Cat problems...

I have a almost 15 year old cat who is in surprisingly good condition. Most cat owners are shocked when I tell them her age. Anyway, she is an indoor cat, but she uses our dog door to get outside (we have a dog as well so we can't just block it off). She is declawed (front and back) but that doesn't stop her from killing dozens of birds every year.
I am sick and tired of her taking out my precious birds. She catches everything from young robins to small finches. Today was the last straw. She took out one of my precious doves. We had 2 pairs of doves start nesting in our back yard, one pair was very young, and not so wary and one out of that pair got hit. It makes me so mad that most of the time I am there to watch the attack. I just saw them walking in my back yard when from out of NO were my cat comes barreling through and damages the wing of one of them. At the time I was carrying 2 kits. I screamed at her but it only fazed her for a minute and she went back after the dove. I grabbed her and threw her inside and by the time I got her indoors and put the kits in a hutch the dove had managed to get up and over the fence. It's wing looked pretty bad, but I wasn't able to catch it. It few over my neighbors fence and they have a dog... I don't know if it will survive. I haven't seen it all day. Just 3 doves on our roof. We have a cat collar for her with 2 bells attached but even that doesn't seem to help. She goes for the young birds who aren't as wary. I'm not fond of cats to begin with but this makes it 10x worse. Trust me if it was up to me she would be GONE! I can't take burying one more bird! :evil:
Anyone have any suggestions? Thoughts? I've done some research but only seen those cat bib things which I'm not too keen on, I'm skeptical that they would stay on. It took us a very long time for her to even keep her bell collar on, she's so good at slipping out of things.

Are you feeding the birds? Are the bird feeders up high enough that a cat can't reach them? Is it a birdbath that is attracting them closer to the ground? Where are the nests?

If they are young birds, and aren't aware of your cat, then chances are a different cat or predator would eventually get them anyway, so don't feel too bad.

If the nests are in an area not too hard to reach, you can buy 7 foot deer netting/fence and set around it. Give them a wide enough birth they wont get tangled in it themselves, and mark it with bright tape or ribbon so they can see it, but it will be hard for your cat to get through to them. At least slow her down enough they have time to get away.

It doesn't matter if you don't feed the birds, their nests are up high, etc.... Cats still destroy a lot more song birds than natural predators would and they can still turn birds off nesting in an area. Mine caught a purple finch once and the 4 pairs of finches getting ready to nest all moved to the neighbor's house. Having that particular cat outdoors made our land unsuitable for song birds. Most predators are nocturnal and dogs usually aren't fast enough/quiet enough so it's quite likely nothing would have killed that bird otherwise. It is a point brought up in outdoor vs indoor cat keeping discussions. I am not fully against outdoor cats, especially on farms, but they really do take over a predatory position that would not otherwise be filled and negatively impact some native species.

Tie a bell to the cat to give the birds some warning?

get the type of dog door that requires an electronic signal to get through. Put one on the dog. DO NOT put one on the cat. Keeps the cat in the house, and the dog can come and go as needed.

ladysown":19vqkc98 said:

get the type of dog door that requires an electronic signal to get through. Put one on the dog. DO NOT put one on the cat. Keeps the cat in the house, and the dog can come and go as needed.

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VERY good idea!
The only problem is....knowing how smart my cat is, she'd figure out pretty quick that the dog is her ticket to getting outside and go with her. :| But it's worth looking into...any recommended ones? I'm imagining they are pretty expensive and we may be moving in a few years anyway, so I don't know if it would be worth it to install one now. But a very good idea! Thank you!

ozemba":19vqkc98 said:

Are you feeding the birds? Are the bird feeders up high enough that a cat can't reach them? Is it a birdbath that is attracting them closer to the ground? Where are the nests?

If they are young birds, and aren't aware of your cat, then chances are a different cat or predator would eventually get them anyway, so don't feel too bad.

If the nests are in an area not too hard to reach, you can buy 7 foot deer netting/fence and set around it. Give them a wide enough birth they wont get tangled in it themselves, and mark it with bright tape or ribbon so they can see it, but it will be hard for your cat to get through to them. At least slow her down enough they have time to get away.

