here, kitty,kitty !

[Granny Hatchet]

i have a mouse problem, ongoing. i have tried a few things, traps, poison outside the coop, the bucket of blood. nothing!! went to my cuz today and someone dumped a kitten/cat off at her house that she couldnt feed. i have 2 barn cats and they are both good mousers but its not enough. so i brought it home and put it in the coop! so far, it has ate and slept all day. they dont seem to be paying attention to each other except for curious looks.am i going to be sorry?

 

[Judy]

Occasionally a feral cat will attack an adult chicken, but for the most part, cats keep their distance, or even become "pals" with chickens. I've had both cats and chickens for a few years now with no harm to the chickens. I did have one cat who liked to lie in wait for the chickens, and jump out at them to startle them. She never got veryclose, though. I always felt like, at some point, a chicken had pecked her good and she'd learned to keep her distance.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

great!! maybe now i can stop jumping up every 10 min. and going to check on them. its an all you can eat buffet.the best things happen at the weirdest times.

 

[Kazfam]

Our outdoor cats (5) don't seem to bother the chickens...if they get too close (curiosity) the chickens get noisy and the cats leave. A couple of them have gone into the coop with one of us...no trouble.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

my two thats outside dont either but this is a strange kitten that i put in the run/coop with the bantams. hope its a mouser. some wont. it has no tail.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

update: new kitty is terrified of the chickens! lol and i over looked something pretty important. the litter box!! i cant put one out there because the chickens would eat the litter so, now what? and i think its a manx cat. very loving

 

[Kazfam]

I wouldn't bother with a litter box if the cat is outside...the kitty needs to be let out of the coop to find acceptable potty areas.

If there are mice around - cats will find them and deter them just by their presence. I don't think the cat needs to live in the coop 24/7.

Our chickens pounce on shrews and mice...beat them up pretty badly.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i wanted it to live in there. i have 2 outside allready and the job is not getting done. my coop is 8 by 16 and my run is 8 by20. its a big place with lots of places to run and play and i dont let my bantams free range. i have a norwegian forest cat that is a fixed male and this kitten is intact male. pretty sure things wouldnt go well for him outside

 

[Judy]

Perhaps you can fix some sort of cat door, just a little hole should do, so it can get out to potty. It doesn't need to be penned inside the coop during the day, anyway. Mice are usually much more active at night.

I have seen my chickens pounce on a mouse from the roost, kill and eat it. That mouse was gone in 30 seconds. The trouble is, the aren't going to do this at night.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

lol, i am infested !! i came home bout an hour ago and went to make my rounds. i looked for the cat and couldnt find it. i thought nest box, so i started looking in there and in one box there was 3 dead mice, belly up. i still didnt see the kitten so i went to the other door and went in that way just to see the cat running back to the nest box with another one in its mouth !!!i dont think a small door will work, it sleeps all day anyhow but i wonder if a very tall narrow box would allow the cat in but not the chickens because they couldnt get back out for litter? also my bantams are half the size of the kitten.