Cat stalking chickens?!!

[Hens rule]

Me neither. I once had a young pullet around the age of 7 months and she had just began to lay about 1 month after she hurt her foot really bad. That caused her to be the smallest pullet out of my other 4 pullets. She was a great little bird but she was bullied a lot even by the bigger pullets. One day while I wasn't home she some how got under my fence or flew over or something and when I noticed she was missing I looked over the fence and..
There where her feathers scattered In a 10-15 foot radius. I took a bike ride later and found my little pullets head in a yard about 5 houses down. I looked at the house to the left and they're was a big cat just starring at
Me. It made me so angry!

 

[Diannastarr]

WOW, i dint know there were specific, breeds of geese that were better then others for protecting chickens, i had a bunch of geese back in the 1970's i have always loved geese & had a pair of every kind of goose back then & my favorite breed of goose is the Toulouse i hand raised them all & they are all trainable & become like trained guard dogs, but when people just get a few baby geese and dont interact with them thats when they can become unruly , and go after most any one, my geese were never a problem they were loose & free rang & totally fine around all my 5 small kids, and mastiff puppies & free range bunnies & newly hatched chicks & cats, and even visitors, when i said it was OK and to leave them alone, my geese would just go away , so if any one wants a goose get them as young as you can and treat them with love & kindness and they will see you as mother goose , so handle them every day & use the same words every day & teach them what you want them to learn , i kept mine in my kitchen as tiny goslings & gave them a lot of attention & in the early spring right after i got them i sat out on my back porch in new England, out to get a tan in early spring & had my goslings out with me & they all would swim around in a good size black rubber horse bucket every day as they grew up i would sit with them getting a great tan & they would swim around & around playing & when they got tired they would come over to me & cuddle up next to me and fall asleep right against me on my beach towel like i was mother goose ....lol..o and i got them a few days old from a feed store & they still imprinted on me ,so even when my geese were adults my teen age daughter & i would pick them up and sit in lawn chairs, and just lightly hold on to their necks just below the head & whisper in there ears like when they were just tiny goslings ...lol..& still as adults they would make their little squeaking noises like they were still tiny babies back when they would be sitting in our laps ..lol... so mean geese are just the fault of the owners, if they allow them to become that way ,since geese are very protective to their group, & if you are part of their group they will die for you, But i would never allow that & would defend them with what ever it took, I plan to look for a few Toulouse goslings locally this next spring & after we move into the mountains, they will have a great forever home with us , they can turn out to be even better then guard dogs & believe me i raised guard dogs for over 30 years , but a goose attack is nothing to joke about , geese can really hurt you, & i feel sorry for who ever had a grandma with mean geese, i remember back in the 1970 the police came onto my farm un announced looking for some criminal or what ever ..? & the geese found them pretty quick ....lol... hehehe yeah & they could do nothing about my geese attacking them since they were attacked by farm animals ....lol.... & not attacked by my dogs....lol.... but rather by my guard geese.....lol....i want to get at least1 Toulouse I really want a giant goose the bigger the better...!! but i never knew back in the 70's that geese would guard the chickens to...?? i had giant very smart rooster i trained back then who did a great job of defending my chickens.so i never got geese for that reason , but im gonna do that this time & see how it goes, so good luck to you all who plan to get geese for that same reason , just remember to train them with respect & kindness, and they will treat you that same way , what goes around comes around with geese,

take care all

 

[Diannastarr]

exactly yes & also cats do eat the mice & can be helpful in that respect , we had over 10 wild cats here &some looked part bob cat and were very large cats with a stump for a tail who were born here,but as the years went by, they all got eaten by coyotes on the other side of our fences, we live right a crossed from over 10 miles of wilderness but lucky for us we ended up with this one cat, a black & white stray we named her spot, she never left our fenced in yard & so she never got killed , so i tamed her & had her spayed & she lives in my house for 5 years now, but i have trained her to never kill any birds,or any other animal like our bunnies & such , but she can kill all the mice she wants, & she does,kill mice like one mouse a night, that she leaves by our door & the chickens love to eat mice , so spot is also feeding our chickens with her many talents....lol.. so in 5 years she has never killed a bird since she was a kitten & now she follows my flock around as they are out free ranging every day and she lays near by in the grass watching over them , like a herding dog would , but if a chicken should cried out for what ever reason my cat spot is right there, crying loudly & worried and if there is a real problem the cat comes looking for us, and wants us to come follow her, so i don't see cats in a very bad light, i have had about 100 wild cats here & in new England we had tons of barn cats, But never any problems with them PLUS here in AZ we still have about 50 or more wild cats right down the street ,all running around looking for food & some times i put food out for them ,so my cat could have a few friends to hang with, but she wont let them into our yard & beats the crap out of any strays who dares to jump in...lol.. ....

but also all my young birds are never go out by them selves since they can be grabbed by flying predators & you never know , so they never go out alone until they are large laying hens, & my cat trys to keep them all safe, as well as a cat can...??? ....lol.. its so strange how she just took over on her own to watch over our flock..? like she has & we still dont know why she does that...? but we are sure glad we have her

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Cats are all different, like humans and other animals. Some will kill chickens, some are completely indifferent to their existence. If you do your research and work on it, you can keep chickens and cats in the same area quite easily, many have done it. Though cats have an underlying predatory nature, so do dogs, and many do not seriously injure people, especially family pets. It really depends on the breed, place, housing, size of cat and chickens, age, and learning capacity as well as your ability to keep your animals safe.

 

[Hens rule]

I have left my chicken coop unlocked at night for my shy hen Lila to sleep on the door and the cat hasn't attacked and I haven't seen it in a while. Thanks everyone!
If this cat grows to be older may it spy on my chickens again not as just being a curious kitten? Will it attack?

I used to have cats as a young kid but that was before I had hens, I also had 4 dogs at the time and they where all friends so I agree with the not all cats are killers.

 

[Diannastarr]

EXACTLY I AGREE...!!

take care

 

[Diannastarr]

about problem pet cats i would reprimand the cat if she shows any sign of being interested ( in the wrong way towards my chickens ), for years now we keep all our chciks in a play pen in the kitchen & our cat is at eye level with them every day as she walks by, but she never even looked in their direction & was the same way towards our tiny new born bunnies we raised in the kitchen in that same playpen, she never even looked at them either , because early on i let her know those are all mine & she has no business with what ever is mine.!!!! but if she ever did look at them with hungry eyes, i would yell at the cat to get away in an angry voice & maybe even stomp my foot at her & put her out the door, so she knew i mean business...! cats can be trained like a dog, I know i have done it, its like good kids & bad kids, it all depends on the parents in the end.

 

[Hens rule]

Thanks I found out today that my neighbors are moving! Hopefully this time the new neighbors won't have a cat, but even if they did I wouldn't be to worried about it know. I just hope my new neighbors won't through cat poo in my yard like my current neighbors.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

If a cat bothers my chickens when I'm around, it will get a swift kick and a one way ticket back to its owners, unless it is stray, in which case I will either rehome it or turn it in to a shelter. But not all cats are bad. To tell the truth, I don't care much for cats. I am allergic, they are scratchy and hissy, and they just don't seem to have personalities like dogs do. Anyway, I'd still hate to have to make one "disappear", they are animals doing what animals do after all.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

In the real world cats sleep up to 20 hours a day. The rest of the time they hunt, but especially they hunt at night.