Wildlife UK Forum - Discuss the UK countryside and wildlife

mmy cat has brought in a bird egg which he has stolen form a nest... naughty kitty , erm what do i do with it ?
so far i have put into a small plastic container and filled it with shhredd safe paper bedding designed for hamsters and it is sitting on a heatmat that i use for my african land snails what else can i do?

do i need a lid on the container? ive got one just placed on the top

I'm no expert but it is difficult enough to rear a baby bird that is nearly fledged. On the off-chance that you get the egg to hatch, you are starting down a path which will be very labour intensive and with a small success rate. It doesn't sound like you know what the bird is either at the moment.

Others may not agree with me but I think while I can understand you want to do the right thing, it is kinder not to try and hatch the egg.

Best wishes

SCR

I think I agree with SCR on this one. It's kinder in the long run. Although being no bird expert so correct me if Im wrong, I imagine that there was a good chance the chick inside might be damaged from being carried around by the cat anyway.

Whatever you decide, hope it works out for the best

I doubt the egg is fertile now. I would throw it away if i were you and then put your cat in the container with the lid on so it cant do any more damage to nesting birds!

well im afraid thats a horrible thing to say it is unfair to punissh animal for there natural behaviour i wouldnt suggest putting you in a cage for eating a pig or a cow or a chicken

im trying to make light of a bad situation and oviouslly i would prefeer if it didnt happen but i am dealing with the consiquences
thank you

Hello blue_egg89, I suspect that everyone else is correct, unfortunately. I also think that it's not going to hatch, because even as willing as you are to try, it's difficult to keep the conditions just right the way the parents can.

It's possible that your cat didn't rob a nest, but could have found an infertile egg ejected by the parents. He might very well have been bringing you home a prize...

If it hasn't hatched in a few days, I would assume it's not going to ever hatch.

Whoa! Take it easy, he was only joking around!

Sorry. Can't stand cats. As for natural behaviour, Cats are not a natural addition to our UK wildlife. They are let out by humans to catch and eat birds. If i let my dog roam the streets it would be picked up by the dog warden, but its okay to let cats roam around un supervised?! As far as i am concerned they are a pet. How many other pets do we let out to roam around the streets? Can't think of any myself?

(nothing personal to you Blue-egg)

Cats are really nice pets, I love them and I have one!!!!!!! My cat has never brought in a bird or eggs before.

Don't mean to be bad but I am 100% with Paul the cornwall birder on this one, domestic cats aren't a natural part of the UK. And just because your cat has never brought in a bird or an egg doesn't mean it never will or it never has done it away from your sight. The fact is, when you let your cat out you are doing so knowing it has the potential to kill birds.

Hoorah!

Well this is a contentious thread - a bit like the twitchers one!!

The first thing to say is that I don't have a cat now but I did have when I was growing up and it did kill things and for that reason I would not have a cat now. There are a lot of cats in this country and they do have a big negative impact on garden birds. I haven't seen any statistics on positive impacts of humans (bird feeding, nest boxes etc) on garden birds vs negatives and I wouldn't judge someone for having a cat. Just because cats are not native to the UK it doesn't mean that they are not behaving naturally.

It is easy to throw stones (not literally!!!) at things that other people do but let's face it a lot of our day to day behaviour has a net negative impact on wildlife. It is an unavoidable fact. The majority of cats will at some point (or every night) kill birds and small mammals and amphibians and I know someone who is doing research on the impact of cats on reptiles. Hmmm, perhaps if you want to have a cat you should offset it by making a donation to the RSPB...................

Dogs are more innocent because as Paul points out, people largely have control over where a dog goes and what it does. It is irresponsible dog owners that have the negative impact on wildlife but it is still considerable, either through direct disturbance (there are some interesting studies on this) or through habitat enrichment through fouling. If you choose to have a dog, you should be aware of the impacts and accept them.

The same goes for having children, flying, driving etc. I am as guilty as anyone so I am judging no-one. We all have a right to an opinion but if we choose to do something that has a negative impact we should still be prepared to face criticism.

check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/feat...ding.shtml (cat impact)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6978272.stm (dog impact)

If you say cats are not part of the UK, there are many other types of BIRD that aren't native to the UK, and I don't see anyone moaning at them! Ha!

Also, I reckon that Humans are having a greater impact on the decrease of birds than cats are.

Jamie

I have no doubt that humans are having a greater impact that cats but humans also control the cat population! I have no axe to grind with cat or dog owners though - like I said - I don't feel that I personally have a right to criticise.

When it comes to birds, Canada Geese are one example. There are probably native birds that are have a disproportionate impact too because the natural balance is so upset generally. There are options to control birds that have a damaging impact, however.