Safe, Nontoxic Cat Repellent?

[Desi the fuzzy fluffhead]

Saying transitioning an outdoor cat to an indoor cat is hard is a huge freaking understatement.
It's not impossible, but it's not just hard. Climbing Mt. Everest is hard, cooking for Gordon Ramsey is hard, calculus is hard keeping a cat somewhere it doesn't want to be is a lot more difficult. That doesn't mean it isn't impossible.

Before my cat was a year old he was catching birds very ineffectively. (and after reading this thread I feel bad for finding the Canary's owner and returning it. The proper response should have been screw these people for letting their animal escape. I'm taking it to the animal shelter where they can euthanize it for following it's natural instincts.) My cat is indoor now. The only reason we were successful in transitioning him is because we moved to an apartment. Otherwise he would be very successful at getting outside all the time.


The best advice I can give the OP is to make sure your feeders aren't too close to places where cats can hide. About five feet away. Try to keep seeds off the ground so the birds don't make themselves vulnerable by going after those ones.

Keeping bird feeders about 8ft up is recommended.

Putting spiky plants where the kitties can hide and around bird feeders as well as putting little fences in front of shrubs so the cats can't spring an attack as easily.


Maybe even try tin foil on the fence? That's how I got my cat to stop jumping on the counter. The sound could also help give the birds some warning.
I've heard double sided tape works as well.

Maybe you can ask your neighbor to put bells on her cats and try to keep their nails trimmed?

[Barefoot Necromancer]

Planting lavender and thyme have helped considerably when it comes to keeping cats out of our garden(note, it didn't work so much the first year, but the second year it's been working great. We've even had birds raise their young in the yard and they'll hang out in the garden), so maybe planting it around the birdfeeder might help.