CHICKS OK WITH OTHER PETS???

[MarieOmelette]

MY OTHER PETS

1) Huge, obese, 12 year old male cat (incidentally, my avatar ). Hunts occasionally.Cuddly with us and other non prey animals, but when he saw the chicks for the first time (at 9 days old) he made that 'meh-meh' noise cats make when they hunt, his eyes went HUGE and he stood really still, staring at them and twitching his tail. Now, after seeing them everyday for a month, he kind of ignores them.

2) Petitie (3 to 4 kg), 10 year old killing-machine female cat. Hunts on a daily basis and eats what she kills. Oddly enough, doesn't seem interested in the chicks, never has been. Ignores them completely. However, she's kind of an evil genius: she can fake being all cuddly and then try to claw your eyes out/steal your lunch.

3) female 8 year old untrained Maremma sheepdog. Used to cry when the cats caught birds and get really worried. Has tried to save fledglings at times by calling us over, but likes to chase magpies (although this may just be because she sees us giving them bread)
Acted really awkward when she saw the chicks (big eyes, wagging her tail really low, snuffling and trying to leave the room). Mainly scared she'll try to play with them and kill them by mistake.

4) female 5 year old mini-labrador. Trained as a guide dog, very obedient. Really interested when she sees the chicks (ears up, wags tail) Once pounced on a baby parrot in one of our paddocks and held it in her mouth, shaking it a little. Bird was unharmed but petrified. Has tried to do the same with one of my chicks (but this was because I let my guard down. she did not seek them out)




Basically, would they be ok with 5 week old standard chicks??? I want to move them to their coop in the next two weeks.

 

[sourland]

I would suggest never leaving them with the chicks in an unsupervised setting. One or all of the lot are likely to do them in.

 

[JeffOeuf]

I'm relatively new at the game, so take this for what it is worth.

My girls have been free-ranging with an inordinately large group of barn cats from 14 weeks on without incident. I didn't trust the cats until the chickens were bigger than the cats, at which point, the cats showed no interest in confrontation at all, and now they can be found eating out of the same food dish on occasion.

I would never trust the lab, ever. I am not sure I would trust any dog, supervised or not.

 

[Going Quackers]

One always has to be careful, my barn cat has been good with my ducks but my chickens he seems more fascinated with, of coarse they are much smaller than the breed of ducks i keep.

My dogs are pretty good with them all too BUT again.. you can never 100% trust any cat/dog.. it's all fine, till it isn't.

 

[MarieOmelette]

Thanks for all the responses. I guess I'm kind of sad they can never all get along, but I'll definitely be careful when I start letting my babies free range. Also, the labrador is going to be rehomed soon (we don't have enough time to spend with her: all our others pets are pretty independent, but she needs constant human contact and gets really lonely when no-one's home during the day)

 

[debid]

I have an outdoor cat that hunts. She brings home animals as large as rabbits and squirrels but usually gets small rodents. Also, a dog that's a sporting breed but passed the CGC test and has never trained for hunting. I trained the dog with the leave it command and the chickens trained him a bit themselves with well-timed pecks to the nose. Everyone gets along fine.

So, I wouldn't lose hope but as others have said, it only takes a second so you have to use care with the introductions.

 

[RonC]

I wouldn't trust them around the chicks. I have a beagle and we had some close encounters when the chckens were smaller. He finally got the idea to leave them alone when they all chased him back in the house. Yesterday the dog came in from outside(doggie door) and came to me telling me something was wrong. Went outside and one that had been in the coop when the others got their free range time and had later came out and got missed when puting them up. She wanted back in the run with the others badly. Now I trust him alot more knowing he's watching out for them but it was a long time coming.