"cats" bad or good

[fancyfowl4ever]

I have some really cranky bantam hens, when they have a brood of chicks they get extra cranky, taught all our cats to NEVER look at a chick or chicken. Got 4 Cats, 3 of which are major bird catchers and they wont even look at chicks after having been treed by an angry hen. I brood my chicks in the house the first week without a top on the brooder and our cats don't care.

Usually if they are fed they wont look at chickens as a food item once they are a certain size.

 

[Tabbyhusky]

If your cats are well fed they should have no reason to.

I have feral cats on my property and they have never bothered the chickens. They do not need to as there are plenty of easier sources of food. I also purposefully keep a pair of cats in my aviary with my pheasants because the cats will kill/ward off rats and provide a deterent to other small predators. They never bother the pheasants nor their eggs. I have a "shop cat" that regularly retires into the coop with the chickens at night as well. Never bothered them.

As a general rule of thumb, it is common sense to keep baby chicks away from adult cats unless those cats have been raised around chicks.

That being said, there are exceptions to the rule.

 

[hildar]

I have a 15 year old cat. He has brought up puppies here for many years. He has also helped to bring up baby chicks here over the past 15 years. He watches over them. Last year he brought the baby chicks a dead mouse. You would have thought he was trying to be a mama cat to them. All 27 chicks just looked at that dead mouse like 'What is that?" However he has one hen that is like an old girlfriend to him, she follows him every wheres and when he catches something she expects her share of it. I caught her the other day with half of his Robin, and the week before with half a rabbit. She also knows where his dog food dish is. Some of our hens go to his bed to lay an egg, and he sleeps right through it. However to let him lay down beside of a chick without me or the kids there that would be questionable. However he has brought up and baby sat with Chihuahua puppies. Most cats would have eaten them thinking they were mice but not him. He cleaned them daily, would even move them back to the bed if they wiggled off it, and he even a few times picked one up with his mouth and put it back where it was suppose to be. He watched over them at night time and stayed with them to keep them warm. But would I trust him with baby chicks alone? I don't think so

senility is kicking in at his age. He might forget what he is doing and lay on one, or even eat one thinking it was a dead bird.

 

[boyswillbeboys]

so far my cat, and the neighbour's cat, that comes around don't bother our full grown chickens, when they were babies,the cat came in the coop, and watched me care for them, and she hasn't looked at them since, she still catches wild birds and mice, but leaves the chickens alone.

Can't say the same of the dogs unfortunately

 

[dorothy12]

my cats dont eat birds,but they kil and play with them

 

[chickenboy190]

I have cats. My chickens chase them. They will kill chicks though.

 

[ChaoSS]

If your cats are well fed they should have no reason to.

I have feral cats on my property and they have never bothered the chickens. They do not need to as there are plenty of easier sources of food. I also purposefully keep a pair of cats in my aviary with my pheasants because the cats will kill/ward off rats and provide a deterent to other small predators. They never bother the pheasants nor their eggs. I have a "shop cat" that regularly retires into the coop with the chickens at night as well. Never bothered them.

As a general rule of thumb, it is common sense to keep baby chicks away from adult cats unless those cats have been raised around chicks.

That being said, there are exceptions to the rule.

I'm sorry but this is not correct. Cats may or may not kill chickens of various ages, but it has little to nothing to do with being well fed. Some cats retain more of the hunter instinct than others, that is very true, but cats that kill, do so whether they are hungry or not. Well fed cats are responsible for the deaths of millions of small animals a year.

 

[Michael Apple]

I've had cats for years and never had a problem with them around mature chickens. Obviously they should be kept away from chicks. Cats are great companions which eliminate rodents. Can't ask for much more.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Growing up we had cats and chickens both roaming free around the farm - the cats, for the most part, ignored the chickens and if/when one did get too close or act a little too curious, the chicken(s) were quite capable of gaining the upper. If anything the chickens were more likely to chase the cats than the cats were to chase the chickens. Even with chicks around we never had any cat caused losses as the only chicks we had were being raised by a broody and they (broody hens) kept the cats well at bay.
This time around the cats have been kept away from my chicks simply because the chicks are "captive" in the brooder and would be easy pickings - once they move outside, though, when the chickens are out of the run it'll be like it was growing up with cats and chickens mingling as much as their individual comfort levels dictate.

 

[ochochicas]

We have four cats and one feral, plus some other cats in the neighborhood. All cats have different hunting "perogatives." All of the cats we feed are well fed. Two of them are avid hunters. One eats her prey, and they other one leaves it on the walkway. The other two cats and the feral have no interest in hunting -either that or they are so bad at it that they don't bother.

We are raising our chicks in the house with the cats. So far the cats are rather intimidated by the chicks. After a week they seem to get the idea that the chicks are part of the family and not the food chain. At the same time, we won't leave them in the same room unattended until the chicks are much bigger. When they go outside this summer I am not worried at all about the cats chasing them. I'm not so sure about the neighbor's cat or our pony though.