I have one very old tree in my yard that the birds nest in and sleep in.
I feed the birds here and many eat from my hands.
This week I have woken up to 3 dead birds in my yard .Not eaten just torn to bits .
The back steps stink of cat piss.
I've never seen the cat !
My neighbours don't have cats and if the birds are not bring eaten it would appear it's a pet cat out at night.
So I need to get rid of this cat with out hurting it and I can't catch it and hand it in to you know where , because this could cause issues . I just need the cat gone out of my yard.
I've come up with an idea to frighten the hell out of it with out hurting it.
My plan is to nail rat traps all around the trunk of the tree about half way up and then set them!
It won't kill him ,but he will get a good bite from the rat traps and should send him running less a junk of fur.
I can't think of any other way and I really wish people who had cats would not let them out out nights ...their killing machines from lizards to birds.
Wish I big dog in my yard!

Hire a possum trap and put a bowl of tinned salmon in as bait. Then drive the trapped cat about 200km and then let it go. Hopefully the cat is too stupid to navigate its way home.

Can't it would live in the bush and become feral...
Hate being in this position due to some cat owners who can't lock them up at nights .

Catch it with the possum trap and put a bell on it using hardened bowden cable inner wire and a steel crimp (so it can't be removed)

I've long suspected a cat took out that tawny frogmouth owl I've told you about

That may work and the owners may get the message if it comes home wearing bells .. ... I dont want to hurt it ,Only stop it

I have owned both cats and dogs over the years, and the cats were kept inside for 3 main reasons: protection of wildlife, avoidance of fleas and to keep them away from the road.

There's a semi-resident cat at the workshop complex who seems to keep the place rodent free. However he/she has a bad habit of taking a dump on the concrete outside my workshop's door -- first cat I've ever known not to dig a hole and bury its poop. This usually happens at around 2am as witnessed by my CCTV system.

Following a tip, I now regularly spray a mixture of citronella oil (aka Hawaiian lamp fuel at Bunnings) and water around the boundary of my workshop and it's done the job. Cats hate citrus, so they avoid anything with a citrous smell. The mix I use is 20% citronella oil to 80% water. Needs to be shaken well before applying as the oil and water naturally separate in the spray bottle. I add a bit of metho to help the oil mix with the water for the duration of the spray.

Environmental vandalism is owning a bloody cat and we have seen some huge feral cats here. There are a few sheep & cattle drenches added to milk that will cure the problem. Where I am, depending on the range, "peppered cat", is a wonderful contribution to maintaining my population of Lizards, Frogs, Nesting Ducks, Rainbow Bee Eaters, Fairy Wrens, Antechinus & others. These killers should not be running around loose.

Foxes are just as bad. From memory from brother, who keeps them down, this years tally is around forty as Comrade Daniel is breeding them, Pigs & Deer in his Game parks. (amendment 41: Pays to keep your mouth shut, if your a fox in the sheep paddock)

As an avid cat lover (at 200 metres) anything to get rid of a feral, or roaming cat is good for the environment. You would not get away with it now, but there was a real estate guy here with a morbid hatred of cats, to the point that he kept a rifle in the car & if he saw a stray cat, it was a goner.

Being in the city is an issue. However, a lady in the Lab I worked in, absolutely could not stop this tom cat spraying the front door and didn't it stink. The only way to eventually fix the problem, other than despatching it, was to rope off the porch, hose it & attach one of the low power electric fence units to the fly wire. Fastest cat I have ever seen, albeit the kick start probably helped: Problem solved.

Despite the Laws, they are still out in the wild, wreaking havoc & its a mammoth task to eradicate them. There is a book written on "101 uses for a dead cat".

Possum has its own box in the 100+ year old Chaff shed.

Hi G ,, Ive never heard of that. It may be worth a go . The cat only comes at night, Its really bad. it absolutely stinks of piss around the back steps and the dead birds have really made me cranky, I do intend to get a dog when a Good Border Collie or black tan Kelpie pops up somewhere.
I understand its the owner's fault and I won't hurt any animal , Unless I needed to eat it and I don't cats

Pete

I have never owned a Cat, Ive owned lots of Horses and Dogs and once I had a Cockatoo for many years called George.

I would not own a cat , Way too many problems

it absolutely stinks of piss around the back steps

As you probably know, male cats mark their territory with urine. Unneutered males have very strong smelling urine and getting rid of that odour is quite difficult and you'll need to do that before any form of repellent has a chance to work.

There are products which aim to do that deodorizing and I have used one which actually worked, but I can't recall its name at the moment. It came in a tan coloured plastic bottle and I can't see any images of it on Google. I'll try to recall its name. It had a sort of petrochemical smell which was far stronger than the cat urine and, following a few applications of it, after its smell abated, there was no urine smell evident.

I would not own a cat , Way too many problems

In my experience, compared to dogs, they are low maintenance. However, as I said, they were kept indoors. They were Russian Blues which are accustomed by breeding to be indoor residents. Tradition has it they were bred to be ship's cats so are used to living in confined quarters. Also, the breed doesn't shed fur to any great extent.

On a hunch, I poked around in the garage and found a near-empty old bottle of the stuff I referred to.

It's called Ban-O-Dor and according to its label was made in Ermington by Glenbrook Laboratories, a division of Sterling Pharmaceuticals P/L which I see was acquired by SmithKline Beecham. Seems the product is no longer made.

PetBarn and such places will have various products but whether or not they work is the question. As I recall, I was originally put onto the Ban-O-Dor product by a cat breeder.

Thanks G, I will look it up and check it out.
Just hope I don't lose anymore birds until I can find a way to stop it happening.

Pete

I used to have 2 beautiful cats, but they disappeared one by one. I no longer have the time or interest to keep pets.

There's a young blue-tongue lizard that lives next to the electricity box, it isn't a "pet" as such, but each day I see it sunning itself.

Out at Hilltop there's lots of birds that come to feed, but I wouldn't call them pets either, they are just friendly wild birds.

As for feral cats, dogs, rabbits and foxes, yes they should all be shot.

Pete, cats will always be cats and dogs usually lose fights with cats because they don't like being scratched. If you don't want to release the cat after catching it (fair enough I reackon) it will have to be taken to the council to be put down. I don't know if councils resell them but if it is chipped they may hand the cat back to the owner with an infringement notice.