Anyone with experience installing an electric fence here...to keep out cats?

[MediaWatcher]

Costas2008, on 25 Sept 2014 - 19:12, said:

OP, what I'm worried about is that if your neighbours cats get toasted you will be in serious trouble.

I have also a problem with cats using my garden as sanctuary from the soi dogs but I wouldn't go to the extreme to install an electric fence.

Electric fences, for animal and human control, are NOT meant, in most cases, to "toast," they are meant to shock, similar to a static electric shock, a high voltage very short duration pulse repeated every 1-2 seconds., any attempt the build a "lethal" fence could find yourself up for manslaughter, is it worth it. Also remember, if your neighbours cats can climb the fence, so can yours, an electric fence cannot tell the difference. You also need a voltage high enough to spark through the thickness of the animals coat, approx. 2000v/mm...can't always rely on them sticking their nose on the wire/s.

Here is what you need, well, at least how it is installed. http://www.sureguard.com.au/cat_electric_fence_enclosures.html

[scorpio1945]

All my adult life I have I have kept my cats indoors. Lost too many when I was a kid. Plus I want a CLEAN cat and no presents brought to or into the house nor battle wounds or poisonings or cobra dead cats. I have a cat door to the Thai kitchen with two large litter boxes and automatic water and food feeders. Also I can leave for a week with no problems worrying about the cats. I know this is a bit weird and different from most people but it works perfect for me and the cats.

[Trujillo]

This is not about cats. It is about a person who can not speak with their neighbors. Sad but not uncommon with TV members.

--- Bill97

No, actually it's about being sensitive to the situation and cause and effect. After nearly 30 years in Asia, I pretty much know when it's useful to address an issue with neighbors and when it's best to just solve or address the problem on my own. The OP has assessed the situation and determined that he's "99.99% positive I will have to do what I can on my side of the deal."

This goes for foreigner neighbors too.

Perhaps Bill97 comes from a place where everyone is nice and understanding and will bend over backwards to create harmony among neighbors, but this is often not the case here.

As for electrified fences...not so sure if the trouble would be worth it. At any rate, just be sure to tell anyone who asks that it's to keep out rats.

[buck99]

If you google electric fence, cats you will see remarks about this being cruel. (Rubbish). If you combine the fence with a yellow plastic band, you can be sure that the cats, that will only ever touch the fence ONCE, will associate yellow plastic with discomfort. Seems like a waste of money to install something that will only get utilised once or twice a year, but it works. If you live near Buriram I can give you a cattle fence box, no guarantee, I haven't used it for 20 years. Needs mains 'lectrics though.

In America I installed a electric wire on a fence that my 2 dogs were jumping over. I installed the wire, got on the other side and called them. With great eagerness they jumped the fence and got shocked. After that, they wouldn't come closer than 3 feet to the fence. I left it on for about 2 weeks and accidentally got zapped several times by it. It didn't hurt but was uncomfortable and certainly got your attention. After several weeks I turned it off but the dogs never again jumped the fence. As I remember there was 2 transformers to choose from. One for cattle and one for small animals. I bought the one for small animals.

[haybilly]

Anyone know if an electric fence, of the Cattle variety, will stop snakes climbing over a wall--if it was placed along the top of the wall?

[bamboozled]

Thanks for the new posts, all. I think some people are having a knee jerk reaction to the term "electric fence" as if it's designed to hurt the cat or that it's being done in a malicious way. I see it as quite the opposite as a the best remedy for all cats involved. The neighbors don't need to do anything at all. Their cats just won't be coming over here anymore to bite my cats. Shocked mildly once or twice will only teach them to stay away and mine to not roam. It doesn't really hurt but is just uncomfortable. Anyhow, I'm sure the huge abscess and infection and twice draining and shaving and multiple trips to the vet and shots that my cat endured...and the squeezing out of all the pus from the abscess. Well, I can tell you from how my cat was screaming and hissing and biting and squirming, it was agony. It was also expensive and time consuming. And giving meds for two weeks day and night was no picnic, either.

The neighbors have dogs and cats and multiple chickens and roosters. The dogs bark and howl all night and the roosters start crowing at 4 am. I know very well because the rooster hutch in right under my bedroom window. Ask me if I'm tired.... The house looks like it was transported from Appalachia and would be a perfect location for the filming of a horror movie or a meth lab. The place is falling down and an eyesore to behold. The yard is a wreckage and trash strewn muddy swamp. I have nothing against them per se though I don't approve of some of their ways. We've never spoken, however. When I try to catch their eye they always look away. I've only been here two months so not a long time but there was no welcome basket waiting for me when I arrived.

cheers...........................ZAP!

[sonofjoyce]

When you want keep cats out of your garden, you must use only a littel bit oil .

I don't know the English word for this oil but in Latin its Oleum animale foetidum crudum

Maybe you can find an English website with the keyword oleum animale ( i can tell you the odeur is terrible) also I dont know where you can find this in Chiangmai.

