He is an excellent predator and causing devastation in the small animal community around the house.
Cats kill
one billion birds every year in the USA. They are a major factor in the declining populations of some species.
Cats should simply not be allowed to roam outside. If you have a completely enclosed area from which the cat cannot escape, then that's okay. But otherwise he should be kept indoors or taken out on a leash.
After all, you wouldn't let a dog run wild around the neighborhood, would you? Cats do far more damage to the ecosystem, even if they're less likely to bite the neighbors.
Just as most cities do not allow dogs to run loose, many are starting to enact ordinances that place the same restriction on cats.
Spend plenty of time with your cat, give him lots of toys, and let him watch birds through the window or buy him some kitty bird-and-rodent videos. He'll be fine.
In the last 2 weeks he killed 1 bat outside, 2 baby bunnies brought dead inside, 1 dead baby bird inside. . . .
See: he's not even doing it for food. Like dogs, domestic cats undergo (to a lesser extent)
neoteny, reversion to or retention of juvenile behaviors, and he's treating you like his momma.
. . . . and this evening we had to hunt a still live chipmunk in the house, because I assume he brought it in.
Chipmunks and other squirrel species are very fast and stealthy. He might have found his own way in. It happens all the time. You're lucky it wasn't a raccoon. Or a bear.
. . . . the dog being a terrier also a hunter for small animals
Depends on the breed; terriers were bred for different prey. Some chase them into their burrows and need to be pulled out, so they were bred for thick, strong tails.
So anybody has any good solution to save the small and cute animals outside from my very effective predator cat??? He even hunts the bugs inside the house, which is alright with me...
If you have a dog flap it's a cat flap too, so your options are very limited. We've always found that it's not the
number of animals in the family that makes your life a nightmare, it's the
number of different kinds. Whatever you do, don't ever try to have pet birds and pet dogs in the same house. For all the cliches about cats, it's actually dogs who kill more domestic birds. In 30 years, of all the aviculturists we've known, absolutely none of them ever had a cat kill a bird. But
every one of them had a dog kill at least one. Ours have killed five.
The bell idea is the best.
A cat very quickly learns to twist the collar so the bell is under his chin, then he presses on it to silence it. You have to get a collar with two bells on opposite sides. And then he might strangle himself trying to get out of it.
I dislike declawing cats, but this would remove one of your cats primary weapons.
Some cats don't seem to mind, but it drives others crazy. Probably depends on how the surgery is done. Find the best feline surgeon in your part of the state. Of course he might refuse to do it, just like most reputable vets nowadays won't debark dogs or dock their ears and tails.
you might try castrating the cat.
That will make no difference at all. Female cats kill just as many birds. That will keep him from chasing females (and then again it may not if he's in the habit), but it won't do anything to squelch his hunting instinct. Cats are predators. Period.
my sisters dog used to run off all the time until she had his nuts cut off.
He was running after the pheromones of the females in heat. And that is only likely to work if it's done when the dog is very young, like three months. Once a dog develops a behavior it's very difficult to retrain him. Some neutered males can even copulate and get a tie, they just can't impregnate. We had one.
Why do your dogs need their own door?
IF you have a fully enclosed yard so he can't get out, AND you have no raccoons or opossums or foxes or other scavengers to fight over the garbage and transmit rabies, AND you have no coyotes to kill him, AND you have a very active breed of dog who doesn't enjoy watching TV all day, it can be helpful to let him come and go as he pleases. Otherwise you're spending more time outside than you really want, and he's spending more time inside than he really wants.
