Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management feral cats?

John F, if you really want to go there, so are we anglos. Dan

I am not a cat lover or hater. I have seen well fed cats in town kill songbirds and just leave them lie. The city I lived in passed a cat leash law, then could not enforce it, although they did enforce leash law on dogs. That is all I will have to say on this subject.

Good. Dan

Our dog does not tolerate interlopers harassing his cats.

I've never been a cat person, but after a year of having some on my property I've become a fan. My wife convinced me to adopt some barn cats from a relative. We got three 6 month old kittens. Right off the bat one of them caught a mouse within 30 minutes of being here.

This is a weekend house for us so we struggled with how to keep them fed during the week. We tried all sorts of contraptions, but nothing seemed to work to keep the possums n coons out. Finally we came up with the cat house, see attached. This too needed lots of tweaking to keep the raccoons out but we finally got it right. It's high enough that the coons can't jump up into it and it keeps the food dry.

The cats are very friendly and follow the kids around the property. On more than one occasion they have alerted us to snakes (cotton mouths) in the yard and around the pond. They see everything before you do. Once you figure out the feeding station they are super low maintenance and a joy to have.

In the cat world if the momma doesn't teach the kitten to hunt it will not learn this trait. Dan

L's Pond, Love your Cat house. Your ground cover needs work!! Makes me itch from here!! Dan

Haha thanks Dan, yes as a weekend house I have to prioritize my work around the property and landscaping around the cat house is not high on the list.

I've got 3 pump up sprayers and sometimes even I do forget what each has in it. One really does a number on the Ivies'. Is it any wonder why the wife gets a little out of sorts around me?? I'm always spraying something when the wind is not blowing 100mph. Dan

I think if cat owners or keepers were hunters and valued game animals as food they would understand the problem with letting them run at large and not being in control by owner. Negligence I say And my momma loves cats JMO

I am an avid hunter and cat owner. I also enjoy wildlife habitat improvement on our property. I appreciate the company of our cats and their pest control around the house. I also understand that there is collateral damage, but probably no more so than that from bobcats and coyotes. Our cats are fixed, so they do not breed out of control.

I'm not a cat guy at all so take this with a grain of salt, but the semi-feral cats around the farm here seem to disprove this statement. I've got one that mostly stays up by the house that we picked up as a very small kitten on the side of the road....she's been on her own most of her life and she's a fine hunter. I guess she could've picked up the skill from one of the other cats out at the barn but it's pretty much a guarantee she didn't learn it from her mom.

I have also found that hunting has a strong genetic/instinct component in house cats.

Letting cats run feral is ecologically irresponsible. Non-native destroyer of wildlife.

Feral cats do some good in controlling rodents, but I'm not sure it is worth the cost from perspective of damage to quail, rabbits, etc. Populations.

Edited to add: My perspective is likely tainted by seeing lots of cats hundreds of yards from any buildings while hunting fishing trapping etc. Including seeing them carrying baby rabbits they had killed.

We have 2 fixed domestic cats that control rodents around the house, but they are not as selective about prey as one might hope. Feral cats have shorter lives due to the coyote population, but cats are tough and last a while. Our dogs help keep the cats safe, but only partially, as the cats roam and the dogs do not.