Vultures Won't Let Colony Eat

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surya

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An excuse to get one? ;) An older smart phone can be picked up second hand for $15-30 or cheaper at a garage sale. You don't need a phone plan to use the "fancy" parts. Imitating distress sounds would be pretty difficult
Well, I don't have a car, so it's kind of hard to go to garage sales. But I could ask around, maybe someone has an old one they don't use anymore.
 
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surya

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Maybe vultures might be afraid of a swarm of bubbles? lol.
You could get one of the those bubble-making toys and set it on a timer (or if battery-operated, just turn it on). If you do try to move the feeding station over to the tree line, duct tape the bubble source to a nearby tree. Put the food just behind the tree line/ bubble maker, and the bubble maker on a tree at the edge facing outward (hopefully facing the vultures). Bombarding the vultures with 500 non toxic bubbles a minute could give the cats some time to eat.

ok, well, maybe not. :dunno:
You never know, that would be an interesting experiment to try.
 

vyger

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Does anybody have experience with getting Vultures away from a dumpster? They won't let my colony there eat their food.
So here is another idea, now that all the comments have shed a little more light on things. Go have a talk with the store manager and see if you can enlist their help. After all this is really their problem more than anything else. If the area around the dumpster belongs to the store, which is likely, the store is legally responsible for it. They could even be fined for health code violations. Our grocery store has built a metal cage around the garbage cans to keep them from tipping over and spreading trash ever where and to prevent animals from getting into them. The fact that this bad condition is attracting vultures to the area is bad. Having them congregate there is by itself a health hazard. The store should take steps to resolve the problem. Hopefully they would also be willing to allow you to establish some kind of a feeding station. After all the cats are preventing an even bigger health problem which is being over run by mice and rats. It can take a bit of boldness to confront a store manager about a problem but above all remember that YOU are a customer, and the bottom line for the store is they don't want to loose business because of discontent customers. Threaten them with publicity, that you will call a news station and get a reporter to film the mess. That should get some action.

And another fun thought -- it would be a great place to set up a web cam--- Vulture Dumpster Live --- Stream that live on the internet and see what would happen.
 
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surya

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Bringing attention to feeding feral and stray cats often causes their death. Many have already been killed. The mentality is probably different where you live.
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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Yes, I could move the food back into the tree's. I had decided to quit going back into that wooded area. I got covered head to toe with bug bites and they are making me miserable. ... I really like the umbrella idea. I am going to try that. I can get some at the dollar store and I can also use them to try and scare them away, flapping them open and closed. I was also thinking I could spray some kind of aerosol spray around them (not at them), my cats really fear the sound of spray starch. I don't really want to hurt the vultures, just make they obey my commands!
There are only a few animals that are considered natural predators of vultures (mostly of their eggs and young, I think). A couple of web sites say that skunks, owls, raccoons and hawks are some of them.

Getting away from the sound-making ideas (or my bubbles idea, lol :doh: ) --- what about you looking into getting some hawk or owl decoys, for example, that you could set up around the feral cats' feeding area? Do you think the feral cats would pay attention to them while they eat food you've left for them, or ignore them?

One of the web sites that was included in that link that jmjimmy posted also has some decoys...
Bird-B-Gone Hawk Decoy

I was hard-pressed to find a skunk decoy when I searched for both owl and skunk decoys,
owl decoys skunk decoys at DuckDuckGo

but here is one example of an owl decoy, with a rotating head
Hunting Ornament Realistic Plastic Owl Decoys With Rotating Head Good Tackle Crow Bird Scarer Scarecrow car garden docoration

You can probably find others either more expensive, or less. Or used ones on amazon,
Amazon.com: Buying Choices: SCHOME Natural Fake Owl Decoy Scarecrow Bird Pest Control with Moving Wings Realistic Scare Bird,Rat,Mice,Rodents Aways

It's something to think about.
 