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Nope, we aren't feeding them, but we do have a bird bath, not high enough for her to get too, but she hangs around there sometimes. We have tall arborvitaes and maples, and a few other plumb trees, none small enough for her. Plus she doesn't have nails to climb them anyway. She just gets the young ones on the ground. Like the doves. They were young and walking in the grass when she attacked from behind.

alforddm":19vqkc98 said:

Tie a bell to the cat to give the birds some warning?

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Like I said:

Easy Ears":19vqkc98 said:

We have a cat collar for her with 2 bells attached but even that doesn't seem to help.

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akane":19vqkc98 said:

Most predators are nocturnal and dogs usually aren't fast enough/quiet enough so it's quite likely nothing would have killed that bird otherwise.

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Yes, we have a tall fence around most of our property, we still have some property on the outside of the fence, but the fence goes all the way around, connecting to our house on both sides (it's a weird set up) but things would have a hard time getting in or out, especially in. We could have a bird paradise if it wasn't for this stupid cat. :angry: I'd pick bird over cats any day. When we first moved here there were quail EVERYWHERE! It was heaven! <3

Anyway, some good news! My mom said she saw two small doves on our patio the other day, so hopefully it's the same one and it's okay. (I can't believe they came back!) I know the doves wing wasn't broken because I saw it moving it around and it wasn't hanging limp, (it could still fly up to the fence) so it is either sprained or fractured. Lets hope it heals soon!
Oh, and I haven't seen my cat outside since I scolded her and put her back in. Yay!

I'd convert them to full time indoor honestly. I'm doing the same with my cat who ran into the house with an almost full-grown hare he was holding by the throat that was clearly slipping out of consciousness. I had to literally fight him (scruff him and throw him off) and he was still coming back trying to bite/scartch me for his prize. I had to hold papertowels firmly to the neck until it stopped bleeding and set the hare free (it was darting off so I think it lived). My cat was escaping the same way as yours. I no longer use the doggy door. Cats sleep so much it's basically the same as before but I'm picking up poops vs small animal carcasses. I think I'm okay with that tradeoff.

I'm very fond of our cat and to me birds are just native wildlife but since your attitude it the reverse, you'd choose the birds over the cat, go ahead and resolve it, no more cat, no more problem.

My understanding is that mourning doves are the most prolific, and thus most heavily hunted game bird in north america.
They are fairly closely monitored by many state game commissions.
I'd say, the mourning dove population isn't exactly suffering, and is unlikely to be negatively impacted by house cats.

Current (2014) HIP estimates indicate that in the U.S. about 13.8 million mourning doves were harvested

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From:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 7766,d.d2s

Wikipedia has less conservative statistics:

The number of individual mourning doves is estimated to be approximately 475 million.[26] The large population and its vast range explain why the mourning dove is considered to be of least concern, meaning that the species is not at immediate risk.[14] As a gamebird, the mourning dove is well-managed, with more than 20 million (and up to 40–70 million) shot by hunters each year.[27]

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No matter what a cat eats, something died to provide the meat. If my cat killed for sport and wasted the carcasses, I would confine him (as I prefer to anyway) but when he hunts and eats his prey, all I can think is how I can't find higher quality cat chow on the market, so I'm just kind of glad he can find it for himself every now and then.

Electronic doors that expensive, Keeping a cat indoors the bulk of the time is doable. Or if you can't then make an fully enclosed cat run outside for her and dump her in in the morning and bring in side at night.

All kinds of ways for doing it. Just research it a bit.

Zass":3knfjbf2 said:

No matter what a cat eats, something died to provide the meat. If my cat killed for sport and wasted the carcasses, I would confine him (as I prefer to anyway) but when he hunts and eats his prey, all I can think is how I can't find higher quality cat chow on the market, so I'm just kind of glad he can find it for himself every now and then.

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I'm not worried about the declining Dove population overall so much as the declining Dove population in our yard. I like the birds to hang around because I love watching them.

She doesn't eat any of her kills. She just kills for sport. :angry:

I'm not sure there is anyway to ensure the safety of all the birds, because we have hawks that frequently take off with our small finches anyway. Just the other day I found a new pile of feathers.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm just going to try to keep her inside as much as I can for now, and make sure she has the bell collar on during the day.