Poorly chicken

[Rolo Rabbit]

Our cat has just brought in 2 young blue tits. One is dead but the other one is still breathing. What do we do?

[Ana's flock]

Leave the alive one alone, in a safe place (perhaps inside a box) away from the reach of cats so that it recovers from the shock. After a while if he seems more lively, put it outside and it should fly away. The only thing is that if it's hurt or too young to fly it could get caught again...

 

I know it's horrid, but that's what cats do. ... and from their point of view they're bringing you presents... difficult one.

 

Our cats caught a young magpie last year. I put it in a box and up between the branches of a tree. Its parents kept bringing it food and eventually it flew away.

 

It's a bit more difficult with smaller birds, but best of luck to your little blue tit - I hope it makes it.

[Egluntyne]

Good luck.

 

Next door's cat once did this with a little thrush in our garden. The fledgling did eventually fly away after its mother had fed it a few times and coaxed it home.

[Rolo Rabbit]

Thank you. .. . It just died. Our old cat never brought us any birds but I think Muffin is going to be different. A horrible shock for the children. DD is very upset.

[Egluntyne]

What a shame.

 

Remember though.....survival of the fittest is what got us all here.

 

Maybe a bell on your cat's collar might help.

[freddie]

It's what cats do. I have 3, one hunts and kills, one hunts and brings things home, sometimes rescue-able, and the third, well she brings everything in, and lets it go, to the shagrine of me, who has to locate and rescue...

[redfrock]

Phoebe (Ollie's sister, who died 18 months ago) was a right one for bringing me presents. However they were always stunned, rarely injured, and it was always in the middle of the night. She would drop the present on my head.... a mouse, a frog, countless huge brown moths (a good six inches wide), wet oak tree leaves, anything she could find. Always accompanied by a particular miaow which in my deep sleeping stupor I knew signaled the arrival of something new on my head

 

The only time Ollie has ever brought me a present was on my hen night 4 years ago .... a badly injured bird , that my husband had to do the right thing by (and which he found incredibly upsetting). I've had Ollie 10 years. Strange he chose that night to do it.

 

But as others have said, it is nature's way, although there is now doubt that it is very distressing. Do you have a bird table, or bird feeders? If so it might be best to put them away so that the birds are not encouraged into your garden, giving your cat less opportunity.

[Egluntyne]

My sister's cat once tried to drag an adult male pheasant in full plumage through the catflap.

 

How he caught it can only be wondered at.

[xChicken04x]

I remember the time one of our cats dragged a seagull through the cat flap . It was still alive too and not happy . I honestly thought we were getting burgled .

 

xx

[Ziggy]

Shadow once dragged a wooden pigeon through the cat flap...

Another time I came home, and entered the conservatory, then froze and looked around... there were small black feathers absolutely everywhere (and it's a very big conservatory), and spots of dark blood all over too... found a still alive but badly damaged bird in the corner (no idea what it was)... My cats all have bells and it helps, with birds especially, not so much with mice, but they still occasionally get some birds. I have explained to my daughters that it was a natural thing and the best we can do is put bells and not encourage birds in the garden, but that's about it.

 

One thing I've read, though, is that birds that have been caught by cats, and carried in the cat's mouth, even if undamaged, will die within 48hrs, from blood poisoning caused by something in the cat's saliva... I do not know for sure if it's always so, or depends on the level of 'exposure' of the bird to the saliva, but sure enough any bird I ever kept to help them recover from shop, always died one or two days later, I assumed it was from shock, but from what I've read any bird caught by a cat should be given immediate antibiotics by a vet if it is to have any chance of survival... (did this research when DD1 got cockatiels, in case the cats ever got to them)...

Nowadays when a cat brings a bird and it seems it's been in the cat's mouth a lot, I'm not sure any more whether to try and save it, or let the cat finish it and save it a long, painful death in a dark box in the garage...

[Paola]

My children are used to seeing dead "presents" I am the one who seems to get most upset by them DD1 does not even bat an eyelid now when she finds them in her room. I can sympathize with your DD Rolo

[susiepoos]

I always remember when we first moved into our home we got ourselves a little kitten. The house needed loads of work doing to it so we converted the back bedroom into a bedsit whilst all the major structural work was done downstairs. OH came home from work one lunctime and went upstairs to the 'bedsit' - a couple of minutes later Charlie presented him with a wood pigeon which was just as big as him as he was only about 3 months old at this time. We couldn't work out how he had managed to catch it until the next morning when I opened the curtains we noticed the outline of a bird on the window!!! The poor thing must have flown into the window, stunned itself and fallen to the ground - Charlie comes along and there's a ready made meal on the patio for him!!!!! There where feathers all the way from the cat flap, through the kitchen, breakfast room, hall, stairs and landing - he'd obvously dragged the poor thing all the way as it was too heavy for him to carry.

 

All our cats have always brought us presents and it was one of the most difficult things to accept when we got a cat that birds, frogs and rabbits would end up as 'play things' but that's what they do and when they come in at night and snuggle up on your lap you seem to forget the carnage that has gone on in the day!!!!!!

