Bat's and Cat's

[Guest wanted]

Just thought i'd share how we have been dealing with the live bats that our beloved cat has decided to bring us with alarming frequency!

 

Sindbad the sailor cat has taken to sitting on the roof and catching bats as the swoop, it's quite impressive to watch however I'd rather he didn't!

 

but, the thing is he isn't interested in killing them, he just brings them to us. so, a tried and tested method of relaunching them is to put them into a small cardboard teabag box and take them away from the boat. We then find a really high wall or a crook in a tree and retreat. Given an hour or so and the bat is usually gone. the hight is important as it needs it to relaunch. This info was given to me from somebody on here (bat and frog?) and I have had to use the method 3 times now, so I can vouch for it!

 

any tips on pre warning bats would be good.....

[larkshall]

Lots of bells on the cat quick!! Bats are rightly highly protected

[Guest wanted]

Lots of bells on the cat quick!! Bats are rightly highly protected

He's got bells, I agree that bats are rightly protected but doubt I could be charged if my cat eats one. Although that said, he is more likely to push it around the room and then loose interest! (is there such a crime as cat bat knapping?)

[Windfola]

I once had a cat who caught a swift. He nearly always used to kill and eat his quarry, but this swift gave him such a hard time that he abandoned it in the garage by the catflap, very much alive. When we found it it was screaming fiercely, but appeared unharmed. We put it a box in a quiet place for a few hours and then released it by throwing it into the air. It sailed away very happily.

[Caprifool]

When I was a kid I learned that the surest ways to attract bats was to ring a small bell or tap the glass of your wrist watch.

[Guest wanted]

When I was a kid I learned that the surest ways to attract bats was to ring a small bell or tap the glass of your wrist watch.

 

Interesting, maybe the very thing that I thought would save them is attracting them. I'll take the bell off for a bit and see....

[Guest wanted]

Need some advice on this now, the cat has just brought me another bat, seems like his prey of choice! can I stop this?

[Ron T]

Need some advice on this now, the cat has just brought me another bat, seems like his prey of choice! can I stop this?

Tie a large clove of garlic around it's neck.

[Guest wanted]

Tie a large clove of garlic around it's neck.

[BlueStringPudding]

Stretch some fabric or a tarpaulin over the roof of the boat between the railings. The cat won't like walking on it because it'll be bouncy like a hammock. After the weather get's colder the bats won't be out anyway so you can remove it.

[Guest wanted]

Stretch some fabric or a tarpaulin over the roof of the boat between the railings. The cat won't like walking on it because it'll be bouncy like a hammock. After the weather get's colder the bats won't be out anyway so you can remove it.

 

I'll give it a go, the only thing that worries me is that he jumps from boat to boat all of the time, he knows where to land when he jumps from ours but whilst having a beer with my neighbours on Friday he jumped off of their roof after a bat and landed in the drink! He didn't seem too bothered, we sat their and watched him swim the length of the boat and climb out using the button fender, clearly having done it before!

 

When we have the boat away from the mooring (not often enough ) he dosen't really go on the roof.

 

I was wondering if their is some sort of device that we could plug in to warn bats off, I guess it's natural that he wants to bring stuff in but it's not that cool bringing in bats! 5 now, all survived AFAIK.

 

Does that mean i'll have to move the junk treasure off of the roof?

Edited August 21, 2011 by wanted

[BlueStringPudding]

Can't you put something on the roof of your boat and your friendly neighbours' boats that cats don't like? They don't like Vapourub and if you put it on plant pots in a garden it stops them digging up your plants. Perhaps make little sachets of vapourub to put on the rooves of boats just until the weather cools down enough that there are fewer bugs around for the bats to eat. I'm sure your neighbours will be obliging if their obliging enough to let your cat hunt wildlife from their roof.

Edited August 21, 2011 by BlueStringPudding

[Guest wanted]

Can't you put something on the roof of your boat and your friendly neighbours' boats that cats don't like? They don't like Vapourub and if you put it on plant pots in a garden it stops them digging up your plants. Perhaps make little sachets of vapourub to put on the rooves of boats just until the weather cools down enough that there are fewer bugs around for the bats to eat. I'm sure your neighbours will be obliging if their obliging enough to let your cat hunt wildlife from their roof.

 

That's the sort of thing that I was after, off to boots in the morning!

 

So if anyone is passing Brentford anytime soon and you see a despondent cat and the smell of viks then you'll know what's up!

 

Cheers BSP

[tillergirl]

if the Vicks does'nt work try contacting these people, they might be able to help

 

 

http://www.bats.org.uk/

 

 

 

A search brought up this article on their website:

 

 

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/cat_attacks_on_bats_and_other_predators.html

Edited August 21, 2011 by tillergirl

[Ex- Member]

Just a thought, many bats live on insects, if you have light through the roof it will attract the insects so the bats then attracted to your roof.

 

We put bells on the cats last weekend as they keep bringing little shrews aboard, likewise they don't usually kill them, but in playing with them the shrews get injured so I have to put them out of their misery, we have saved some as well though, but basically bells make no difference we still getting the shrews.