When you use this you never have problems with cats or dogs

The translation of Oleum animale foetidum crudum is "Oil stinky raw animal"

[Dante99]

The neighbors have dogs and cats and multiple chickens and roosters. The dogs bark and howl all night and the roosters start crowing at 4 am. I know very well because the rooster hutch in right under my bedroom window. Ask me if I'm tired.... The house looks like it was transported from Appalachia and would be a perfect location for the filming of a horror movie or a meth lab. The place is falling down and an eyesore to behold. The yard is a wreckage and trash strewn muddy swamp. I have nothing against them per se though I don't approve of some of their ways. We've never spoken, however. When I try to catch their eye they always look away. I've only been here two months so not a long time but there was no welcome basket waiting for me when I arrived.

cheers...........................ZAP!

So sorry to hear you did not get a welcome basket.

You really got a house next to the place you describe above, why would you do that?

Troll or fool?

[iamariva1957]

What you want to do is install a low voltage electric fence, the kind that is usually called a Shock Fence in the States. Easy enough to do. Finding the transformer required to step down the house electrics is a question that I cannot answer. Maybe a 'farm supply' or ranch supply outfit on line? I have no idea.

But remember that cats do not jump straight to the top of a wall. They jump to the leading edge of said wall then to the top. So the install should really be on the opposite side of the wall just below the edge (say about 2 inches roughly down from the top and about 1-1.5 inches above the surface of the wall) and then along the top at the same height. Or you can string it more on your neighbor's side of the wall on the top elevated at the same height as before. The former set up just might cause your neighbors to complain.

Cats are very nimble and if you ever watch them negotiate around a cluttered table or sideboard you know what I mean. So barbed wire will be sort of useless except as a grooming tool.

I have used this in the US (LA) for the same reason. Worked just fine. Oh there was the odd scream from the stray cats... but they soon got the idea. No animals were hurt ... well except myself when I forgot about the dam thing when I was clipping some bushes!

I have a cat here as well (fixed) and sort of have the same issues with the strays that seem to live in the field behind my house. But so far they have yet to be a problem. But it has to be remembered that cats get in or out when they want to. No matter what you do... they will find a way.

Edited September 26, 2014 by iamariva1957

[slapout]

I am asking as this question as the battery powered fence chargers seem in short supply in Thailand.

Could a adjustable light fixture reostat be connected to a wire mounted on top of the mentioned wall? The voltage is adjustable, they are readily avaliable and would be fairly easy to rig/hook up.

If some think its a stupid, unworkable don't be bashful, I am thick skinned and many suggestions I have make here in Thailand over the past few years have been deemed one or both.

[cloudhopper]

I am asking as this question as the battery powered fence chargers seem in short supply in Thailand.

Could a adjustable light fixture reostat be connected to a wire mounted on top of the mentioned wall? The voltage is adjustable, they are readily avaliable and would be fairly easy to rig/hook up.

If some think its a stupid, unworkable don't be bashful, I am thick skinned and many suggestions I have make here in Thailand over the past few years have been deemed one or both.

Be very careful with this approach - it's current that kills, not voltage, so the power supply must have (relatively) high voltage but be very limited in the total energy it can deliver.

[Keesters]

My dog keeps all cats out of my garden except one. The one that is welcome to be there and was there before the dog.

[bamboozled]

Yes, a dog would keep out the cats....

[tifino]

another device that does repel cats is the frequency sweeping/electromagntic repellers for rodents/insects.

put the repeller inside

put cat outside door that he wants to come in through

open door

cat scats pronto

[circusman]

When you want keep cats out of your garden, you must use only a littel bit oil .

I don't know the English word for this oil but in Latin its Oleum animale foetidum crudum

Maybe you can find an English website with the keyword oleum animale ( i can tell you the odeur is terrible) also I dont know where you can find this in Chiangmai.

When you use this you never have problems with cats or dogs

So you trade cats for a foul odor. You do not win.

[circusman]

I will be talking with the neighbors before I do anything but I cannot expect them to neuter their cats because I want them to nor to keep them inside. So I'm 99.99% positive I will have to do what I can on my side of the deal. Howardprice, that's kind of the idea, I believe, that I had with the chicken wire. If I'm understanding correctly, the wire on the top is swaying and flexing with the cat's weight and so they are afraid to climb it? Do you have a pic by chance? I had a tough time with the dimensions of your steel items and bolts. Are those millimeters? Seems waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too small!

I think the botanical solution is too difficult and too slow to implement. Thanks all for the input and output... I'll report back on what transpires after I speak with them. I'm a slow mover so be patient. Thanks guys for the concrete info on where to buy the zappers should it come to that....

Cheers

You will report back ? Wow. Great. I can hardly wait. zzz

[mizztraveller]

Have you considered that whatever measures you take to deter/injure next door's cats will also affect your cats too? Cats, even yours, will climb whenever possible.

[bamboozled]

No cats will be injured or hurt, not mine nor the neighbor's. The small shock is just a deterrent. It does not harm the cat in any way. Yes, my cats will get a small zap, too, and will learn not to try and venture out. They will not be hurt. It's just an uncomfortable feeling that I'm sure you've encountered in your life at some point. Thanks for your concern, though.