anya4oz

Thanks for that! So now you need some recipes for skink en croute? I always tell my cats that, if they're gonna bring something in, please can it be something useful like a pheasant?

A Melbourne realtor told me (heh, heh, and I believed a realtor? ) that some councils have by-laws restricting the time cats can spend outside - but I guess it's not all areas, and I wonder how many people abide by this, anyway? (In the UK it seesm by-laws are made to be ignored.)

I'm certainly keen on keeping my cats in at night - am hugely enjoying the lack of feline roadkill on my carpets, or finding mice cowering under the bookcases

BTW, anyone know if there is an Aussie equivalent of mice?

Anya.

ABCDiamond

We get mice here too

Ceri

My council (Pine rivers) actually says that you must contain your cats on your own property (exactly the same rule that applies to dogs). A lot of councils in the Brisbane region have this law - BUT, you ought to see some of my neighbours - lots of cats running about outside , which I think is damn stupid - the reason why we keep our cats in is because our property is backing onto a koala/nature reserve, not that cats can kill something as large as them - dogs are one of the main cause of their deaths, but because of the other wildlife we have there - small native rodents, birds , lizards and snakes etc - plus it benefits our cats too, I would not be happy letting them wander the bush with the snakes there.

Anyway, I think you'll find that many councils around Brisbane - and if not Brisbane council itself has this rule "that all cats are to be contained on your own property - of course that is impossible to keep them in your own garden if you don't build a cat run. But, nobody takes a blind bit of notice of this law, I actually think I'm in the minority in our neighbourhood of keeping my cats in. I've never seen a "dog catcher" rounding up my neighbours cats - I wonder even if the locals even are aware that they are breaking the law by letting their cats Roam ( I only knew about the law, because I checked out the council laws before I moved into the area.

Regarding the two cats law - all council areas that I have lived in have this rule - what my council does : If you want more than two cats, you submit an application to the council (forms on their website) .. on the application you must have signatures from your immediate next door neighbours , basically saying that they don't have a problem with you owning another cat.

If anyone wants the rules for their own area - go to the relevant councils website - and check out laws regarding domestic animals/pets - it should be there somewhere on most of these councils websites


cheers.

P>S regarding ticks - my cat picked one up years ago (in NSW), not long after we arrived to Aus .. I didn't know what it was at the time (big blue thing) .. but me being cautious , I took him into the vet , lucky I did , he removed it for me, and my cat suffered no ill affects as I had spotted it in time. One of my old neighbours at the time , apparently said he lost two of his small dogs to ticks - they are nasty b*ggers these ticks.

Just check your animals fur on a regular basis - around the neck, and such are a favourite hideout for them - ie where a cat or dog can't reach/lick itself - disturb the tick

PPS - we get house mice (introduced ones) , and a few native ones, there's one native one which looks like a house mouse - hard to tell them apart. we had a small mouse in a garage last weekend , crawled into the garage by a gap in the bottom of the roller door - I couldn't tell if it was native one or a house mouse - I did check my books , and even they said it's looks like a house mouse ( plus the males don't have pouches).. so I was B8ggered if I knew - I released it anyway into the bush.

wombatboy

your dog sounds pretty f**ked up

bundy

I know. Just young and stupid. He's got over it now.

Centurix

Our cat used to play with funnel webs in Sydney, I've watched it get bitten a couple of times, never affected him. He also used to eat redbacks in SA. Same deal. Most of the huntsmen in NSW were bigger than him though. I've also watched cats play with white-tails here in Melbourne and they haven't been bothered by them.

We have two cats at the moment, I'm not sure if they've encountered any arachnids lately. I've seen wolf and mouse spiders around the garage but they're ok.

I've been bitten by huntsmen, it really hurts, like someone stapling you really hard (this is after playing around with them, they don't actively go looking for you!). It makes you groggy for a couple of days but then you're fine. Redbacks are really docile, you can push them around and they won't bite unless you really piss them off (luckily my experimentation never went that far). Scorpions are around as well, but they're not poisionous.

wombatboy

I hate the damn things .....they jump aswell which is just scary!

