Do Cats Eat Chickens?

[jennerb]

Cat story that has a happy ending. We have 4 cats none of them pay any attention to the chickens except one. "Caly" is a hunter and can get squirrels and blue jays pretty easily. She has a healthy respect with my big hens though. The first time they met the hens(no rooster) chased her off and kind of freaked her out. This morning I go to feed the chickens and see a dead squirrel in the corner, a hen in a nest box and my Caly curled up next to her. She must have been in the coop last night and when I shut it up for the night- got trapped. I am absolutely positive none of my cats would harm my large breed chickens. But, chicks would be goners!

 

[emilyschartz]

Oh these cats where I love kill our bunnies and now are going after my chickens. I'll try those suggestions to trap the cats

 

[bahamabanty]

I have no roosters at the moment, just hens. Would a rooster protect against small cats.
I have a some teenage cats, snooping around the pen. I figure a good rooster peck might keep them away?

 

[erinszoo]

Our chickens never have problems with the free ranging cats in the neighborhood. The rooster might go up against them to protect his girls but the girls will peck the snot out of the cats without blinking an eye. Our chickens even steal the cat food and the cat's sit back and wait until they leave.

We have only ever had a cat eat or kill a young chick before, never a full grown hen.

 

[luckyclucky]

Ours like to keep each other warm

 

[heartsizedfarm]

My barn cats love to sun themselves and dust bath themselves with the chickens. No battles as far as I can see, just camaraderie and live-and-let-live!

 

[chicksunderwing]

This cat always avoids our chickens, as if she's scared of them. But when our Buff, Rebecca, was sick, she took a closer look:

 

[EFH52]

I came to this post as I have 3 barn cats that hang out with our chickens all the time. We got our full-sized hens last summer and have not had an issue. We got 38 chicks this spring. I made sure to keep the cats away from the chicks when there were small. I know there are certain instincts you just don't tempt.

The birds are about 1/2-2/3 full grown now. They wander the yard and the cats hang out with them just fine it seems. They don't seem to be stalking them in any fashion. As mentioned in an earlier post, our chickens will take the cat food if they can get to it. We close the cat's barn door most of the way to make it so the dogs and chickens can't get in to eat the cat food. (Dogs only run when the chickens are locked up, they do hurt our birds). We put table scraps out for our chickens all the time. The cats love that time. They eat side-by-side with the birds. As the birds go throughout there day, there is almost always one of our 3 outdoor cats lounging in the sun with them. Kinda look like little guards, but I still don't fully trust their motives.

There are several other cats that roam the neighborhood. They are often seen going in and out of our cat barn. The do not directly associate with our birds and we rarely see them during the day. With more birds (more temptation) I do have a growing concern about the neighborhood cats. I keep the birds well secured at night and am hoping that when all my birds are of size all will be well.

For now, it seems cool that our cats seem to enjoy the chickens company. Kinda wonder if the chickens scare up the voles and keep the cats up on snacks?

 

[Starfire669]

I came on this tread because I have 2 outdoor cats. 1 only comes by at night to eat and the other hardly ever leaves my front porch and is full tame (I'd put her inside if she used the litter box and could get along with the dogs like her daughters but NO!)she doesnt even look at my chicks when they are out and my chicks are 8 weeks and 6 weeks and I sit on the porch supervising them. But a couple weeks ago I set a cat trap by the coop after noticing dents in the wire, I caught and relocated a huge tomcat. Since then I caught 3 more smaller less aggressive tomcats, had them neutered and released them. I did this because I was told that by removing the cats more cats move in and I figured younger cats that only come out at night are better than unknown cats that might attack during the day. I will relocate or euthanize a cat that is determined to break into my chicken coop, but ever since I sent that big guy off, not more problems. Also a good sized cat colony of cats keep other predators like coons, possum, and rats away. So I'd like to think the cats and I are helping each other, I get them spay/neutered (my benefit, cause no ore kittens) and shots, feed them and they provide protection for my chickens.

 

[horseliver928]

I have a similar question. I have a 11 month old feisty cat. He loves to play and has coauthor young rabbits mice chipmunks and other small animals. I can tell he has an eye on Cornish cross meat chickens but I don't know if he will eat them. I am not so worried about most of them because they are big but I do have one that has something wrong with it. She has trouble walking because she always " rolls" back on to her stomach. She can walk if she flaps her wings but can't go very fast or stand up tall for more than a few seconds. My chickens are now about 4 weeks old but easily weigh a couple if pounds even though one who has problems. Should I worry about our cat eating them if I put them in a coop without a top on it or keep them in the smaller coop with the top?