Citrus, more so lemons and oranges than limes, will grow well in most parts of Tucson but will not deter a cat from going after birds. Best, though not easy solution --- especially for a stray--- is to make him an indoor cat. At least limit his time outdoors during the day. good luck.

A belled collar will warn the birds of the cat's approach. I've belled a few cats. It has always worked. The cat initially gets upset about the bell and tries to get away from the collar. You have to tough it out and let the cat decide this is the new state of affairs. Don't feel sorry for the cat and remove the collar! It should be a break-away collar, because cats can accidentally hang themselves by getting the collar caught on various things.

I visited a woman who had a prize winning flower garden in Hawaii. She had ugly plastic milk jugs every few feet around the perimeter of her garden. I asked her why? She said to keep the cats from damanging her flowers. She explained that she cut the opening of each jug slightly larger, by lopping off the tops. Then she filled the jugs with water up to an inch from the openings. She topped off with bleach. She said the bleach should be added once a week because of evaporation.

Cats are curious animals, so they naturally sniffed at the containers and were repelled by the scent of bleach. I tried this in my own flower garden. I only had to leave the jugs there for a month. My cats learned to stay away from that area of the yard because they associated it with bleach smell.

I don't know what makes some cats aggressive hunters. My current cats often hang out near my bird feeders, but they do not bother the birds. Thankfully, they just like to watch the birds.

Thanks Desertlvr. We have two citrus trees and the two outdoor cats actually sleep under them even though they hate my grapefruit lotion. Those two outdoor kitties are too feral to make indoor cats - especially this new one - we tried but he tried to maul our senior indoor cats. :/ Now he's only allowed in the kitchen through the kitty door. Someone mentioned on another board making a netted bag containing puffed rice doused with pure lemon/eucalyptus oils, and hung around the bad areas - I'm going to try that. (As ridiculous as it sounds!)

Hi Lorna-Organic, Oh, we have *tried* bells! I went to the craft store and bought a bag of 100 multi-size bells and put a few on his collar - He still gets the birds! I don't know how he does it, but I've seen him walking around with all those bells and he doesn't make a sound. Stealthy bugger!

I always wondered what was up with those ugly jugs on people's lawns! Thank you for informing me :) We are SO going to try that! However, I'm going to stick the jugs in some pots so we don't have to look at them ;) Maybe put some chicken wire over it too so that the birds don't try to drink it.

I know whatcha mean about some cats being fine with birds. . . Our indoor cats love to *watch* birds, but wouldn't know the first thing about what to do with them. Our other outdoor cat was semi-feral, it took me a year, but I trained him not to attack the birds. (He never brought them in the kitchen to eat them though!) Now he cries when he wants to attack them and I tell him to go eat his food. He does! This new cat was abandoned, so he had to survive by eating birds, lizards, bugs, etc. until we found him. Hunting seems a habit though, because he's certainly well fed by us. We love him too much to get rid of him, so some solution has to be found. Maybe trying to train him, along with the bleach you recommended and some other deterrents. I really appreciate your ideas, thanks again :)