Feral cats

[Irishmom80]

My neighbor has cats, and since he will not spay or neuter what he has we have a constant growth of cats. And they feral. Plus he insists on feeding any outside cats in the neighborhood. Normally it is not a problem as my dogs run our yard and they are not stupid enough to come into the yard. But 2 tomcats have discovered that there is another way to get to them. I thought that my outside run that is attached to my coop was safe but they are are going over the roof and pushing through where it is attached to the building. Any ideas on how to run them off?

 

[Folly's place]

If these cats can get into your coop or run, so can any other predator! Best to fix this ASAP, so there are no openings larger than 1/2" anywhere.
Tomcat urine smells amazing, not good. They may be hunting rodents, a good thing, but might try small chickens, not good.
Your neighbor isn't being neighborly, and being over run with feral cats isn't a good thing.
Find a cat rescue group if possible, and start live trapping these kitties. Maybe your veterinarian knows where they can go, call around.
And all this free food will also bring opossums, raccoons, rats, every other critter, also really not good, from a disease risk situation for your critters and you.
Mary

 

[nuthatched]

Motion sensor sprinkler.

 

[McChooky]

We have a few feral cats but the bob cats and owls or coyotes control their population .When they have no where to run and hide they won't hang around. I have a tarp hanging on the door to my run so nothing can see inside whether its open or closed.

 

[Toad9000]

In my experience cats keep coming back no matter what, they're territorial like that. I feed 'em a .22 if they pose a risk to my flock. It happens to dogs that run wild and harass livestock no question. I don't see anything that makes a cat different.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

We have a few feral cats but the bob cats and owls or coyotes control their population .When they have no where to run and hide they won't hang around. I have a tarp hanging on the door to my run so nothing can see inside whether its open or closed.

There are no feral dogs or cats in our neighborhood because of wild critters. We do have a herd of wild/free roaming/feral horses we are currently dealing with.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Goodness! At least the horses won't eat your chickens.

 

[Qwerty3159]

I’m of the belief these two should be trapped and taken to the pound. Really, any of these feral and unfixed cats deserve a trip to the pound if you can catch them. As another user said we wouldn’t tolerate roaming packs of dogs a cats should be no different. At least they’ll be neutered, and either released back as TNR cats or more ideally they would be adopted out as barn cats or something and stop living on the streets and causing issues.

It’s really unfortunate that your neighbor is creating and enabling this problem to continue. A feral cat population can quickly grow out of control due to careless feeders and breeders if the coyotes, birds of prey, and vehicles don’t take enough of them out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Cats taken to the pound do not get neutered and released. Usually if they are not adopted within about 3 days they are euthanized, which is politely to say, destroyed. Only in areas where there is a well-funded SNR program (Spay, Neuter, Release) does that happen.

 

[Anon112]

Cats taken to the pound do not get neutered and released. Usually if they are not adopted within about 3 days they are euthanized, which is politely to say, destroyed. Only in areas where there is a well-funded SNR program (Spay, Neuter, Release) does that happen.

It really depends. I live in a very rural area, but our local Humane Society does run a Trap/Neuter/Release program and also heavily works on adopting cats out as barn/working cats. It's definitely worth asking around. Some of these programs will even come out to do the trapping for you.

For the OP: I agree that getting your run totally secured ASAP is really important. If a cat can get in, a raccoon, possum, or other critter will eventually find that same gap.

I have a neighbor who also keeps a feral population fed. It's hard, and I feel for the cats. (I actually have a cat that I adopted as a kitten from one of their ferals that was killed by a car). One of the tomcats likes to hang around my run, but I'm mostly fine with it because he mainly goes after the mice and rats.