cat problem - need help :(

[eLusive]

I live in a rental house, I have no shed, my animals are kept in an area under the house that is fenced off with 6ft fencing to keep my dogs from going near them. The fencing around the house is not cat proof and I have approached the landlord a number of times about the fencing, but he isn't interested in changing it. The underneath of my house enclosed, but there are multiple places (eg the car gate) that have holes large enough to get through if your a cat that can squeeze, have also approached the landlord about this, he doesn't want any meshing or additional fencing added. So there is nothing I can do about the structure of the place. I have sprayed the whole place with vinegar, multiple times. And I have my animals in secure cages, I had to go out and spend over $300 dollars buying all new cages. I have tried citronella in a spray bottle, vinegar in a spray bottle, and numerous other things that people have suggested. In the traps I have tried cheese, every type of cat food known to man, raw meat, chicken bits, dead mice etc etc etc. It just keeps trying to attack the animals through the cages. I have a dog, but she will not chase it because I trained her not to when i first got her.

Also before anyone else has a go at me, I'm not going to kill the dam thing. I just want it off my property. I would also like if the owners would compensate me for my lose, but I doubt that will ever happen. Atm I'm just trying to keep it off my property and away from my animals. I would love to catch the dam thing and give it to the RSPCA, but I'm having no luck. I have door knocked trying to find out where it lives, I have had no luck. I live in a suburban area, so in all reality it could be coming from anywhere.

I am furious with it and its irresponsible owners, but unless it got bitten harder than I thought from my dog then its still happily out their murdering everything.

I have had to send all my pets away at this stage, just to keep them safe... I will be setting traps in the garden, and putting dirt on the wire like people suggested. and I guess just trying chicken and meat and stuff to see if I can get it to go into the trap. I can only borrow the cage for a couple of days at a time, which makes it hard, but I guess thats the only thing I can keep trying at this stage... Thanks everyone for your suggestions...

Hey Ash; if the cats gunning for your mice, why not buy-out a local petstore.. should cost around $20 or something. Grab a heap of fencing if it's council pickup in your area... if not, go grab some cheap stuff from bunnings.

Make up an enclosure in an enclosure; put the mice in a small enclosure that's in the middle of a larger enclosure, and make sure the larger enclosure has a single point of entry.
Shave away a few mm's of the top surface of dirt before putting hte larger enclosure down, then cover the floor with dirt (as suggested by a previous poster RE the trap)

Make up a pressure pad out of some paper (grab two A4 sheets and line one side of each sheet with alfoil. Separate them by a concertina folded strip of paper, so that it keeps a couple mills of gap between the two.). Run some cable from one of the alfoil sides to the negative of the battery. Then, run a wire from the positive of the battery to one of the sides on the buzzer, and then the other side of the buzzer to the other alfoil sheet.
Ie. a massive bloody switch.
Dig an A4 sized pit thats a few mills deep near the entry of the cage (somewhere the cat would stand when entering), and put the buzzer inside the house (somewhere the cat wont hear it). Cover the pressure pad with a light layer of dirt. It might be smart to glue some dirt to the top side of the pressure pad prior to setting it up, to make sure it wont be accidentally activated by putting dirt ontop.

So, what you should have is a large-ish cage with a decent sized entry point, flush with the floor. When the cat enters the cage, it'll set off your buzzer in our house (so you dont have to be monitoring your trap constantly). When you hear the buzzer, you can rush down and seal off the entry.
Because your mice are in another enclosure, hopefully the cat won't be able to get to it. Besides, if it feels entrapped, it mighten go for the mice.

That's the best trap I can come up with... just remember that cable ties and duct tape are your best friend when building the larger trap.
Once you get the cat, you can call the RSPCA to come out. You can sedate it somehow, or you catch it in a bag and transfer it to one of those travel cages so you can take it to the RSPCA yourself

 

[Sinners121]

Killing cats is fine, provided you have the (primitive) mental capacity of an instinctual creature, rather than that of an intelligent person.

I would say that it is just like a snake killing a mouse, however it's not. It meets no real need and is seemingly done for either spite or pleasure.

Although it is often assumed, the ability of speech ≠ intelligent thought. But for some reason, most rights are designed for humans (who often do not deserve them).

i see no logic in the post quoted.

the cat has killed over 400$ worth of mice due to a failed owner. it is not a native animal so as suggested try some unusual traps and then travel it around the neighbourhood until you find the owner and sue for lost money, time ect

 

[Skelhorn]

A good tip. Go to your local gun store and buy a sling (sling shot). A ballbearing shot from that into its head will drop it instantly! I hate cats. Hate them...More so I hate people that can't control their animals. By laws cats are not allowed to "roam free" at the night, so personally if I ever found one on my property that did that damage I would be getting a sling shot and putting a metal ball through its head!

