Electric Fencing and Cats

[Cooper1]

This may not be the proper place to post this question but I have to give it a shot. Next door neighbor has 8 or 10 younger cat's running loose. When it's feeding time for our two older cat's the neighbors cats show up, run ours off, so I have to stay out there and keep them at bay so our cat's can eat. I don't want to shoot them as we live in a residential area and that would cause problems. My question is about a fence charger but I don't understand how to wire it. Here's the plan. The cat's are fed on the porch on top of a rubber type welcome mat. I'm thinking of placing a metal grid, such as the grate from a BBQ grill on top of the mat and connecting it to a fence charger, WITH the on off switch in the house so that I can controll it. After our cat's eat under my protection and the other cat's get on the mat, I throw the switch and give them a zap! I figure a couple of zaps over a couple of days ought to keep them away. Question is, How do I wire it? If I connect the chargers leads direct to each end of the grid, will this short it out? Or, do I have to use a seperate grounding system? If I need to ground it in some other way, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to do it??
Any and all help would be appreciated..

Thanks

 

[jhm47]

Connecting the leads to each end of the mat will short it out and the cats will not get a shock. You will need to connect the ground wire to the mat, and find some way to charge the dish that the cats are eating from with the other lead wire. You'll probably need to use a metal dish, and insulate that from the grounding mat in some way. a piece of dry cardboard or a piece of rubber should work.

We use electric fences all the time here for our cattle, and I have seen dozens of cats receive shocks. They usually erupt about 4' into the air, and hit the ground running. Kinda comical, since it doesn't hurt them permanently, but does definitely train them not to touch the wire.

 

[melleo]

We have a scarecrow water sprayer that is hooked up to our garden hose
It has adjustments on how far it sprays
It is motion activated Watch out if you're close by lol

We use it to keep our cats away from our pigeon lofts
Works pretty good
Melia

 

[Uppity Peon]

I just feed my cats indoors so as to avoid feeding skunks, rats, jays, and whatever else likes cat food.

 

[Cooper1]

Well, thank you for all your replys. I went to Lowes and got a small fence charger and a small sheet of expanded steel to set the bowl on. Also got a stainless double food bowl. Hooked the hot side to the bowl and the ground to the expanded steel. Plugged the charger into a dedicated switch that I can contol from inside the house. Loaded up the bowls with food and patiently waited for some of the cats to come by so I could flip the switch and test it out. I don't seem to be getting any takers. None of them will come near the food!! There are a couple of them out there now on the sidewalk leading to the porch but they are just laying around and won't come near the food bowl at all. I'm starting to feel like Wyle-Coyote in the old cartoons with my ACME tool kit trying to nab the roadrunner... Guess i'll have to wait and see what develops. They gotta get hungry sooner or later. Thanks again for all of your help...

 

[Uppity Peon]

Quote:

Hahaha! I guess you will have to test it to see why it isn't working sooner or later!

 

[Imp]

The neighbor cats like me better too. But I've given up. I just feed them all, and if they want to move inside. I go ask the owners for their vet records.

Imp- They've never said NO.

 

[antlers]

Quote:
Cats dont have owners. They and personal attendants.

 

[Cooper1]

I left the food out all night and there were no takers.
Found the problem this morning. Went to pick up the bowl and got zapped!! Apparantly the dedicated switch to the wall socket only works in the top plugin. Where as the bottom is live all the time. I had it plugged into the bottom and therefore it was live from the onset and I didn't know it. (Apparantly the cat's did)!! Guess I need to leave everything alone for a couple days and see if they will start coming back.

 

[Uppity Peon]

Beeep-beep!

Zooooom!