[TimD]

`Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?'

Lewis Carrol -Alices Adventures in Wonderland

[tillergirl]

Thats the thing you see cats are excellent predators..............I read somewhere that they was a factory cat somewhere in Lancashire that during his lifetime killed over 23,000 mice. What I actually find amazing about that is that the factory actually recorded the kills.

 

Our cats love to leave headless voles on our patio for us. Its usually an indication to us that they are wanting a change of cat food. That usually stops the killing for a while at least. Spring is our headache. Our cats climb into trees and steal baby birds out of their nests. And fledgings don't really stand much of a chance either because our 2 cats work together on catching them. When we had 4 cats well you can imagine..............

 

Good luck with your bat problem

[Guest wanted]

Thats the thing you see cats are excellent predators..............I read somewhere that they was a factory cat somewhere in Lancashire that during his lifetime killed over 23,000 mice. What I actually find amazing about that is that the factory actually recorded the kills.

 

Our cats love to leave headless voles on our patio for us. Its usually an indication to us that they are wanting a change of cat food. That usually stops the killing for a while at least. Spring is our headache. Our cats climb into trees and steal baby birds out of their nests. And fledgings don't really stand much of a chance either because our 2 cats work together on catching them. When we had 4 cats well you can imagine..............

 

Good luck with your bat problem

 

Thanks TG, I will call the Bat people for some advice in the morning. So far I have managed to release them but I don''t know if they are ok or not?

 

Cheers for the help

 

`Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) `I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, `Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat cats?'

Lewis Carrol -Alices Adventures in Wonderland

 

 

I did drink from a little bottle at a party once..........

[BlueStringPudding]

Glad to help, wanted. There'll be lots of cats with remarkably clear sinuses round your way!

[Guest wanted]

Glad to help, wanted. There'll be lots of cats with remarkably clear sinuses round your way!

[Domino_2]

One option - keep Sinbad indoors

[Bat & Frog]

Been away for a while and just seen this thread, one problem the bats have after being caught by cats is infected wounds as cats claws carry a lot of bacteria. Injured bats with cat wounds are normally nursed with antibiotics to assist with this.

I will ask on a couple of forums as to best way to prevent this but for the mo the best advice if you want to stop your cat catching these beautiful intelligent small flying mammals is to keep it in at dusk and dawn as around an hour& half after sunset and an same before sunrise is time the bats are most active.

[Dekazer]

This evening, after reading this thread, I went out to investigate a noise and found neighbour's kitten on the roof bat watching, so I joined him. They really are wonderful. As are cats, what a shame they don't mix. The worst the other week was when another of neighbour's cats caught our slow worm. I could have throttled him, grrr. Are cats worse when they're not neutered??

[Joshua]

This evening, after reading this thread, I went out to investigate a noise and found neighbour's kitten on the roof bat watching, so I joined him. They really are wonderful. As are cats, what a shame they don't mix. The worst the other week was when another of neighbour's cats caught our slow worm. I could have throttled him, grrr. Are cats worse when they're not neutered??

 

I don’t know whether or not it slows them down, but my experience is that it certainly doesn’t stop them!

We have 2 cats, Jenny-Wren and Pippa (rescued feral’s) and a colony of bats that live in the attic of our house.

Jenny-Wren is the hunter, which my mother keeps reminding me, is because she is a male cat! (It’s a long storey).

 

Any way, both cats have been neutered and both live to hunt.

 

When I get up in the morning, it is not uncommon for me to find a breakfast offering from Jenny of a mouse, normally placed in the middle of the dinning room carpet where I can’t miss it, sometimes whole, sometimes just half a mouse, sometimes just the poisonous stomach (I still marvel at how it is surgically removed) and sometimes still alive, cowering under the sofa.

They also sometimes catch bats, during the breeding season the young bats get a bit adventurous and often freely fly around inside my house.

Curiously, my cats haven’t yet killed a bat, which thankfully, I have always been able to rescue.

 

Like you, I could happily throttle my cats when they play/kill like this but console myself with the knowledge that they do so without malice and are merely exercising their genetic engineering.

 

Having had dogs for most of my life but never cats, I am on a steep learning curve and am beginning to realise that cats are trainable, my chastising of Pippa from stalking bats has definitely reduced the time she spends in the attic and even Jenny has started leaving my breakfast at the back door rather than bringing it in. So I definitely think its effective telling them off when they do things that you don’t approve of.

 

What really gets me, is how cheap Jenny must think I am, it isn’t so bad when she leaves a whole mouse, but when she leaves me just a half, in return for the expensive cat food I buy her, I can’t help feeling a bit unloved.

 

Joshua

[Starcoaster]

can't believe I found this thread, I currently live in a flat and one of my cats loves bats... I'd never heard of any other cat going after them until now!

He normally brings in at least one a week, still alive and with no intention of killing it until he has rung the last ounce of fun he can get out of the poor little sod...

The first time I attempted a rescue the bat bloody bit me, which put me off a bit!

My cat doesn't have a collar or bell etc, just a very swift right hook by the sound of it!

Edited September 8, 2011 by Starcoaster