 

[Snowman]

If you had any balls you wouldn't choose such a sly, sick way to kill someones pet.

Dont know what you are talkin about? I have no interest in starting a war with the neighbours just because they let their cat roam. I've found people who let their cats roam have no interest in keeping them off my property. I also have no interest in disposing if the carcus or watching it die. I poison mice as they are not welcome on my property either. Again I poison them for the same reason I poison cats.
Sly? yep, Sneaky? yep, effective? yep, problem solved? yep. So suck it ya sook! It's easy and works for me. Yes I could smash the cat with an iron bar then stick the head on a spike in my front yard. That would be the ballsy approach you speak of? But really I cant be assed getting that involved. I just want the thing off my land.
Previous to the APS cat lovers telling me about the lilly poison, I used to just trap em and put em in a pillow case with a brick and take em fishing with me. Thanks for who ever posted about their cat eating lilly's

Ive noticed that after the cat dies they get a kitten which they keep inside. Once it's old enough to roam it would have met the same fate.

If one of my snakes escaped and met a shovel on their property I'd only have myself to blame. Why some cat owners feel that it's okay to have a roaming pet I will never understand.

if killing someones pet means I have one more motorbike frog or one more banjo frog in my garden then it was worth it to me and the native frogs in my garden.

 

[Boidae]

if killing someones pet means I have one more motorbike frog or one more banjo frog in my garden then it was worth it to me and the native frogs in my garden.

And let's not forget the native birds, reptiles and small mammals.

 

[Snowman]

Agreed! Just cause we are in suburbia, it doesnt mean we can't create havens for the remaining native fauna. I'm fortunate that the people who had the cat that was always in my back yard (which died) have sold their house. The new owners just have a staffy. The other side has a big old cat, but it seems to struggle getting over the fence so doesnt visit very often and I'm fine with letting it be.

 

[Bluetongue1]

The particular cat in question is lacking a registration tag (no collar) and behaves in a manner consistent with a long-term stray i.e. well on the way to being feral. So it is clearly not some-one’s beloved pet. Pampered pussy cats do not simply leave home and not return. The most likely scenario in this case is that the cat in question had its identifying collar and rego removed and was dumped.

The most desirable course of action is to trap it and relinquish it to the appropriate authorities. It will no doubt be euthanized as I cannot see it being micro-chipped and even if it was, the owners are not going to fork out money for a cat they no longer want and that is 3 parts wild. Having said that, I believe the cat has already more than established sufficient nuisance value to warrant its immediate termination. We have heard what it is capable of in just two nights – multiple one of those by 7 then x 4, and that’s just one month. Humane dispatching is doing the local natives and other householders in the area a favour.

You should be able to hire a proper trap free from your local council. You could try baiting it with live mice in a small cage. Then run some loose chicken wire from the front corner of the trap around the back of it, about 1m out, to the other front corner. Only the open front of the trap allows the cat near the mice and the chicken wire is too unstable to climb. A bit of mice poo spread around in front of it won’t go astray. Then be patient. Keep putting the mice in for the night until you catch the culprit.
[A variation on that suggested by others – thankyou]

Blue

 

[Mo Deville]

A good tip. Go to your local gun store and buy a sling (sling shot). A ballbearing shot from that into its head will drop it instantly! I hate cats. Hate them...More so I hate people that can't control their animals. By laws cats are not allowed to "roam free" at the night, so personally if I ever found one on my property that did that damage I would be getting a sling shot and putting a metal ball through its head!

Ash, what he said, thats your best chance!

 

[veenarm]

You would need to practice with a sling shot, they aren't that easy...

Maybe make a pud-gun instead with pipe easier to use

 

[Mo Deville]

You would need to practice with a sling shot, they aren't that easy...

Maybe make a pud-gun instead with pipe easier to use

won't take long to get a feel for it after a few practice shot in the back yard!

 

[Jande]

I thought sling-shots were illegal these days? Maybe my dad's just super paranoid after all? :shock:

 

[Snowman]

Yeah the are definitely illegal in Vic and WA. No idea about the other states.

 

[Jeffa]

Yeah the are definitely illegal in Vic and WA. No idea about the other states.

They are legal in Queensland.