[Ziggy]

Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to hoover feathers??? They fly everywhere... just to make you feel more guilty...

[Fleur]

this is why i think that people should have to prove a real need to have a cat, and that one should have to have a license to own one. apparently the cats in britain kill over 300 million small birds and mammals every year.

 

in case people think i've made up this figure - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2937420.stm

[chrisnrob]

in case people think i've made up this figure - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2937420.stm

 

I think it's only fair to post an alternative view to this.

 

http://www.cats.org.uk/media/news_detail.asp?id=100

 

Rob

[Fleur]

that is an interesting article, maybe a good debate would be had!

 

maybe i've just known people with very predatory cats. my mother's cat certainly didnt stop hunting after her third year, and is still going strong bringing in presents at the age of 10!!

 

i do like having a hug with a cat, but don't think i'd ever like to own one for the reasons stated above, but i'm certaintly not a raging moggy hater

[chelsea]

I remember the time one of our cats dragged a seagull through the cat flap . It was still alive too and not happy . I honestly thought we were getting burgled .

 

xx

 

 

goodness me!!

[stoobie]

Both of our cats regularly bring us presents. Our male cat was once caught eating a rabbit at the top of the stairs just after midnight.

 

Our female cat is much more viscious - when she bring something in she plays and plays with it until the room is covered in it. I came home once to find the front window covered in blackbird blood and lots of feathers all over the cream carpet.

 

The worst find was a rabbit snout, back leg and intestines/kidneys etc laid outside the back door and a very fat contented cat next to it.

 

We dont tend to get much now as our labrador has taken to eating the evidence......

[victoriabunny]

Without wishing to turn this into a huge debate, it does irritate me when cat owners justify their cat's killings with "it's only nature". No, it's not - the pet cat is not a natural presence in nature. A fox killing a bird is nature, a pet moggy killing one is not. If my dog went in other people's gardens and killed their chickens, there would be an outrage - yet cats can go in other people's gardens at will and kill wild birds, which bring many people as much pleasure as domestic pets do.

 

I don't know what the answer is, because I do think it's cruel to keep cats locked in the house. Perhaps they should only have access to a run in the garden. I like cats, but I am quite anti-them these days as pets really - one because of the bird issue, but also because of the sheer amount of mess I have to clear out of my flowerbeds from the neighbourhood cats. It stinks, and it's unhygenic. Again - I would never dream of letting my dog poo in a neighbour's garden, and there would rightly be complaints if I did. But when cats do it, it's allowed, because they can't be controlled in the same way as a dog. Grr!

[stoobie]

the pet cat is not a natural presence in nature.

 

You could argue that keeping a chicken in a lump of plastic isnt natural

 

If you domesticate animals you have to live with the good and the bad I'm afraid

[victoriabunny]

Keeping a chicken in a lump of plastic isn't going to harm the wildlife around it or affect others in any way, stoobie. You don't have to "live with the good and the bad at all" - that's a completely irresponsible attitude. As I said before, my dog's natural instinct is to eat small creatures. If I let him into my neighbour's garden to eat their rabbits, would that be "living with the good and the bad?" I'm assuming not, so why is it OK for cats to kill wildlife?

[stoobie]

You dont know the first thing about me so don't call me irresponsible.

 

I responded to the fact that you said a cat killing wildlife is not natural - neither is keeping chickens in a hutch. Animals should be roaming free.

 

And yes - your dog killing next doors rabbit would be living with the good or bad. Dogs are carnivorous animals - it is their instinct to kill animals smaller than themselves. You might not like it but it is fact.

 

This isnt the place to discuss this - the argument has been done to death by better people than myself. Just dont cast aspersions about me when you dont even know me.

 

Stu

[victoriabunny]

No need to get defensive. I wasn't calling you irresponsible at all. I actually stated that the attitude of "taking the good and the bad" is irresponsible. I'm sorry, but I would be being an incredibly bad dog owner if I let my dog eat my neighbour's pets. He might want to, and that's nature. But it's my responsibility to make sure he doesn't do it. Similarly, cats want to eat birds. But they are not a natural predator in this country (save perhaps for the odd wild cat in Scotland) and therefore the birds have not evoived ways of escaping from them (which would take millions of years). Therefore, it's the cat owner's responsibility to stop the cat from eating birds as much as it is my responsibility to stop my dog eating pet rabbits. My problem is that most cat owners seem to absolve themselves from responsibility with the claim "it's just nature's way." It's not! It's nature's way that the cat wants to do it, but it's the owner's problem when it happens.

 

Incidentially, whilst animals should perhaps be "roaming free", chickens are hardly found in nature so the argument is largely irrelevant. "free" is deceptive, too - most wild animals have distinct territories which they don't wander out of, and in many cases these territories are of a similar size to the enclosure your average zoo animal is kept in.

[stoobie]

Now, now. No need to get defensive.

 

Do you realise how patronising that sounds?

 

Lets agree to disagree

 

Stu

[Mrs Frugal]

Could everyone please keep this topic civil.