I love cats so much, and feel sad that there's not currently a cat in my life. But I also feel bad about wanting a cat so badly (who I would keep indoors unless heavily supervised) because of all the damage the species does to wildlife, and lizards have gotten into my house before and gotten killed by my old cat. And a lot of cat shelters support practices that might not keep wildlife safe. What else can I do as a cat owner to help prevent cats in general from hurting innocent lizards and birds?
Good news! The solution you’re looking for is both simple and stylish– there are companies like birdsbesafe that sell collars that make it very difficult for your cat to sneak up on birds (and maybe lizards?).
A lot of people will opt to put a bell on their cat’s collar, but cats are clever and sneaky creatures, which means that it’s fairly easy for them to figure out how to move without the bell making noise. This is where these bird safety collars come in, since large, rainbow stripes are significantly harder to foil.
Birds are visual creatures and obnoxiously big, bright collars will make it harder for cats to sneak up on birds, but it’s not going to be an effective as preventing your cat from roaming.
Cats can slip collars, and to be honest they’re probably safer being able to slip them than choking on them, and then there goes your bright collar and all your bells. They’re not just ‘set and forget’.
The best thing really is to supervise your cat. A cat can adapt its stealth, a big clomping human does not.