Noob - new chicks and cats

[macdoogle2]

I have 2 kittens, brother and sister living with my full grown hens. I love them. No more squirrels eating all the hens food. Even with Grampa's feeders the squirrels would pop the lid and help themselves. Kittens are 8 months. I would not trust them with chicks though.

 

[naadarien]

I just lost 4 Delaware chicks to a cat. Not my cat ( I haven't any) but a neighbors cat. It's not that I really dislike cats, but I haven't any and I have to put up with the neighbors cats (at least a dozen from varying neighbors) and now one went through my top netting and took four chicks. FWIW, cats kill for the fun of it and they kill more songbirds and other native small animals than any other predator animal and they do it for fun, most never eat their catch. IMO cats belong inside and/or on YOUR property, not mine.

Couldn't agree more when you live in town or in the city. Too many other human related dangers anyway to be letting pets roam a neighborhood. I never let my pets outside of my home at that time.

I currently live on 80 acres though surrounded by people who own more land than I do. It isn't a concern here, but we all happen to own cats and the cats from my two nearest neighbors come over to play with my cats (one is particularly popular). My cats don't generally leave our property. Fear of coyotes is a big threat for them. They know our dogs protect them by keeping predators away from the house so they just aren't crazy enough to be wayward.

Cats enjoy the chase, but in my case, my little hunter gets fat every summer simply because she is supplementing her diet with what she kills. Can't say that no cat kills for "fun," but for the most part it is just not in their genetic make-up to do so. They are however no different from us. There are definitely parts of a carcass that are of no use to them so they don't eat those parts. If I had a dollar for every rodent left in my garden with just a head and skin I wouldn't be playing the Powerball.

That being said, you could contact your neighbors to ask them not to let their pets out without a leash. If your town has a leash law (that normally applies to a wide variety of animals), you could file a complaint with the town. It seems to me that your neighbors should be more polite, but sometimes you're stuck having to accommodate their boorish behavior. It is unfortunate.

 

[Truecelt]

My cat pretty much came with our property. She was here when we moved in, and insinuated herself into the home. She is the hunter of all hunters as far as I'm concerned. I honestly think she doesn't see the chicks as a challenge or threat. I've seen her beg to be let into the basement to bring up one by one 5 mice in 30 minutes. She has no interest in the chicks. She and the chickens don't interact outside at all. I think they all have more interesting things to do.