General Chat

Maureen I agree about the cat poo. It annoys me too. I am forever cleaning up cat poo from my neighbours three cats. I have three too and they use my back garden, which is fine, my cats, my problem. But neighbours cats use my front garden because she has one of these ultra sonic cat repellers outside her house.

Like my mum said about our cat when it was a kitten, 'that animal's going to grow up to be a right little beast!'

A few years ago I saw a cat collar advertised. It had an electronic device in it which let out a sound to scare birds way as soon as the cat jumped. I think it was about £12.00.( I don't know if they are still available as sadly we are catless thanks to a careless car driver) Chris

Two out of my four cats wear collars with bells on.. I honestly dont think it makes a difference as the one with the bell that goes out catches most birds/mice... Although it is cruel (as seen through our eyes) it is natural selection..Nature.. I also had a cat hang itself from a tree, luckily a neighbour found him in time, not all collars are 'snap' type, although i think they should be.. LOU xxx Ps. i do often manage to save some of the birds/mice brought back, and will always take them off the cats....x

Try putting a collar on Dooley and he will remove it before you can put the Sticking Plaster on your hands.

Re your thread posting Valerie, yes, we do already (we have 5 of them). We also keep them indoors of a morning sometimes, at this time of year, for that reason. Mind you, I'll always be confused by an ex-colleague of mine, who supports hunting with hounds. She said to me on more than one occasion how much she hates cats, because they hunt birds. Mmm, still trying to work the logic of that one out.

I have tried a collar on my cat but he became very sore underneath it, even though it was the right measurement, and we had to take it off him. I have not seen the snap ones that Diana mentioned but they sound a lot better. My old ginger cat never caught any animals and used to lie on the bird table as the birds happily pecked their food around him though the Swallows would dive bomb him if he walked near their nests. He caught a mouse by it's tail once then fell asleep holding it and we released it. The only animal he brought in was a frozen bird he found in the garden. I absolutely hate it when the cat we have now catches anything, especially birds when they are young which fortunately he doesn't do too often. Lorrainex

I have 3 cats, all used to wear collars and bells. That is until one was nearly hanged by its collar getting trapped in a branch - and yes it was the proper expanding type collar. None are collared now. But my cats are trained to poop in their tray - which is indoors - regardless of whether they are out of the house or in, and also not to venture into neighbouring gardens. Training combined with tall fences and lots of interesting things for cats to do in their own gardens does work. My cats are happy, healthy, and not a pest to my neighbours. None of my cats have ever caught a bird or mouse, all are fit and lean. And I have wild bird feeders in my garden which are well used by the local wild bird population without fear at times of day when my cats are inside. So it can be done. Angela

oh I agree Glenys its terrible Fox hunting , and I dont just mean the kill, the hunt must be so frightening for the poor things. Grown people should know better , I am sorry if Cats have died from their Collars thats terrible as I said I love animals , and would hate to have that happen to a pet of mine.

Oh dear, I have a confession to make. Um, our 5 cats don't have those snap-off collars anymore; they were using them up, on average one a week; started to cost us a fortune! So now we have the elasticated ones, of course, but ones that are secure. It's hard sometimes knowing what to do for the best, isn't it. For now though, the birds have the upper hand - er, wing. :-)

Our cats had collars from when they were little. At first, we used to pu bells on them. After the 4th replacement, we agve up. They had somehow learned to remove the collar with the bell on, so it was of no use at all lol They don't bother with the ones without. I don't mean to disregard your comments, but it's just a funny story I thought I'd add :) I totally agree that cats should wear bells, especially in areas where birds nest. The birds where I live now have stopped coming in our garden for feed as the local cat has decided our fence is a nice place to sit :( We used to get loads of birds - almost every species found in suburban gardens. Now we just get an overweight pidgeon, a couple of squirrels, and the odd brave blackbird. I hope they'll come back some day. They were lovely to watch on a morning.

Teresa, loved your story! Made me chuckle. x

Angela in Kent - I wish more cat owners were like you. We don't have a problem with cats in our back garden as our dogs see them off if they dare so much as jump on the fence, but the front garden is a different matter - they poo all over it and once I came home to find cat pee all over my door step! It's really not nice, especially if the Postman manages to tread it all up the door step. If I allowed my dogs to poo all over someone elses garden I would be in trouble - I do think some cat owners need to be more responsible when they live in a built up area and train their cats to use litter trays. I agree with the bell on the collar too - it might be natural for a cat to kill a bird, but with so many domestic cats these days it has become out of balance. Kaye x

My cats when I had them (three at one time) all had the ordinary collars on with extra bells from the petshop and only occasionally did I have a bird brought in (two or three at most ) and I never found any evidence of them killing birds. Mostly they stayed in my garden too, except for one who would sit outside to greet all her admirers. I sometimes wonder if cats visit other homes the people there remove the collars cos they don't agree with them. Mine rarely lost a collar and if they did it soon was put back through the letter box because of the tag on it.