Barn cats w/ bantams?

[margarita valentine]

Hi! I'm thinking of adopting a barn cat through an animal shelters barn cat program. Just curious if anyone's done this/your experience with it. The cats would be from a feral community not farm raised. I currently have chickens and ducks both standard size and bantam. Im worried the cat would go after my birds esp. The bantam. Thoughts?

 

[Isadora]

Absolutely a possibility, especially considering the cat would be feral.

 

[AnnPann]

Agreed - it's a risk. I have 2 barn cats - one is too lazy to bother going after a chicken, but the other was very interested in the chicks. Once the chicks got be at least the same size as the cat, I worry less, as a full grown chicken can be bit much for a cat looking for something to play with (which is what my cats mostly are after, as they are well fed). Both of them will still sometimes lunge at a group of chickens, but mostly just to watch them flap around and panic. Your level of risk would depend on how often they are unsupervised while free ranging and how secure your run is.

 

[margarita valentine]

Agreed - it's a risk. I have 2 barn cats - one is too lazy to bother going after a chicken, but the other was very interested in the chicks. Once the chicks got be at least the same size as the cat, I worry less, as a full grown chicken can be bit much for a cat looking for something to play with (which is what my cats mostly are after, as they are well fed). Both of them will still sometimes lunge at a group of chickens, but mostly just to watch them flap around and panic. Your level of risk would depend on how often they are unsupervised while free ranging and how secure your run is.

Thank you. I should add that my birds free range and get locked in a barn stall at night

 

[lomine]

I have two semi-feral cats that I ended up with after catching them and their litters. Got the moms fixed and they stuck around after all the kittens were adopted. This past summer I got bantam chicks (I raise all chicks in the barn/coop) and the cats were very interested in them. A cover on the brooder was enough to keep the chicks safe. After a while they lost interest. They never go after the adult birds, but I have found a couple dead songbirds in the barn. So long story short, it will depend on the cat.