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surya

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And another fun thought -- it would be a great place to set up a web cam--- Vulture Dumpster Live --- Stream that live on the internet and see what would happen.
That would be so cool. I would love to have a cam to watch the cats too and help me trap them. But don't have the money.
 

JMJimmy

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Unfortunately, the predator sculpture doesn't really work with vultures. They're really only preyed upon in the nest, once they're grown humans are their only real predator.
 

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Does anybody have experience with getting Vultures away from a dumpster? They won't let my colony there eat their food.
Some good ideas posted, which I can't add to, not having experience of this, except to say that vultures are nature's cleanup crew and I, for one, don't despise them at all. Think of how bad things would be in this world without them!!!
The other thing is, have you run this by alleycat.org (Alley Cat Allies' website) or [email protected] *just guessing that would probably be an email addy for them*? They being the national database for all things outdoor cat, perhaps they do have experience and expertise to share?! Just a thought. All the very best to you and to the cats! Wish it was possible to just get them all away from there and to a safe and comfortable environment, but of course I'm aware of the reality cats face in this society and world. So, *PRAYERS* and all the best, and I hope someone out there has some really great idea(s) that will solve this problem for the cats and for you.
 
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surya

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So I bought myself a fancy squirt gun and was ready for a fight with those mean birds and they didn't show up tonight! I wonder why they left and I am kind of wondering what brought the vultures to that area. Yesterday there was some guys who removed some boards from another part of the fence and backed their pickup to the hole in the fence. They were there again tonight with there pickup backed up. I thought it was weird, but I probably just watch too much murder stuff on TV. I caught two very wild little tiger striped kittens. I hope they are young enough to tame. They are small, but probably malnourished.
 

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So I bought myself a fancy squirt gun and was ready for a fight with those mean birds and they didn't show up tonight! I wonder why they left and I am kind of wondering what brought the vultures to that area. Yesterday there was some guys who removed some boards from another part of the fence and backed their pickup to the hole in the fence. They were there again tonight with there pickup backed up. I thought it was weird, but I probably just watch too much murder stuff on TV. I caught two very wild little tiger striped kittens. I hope they are young enough to tame. They are small, but probably malnourished.
Excellent that you caught the two little ones and they are safe now!
I wonder what those guys were doing???
 
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surya

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I'm am glad I caught them. They probably would have died. One of the kittens has coccidia.
 

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Are they on Albon now?

I hope you can catch more kittens if there are more. They may all have it. :(
 
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surya

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Are they on Albon now?

I hope you can catch more kittens if there are more. They may all have it. :(
They are staying at the vet hospital and both being treated. I don't know what they are giving them, the rescue lady I work with deals with the vet. I'm not positive there aren't any more, I will keep watching for them.
 

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Does anybody have experience with getting Vultures away from a dumpster? They won't let my colony there eat their food.
Can you call your local wildlife rescue group, that deals with birds of prey, etc. and they might be able to give you some pointers. Not sure where you are located, but I know they are in every state in the U.S. Even if they aren't close by to you, they might be able to give you some advice.
 

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So I bought myself a fancy squirt gun and was ready for a fight with those mean birds and they didn't show up tonight! I wonder why they left and I am kind of wondering what brought the vultures to that area. Yesterday there was some guys who removed some boards from another part of the fence and backed their pickup to the hole in the fence. They were there again tonight with there pickup backed up. I thought it was weird, but I probably just watch too much murder stuff on TV. I caught two very wild little tiger striped kittens. I hope they are young enough to tame. They are small, but probably malnourished.
Oh, that is kind of scary! I think I would have come to the same conclusion as you, I watch a lot of documentaries about crime. Well, if they have moved the bodies at least the vultures won't have any reason to hang around there.

;)

Great job catching the kittens! I hope they make it. My cats were all at least 4 months old when they came to me, but I manged to tame them. I even managed to re-home some of the kittens.

I don't have any experience with birds bigger than crows, but I'll follow along with your thread and offer support when I can.

Vibes for the little kittens.

:vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes::vibes:
 
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