All birds dead

[japking]

This morning I woke up to feed my Quail to find them all slaughtered. We have a neighbourhood cat that causes mayhem on the streets with other cats and now killing my Quails! That's all 18 quails and killing for fun! At least some of them layed eggs before they died, going to incubate them to start up the next generation. any suggestions on how to catch a cat without a gun? Thanks for reading

 

[sourland]

Get a hav a hart type box trap and bait it with sardines. My suggestion is to make the removal permanent.

 

[theoldchick]

Oh my! Sorry for your loss. I've found trapping feral cats and taking them to the animal shelter an effective way to deal with this issue. Not sure where you are from but many shelters will provide traps at no charge. Once you trap the cat you simply take trap and cat to the shelter. Some people suggest shooting these animals but I'm not fond of that method because you can have a wounded animal that may take some time to die. Not to mention if you have neighbors living close by a stray bullet might get you in a heap of trouble. And don't forget to predator proof your pens. If a cat can get in so can any wild animal. Again, sorry for your loss.

 

[BlueBaby]

Even if you get rid of those cats, your cat loving neighbors will just get more to replace them. You need to predator proof the area where your quail are at, to make sure that they will be unable to get in there and do it again.

 

[bobbi-j]

How did the cat get to your quail? That would be my first plan of action - make sure the cat or anything else can't get to them.

 

[japking]

There's a lock on the bottom hutch that can be undone by flipping the hook out and pushing the door. I must of left the hook out and the cat has pushed the door open. It's my fault that I didn't check again last night but the would have been a big cat to be able to push the little door like it did.

 

[drumstick diva]

Well now you know you must double check your gates and make it alot harder to open. You would also do well to run some electrified fence strands around the perimeter of your run.

Sorry you had to loose so many birds.

 

[aart]

There's a lock on the bottom hutch that can be undone by flipping the hook out and pushing the door. I must of left the hook out and the cat has pushed the door open. It's my fault that I didn't check again last night but the would have been a big cat to be able to push the little door like it did.

Could have been a coon too...I'd bet on coon rather than cat.

 

[bobbi-j]

Could have been a coon too...I'd bet on coon rather than cat.

True - a coon would be perfectly capable of flipping that hook and getting in.

 

[Howard E]

There are only a few categories of predators that kill that many birds at one time, seemingly for the fun of it. I don't recall cats being one of them. Raccoons are, but that is normally earlier in the year when it may be the adults are teaching the newbs how to kill stuff. They seem to kill a lot of them for practice. This time of year, not so much.

So that leaves dogs and weasels or one of the weasel cousins (minks, etc). If dogs could not get in, that leaves weasels, who are formidable little killers. Any holes of 1 inch or larger would permit a weasel to enter and they certainly would kill anything that moves, and seemingly for the fun of it. They don't eat much.....most likely they lick up any blood from bite wounds to the back of the neck.