Hawks, Eagles??? cats

[old_chipper]

Live near San Antonio TX. Out in the rural area. We go to the shelter buy a kitten get it fixed, shots etc. ($40.-65.00) Keep in the house until it 4 mos old or so. then start letting it out during the day. They disappear? We never find any bodies! what is happening? Rancher next to us claims it a hawk called Spanish Eagle. Is there such a bird?. I see lots of beautiful hawk like birds around, brown with a white head. They are large! maybe 30" or more wing span. Will they catch small cats? Anyone else had this problem? How did they deal with it? Are these birds hawks, kites, eagles or what?

[kerry]

could be hawks or eagles, but most likely it is coyotes. i saw them take two kittens off of my back porch once when we lived in the valley.
shoot the coyotes, but the eagles and hawks keep the rodent population down and i think are protected.

[twelvepole]

Texas has a variety of hawks, kites, eagles, falcons, and owls. Many large birds of prey seek out small mammals. A small cat could easily become a victim of such a bird. Cats also can fall victim to other cats. There are many who believe that cats should be kept indoors. There are big risks to cats in many parts of the US, such as traffic, large wild animals like coyotes, foxes, off-leash dogs, birds of prey, wild and feral cats. If there are a lot of outdoor perils around your home, it may be worthwhile to consider keeping cats indoors.

[old_chipper]

If it were cars, we could find the bodies? We had been caging them at night. Have never seen any coyotes in the day, only at night. Plus our dogs would alert to them or other dogs. We have 6 foot chain link fence, if they stayed inside the yard with our dogs they would be safe. They sleep and play together! I have noticed that the adult cats like to sleep on the garage roof. The young cats follow them up there, which would make them on open target I guess. We have three little poodles inside, that's enough excitment. We love cats too, but like them tame, and outside. People drop off these wild things we can't get near. We just been trying to raise a few of our own. But we have lost 6 so far. :wall:

[kerry]

it could be the wild cats killing or scaring off the new cats. try trapping the wild ones and getting rid of them.
i dont doubt that birds of prey could be involved, but i have been around farms and ranches most of my life and have never seen a hawk take a cat. rats and mice are too abundant and easy to catch.

[Joe.Carrick]

Raptors are much more likely the problem than coyotes. I've seen an owl grab a fully grown cat and only let go because it was too heavy to get airborn with and we were within 10 feet.

Most cats can easily avoid coyotes by running and climbing, particularly if there are trees available. I even had one cat that was almost wild and was quite adept at getting it's claws into a coyote's nose - this discouraged the coyotes very quickly and they just left her alone after the first encounter. Larger owls, hawks, eagles and falcons ( a perigrin falcon is a big bird ) can grab a cat from above and behind without the cat ever knowing what hit it. Their talons penetrate deeply and if the bird turns it's talons upward thru the rib cage escape for a small cat is virtually impossible.

Probably the best solution for your yard where the cats play is to install thin wire about 10-12 feet above the ground and about 2 feet o.c. each way. The raptors will have big problems getting thru this safely. If the cats go up on the roof all bets are off.

[Rrainea]

Hi-
I agree that coyotes are most likely your problem. Few birds of prey can tackle anything as large as a cat, and even fewer would want to. A biologist studying coyotes in Washington State found that house cat was the largest single item in their diet. If you want to keep your cats around, either keeping them inside or in a fenced run outside are your best options.

Indoor cats, on average, live much longer than outdoor cats because they don't have to deal with parasites, cat fights, predators, the neighbour's dog, vehicles and other hazards such as antifreeze. It is also worthwile to consider that it has been estimated that rural free-roaming cats kill at least 7.8 million birds and perhaps as many as 217 million birds a year in Wisconsin state alone. Indoor cats aren't off slaughtering the local wildlife.

Our current indoor cat has been with us for fourteen years and is in excellent shape, while the outdoor cats of our neighbours routinely disappear.