Keeping cats away

[Wiper]

Live-catch pressure-plate activated cat trap. Bait with a tin of tuna or salmon. Once Mr whiskers has been caught, soak the hell out of with the hose for a good few minutes. Let it out of the trap, kick it up the ass & chase it out of the garden. In 20yrs of bird keeping, once a cat has had 'the treatment' that particular cat has never come back.

I'm not a cat fan, but saves killing some poor kids beloved pet.

[finchbreeder]

Used to do that till the trap eventually wore out having been used by us and all our mates. While 50% of cats get the message we found 5o% were thick and came back. And that is over a 20 year period so a very large sample. Now it easier to get a possom trap from the council.
LML

[Tiaris]

In my view if someone else's beloved cat is killing my beloved birds and the local wildlife, they have clearly failed the test as to who a responsible pet owner & therefore don't warrant consideration.

[VR1Ton]

Live-catch pressure-plate activated cat trap. Bait with a tin of tuna or salmon. Once Mr whiskers has been caught, soak the hell out of with the hose for a good few minutes. Let it out of the trap, kick it up the ass & chase it out of the garden. In 20yrs of bird keeping, once a cat has had 'the treatment' that particular cat has never come back.

I'm not a cat fan, but saves killing some poor kids beloved pet.

I had neighbours years ago, had 3 cats (and 3 kids), 1 never left the front verandah, one wouldn't go more than 20 feet from the house, the other spent half its time in my yard (on acreage mind you), spoke to them about it several times, and gave them the warning, it won't come home, hit it a couple of times with the daisey, would run about 10 feet and turn around, so after losing $1400 in a week, it got the 22, never came back after that. Current neighbours, I have returned it a couple of times, but it no longer goes in the trap, only because it was their daughters who has passed, is the only reason it is still alive. People who don't control their animals, don't deserve them.

[E Orix]

After having a major problem with the people over the roads cat the problem was solved when it suddenly disappeared.
I was totally innocent but coped the blame and amongst other authority visits one was the RSPCA officer.
While she didn't want me to dispatch them she gave me some good advice for here anyway.
Simply catch them and call the ranger and will collect them, the owners will be contacted and hit with $145 fine
second offence $300 and I guess upwards. In her experience if a 3rd time came up the cat most likely wouldn't be
claimed and end of cat.

[arthur]

Great bit of advice . . and if this is an Australia-wide L-G policy, it should be adopted by aviculturists everywhere

Win-win for all . . bar

[Tiaris]

After having a major problem with the people over the roads cat the problem was solved when it suddenly disappeared.
I was totally innocent but coped the blame and amongst other authority visits one was the RSPCA officer.
While she didn't want me to dispatch them she gave me some good advice for here anyway.
Simply catch them and call the ranger and will collect them, the owners will be contacted and hit with $145 fine
second offence $300 and I guess upwards. In her experience if a 3rd time came up the cat most likely wouldn't be
claimed and end of cat.

I also had a phone call from an RSPCA inspector once (years ago) who said she had heard that I had dispatched the odd cat. To which I confirmed that was indeed the case. She then asked was I aware of the anti-cruelty laws & penalties, to which I said absolutely & I support those laws 100% but had never been cruel to an animal in my life and never will. She said, "That's good then" & hung up.

[Budgie_Smugglers]

Try 52 cats in one year on for size (2014) !!!
One for every week of the year !!! .....Yep, that's right.
Before i got my first birds, i couldn't remember the last time i saw a cat in my street.
I was truly convinced all the neighbours were dog lovers....I was wrong.
If that wasn't enough, i had all the butcher birds to deal with.
You're not going to catch em all.

Prevention is the only way as others have mentioned !
Electric fences, double wire fronts (a gap,then another mesh screen), a pet dog or even your own pet cat can deter others on your property.
I boxed in my whole outdoor sitting area with qubelock aluminium frame and bird netting to keep everything out !...except the mice

[Tiaris]

I only get 1 or 2 a year now, but I am in a rural area. I only set the trap when I see the tell-tale sign of a pile of feathers from an unfortunate Eastern Rosella, Wonga Pigeon or Bar-shouldered Dove. I then get the culprit & then don't notice any new piles of feathers for a while so I know I'm doing a good job in protecting the local wildlife & therefore managing my property. My aviaries these days don't allow cat predation on my captive birds due to their design but I see it as my duty to protect the wild birds here which I treasure every bit as much as my captive ones.

[BlackCobra]

Cats have been a nightmare here, my neighbor has 5 cats, so you can imagine how often they were on the aviaries, I have 2 German shepherds but the cats walk along fence & jump on aviaries, so I dug out my old electric fence, even after this was set up I still come out & find some wires had been stretched & bent up, so I approached the landlord to the rental house next door & asked if I could run a small bit of bird wire along the top of the fence, he agreed to me doing this, so I bent some inch square wire over like a A shape & fitted it in the screws that were already in the colourbond fence, the wire was about 9 inches high so the cats cant straddle the fence or walk along it, so since then I haven't heard any cats on the Aviaries so I think I fixed the problem.
But if it does start again I might have to dig my old cat trap out.