL.
The lowest feeder is about 6', and the highest is about 8'. I might be mistaken, but I don't see these overfed felines jumping that high. I'm pretty sure they're lazy hunters and wait for the birds to come down to their level.
Hmm, yeah that's pretty high. I agree, hunted from the ground when they're after the scattered feed.
Others have suggested planting things cats don't like, and that may work. Now I'm wondering if one can plant enough catnip they would be too high to care, or perhaps just too high to hunt well. Dunno.
Either way this situation highlights an important ecological lesson: add food to a system and different niches will show up to consume it. That being said, cats are obviously a very human addition to ecosystems.
Tangential note: this reminds me of the Love, Death, Robots episode with the Scottish farmer and the rats in his barn. Was on Netflix last I saw it. 5/5, fun and quick.
PPS: When the protected birds show up to do the same as the cats, I'd advise you to leave them be. Taking one of those down is a felony, I believe.
Definitely planning on adding some plants to the garden that might help us out here.