Cats Safety and Songbird Survival are issuing recommendation to cat house owners as a survey reveals many aren’t conscious of tips on how to scale back their pets’ searching habits.
The survey of 1,000 cat house owners, carried out by Songbird Survival says that nearly half of cat house owners (46%) aren’t conscious of how to cut back cat predation.
When requested to recommend the very best methods to cut back searching, lower than one in 10 house owners picked out any of the three which can be scientifically-proven to work finest – conserving cats in at evening, feeding cats protein-rich meals and taking part in with cats.
“March is a very weak time for songbirds as we’re within the nesting and breeding season, which runs as much as July,” says Susan Morgan, CEO of Songbird Survival.
“Birds collect supplies to make their nests, fledgling birds depart their nests and birds could undertake riskier behaviours to collect meals to feed their younger.
“And although many cat house owners know and care a fantastic deal about hen conservation and their cats’ impression on it, the survey suggests extra schooling is required to guard songbird populations. Caring on your cat in a approach that helps handle the impression of their searching habits is a small and prompt change that we, as cat house owners, could make to assist songbird populations thrive.”
Nicky Trevorrow, Behaviour Supervisor for Cats Safety mentioned: “It’s essential to guard songbird populations from decline and cat house owners and hen lovers could make an enormous distinction by placing up nest containers in addition to not utilizing pesticides of their gardens.
“Searching is a pure, innate behaviour for cats and so they really feel pushed to do it. Not all cats hunt and it typically reduces as they age. Nevertheless, only a few easy methods can shield birds and profit your cat’s welfare too.”
Prime ideas from Cats Safety and Songbird Survival are:
- Play along with your cat for 5-10 minutes on daily basis because it permits them to exhibit their pure searching behaviour and reduces their motivation to hunt out prey. Select a toy that mimics prey motion – equivalent to a fishing-rod toy
- Feed cats with a premium, meat-rich meals because it’s been scientifically proven to cut back searching tendencies
- Preserve cats in at evening to assist songbird populations and to cut back the probabilities of your cat being concerned in a street site visitors accident.
Cats Safety additionally urges individuals to get their pet cat neutered because it not solely reduces cat over-population but additionally makes them much less prone to battle, decreasing the unfold of infectious illness equivalent to Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV). It additionally reduces the chance of sure cancers in feminine cats equivalent to mammary most cancers.
Analysis from Songbird Survival and the College of Exeter reveals that common play with a cat and feeding them a premium weight loss program lowered the quantity of prey introduced residence by a cat by as a lot as 25% and 36% respectively.
For additional recommendation, please go to Songbird Survival’s Get EduCated marketing campaign at https://songbirdsos.org/get-educated or the Cats Safety web site at www.cats.org.uk/garden-and-outdoors
