Do Cats Eat Chickens?

[Bacchus]

I just saw a cat pacing around my coop a moment ago (around 10PM), and this is the first time I've seen a cat in my yard. I'm just wondering if anyone here has experience with cats eating their chickens. I'm not concerned at night, since my hens are always locked in and secured, but I'm kind of worried about the day time when they're free ranging. Any info on this would be much appreciated!

 

[mahen8622]

i actually introduced my obese house cat to my chickens thru the run and she was terrified she couldnt get her fat little brain wrapped around the fact that God made us birds larger than a blue jay lol so i have no fear of my cat eeeever getting loose and going all animal planet on my chickens shes terrified of them lol

 

[WriterofWords]

Housecat: Spoiled inside kitty provided with love and food.

Barncat: Working cat, keeps rodents out of feed, it's job is to kill to eat. Will it eat chicken? Yes, it's a cat, it's hungry, it's natural.

If you have barn cats around doing their job, killing rodents and such to live, it is your job to keep your chickens safe and under wraps. No, you can't blame the cat for doing it's job. No one told it in kitty language that you can only eat furry things, and certain feathered things that fall out of the sky,, feathers are feathers, it's edible.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Love how this thread seems to be kill everything that kills your chickens. let me know when you get caught shooting a bald eagle for been on your property.
Pen them well in the first place and avoid having conversations like this.

It's not just penning them. i have all my bantams penned. Not because i want to, but because my neighbor has three cats that are constantly in my yard. They come and stare into the pens and unnerve my chickens. i don't shoot them, but shoo them away, or turn the sprinklers on them. When it got really bad once with one of the cats hanging in my yard, i took her to Animal Control (on the advice of Animal Control). The neighbors were mad as they had to bail her out and pay fines. Oh well. If i saw one of their cats actively trying to harm any of my animals, i would shoot, or do anything to protect my flock, and i love cats! i have cats of my own, in my house, protected from angry neighbors or hostile cats, or other predators.

Cats will kill chickens. Another neighbor's persian cat tried to snatch one of my Showgirls from right at my feet. i screamed and scared the cat, which was what saved my girls. So i don't and won't trust any cat, no matter how pretty, with my precious chickens. Sorry. My birds come first on my own property.

 

[Sin City Chicks]

I free range my chickens as much as possible since I haven't been working and I can keep an eye on them. Unfortunately a black cat got in our yard a few days ago (while I was inside for only a couple minutes) and chased 2 of my girls over the wall, and they managed to cross the road and DH later found them in the neighbor's yard. My other girl was crouched by the back gate calling for her sisters. The cat was still in the yard when I came out, near the girl by the gate. I clapped and chased the darn thing out! Chickens were unharmed but shaken up, as was I. Feral cats are very common in my neighborhood, and the only predators we have to worry about, so we have been in the process of building a larger run. We want them to be safe from the cats but still have as much range space as possible. As much as I wanted to kick this cat (or give it a lead bath) the cat was only following its instincts. So we are taking the necessary steps to protect our girls and still give them plenty of space to roam.

 

[ellenmoshenberg]

The most dangerous feral animal in terms of causing diseases in humans, deaths in humans and other animals as
well as destroying the environment are other humans and some of them are right here on this list.

 

[chickortreat]

The most dangerous feral animal in terms of causing diseases in humans, deaths in humans and other animals as
well as destroying the environment are other humans and some of them are right here on this list.

Now what possessed you to bring liberal politicians into the discussion?

 

[shmccarthy]

As I said, I have never had a problem with my cats and chickens.  I have six cats, three of them outside and known to hunt.  They have caught mice, birds, etc.  I have three inside.  One who is a fat lazy butt, and two that again, have caugt a couple of mice in my house.  I also have a small parrot in my house that gets outside of it's cage daily.  While curious, the cats have never attacked the bird.  He would bite their nose off if they did!  I raise my chicks in the house.  Now, they have a secure brooder, but one day I left the lid open and went in the room later to find my fat cat in the brooder with the chicks!  There she was, just sitting in the corner of the brooder watching the chicks.  The chicks were in the other corner, watching her!  LOL.  Every year my fat cat knows when I'm going to hatch chicks.  She's there when I turn on the incubators and sleeps beside the incubator, she's there when the chicks hatch and sleeps on top of the brooder.  She's just nosey and loves watching the little chickies.  The other two cats are actually scared of them.
My outside cats don't see little chicks unless a hen hatched them, even then, they are in a pen.  My larger chickens free range every day and my cats don't bother them one bit.  Run from them in fact.  Found a stray cat in a coop one day, poor thing was starving, but again, he just wanted out of the coop and couldn't find his way out.  He was hot and panting and very scared.  I helped him find his way out, but again, no damage done to the growing juveniles in that pen.  I've never seen a cat attack a crow, so I doubt they will go after a chicken.  Chickens are just to big for ordinary cats.  I'm not talking bantams here.  Now, if you have feral cats around your neighborhood, they may be hungry enough to try.  But a cat that is being fed, I highly doubt it's more than curiousity.

Cats kill for fun and will kill a chicken, for fun, if they want to. Heck, my Maine coon mix is bordering on the heavy side, gets fed twice a day and still brings back squirrels and rabbits almost daily. I watched her try and stalk a baby deer in the yard once. I was reading about this study conducted that house cats that are allowed outdoors (not feral cats) kill more animals than large breed cats (tigers, pumas, lions) not because they are hungry but because they aren't in a wild setting and kill for fun. It's instinctual for them. Feral cats hardly kill for fun in fact, they don't know when their next meal is, so they don't waste their time/energy on something they won't eat or something they might not be able to kill. Domestic house cats that have time outside know they're getting fed when they get home so most of their kills are just because of their natural prey drive and because its fun for them.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Here's hjow I feel about it. Unless you know for sure whether the cat is attacking your chickens, you should leave it alone. It does not take long for your property to become a mice resort with chicken feed around. Sure, you can put your feed in metal containers, but how do you stop the chickens from getting some on the ground? Mine are messy eaters despite the fancy feeders. A cat is a great predator for mice. They likely prefer mice to full grown chickens. Once those mice establish in your yard, it won't be long before they are in your house. You know, there is a reason grandma and grandpa had barn cats. I'm sure they didn't keep them around because they were eating the chickens.

 

[daxigait]

An old boy who has lots of chickens that free range teaches barn cats about chickens. When they start showing an interest in the chickens he waits tty I'll the cat is. Near the chickens and throws a couple of handfuls of corn feed right by the cat which causes all the birds to converge from all around the cat to get the feed. He says they never forget.