HELP!!! New neighbourhood cat terrorising my buns!!!

Woke up this morning to see a new cat in my garden terrorising my buns!!! I've repeatedly scared it off but it keeps coming back. The buns now will not leave their runaround pipe and keep thumping in there. I don't know what to do.

eta - I was pleased however that the runaround pipe confused the cat. it didn't seem to understand where the buns had gone.

Do you know who it belongs to? Is there any way you could talk to the owners and ask if there is anything that deters this particular cat - they always have something that they dislike.

If thats not a possibility hire a dog to keep a look out (that doesn't always work, we have feral cats and a dog who chases them away but they still come back)

The rabbits should hopefully learn that the cat cannot get to them as your enclosure is probably secure. Eventually they won't have the fear. Provide lots of other hiding places while they are getting used to the cat being around.

I love cats, I have five of my own, but in this situation I'd just throw water on it or something. Get a water gun. :lol:

It won't do the cat any harm, it's happened to mine when they have annoyed people. Everyone knows cats hate water.
Although someone once threw vinegar on one of our cats.

I have same problem... next doors cat is becoming a right pain in the bum! it poos in the garden, stalks the rabbits, even comes in our house if the patio doors are open - i was a t home poorly, fell asleep on sofa, woke up and the was standing in the middle of sitting room staring at me! right next to hamster cage! husband is very allergic and it keeps climbing our oak tree and killing squirrels

water doesn't work, chasing it does work but it comes back... i'll be watching this closely... next door don't care.

We're going to put a higher fence up to see if that helps..... next step will be electric fence

catpud said:

Do you know who it belongs to? Is there any way you could talk to the owners and ask if there is anything that deters this particular cat - they always have something that they dislike.

If thats not a possibility hire a dog to keep a look out (that doesn't always work, we have feral cats and a dog who chases them away but they still come back)

The rabbits should hopefully learn that the cat cannot get to them as your enclosure is probably secure. Eventually they won't have the fear. Provide lots of other hiding places while they are getting used to the cat being around.

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I've no idea who it belongs to - I only know its a new one because the foxes here have taken a real liking for cats and there's only one black cat who's survived them. This cat was mostly white with black splodges.

I might ask my brother if I can borrow his dog for an afternoon, hopefully the cat would only have to come across him once to not come back. Probably worth a try at least.

The buns do have a couple of other tunnels, a hidey house and one of those bendy stick bridges in the run and the hutch has a tunnel and two bedrooms (one upstairs, one downstairs). So they do have a fair bit to hide in but they just kept going in the runaround.

They still haven't come back out of the runaround since the last time I chased the cat away an hour ago - I've just tried tempting them out with some dandelions and clover, but they still wont move. Contemplating whether to offer a few extra pellets to tempt them out (pellets usually make them come running)

BigBunnyBenji said:

I love cats, I have five of my own, but in this situation I'd just throw water on it or something. Get a water gun. :lol:

It won't do the cat any harm, it's happened to mine when they have annoyed people. Everyone knows cats hate water.
Although someone once threw vinegar on one of our cats.

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My mom has just suggested a water gun. I feel mean thinking about it (I didn't like to keep chasing the cat off either), but I need to protect the buns. I cant believe how scared they are

Someone threw vinegar on your cat :shock:?!?!? that's really mean, poor kitty.

Well a few pellets have brought them back out of the runaround pipe. I'm really hoping the cat has got fed up of me chasing it off because it hasn't come back in over an hour, whereas before it was coming back every 5-15mins. Fingers crossed.

Water is deffo a good idea. We used to chuck water at a neighbours cat that used to come into our garden to fight with ours. After a couple of times it stopped coming round!

Get one of these it's safe for rabbits but cat's don't like it, I bought one to deter our neighbour's dogs as they are always barking and I feed a feral cat every day ( it was starving when I first saw it ) but if it goes in the back garden and I press this the cat shoots out the garden very fast. It works a lot better than the cat detterents you can buy.


http://www.barkstopper.co.uk/

Tuckerbunnies said:

Get one of these it's safe for rabbits but cat's don't like it, I bought one to deter our neighbour's dogs as they are always barking and I feed a feral cat every day ( it was starving when I first saw it ) but if it goes in the back garden and I press this the cat shoots out the garden very fast. It works a lot better than the cat detterents you can buy.


http://www.barkstopper.co.uk/

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That's interesting. And it definitely doesn't affect the buns? That could work for next door but ones irritating dog too (it always starts a barking session when I take my little boy upstairs for a nap) and then it sets of the dog the other side of my house too. Hmmm that might well be worth the money.

Confused_bun said:

I might ask my brother if I can borrow his dog for an afternoon, hopefully the cat would only have to come across him once to not come back. Probably worth a try at least.

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Yeah, you'd think wouldn't you :roll::evil:. Sadly, my two dogs are no deterrent to the local neighbourhood cats, even though the dogs chase the cats out of the garden at every opportunity. I have tried EVERYTHING that won't also harm my own animals. A water gun or the hosepipe works whilst you're there holding it but of course I'm at work during the day and asleep at night so the little blighters still have free run of my property. If I find one more chewed up sparrow/robin under my bird table then I'm going to explode.

Rupert & Tia said:

I have same problem... next doors cat is becoming a right pain in the bum! it poos in the garden, stalks the rabbits, even comes in our house if the patio doors are open - i was a t home poorly, fell asleep on sofa, woke up and the was standing in the middle of sitting room staring at me! right next to hamster cage! husband is very allergic and it keeps climbing our oak tree and killing squirrels

water doesn't work, chasing it does work but it comes back... i'll be watching this closely... next door don't care.

We're going to put a higher fence up to see if that helps..... next step will be electric fence

Click to expand...

A higher fence won't make a difference unless you put something on it to stop him from climbing on and I'm pretty sure electric fences are illegal :lol:

Scrunched up foil I heard is really good on top of the fence. Might be worth a try, or a sprinkler that turns on when it detects motion?

Electric fences are not illegal as such, there might be certain rules in residential areas though, best double check.

People use them here for containing cattle, sheep and horses all the time, so you can use them. They are not always effective though, the amount of times I have had bullocks mowing the grass at the front of my house is unbelievable :lol:

Cats will jump pretty much anything though, and what they can not jump they climb.

ETA : in Wales those electric boundaries that work where the animal wearing the collar receives a shock through the collar for getting to close to the boundary are illegal - I don't know if the other countries in the UK have the same rules. Just in case anybody decides to use a similar thing to keep their animals IN their garden.

Fences which give shocks when an animal comes into direct contact with said fence (livestock fencing for example) are legal. I used to touch these when I was younger as a silly game, they give a short sharp shock but they are not the most painful things in the world and at recommended strengths are not deadly - like I said the bullocks escape them all the time.

We used to have alot of electric fences to keep animals in and out. We had bright yellow signs dangling from the fences every 6 ft that show electric warning symbol and words.
Not sure about using them in residential areas especially if you don't own the fence??

What about the burglar deterrant stuff for fence tops thats sharp? The cat would not be able to walk along the top or land on it.