How to keep cats away

I have two large outdoor aviaries. One for my medium sized parrots Green Cheeked Conures, Indian Ringnecks and Princess Parrots and one for my smaller birds Scarlet Chested Parrots, Bourke Parrots and Gouldian Finches.

I pride myself on keeping healthy and well care for birds but all of sudden I started losing a lot of my smaller birds (about 7 scarlets and bourkes over a couple of months). I removed all birds from the aviary fully cleaned it out and I was even believing that a spider behind the feeder maybe responsible.

Now I'm sure it is a local cat that has been hanging around and I have caught several times in my yard. My two dogs are on guard of a day but of night they sleep inside which means the cat has the run of the yard of a night. I have moved all perches to the rear of the aviary to stop my birds roosting against the edge of the wire (I can rub the chests of my non tame birds night that roost against the wire... IE the cat could easily kill them in that state). The cat also has poor access to my medium sized parrots so I have lost non of those to date, my Green Cheeked Conures have the side of the aviary but sleep in there breeding box.

I have lodged a complaint with the local council and sprayed some citronella oil around the aviaries (I believe cats don't like the smell).

Any other ideas of how to get rid of cats would be most appreciated....

It is tricky, because birds are vulnerable to some thinks. If you cannot fence your yard, could you put moth balls or crystals at the perimeter of the garden as far away from the birds as you can get, and maybe that will smell bad to the cat? That any spraying the cat with a hose whenever it is near might help dissuade it, but other than installing some sort of cat-proof fence, I don't know that there is much you can do.

Why do you have the dogs in at night? Don't they chase cats? Maybe you could put a kennel next to the aviary?

We have a live trap to catch raccoons and possums. A cat has got caught once in awhile, and may not have come back. Once you catch the cat, you could leave it in the cage at the curb with a sign: "Bird Killer" and put the value of the birds you have lost.

If you can catch the cat, I would drop him off at a local animal shelter.

There are some products that are made to deter cats from anywhere you want. You might want to check this Cat Repellent & Cat Deterrent Products to Control Cat Behavior
I hope this helps.

PortaPerch said:

Why do you have the dogs in at night? Don't they chase cats? Maybe you could put a kennel next to the aviary?

We have a live trap to catch raccoons and possums. A cat has got caught once in awhile, and may not have come back. Once you catch the cat, you could leave it in the cage at the curb with a sign: "Bird Killer" and put the value of the birds you have lost.

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Tch. That won't work because he will only pull his hoodie up over his head, wear dark oversized sunglasses and hang his head to protect his identity.

I am not at all a fan of straying cats, our australian wildlife is too precious. I have owned cats and its not at all difficult to keep them inside or put up an outdoor cat enclosure. Aussies should take more pride in their natives than to let their cats stray!

Get a cat trap Trap him and take him to the local council pound. The owner will need to pay to release his cat which hopefully will help the owner think twice about allowing the cat to stray. If its a feral cat then it needs to be removed from the wild anyway.
We have local cats who come into our yard, which irritates me, however they have damaged very little so far so I havent taken any action.

I assume from your post your finding the birds dead in the aviary, not missing? If the cat was killing the birds he would eat them though the wire and larger parts would be inside the wire. If the birds are missing from the aviary the only possible predator would be a snake, IMO. Hawk,owl,raccoon.cat most all predators would leave lots of feathers and the breastbone of the bird. I attached the guard dog's house to the aviary. She has figured out her purpose in life and does a great job. She even barks at the hawks and eagles. Good dog and motion activated lights seem to work for me. Cats are smart and hard to trap, if you ever catch them once you'll never catch them again. I used to Leave them in the trap and sit them out at the end of the drive way, if by the end of the day no one claimed them i'd call animal control. Usually you can tell if they're a pet or feral. Feral cats you might as well shoot. No one is going to adopt them.Feral house cats are a very real issue here in the US. Their impact on indigenous species is unbelievable. If you have a feral cat raiding your aviary, IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY. It will always be back to check and see if there's a meal. Sorry but that's the way it is.

Agreed ^^^^^^ when I had a feral cat go after and kill one of my parakeets, I tried to catch it at first.. then it struck again and I shot it... my birds were in our yard with a 6ft tall fence all the way around..I warned the neighbors, they didn't listen...

Cats can kill sleeping birds through the wire, the bird will drop or fly off to where the cat cant get them and the cat wont be able to retrieve the bird. Small birds only need the shock of being stabbed with cat claws through the bars to go into shock and eventually die. I had the same happen many years ago with a budgie in a cage out the back. The cats will claw at the side of the cage until they can get the bird. They cant get the bird out, but they can seriously damage or kill it.

Oh... we have a horrible feral cat problem here in Australia.

Most of our natives are small creatures and having very few actual predatory animals these creatures have little fear and have lived in harmony. Studies of the stomach contents of feral (and chronic staying domestic cats/ semi feral cats) has shown the majority of their diet consists of small lizards and birds. They dont even clean up feral rodents! Our lizards and birds are far easier to catch. But cats pose no threat to agriculture so have pretty much NO restrictions on their keeping!!! There arent even any government run elimination programs. Yet they freely gas/shoot/poison our own natives!!! I.e. dingoes and cockatoos.

(Im not happy with the government and cat owners, can you tell? )

I hate cats, the amount of native wildlife that is killed by pet and feral cats each year is ridiculous yet people still think it's OK to let them roam around outside.
As stated, cats are a huge problem here in Australia, they wouldn't want to venture into my yard.

Inverse said:

I hate cats, the amount of native wildlife that is killed by pet and feral cats each year is ridiculous yet people still think it's OK to let them roam around outside.
As stated, cats are a huge problem here in Australia, they wouldn't want to venture into my yard.

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I feel the same way (in Canada). My lovie Basil only goes outside in his cage in the summer and with me right there. I feed the outside birds and am always trying to get the well-fed neighbour cats out of my yard. Nasty creatures.

My thought would be to build a perimeter fence approximately 1 foot away from the actual aviary fence. That way a cat or other predator will be unable to bridge the gap.

This is not going to go over well, but here goes...
If is wild, shoot it!