I've barred cats from the garden here after cleaning up a pile of trash for the nth time. It took some doing but it's mostly solved and it is incredible how quickly the birds seem to have found out that our garden is a safe haven. I've seen bird species that I didn't even know were in this region.
curiosity begs to know precisely how you've done this. neither of my cats scale my 8' privacy wooden fence, but that's because they are comfy (fat and lazy/have no interest to leave) house cats that are allowed to play in the back yard. however, the neighborhood roaming cats have no problem scaling the fence, as both of my cats are aware when they chase to defend their turf.
You can keep cats out of an area with electric wires.
If you want perfect, 100% exclusion you will need three hot wires:
- one about 4" below top of fence, but only 2" out from the face of the fence
- one at roughly top of fence, but 4" out from the face of the fence
- one 2" above the top of the fence, in line with the face.
... which gives you a negative (?) overhang for a climber and the top wire is insurance that they can't somehow reach/slink over the first two.
100% success over 36 months against families of raccoons who were irresistibly attracted to (otherwise) defenseless chickens. Yes, raccoons > cats both physically and mentally.
You must not have trees? The cats in my area don't even need to scale the fence. That's a break glass kind of maneuver for them. One cat in the neighborhood climbs a tree, jumps onto a rooftop, walks along the top of a fence line, jumps to the next house, then uses trees in the new yard.
So again, how does one prevent that? To me, it's really not even worth attempting as it will always be futile. The only thing that has really slowed down the backyard visitors in my yard is by allowing my cats to mark the area as theirs. After a couple of skirmishes, the other cats learn it's not worth it in that area.
Raccoons are incredible. Both the smarts and the agility are off the scale and they are so good in planning ahead that they tend to succeed just because they are able to pull off feats that you only realize in retrospect were within their abilities. They have the cuteness factor but underneath that is a ferocious and cunning little predator that makes a cat look like a bumbling fool. Fortunately we do not have raccoons here so the opposition is manageable.
A 2.5 meter (8 foot) wall topped with very floppy chicken coop fencing dangling outward from the top. They absolutely hate it because it doesn't feel stable (which it isn't)... And closing off every hole at ground level, I have to admit that I have a new appreciation of the size holes that cats can get through.
If there is an Einstein amongst cats I think there is still a viable path through a tree that is relatively close to fence but it would require some pretty tricky jumps and there would be no way back out.
Comments
I've barred cats from the garden here after cleaning up a pile of trash for the nth time. It took some doing but it's mostly solved and it is incredible how quickly the birds seem to have found out that our garden is a safe haven. I've seen bird species that I didn't even know were in this region.
curiosity begs to know precisely how you've done this. neither of my cats scale my 8' privacy wooden fence, but that's because they are comfy (fat and lazy/have no interest to leave) house cats that are allowed to play in the back yard. however, the neighborhood roaming cats have no problem scaling the fence, as both of my cats are aware when they chase to defend their turf.
See other comment.
I'm curious how you did this?
You can keep cats out of an area with electric wires.
If you want perfect, 100% exclusion you will need three hot wires:
- one about 4" below top of fence, but only 2" out from the face of the fence
- one at roughly top of fence, but 4" out from the face of the fence
- one 2" above the top of the fence, in line with the face.
... which gives you a negative (?) overhang for a climber and the top wire is insurance that they can't somehow reach/slink over the first two.
100% success over 36 months against families of raccoons who were irresistibly attracted to (otherwise) defenseless chickens. Yes, raccoons > cats both physically and mentally.
You must not have trees? The cats in my area don't even need to scale the fence. That's a break glass kind of maneuver for them. One cat in the neighborhood climbs a tree, jumps onto a rooftop, walks along the top of a fence line, jumps to the next house, then uses trees in the new yard.
So again, how does one prevent that? To me, it's really not even worth attempting as it will always be futile. The only thing that has really slowed down the backyard visitors in my yard is by allowing my cats to mark the area as theirs. After a couple of skirmishes, the other cats learn it's not worth it in that area.
Oh, right…
Yes, our chicken runs are in a quarter acre cleared area.
This would not work with overhanging trees.
Raccoons are incredible. Both the smarts and the agility are off the scale and they are so good in planning ahead that they tend to succeed just because they are able to pull off feats that you only realize in retrospect were within their abilities. They have the cuteness factor but underneath that is a ferocious and cunning little predator that makes a cat look like a bumbling fool. Fortunately we do not have raccoons here so the opposition is manageable.
A fair while ago, I had luck with motion activated sprinklers for raccoons. I would think they would be effective for cats also.
A 2.5 meter (8 foot) wall topped with very floppy chicken coop fencing dangling outward from the top. They absolutely hate it because it doesn't feel stable (which it isn't)... And closing off every hole at ground level, I have to admit that I have a new appreciation of the size holes that cats can get through.
If there is an Einstein amongst cats I think there is still a viable path through a tree that is relatively close to fence but it would require some pretty tricky jumps and there would be no way back out.