Barn cats with a taste for bird!?

[Elmochook]

Craaaappppp....
Animals on my poperty have been causing me grief for years. Cats in the attic, baby possums in a fountain, a giant tortoise that showed up in a load of dirt...most of them come through and just move on but now my mom started feeding these 2 female cats... They were kittens and have been here a few months.
Well they have pros and cons...they are helping amazingly with the rat and mole population but they got a mocking bird yesterday and I dont want them getting any chicks. I Have 12 that need to be in a pen in 3 more weeks at the most and now im afraid these cats are TOO GOOD AT THEIR JOB. They dont mess with the adult chickens but how do i make sure they leave alone my feathered babies?

 

[Welshies]

Make everything predatoor proof as it should already be.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Craaaappppp....
Animals on my poperty have been causing me grief for years. Cats in the attic, baby possums in a fountain, a giant tortoise that showed up in a load of dirt...most of them come through and just move on but now my mom started feeding these 2 female cats... They were kittens and have been here a few months.
Well they have pros and cons...they are helping amazingly with the rat and mole population but they got a mocking bird yesterday and I dont want them getting any chicks. I Have 12 that need to be in a pen in 3 more weeks at the most and now im afraid these cats are TOO GOOD AT THEIR JOB. They dont mess with the adult chickens but how do i make sure they leave alone my feathered babies?

Make sure the babies are safe from the cats, I have 3 coops only 2 can hold peeps as I can block cats from both cover it with hardware cloth do anything chicken wire will not stop them we have 3 outside I know what your talking of

 

[Elmochook]

Make everything predatoor proof as it should already be.

Well obviously thats the goal... I wondered if cats could be trained to ignore the birds altogether though.

 

[Welshies]

Well obviously thats the goal... I wondered if cats could be trained to ignore the birds altogether though.

Yes, spray them with water when they approach the coops or introduce the birds to them as though they are dogs

 

[Bunnylady]

Well obviously thats the goal... I wondered if cats could be trained to ignore the birds altogether though.

The way cats operate is: the rules are only the rules when you are there to enforce them. Otherwise, all bets are off. Some cats leave even small chicks alone, but they do it because it makes sense to them to do so, not because some person wants them to (unlike a dog). A ferociously protective hen might be able to teach the cats that they really don't want to mess with chicks, but unless you are willing to stand guard over the chicks 24/7 like she would until they are old enough to no longer be interesting, you need to make sure the chicks are safe behind a secure fence.

 

[Zoomie]

Well obviously thats the goal... I wondered if cats could be trained to ignore the birds altogether though.

Basically?

No.

Cats are solitary ambush predators. They are very opportunistic. If the chance comes about for them to grab a prey animal, they will do it. They don't live in social groups where the highest priority is to get along in the group. They are generally solitary and do not care much about what others think.

I have a cat (an indoor cat) and I also raise canaries. I would never dream of allowing the cat into the bird room. I ALWAYS keep them separate. ALWAYS. I know very well that if I allowed the cat into the bird room, she would spend all her time trying to kill the birds. And that is my indoor cat! Who is actually a pet and likes me and cares about me!

You have two barn cats who are out there all on their own. Can you explain to me why they would care at all about what you think? I can't think of one possible reason. Those cats are going to do what cats do, and that is hunt. You may feed them, but knowing cats, I am sure they do not care about that at all. If they see a prey animal in front of them, they are going to try and kill it. That's what they do. It sounds like they are very good at it and they seem to be providing some excellent value in keeping down the number of rodents. Just try and focus on that, and keep the birds away from them completely. Do not allow those cats to mingle with your young chickens. You might get lucky, but personally, I would not count on it.

 

[sourland]

Bunnylady and Zoomie are right on the money. Cats MAY behave as long as you are there to enforce the rules. When you are gone, they will do what they want. It's just their nature.

 

[Elmochook]

Well i wish i had a protective hen but i have a young flock so i cant expect any of them to have a "mothering instinct" yet.
Thank you all for your input. I havent ever had outdoor cats before now either so its all new haha. Excuse my newbie question.
I have 2 pens that are fully predator proof but the one i was gonna build for the babies isnt done yet.
Maybe i should just do a shuffle and combine my flocks until they get bigger... Hmm

 

[cassie]

I hope you have had those cats neutered or spayed. Otherwise you are soon going to be overrun with cats. Personally I have never had trouble with the cats bothering the chicks. They just never showed any interest in them. I have no idea why. Maybe it because the chicks were either with a protective mother hen or because the areas where I had my chicks were cat proof.