best way to introduce my cat

[waynem1983]

To my new buff orps.

Finally got me a pair of buff orpingtons. They are a year old and are huge, at least twice the size of my cat. I dont have a run, I have a large walled garden that they can ravage to their hearts content, however this is also my ginger toms teritory.

Is the a method to doing this, or should I just risk it? Cat is a great hunter but he has never killed anything bigger than a blackbird. Are these birds big enought to look after themselves?

 

[waynem1983]

 

[Folly's place]

I think that your cat may be horrified by the size of your new birds; should be funny! Very few cats will want to hunt anything that big; little chicks are another story. Be there to observe, and the chickens need a predator-proof overnight coop anyway. Mary

 

[waynem1983]

No trouble at all!

 

[thomasboyle]

My cats interact with my chickens and ducks all the time. When I first introduced them, a hen ran over and pecked the cat on the nose. The cat jumped out of her skin, and I have never had a single problem with them not getting along. In fact, when one of my ducks was hit by a car, the duck limped back into the yard and laid down in the grass near the house. My two cats came and laid down next to her, and stayed with her until she died.

 

[ChickenRisa]

Oh my goodness, thomasboyle, that story of your duck is so touching!

I have a few feral barn cats and I've had chickens now for about a year and I've never had problems with the cats hurting my girls. Over the winter I even caught one of my kitties warming herself under the heat lamp in the coop with a hen laying an egg in the nesting box close by.

 

[Drivernumber22]

Depends on your cat. My cat sleeps with them. Dog on the other hand...na