How Do I Keep Cats Out Of My Back Yard?
This is a carryover from where another question lead…
I want to adopt a cat or two from the humane society to help keep the snake population down at my house. The problem is that I have two bullmastiffs in the backyard that hate cats. There is a 6ft. wooden privacy fence around the backyard. I know cats can jump this, but if they have free reign of the front yard (about 1 acre) and access to bed, food, and water in our garage through a cat door, will they likely jump into the fence w/ my dogs? I thought of adopting adult cats who’ve never been inside cats so they don’t try to come inside or play with my dogs.
Are there any cat owners here on Fluther that know if this will work? Will cats even hunt small snakes? Do most cats have sense enough to not jump into a backyard with large dogs? I’m at my wits end w/ what to do about the snakes… in a year and half we’ve had 3 try to come into our garage!
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The most effective way of keeping snakes out of your yard is to clear brush, high grass, wood piles, and any other items that offer them a habitat.
Cats are not effective snake predators.
Cats are effective bird predators, which is one of the many reasons not to have outdoor cats.
If you have cat killers in the back yard, you will eventually have mauled or dead cats.
If the dogs are back there the cats will figure it out.
Trust me. The cats will know that the dogs hate them and stay out. My sister had the same problem. The cat would NEVER cross the fence or her Dalmatian would attack. They lived like that for years until her cat finally passed away.
Tiger Crap…....serioulsly goldenbunnies.org.uk/showthread.php?t=1285 – 62k
It doesn’t sound like cats are the way to go here unless you like cleaning up dead cat parts. Cats aren’t good snake hunters and your dogs will destroy them.
If these are poisonous snakes, then no, the cats won’t control them. The snakes will kill the cats.
If they are nonpoisonous snakes, then why are you so adamant to kill them? Then you’ll just have to deal with a mouse and rat problem…
And no, the fence won’t keep the cats in.
I don’t believe your premise about cats hunting snakes is sound enough to justify adopting a cat at all.
I will say nothing. But may I add I screamed in my head.
I think you need to go back to the other thread and do some of those things first. The 30-degree angle fence can do the trick better than a cat.
My guess/experience is the typical cat will stay out of your back yard to avoid the dogs all by themselves. I don’t think cats will generally do much with snakes, though.
syz, Blondesjon, missingbit, are all right. Some cats will kill snakes, most will not. Cats may climb the fence and tease the dogs but will learn the boundries very quickly.
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