Thank-you SO much!!!
Laurie
----- Original Message -----
From: Board Mailbox
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: feeding birds and feral cats
When I was feeding ferals cats I had a problems with startlings as well.
They eat massive amounts of food. I never solved my problem but I found this
in the Bestfriends.org archives. I am including the whole question and answer
because they have some great suggestions for solving the problem of all kinds
of wildlife eating cat food. Hope it helps.
Renee
>>What about caring for feral cats when it affects wildlife?
Question from Laura:
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) seems like the best answer to solving the problem of
feral cat overpopulation; it is a way of humanely dealing with the feral crisis
and it works where traditional methods fail. However, there are serious
problems with the way caring for ferals affects indigenous wildlife. The
feeding stations attract raccoons, squirrels and other animals, creating
dependence on humans in these animals; in some places the colony population
goes up instead of down because people dump cats where they see them being
cared for, and the cats hunt already threatened birds and other native
wildlife. I am a strong and active proponent of TNR, but I am troubled by these
problems. What is the right thing to do?
Response from Sally:
Thanks for your question. These are issues I have gone over with myself quite
a bit and are not easy to resolve. I agree and believe that TNR is the best
long term and most humane way of solving the feral cat overpopulation problem.
The attraction of wildlife to cat feeders is difficult problem. It is hard to
exclude very many critters by limiting the size of the feeder's opening, as
anything smaller than a cat can get through.
One way I have found to exclude undesired diners is by trying to temporarily
manipulate the food presence. In other words, if nocturnal critters are the
unwanted diners, then try to avoid having any food present after twilight. The
cats will learn to eat during the day, especially if you begin the regime with
something very sexy to them, like canned food or tuna/canned meat.
If you have diurnal and nocturnal wildlife arriving at your feeders, you have
more complicated problem, depending on the species involved. I have situations
where starlings are eating me out of house and home during the day. I found I
could create a barrier that they were afraid to breach, like light cardboard
strips hanging over the feeder opening. This would probably not work for
mammals like squirrels though.
A raised platform on 4 legs, one at each outside corner of the platform, will
keep out dogs, but still allow raccoons, possums, mice and rats to climb up one
of the posts and access the food/water. To prevent this, design a raised
platform on just one, stable, central post. There will be a considerable
overhang lip of platform on all sides, making it impossible for non-jumping
climbers, such as the above-mentioned animals, to access. Cats are wonderful
jumpers and will have no problem leaping onto the platform to feed. Of course,
the central post will need to be imbedded in dirt or concrete so it won't
wobble!
Each situation requires a different selective barrier of one sort or another.
Sometimes you can only exclude the largest problem with your solutions, and
just accept that others will be freeloading.
In all instances, I recommend being extremely discreet about feeding. That
means keeping feeding paraphernalia hidden and out of view of the public. I
would reload my feeders at a time when folks are not around. If the cats are
truly feral, they will stay out of sight for the most part, especially during
the day when people are about. If your feeding operation is visible, it will
attract feline haters who will cause problems and also encourage people to dump
cats.
Although you hear a lot and very loud concerns about cats eating birds, in
fact, cats rarely are successful bird hunters. They are much better rodent
hunters. Most birds can avoid cats and those that don't are usually fledglings
or old/compromised birds. In the big picture, it is loss of habitat that is the
significant cause in bird population decline. Cats probably don't even register
on the radar screen as a significant cause of bird mortality. Documentation for
this is
available through Alley Cat Allies (www.alleycat.org), along with more
information about all aspects of your question.
Laura, you are doing the right thing! It is impossible to please everyone and
meet all needs. If only we lived in a perfect world... but then we would not
have feral cats at all! We can only dream of that day and do the best we can to
minimize suffering to domestic and wild animals.<<
In a message dated 12/08/07 12:01:12 Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 19:11:11 -0600
From: "laurieskatz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: feeding birds and feral cats
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: "Brubaker, Angela \[DOC\]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
I have a friend who feeds (and TNR) feral cat colonies. She has a new
problem. The starlings are eating the cat food. Has anyone encountered this?
Have suggestions for what works to feed cats, not birds?
thanks!
Laurie
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