Cats and Chickens

[Minelson]

Hi, I am new to chickens. I just brought home 2 roosters and 3 hens. I'm afraid my barn cats are going to get and wound or kill them. Help!

 

[ruth]

Spend a lot of time observing them together. You should know right away whether the cats are going to 1. chase the chickens whether your sitting there and telling them "no" or not - or 2. whether they walk up, show a little curiosity and then walk away - or - 3. the chickens charge toward the cats and the cats run like he_ _ .

We have four cats and two dogs and all get along with the chickens and the GSD has guarded them since they were babies. Out of our three grown cats, only Morris seems to truly love the chickens and seems to have moved in with them:

Our other two adult cats just act like cats that could care less and don't get anywhere near them.

Our stray kitten from a feral mom, whose name is Simba but we've started calling "Some Bad" just can't help himself. He will chase them with me chasing him and yelling at him and squirting him with the hose - catching him and beating his little but - he just can't help himself - it is such great fun. He never catches one and as soon as one runs he goes for another. I think he just really likes to see them run, fly and squawk. He's getting older and seems to be losing interest in them though.

So, my answer is "you never know". Always watch first and spend a lot of time observing your other pets with your chicks. All our dogs and cats and chickens free range and hang out together but it took a little bit of supervised visits for them to all learn. Never leave them unattended without proper introductions and visits together first.

 

[Minelson]

Thank You so much for the advice and the pictures! I will spend some more time with them tomorrow and see how it goes. Today all 4 cats were just kinda creeping up and stalking them and it scared me so I made them go to bed in the cat house early.

 

[ruth]

You can usually tell pretty easily with a cat. If it's in a crouched stalking position with its ears back and THAT look on its face - you know it's gonna pounce. Morris would initially just sort of walk up to the chickens as if to see them close up. They would then sort of charge at him and he would run off. After a while they quit charging and he quit running from them and started hanging out with them all the time. I think he like them so much because they don't pick on him and the other cats and dogs do a little bit - he's a stray (well they all are) but he seems to be low man on totem pole.

 

[RyanAndMeri]

Our cats don't even kill mice. They just chase them around and harass them. Now the neighbor cats... those guys would take down a lab...

 

[MissPrissy]

It has been my personal experience that my chicks/chickens were never at any time safe from our barn cat. Our cat hunts. He brings his kill to the back door and leaves his trophy for my husband. He has tried to hunt the chicks and tore through a wire framed grill house to get to them. It is my experience that a cat can be and is a predator.

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

We have had chickens free ranging with our cats for a long time and nothing has ever happened.. Chickens always ran off the cats.. until about two weeks ago and one of the cats caught and ate our banty rooster.. until then the cats have never showed any interest in the chickens and its been well over a year and they have all been together since the kittens were born..

 

[RyanAndMeri]

Quote:
That's unfortunate. No matter how sweet and innocent, cats get that instinct to chase when something runs from it. Even though we trust our cats with our chickens, we keep them separated.

A while ago a famous cat trainer was nearly killed by a white bengal tiger he raised from a cub (sorry I forget his name)... they said he tripped and stumbled backwards and that was enough for the cats instincts to kick in and it pounced him.

 

[Lunachick]

I have one small dog and four cats and two chickens. They are all allowed out in the same area of the yard together and they leave each other alone. They just walk past each other like "hey, how y'all doin?" And that's that.

They do observe each other, but those two chickens aren't letting ANYBODY mess with them.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

For now, my cats co-exist with my chickens. I have a few (less than a year old) that will chase them, but not catch them. The older cats leave them alone completely. I brought my 3 - 4 week old chicks out the other day and had to baby-sit them for awhile until the cats got the picture to leave them be. I would still check on them every few minutes to make sure nothing bad had happened. The cats just lounged around sleeping for most of the day while the chicks scratched, ran around, and stretched their wings.

I still didn't trust the cats, not with the smaller chicks. That's why I constantly kept checking on them.

Most of the time it's a "wait and see what happens" game. Not every cat will react the same.