Do Cats Eat Chickens?

[superleo130]

were i live yes cats are a problem and it can get annoying because of how many cats there are. well i don't worry too much as my chickens are all in a barn at all times that i have fit to keep them happy and secure but yes cats will take down a chicken. good luck hope your chickens are fine

 

[hennible]

Our cats get chased by the hens.  Poor kitties were here first and when the hens were just chicks the cats would just sit and watch them-never even tried to eat them.  The hens are now the predator!

Here is one of our kitties.  So mean /img/smilies/lol.png

My chickens chase and even attack my cats too, ( the hens but never the rooster)the cats just leave them their space now. Cats are still trying to figure out what the ducks are, and visa versa...everyone's a little curious and confused.

 

[airybee]

I know this is a very old post but I just wanted to share my experience. We moved onto a big piece of property and a few days later discovered a feral cat living under the house. It was winter and we took pity on her and fed her and gave her a heated waterer. She never warmed up to us, hissed every time she saw us, but would hang out on the front step. She quickly learned that if we saw her waiting out there that we would feed her. We would take food out to her and she would run off until we went back inside and then she would eat. She ate more food than any other cat I have ever had. We just couldn't keep her satisfied. She would go through our trash and when our fridge went bad, she figured out how to open a cooler we had on the porch where we temporarily kept our cold food. Because we couldn't tame her enough to get close to her, she had kittens under the house in late winter. We got chickens in March and they were out in the coop about a month later. That's when our chickens started to disappear, always during the day when they were out free ranging. We thought since the cat was well fed, that she would't go after the chickens. We were wrong. All summer long, we lost chickens here and there but did not attribute it to the cat because we were feeding her. Why hunt a large chicken when you don't have to? The kittens we were able to tame and they are sweet and friendly and are scared of the chickens. We assumed a hawk was doing this even though we have a large crow colony in the woods nearby and they chase off any hawks we ever see. A few weeks ago, we lost our largest chicken, a buff orpington. Found a pile of feathers right by our front door and that was it. A few nights ago, something got into our brooder area and ate only part of a baby chick. The mother hen lost a lot of feathers and has a badly scratched face, but she must have put up a good enough fight to stop the critter from eating the rest of the baby chick. That same day, I was walking past a stack of scrap metal and heard the cat growling at me. I looked under it and saw her hunched over an adult wellsummer chicken, eating it. So we finally figured out who was picking off our chickens. I was amazed that a smaller than average feral cat could take down our biggest hens but she did it. She wasn't hungry. She did it because it was in her nature and what she was used to doing to survive. My point being- Any cat, even a small cat can take down and eat a chicken if given the opportunity. We felt terrible, but since the cat was feral and couldn't be stopped if we kept her around, we had her dispatched.

 

[pdirt]

I know this is a very old post but I just wanted to share my experience. We moved onto a big piece of property and a few days later discovered a feral cat living under the house. It was winter and we took pity on her and fed her and gave her a heated waterer. She never warmed up to us, hissed every time she saw us, but would hang out on the front step. She quickly learned that if we saw her
...
So we finally figured out who was picking off our chickens. I was amazed that a smaller than average feral cat could take down our biggest hens but she did it. She wasn't hungry. She did it because it was in her nature and what she was used to doing to survive. My point being- Any cat, even a small cat can take down and eat a chicken if given the opportunity. We felt terrible, but since the cat was feral and couldn't be stopped if we kept her around, we had her dispatched.

Yup, we had the same thing, a very small feral cat eating our pullets and full grown chickens, caught red handed more than once. From what I've read, most people with pet cats have no problems, but feral cats are a very different issue. I think we lost about 11 chickens to one cat.

 

[cicknmama]

Old thread, I know. Cant seem to find an answer anywhere though. I have noticed lately that something is stealing my eggs. Usually just one a day and I don't think it's the hens eating the them. I have found eggs shells eggs outside the chicken yard,inside the yard, and just yesterday and today, IN the coop! The egg shells were foynd on the coop floor and not in the nest box. The only predators are cats. The neighbors cat is not wild but stays outside. This was never a problem during the winter because the coop was raised. I just recently built an 8x8 shed for my girls and as of now, have their nesting boxes on the floor. Can cats steal eggs?

 

[nzpouter]

absolutely and they'll graduate to chicks as well.

 

[drumstick diva]

even if they aren't hungry, they will kill them for sport & fun.

 

[cicknmama]

absolutely and they'll graduate to chicks as well.

I keep a watchful eye on my chicks but this cat is sneaky. I'm going to borrow a pellet gun from a friend and plan a stake out. Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, this cat may mysteriously dissappear.

 

[pdirt]

If you intend to kill the cat, you'd be better off using a .22. Contrary to popular belief, pellet guns often don't just "sting". They can cause serious injury or death. In fact, they are often advertised as for killing squirrels and other small game. I actually use a pellet gun myself to kill a chicken for butchering. Mind you, I am shooting point blank to the head, but one pellet is all it takes. My point being here is with a pellet gun, you may end up not killing the cat but seriously injuring it and causing it a slow painful death. Use a real gun or have a talk with your neighbor about your intentions if they don't control their cat.

 

[EggheadWI]

Here's a fun way to narrow it down: spray or wipe your eggs with hot sauce or chile peppers. Chickens like it but cats, opossums, raccoons, skunks hate it.

BTW stealing eggs is not a very cat-like thing to do. I would suspect chickens or opossums at my place (upper Midwest).