Had a redback on lounge celing once - lets just say I couldnt concentrate until the damn thing was mush.

mr mover

.

Anyway, I think you'll find that many councils around Brisbane - and if not Brisbane council itself has this rule "that all cats are to be contained on your own property - of course that is impossible to keep them in your own garden if you don't build a cat run. But, nobody takes a blind bit of notice of this law, I actually think I'm in the minority in our neighbourhood of keeping my cats in. I've never seen a "dog catcher" rounding up my neighbours cats - I wonder even if the locals even are aware that they are breaking the law by letting their cats Roam ( I only knew about the law, because I checked out the council laws before I moved into the area.[quote from ceri}

.We have been having big problems with feral cats, and irresponsible cat owners, so much so that the local area have set up an erradication programme, any cats that are trapped, and can,t be identified, are humanely disposed of. The problems are ,local table grape growers ,who net their crops to keep the birds out, then breed the local cats up ,feed them and try and keep them living under the netting , so as to catch the Blackbirds which sneak under the netting. I dont have a problem with them eating none native Black birds, Starlings, Sparrows& Noisey minors, but they are also killing insect eating ,Willy Wagtails& piping shrikes..........which get under the netting , to catch the bugs which congregate , on the netting canopy, these birds are beneficial to the growers...................


MM

fogmeister

WTF are Skinks!!!!!!!lol

mr mover

small insect eating, lizards about 2inchs long, easy pray for cats....MM

Ceri

I'm a "cat lover", but it does actually annoy me when I see some of my neighbours cats roaming around outside. We have one neighbour who leaves their cats out 24 hrs a day... we are always chasing their cats off our property.. first day we moved in , one of their cats had caught one of those tiny blue birds. It's not so bad if you're living in a built up concrete area, but in our area, like I've mentioned, we are surrounded by bush/trees. We made the choice to keep our cats in for "wildlife reasons" even before we knew the laws of the area - I'm under no illusions that cats don't kill. I'm also under no illusions that dogs do not kill either ( most of the koala deaths in our area are from dogs (plus road kill) ) .

I can blame the council (s) to a certain extent - I have never received any literature, or seen any public notices regarding the laws on cats here in Brisbane . The only reason that I know about the local laws regarding cats is because I sought out the laws, which I don't think is good enough - i.e. laws should consider that not all people will educate themselves on the laws of the area/country.
Perhaps if councils, local governments made the public aware of the laws regarding domestic animals , or cats in this case, most owners would do the right thing and contain their animals . ..."Perhaps". Laws do need to take into consideration that certain people " do need to be told what not to do".

Cheers

P.s - I haven't got much love for some farmers and farming practices (worldwide, and not just in Aus), which has a huge hand to play when comes down to wildlife endangerment. Farming practices are there among the top.
I also don't think you can blame cats for all evils - loss of habitat and people are number one of causes of extinction and endangerment of native wildlife , but people being people - they never look at themselves.. it's easier to blame a scapegoat than solve the problem, because that is too difficult.
we had hell of a fight a few months back trying to save some bush which was deemed for another of these "Mc mansion" estates - perhaps it would have been easier to say "Mc mansion estate should not go ahead because of the cats it would bring in" .. they may have listened then, if we blamed the cats and not the developers.

PPS skinks are easy prey for kookaburras ( lets kill the birds) - just joking. But the common skink ( which are not endangered) are easy prey for garden pesticides, birds and dogs too. besides cats. ahh people.
I do think most animal owners if told/educated about the risks and laws will do the decent thing. I do blame the "pen pushers" in most of these councils for not doing their jobs correctly - they'd rather hand out the end fines than educate people on their laws in the first place. Not all people will actively seek out "rules and laws" - you have to allow for those types of people.

wombatboy

when i went to tasmania about 2 years back, the farmers there were still using this horribe pesticide (DT10 or something?) that would leach into the irrirgation ditches and kill anything that came to drink there. It's banned becasue the animal death is a long painful lingering one.

moomin

do any of you have a spider catching gizmo?

can they live in vacuums? assuming i sucked one up

whisky

Ceri, really interesting posts

Whisky