Babies and cats...?

[shastagoose]

I have two very cool inside kitties, well behaved. A nice coop outside with girls going on 2 years now, no rooster. There are some healthy cuuuuuute babies I want, pullets I am told. And it is too hot outside 100 +. Does anyone know a good safe way to raise them indoors safely with the cats, until they can be with the girls outside?

 

[Becky_H]

Just keep the door to the room with the brooder closed adn you'll be fine. If you can't do that, just make sure your brooder has a *REALLY* sturdy lid.

 

[northerncaliforniachick]

My kitty is not so well behaved. I keep the brooder in the master bath (has nice sunlight during the day) with the door closed. On day 2 I found kitty IN the brooder with my babies- just got there in time. Since then I keep bathroom door closed AND bedroom door closed as extra security. It wont be long before my sad kitty will be able to sleep in my room again, but for now I just need the extra layer of protection. I also SHOULD have a wire top on the brooder, but havnt gotten that far for some reason.

Today the babies (now 3 weeks) went outside in an enclosed rabbit cage and my cat sat and watched for hours- occasionally slipping a paw through the wire, but nothing serious. I think it is good for him to get aquainted with them when they are safe.

 

[sugar pants]

Yeah, just keep them good and separate.

One of my cats took to sleeping ON TOP of the brooder. She loved the heat lamp even more than the chicks. The little chickie nuggets hopping around in there probably contributed to her choice of nap location too.

This has some pics of where I found her on the first day. I loosened up a little once I was sure she couldn't get in.

http://jandcandme.wvblogger.com/?p=1067

 

[Chickenaddict]

I've got 2 cats, well one is a kitten. The older cat loves the chickens and doesn't bother them one bit. The kitten is very curious but hasn't harmed any. I have 2 brooders in 2 different rooms, one in the bathroom shower stall seeing as the shower needs repair it came in handy for the meantime,and one in the basement office. The older cat loves taking naps in either room with the chicks. The kitten prefers to pass out on the toilet seat next to the chicks in the shower. If you don't quite trust the cat i'd make sure it had a sturdy top on it so the cat couldn't get at them.

 

[debilorrah]

I have two cats and neither one have ever bothered the chicks. They ignore them completely. The ducklings are another story! My cat Bugsy is obsessed with protecting them!!! He follows them around, pushes them together, sleeps by the cage, etc. He has gone loco!

 

[vtsarahb]

no matter how well-behaved your cats are, keep the chicks separate! my cat is very good around our chicks, but we are always there to supervise. you never know what will happen when you aren't watching... better safe then sorry.

 

[aank4]

We have four cats, who are well behaved about most things, but NOT about prey (which is what they believe chicks are). We raised our chicks indoors for several weeks, without restricting cat access, by making sure our brooders were secure against cat invasion.
Our first brooder was a rubbermaid container with hardware cloth fastened to a 2x4 frame to fit the top. As they got bigger, we moved them to a 2 ft by 6 ft cardboard box, which we lined with a few layers of old towels on the bottom and lots of shavings. For this, we just fastened the hardware cloth top on with wires through holes we made in the cardboard sides. We stress tested it (before putting the chicks in) by putting our largest cat on top. It worked fine, and we found the cats really didn't like the feeling of the hardware cloth under their feet, especially the cardboard box brooder (the hardware cloth moved a bit more, and the cats didn't like the instability, and would jump off).
We let the cats watch the chicks through the hardware cloth top - they were quite entertained. And naturally, the cats would be completely evicted from the room whenever the brooder top was off, either for playing with the chicks or cleaning.