Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says

[JohnBrown1917]

Unless your cat is an indoor cat, I find it hard to believe that you have a halfway decent idea of exactly what it eats, unless you're following it around 24/7

I think it was obvious he ment his neigbourhood has no predators(besides cats) left.

[Kaganfindel]

Unless your cat is an indoor cat, I find it hard to believe that you have a halfway decent idea of exactly what it eats, unless you're following it around 24/7

I know roughly how many predatory birds were displaced when my lot and the adjacent lots were cleared. I know how many predators live here now. I know where my cat ranges on her nightly hunts (she goes out for a couple of hours at a time, and stays close to the house). I know what she kills because she brings it home and presents it to me every time.

These lots used to feed four predatory birds, two of whom fledged on them, and two of whom ranged during the day. Now no predatory birds hunt or live on these lots (I'm not going to count the buzzard that came down to claim the rat snake that died in our blueberry patch this year). I don't know how many snakes were here before the clearing, but now there are 1-3 rat snakes, down from 2-4 in previous years.

The cat competes with zero predatory birds for land that used to support four of them, plus whatever the owls fed their broods between hatching and fledging. She does not kill enough to support even one full grown predatory bird. The only animals with whom she currently competes for food are the snakes, who seem to be getting on fine (except for the one who died in our blueberry patch, which is on us rather than the cat). They generally eat mockingbird eggs while the thrashers are fledging, which is the only time the cat bags birds. When the birds aren't laying or fledging, the snakes eat moles and mice and anoles, and there are more than enough to go around of those. The two animals hunt differently, and she generally goes for ones too big for the snakes to handle anyway.

I know this neighborhood and its wildlife. I was here when it was cleared, so I'm pretty well aware of the animals we pushed out. I plant and put out food for specific sorts of wildlife, so I know what I'm inviting to live around me. I know when the cat goes out, and how many animals she kills (her totals are consistent with the study's findings for individual cats). I'm not just throwing a killer out into an environment I don't know; I'm using her to manage the distribution of species on our property. If she started to kill more than the lots could support, I'd adjust accordingly, but judging from the eclosure rates of the fritillaries this year, she could've done better on the birds. The butterfly population is in decline; the birds are not.

[Jotaux]

So I tried putting a collar with a bell on my cat last night. She spent about 2 hours trying to take it off before I caved and took it off her. Next time do I just leave it on her till she gets used to it? Do I just do it gradually, like a few hours at a time?

[Vanyali]

So I tried putting a collar with a bell on my cat last night. She spent about 2 hours trying to take it off before I caved and took it off her. Next time do I just leave it on her till she gets used to it? Do I just do it gradually, like a few hours at a time?

Gradually, yes. If she's treat motivated, distract her from it, give her food for not messing with it. Same thing if toy motivated. But the key is gradually and don't make a big deal of it, or let her freak too much about it

If she runs when it comes near now, for example, give her preferred motivation for being near it, not having it on. Stuff like that.