The corvid family of birds includes the following species: crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. They are omnivore generalists eating: invertebrates, nestlings, small mammals, berries, fruits, seeds, and carrion. They have adapted to the human environment and “have come to rely on human food sources”. They eat anthropogenic (human) foods, such as: bread, spaghetti, fried potatoes, dog food, sandwiches, and livestock feed. Source: Marzluff, John M.; Neatherlin, Eric (2006). “Corvid response to human settlements and campgrounds: Causes, consequences, and challenges for conservation”. Biological Conservation. 130 (2): 301–314. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2005.12.026.
Well, that’s the technical introduction! Now for the practical bit: they eat cat food too. I have seen crows eat my cat’s waste cat food. Nowadays if he leaves some waste, which I minimise with careful feeding, I put his wet food bowl with the waste in the backyard. The corvids are often the first to eat it.
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Sometimes my cat will be keener to eat the wet cat food he has left in the bowl if it is outside. Perhaps he feels that he has found it and it pleases the wild cat side to his character.
The point here is that some people don’t like foxes and other wildlife but everyone loves birds. If you put waste wet cat food out for foxes some people might complain but they can’t really complain if it helps birds survive in a freezing cold winter week as is occurring at present in the UK.
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One does not place lots of waste wet cat out in the backyard to birds. But with judicious cat feeding the waste should be minimal and it can be recycled to feed the corvids. I welcome comments for an against this idea.
