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veuzi wrote (edited )

I get this argument but nah, I'm not gonna keep my cat locked inside. She would go crazy.

But if it's of any help, she's neutered and also really bad at catching birds. I don't think I've seen her catch a single bird so far. There are also other cats in this neighborhood (and they sometimes get into fights with mine) but I'm not seeing any less birds around the place. These are mostly smaller birds like the blue tit who can fly fast, so that's a major advantage. I haven't seen any nests that would be accessible to any of the cats.

There are like no rodents here though, so that may be an indication of overhunting, or just that this neighborhood was never a suitable environment for rodents and small mammals in the first place.

She's otherwise a decent hunter of rodents and rodent-sized mammals. During the summer my family takes her up to their vacation house, which is in a remote, coastal area. She has learned to avoid the birds over there (seagulls and eagles are nothing for a cat to mess with), but she utterly decimates the mice and shrews that inhabit the crawlspaces under the house and the forest next door. She doesn't like to eat the shrews so she brings them to us, and then I have to pick it up by the tail and chuck into the ocean for the seagulls to chomp down on. But the fact that she doesn't stray far from the house and she's only predating there 1-2 months a year, that probably gives the shrews and mice a fighting chance.

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