What cats do when we’re not looking

Bells on collars work, as does switching cats on to a premium, high-protein food diet, and giving them mental stimulation by playing with them in the morning. “Changing the cat’s food can reduce the amount of wildlife they kill by over a third,” says McDonald. “And playing with your cat, more than a quarter. These are positive actions for the cat that also have a positive outcome on their behaviour.”

https://www.birdsbesafe.com/

I have a cat that's an expert hunter, and he now wears one of those collars daily. The collar has reduced his catch to essentially zero (maybe 1-2 birds / year).

It lost connection pretty regular, probably because she crawled thru some bushes or undergrowth. The battery lasted only 1 day, so every day we needed to catch her (In summer she doesn't come home except for maybe 1 hour a day or so?) and recharge the collar. The battery is not removable, so you have to take the whole collar from the cat and put it on again later. This was pretty annoying and we definitely got some scratches from her.

Though now I have a KML file with over 1mm data points, so this is very cool. But in the end the battery capacity was annoying and the daily recharge was too much of a hassle, so we didn't renewed our subscription.

They seem to have a new tracker generation, maybe the battery problem is already fixed? I don't know.

I'd have to walk a half mile to get a neighbor in rifle range; we need outdoor catS, plural, to keep the rodent population dented around the house. It doesn't "keep mice out" to have 3 cats around, but it noticeably reduces their numbers and comfort level when they come after the sacks of feed.

We're down to one cat this summer, and she's aged past much hunting but is too dignified and settled for us to upset her with new kittens.

> The RSPB says there is “no clear scientific evidence” that cats are causing bird populations to decline, but there is a perception among some British bird-lovers that cats are a menace and should be kept indoors. (In countries where cats are not a native species, such as Australia and New Zealand, they can have a devastating impact on wildlife.)

> “I do feel that cats are an easy target,” says Bradshaw. “Skyscrapers kill more birds than cats do. But you don’t see people standing outside the factories where glass is made, saying: ‘You’re bird-killers.’”