Cat

[McChooky]

Tips on how to get rid of unwanted cats: The cayenne pepper is mentioned here in this article as well. When they walk on it and touches their paws it burns and when they groom themselves it gets in their mouth and burns .It actually works against ALL predators and doesn't bother chickens https://www.tipsbulletin.com/how-to-get-rid-of-cats/

 

[MTKitty]

I have a scarecrow that I have never put out before. I might as well try that. Hopefully the cat won't bother our birds because of how much bigger some of them are compared to it.

I’m not sure size matters. Bobcats have been filmed taking down adult deer.

That said, your photo looks like you’re in a rural setting. If the cat demonstrates stalking behaviors, I would be quite concerned. But when my chickens went into their yard at five weeks, I had two neighbor cats pass through. Both were curious, but didn’t get close to the fence.

I chalked it up to them being familiar with chickens from their own properties and figured they were only checking out their new neighbors. I haven’t seen signs of either cat in several weeks.

 

[McChooky]

Dogs are related to wolves that hunt deer but that doesn't mean a chihuahua is capable of taking down a deer. Size matters and so does maturity. Comparing a half grown cat or kitten to an adult bob cat taking down a deer serves no purpose but frighten the OP.These chickens appear to be in a run and should be perfectly safe unless the runs not covered. The dog on the other hand is a huge risk to the chickens unless its been trained .They can dig holes under runs and pull chicken wire down if the run doesn't have an apron. Cats can't do this. Adult cats sometimes kill chickens that free range but rarely break in a coop or run.

 

[Bejep714]

Our run has string over it so a cat could jump in there. The cat should be used to chickens since we live next to amish and they have chickens. The cat isn't a bob cat. It's a normal cat, and seems smaller. I'm just worried because our chickens get scared at everything and they would definently run from it and cause it to chase.

 

[SueT]

A small cat probably won’t hurt the chickens, but rather vice versa. Our half grown kitten likes to playfully run at the chickens who are behind the fence, and they don’t like it, but he has actually gotten in a few times and no harm done.
Years ago I put some food out for a big feral cat as insurance. Protection pay. He never did show interest in the chickens.

 

[McChooky]

Bird netting is inexpensive and will protect your chickens much better than hanging strings across it. If a cat can get in your run so can other predators.Everything eats chickens even snakes and squirrels .Unless you make it predator proof you can't keep them all out sorry.

 

[SueT]

Bird netting is inexpensive and will protect your chickens much better than hanging strings across it. If a cat can get in your run so can other predators.Everything eats chickens even snakes and squirrels .Unless you make it predator proof you can't keep them all out sorry.

Right, our kitten shows us where we need to repair the netting...

 

[Bejep714]

I'm not worried of the string not being enough. It's been up for over a year almost 2 without problems. I know it could help keep the cat away, but I dont think we will change it. The pepper idea won't work either since we have dogs and our neighbors have dogs, and it might harm them. Thank you for the ideas anyway. I'll keep looking into it.

 

[Bejep714]

in the article I sawa predator animals urine could keep them away. We have dogs that actually almost killed the cat a few days ago, and they pee everywhere so maybe that keeps it away.