Cats living with the chickens to hunt mice?

[mmaddie's mom]

Cats that are raised with the birds have never been a problem... only ferals. My cat sleeps in the coop with my birds... but mine are all free range.
I'm not sure it would be fair to the cats to be closed in like that, they need to be "free range". Just having them around the pen should help with the mouse problem.
Also, do you really want the cat cr*p in the pen all the time? Just a thought.

 

[heather112588]

i have a big tomcat named jimmy (seriously he's big- he's a main coon cat...for those who don't know thats a dog/beagle size). Anyway, after the birds reached 2 1/2 of age, he never touched them. He and my 2 other cats are interested in them as always, mostly bc of the sounds they make (i'll never forget the first time one of my roos crowed, and our cats ears went back and they gave a what the hell was that look). Jimmy looks after them and loves to sleep in the coop even though he doesnt fit in a nest box . He has even chased off foxes before...ive seen this with my own eyes

!

 

[pips&peeps]

I have a cat in my coop. He jumps in and out of the breeding pens all the time and has never atempted to harm any of the birds. There are areas in the coop like where I store feed that only he can get to, so it helps with the mouse population.

A couple of my pet birds will peck his eyes out if he doesn't move away from the kitty food bowl fast enough so they can get their share.

 

[mrsengeseth]

our cats (especially our male and our youngest female) are fantastic mousers. However our hens seem to be even better. So I let the girls hunt mice in their area and keep the cats away from them. It just works out well this way fro us. However I know I have had family that's had barn cats and the hens get along real well, with a very symbiotic relationship. It can be done, i just dont know how they did it to keep the hatchlings from being kitty lunch.

 

[Cowgirl71]

We have many barn cats, and one of them ("Jemimah") lives with my main flock of chickens by her own choosing. My run is not predator proof and she comes in and out when she wants (I lock up the coop every evening to keep the chickens safe from predators). Jemimah keeps the coop and run mouse free, eats some of the layer feed, drinks from their water, and naps in their nest boxes. At first the chickens didn't like her, some of them would squawk and flap and freak out, and others would puff up their feathers and pretend to attack her, but nobody got hurt and everyone gets along fine now. I am concerned that one day Jemimah will find out that the eggs are tasty, but so far so good.

 

[Bubbles_erin]

I don't know if I would have them "living" in the same pen, but I certainly think they can help with rodents. I have a 4 month old male kitten that I got to be a mouser. I am waiting till he is a little older to let him outside, but I am working on training him. There is a good cat training book called "Cat Training in 10 Minutes a Day" I am going to start working with him with that method and continue to teach him to search out and kill mice/rats meanwhile not harming the chickens. Fortunetly, a chicken was weak and I brought it in the other day and that gave him more opportunity to get up close to one. I have a cat carrier that I will put him in to go into the chicken shed so he gets used to them. I have every bit of hope that he will be a good mouser while being nice to the poultry.

Also, a little adolescent mouse got in the house last night around the time my husband got up for work. The cat was unsure, but my husband encouraged him to go after it. The mouse was clearly dying as it couldn't run. It was the perfect first lesson. My boy ended up so engaged with "playing" with the mouse that it was hard to get it away from him. He wasn't even interested in the treats I gave him as a reward.

We are actively training and working with him. I am waiting on a few more supplies to begin the real clicker training, but to encourage him, I am playing with a cat toy on a string multiple times a day to get him conditioned and burn off the kitten energy. And I started teaching him the command for "come." I hope you got some ideas from what we are doing...I can update on the training and chicken interactions in a couple of weeks if you'd like.