After being so excited getting the electric fencing for Christmas there is a damper now.....5 roaming cats in the yard that can jump VERY high. Two of our systems are a few feet away from neighbor's fences....we never had roaming cats in the yard before but since a few months they come on a regular basis in the morning walk through and same in the evening.
We have tried to trap them but they are either too smart or have been trapped before, so no success here. Now the concern is how do we prevent them from getting to the martins? If we put the electric fencing all the way up we will not be able to do nest checks. If we don't put the electric fencing all the way up a cat can jump on the difference between the electric fencing and the gourds....I do like cats, just not the roaming ones in our yard!!!!!
Does anyone have ideas or suggestions what to do.....I am really bummed because the martins will be back in 2 weeks and I do not want to give the cats a free meal. We have too many Mourning doves and Inca doves missing already....aaarrrgghhhh.
Astrid, is there some way that you can make the electric fence movable, so that it will slide up and down for nestchecks? There are many homemade ways to accomplish that.
Think about the cat, where is it going to climb, that is where the fence needs to be. Maybe you can use an extension high up that is movable, then tie or untie it from the main fence as you raise and lower the housing, just remember to unplug it before you use it. The extension can be an electric cord, just take off the insulation at the end, and tie the other end to the present electric fence.
Thank you for your reply...we have those sprinklers and tried them out on the cats, but they are smart ones....when they have been sprayed they avoid the area they were sprayed and come from a different one....we changed the location three times and those noodles are still here....we definitely will have the sprinklers up pointing at the poles but need to do something additionally. These cats are sneaky; they can even see me when I look through the half open blinds and then they run....
When you said that you tried to trap them, what bait did you use? Was the trap the type that has a door on each end or a wire trap with 1 door? I find that the wire 1 door trap (Tomahawk Trap) baited with a can of tuna in oil with just holes punched in it will do the trick 90% of the time . It even works with cats that have been trapped several times.
(http://www.livetrap.com/)
As a animal control officer with 20 years under my belt I know what I'm talking about. If your trap has 2 doors try setting the trap up with only 1 door open and the bait set next to the closed door. The trigger has to be far enough away from the door so that no part of the animal is under to door when its released or the door won't secure.[/url]
Hey Dennis - your @#%@#$ moving cursor in your signature line is freaking me out!!!
I thought someone had taken control of my computer for a minute there!
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
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Run a hot wire along the top of your fence where the cats come over it or go entirely around the yard. Use insulators to hold the hot wire. A cat will get the message after one time of lighting up his life.
I have had in the past a problem with wild cats, meaning no known owners, We always had a dog to chase them off, after our dog died they were literally coming out of the woods so, I tried to catch them with a store bought medal one door trap bought at Tractor supply. No luck, then I decided to feed them in a spot of my yard away from the house by putting scraps out from the table after a days worth of meals, maybe they would get tame enough to me to hand catch them and take them to the animal shelter, every morning the scraps were gone. I did this for about two weeks, then I tied the metal trap to the fence not far from where I had been putting the scraps but this time I put the scraps inside the trap. I caught a cat that very night, and the next night, I caught a total of 4 cats, three racoons, and a opossum in a little over a month. You have to anchor down a metal trap some of these animals are strong enough to move the trap around they will be able to spring the trap and move it around until they can get at the bait.
Just a suggestion.
I am presently clearing out my yard of some more unwanted guest again this year. It has been three years since I did it last time and I have seen a small racoons trying to get into the garbage a few weeks ago, another opossum just last night, and I know of two skunks in my area, late last fall I was out in my yard and two skunks walked right by me not 10 feet away from me in broad daylight, sunshine day, (not good) they headed over to where my storage building is and I have some stuff stacked behind it, I have smelled them a few times since then.
If you are trapping and have potential to catch skunks, elevating the trap (on a table, etc.) should prevent skunks from accessing the trap. Apparently they can't jump or climb very well. At the feral cat feeding stations around Sacramento (which I hate) they have signs saying that all cat food must be placed on top of the 4 foot locker, to prevent skunks from having access to food.
Too funny!