 

[eLusive]

Dont know what you are talkin about? I have no interest in starting a war with the neighbours just because they let their cat roam. I've found people who let their cats roam have no interest in keeping them off my property. I also have no interest in disposing if the carcus or watching it die. I poison mice as they are not welcome on my property either. Again I poison them for the same reason I poison cats.
Sly? yep, Sneaky? yep, effective? yep, problem solved? yep. So suck it ya sook! It's easy and works for me. Yes I could smash the cat with an iron bar then stick the head on a spike in my front yard. That would be the ballsy approach you speak of? But really I cant be assed getting that involved. I just want the thing off my land.
Previous to the APS cat lovers telling me about the lilly poison, I used to just trap em and put em in a pillow case with a brick and take em fishing with me. Thanks for who ever posted about their cat eating lilly's

Ive noticed that after the cat dies they get a kitten which they keep inside. Once it's old enough to roam it would have met the same fate.

If one of my snakes escaped and met a shovel on their property I'd only have myself to blame. Why some cat owners feel that it's okay to have a roaming pet I will never understand.

if killing someones pet means I have one more motorbike frog or one more banjo frog in my garden then it was worth it to me and the native frogs in my garden.

Agreed! Just cause we are in suburbia, it doesnt mean we can't create havens for the remaining native fauna. I'm fortunate that the people who had the cat that was always in my back yard (which died) have sold their house. The new owners just have a staffy. The other side has a big old cat, but it seems to struggle getting over the fence so doesnt visit very often and I'm fine with letting it be.

Snowman; your methods of pretty worrying. It's a normal thing to let cats roam because they're an independent, (often) non-threatening pet. Everyone on our street let's our cats roam because it's normal.

Relating letting a cat roam to letting a snake roam is a poor analysis as it doesn't take into account the publics conceptions of animals. You see a cat on the street, you say "naw cute kitty" and it runs away from you.
You see a snake on the street, you say "OH ****ING GOD RUN FOR YOUR LIFE".

When I saw a red-belly-black-snake in our front yard; hell freaking yeah I was worried. We didn't kill it, but if we had the cat, we would have.



I'm all for preserving the wildlife you keep, but there are far more humane ways to deal with the situation than tying an animal up in a bag and dropping it to drown in the river.

 

[Snowman]

Relating letting a cat roam to letting a snake roam is a poor analysis as it doesn't take into account the publics conceptions of animals. You see a cat on the street, you say "naw cute kitty" and it runs away from you.

Yeah that's the problem. People like YOU think its normal and we should just tolerate it. The problem is some of us won't tollerate it any more. If people were responsible pet owners I'd have no cats to drown or poison on MY property. A chick at work took a week off when her cat was run over by a car. I couldn't help but think if you loved it that much then why let it out on the street? Everyone is now savy to the idea of cat runs and the like. There is no excuse for being a neglegant cat owner.
When I see a cat in the street I dont think "naw cute kitty" I think another irresposible pet owner killng our native birds, frogs and skinks.
All I'm saying is keep it off my land and I cant kill it. End of story.

PS. The word you are looking for is analogy not analysis 6 posts? I smell TROLL.

 

[ZsaZsaGaboa]

A chick at work took a week off when her cat was run over by a car. I couldn't help but think if you loved it that much then why let it out on the street?

We let our teenagers out on the street

My gosh, I wish we could drown or poison children that came on to our property, filthy interlopers. Apparently there's some kind of law against that though ^_^

 

[stimigex]

Snowman; your methods of pretty worrying. It's a normal thing to let cats roam because they're an independent, (often) non-threatening pet. Everyone on our street let's our cats roam because it's normal

Its not normal its lazy! It is also an illegal practice in a lot of areas now ad this to the fact of why do people have to put up with someone elses pet crapping/******* and upsetting animals within the bounds of their own property! Its not normal and not right!
I don't believe in being cruel but every cat that enters our property leaves dead!

 

[Snowman]

We let our teenagers out on the street

My gosh, I wish we could drown or poison children that came on to our property, filthy interlopers. Apparently there's some kind of law against that though ^_^

You're 19 and you have teenagers? :shock:

If I caught a teenager in my backyard? I'd hate to think what would happen... I'm guessing it wont be legal though.

 

[littlemay]

I love cats. The notion of killing a feral that regularly enters property and kills native wildlife doesn't bother me. The notion of doing it by means of incredibly cruel, painful and inhumane methods however, does. A bullet in the head and concrete in the gut are not the same thing.

 

[Snowman]

we cant discharge our guns in suburbia littlemay.