How Do you Stop Cats from Hunting Birds?

I know its in a cats nature to hunt birds, but we feed our five cats well there is really no reason for any of them to go hunting the birds that come into our yard. We tend to feed pigeons and because this happens in the front yard where the cats are kept, the cats think its time to go hunting. I wish I could say they have never actually caught a bird, but unfortunately I can't say that because I know of four incidents where a bird was caught and killed by these cats.

As I said before this is their natural instinct I know that, but there is no reason for it. If our five cats weren't being well fed yes they would have reason to go hunt birds, it would be for survival, but that isn't the case, these cats are fed at least three times a day. They are well fed and well kept there is no reason for the hunting frenzy. I don't mind that they hunt mice, I know they do we have had less mice in our home then we did in the past, but birds are another story. So, does anyone have any advice to get a cat to stop doing this, or is it just something that needs to be accepted because its part of a cats natural instinct to hunt birds.

 

The only advice I can give you is to get a collar with a bell on it, so any unsuspecting birds or rodents might hear it coming and have half a chance to make a hasty get away! Other than that, theres not much you can do.

 

I like the tip given by angrie, that way the birds will know when the cats are approaching, other than that... you can't do much to change the nature of your cats, they are hunters by nature.

 

I honestly came here out of curiosity because I couldn't imagine what would stop a cat hunting birds. Immediately when I saw Angie's suggestion I figured it could at least serve to warn the birds so they could fly away. Then I went searching and found something called a Catbib being recommended. Here goes, who knows?

https://catgoods.com/

 

Surprisingly two good suggestions! I must admit, one of our cats would go after the birds in the yard, too. Sadly, once she got a baby bird. It actually became quite dangerous for my kids to play outside for the next couple of days. The mama bird kept swooping down filler with distress and anger.

 

We had a similar incident when a baby bird fell into our garden, the little thing made it... the mom was very distressed tho, was making noise any time we tried to get close to the baby bird (we wanted to put it on a place she could see it, so maybe she could pick it up - stupid, I know, but didn't want it to die). In the end the dog killed it when the baby bird made it to the other side of the fence.