House cats as predators (details are a little gruesome)

[pattyfan]

HI y'all. We recently lost a hen to a predator. When we found her, she didn't have a head, and there were feathers all around, but whatever killed her didn't eat her. That leaves me to believe that it wasn't a wild animal. We do have raccoons and opossums, and I guess it could have been a coyote, but I've never seen one anywhere near the house and in all of those cases, it seems like the animal would have eaten the hen.

The neighbors have a cat which I have seen stalking the chickens several times. I thought it was sort of just playing. I'd also seen it down near the chicken run and ran down and it ran away. Several people have told me that house cats (it's not feral) don't attack chickens. We just came home to find that cat down by our chicken run again.

So I'm going to talk to our neighbors who own the cat. But I'd like to have some anecdotal evidence to back me up. We are friendly but just sort of in passing, so I'm not sure how they are going to respond if I ask them to keep the cat inside.

And if you think it could be a wild animal, that's good information for me to have too.

Thanks.

Kevin

 

[AgnesGray]

Minks and raccoons will both take the head and leave the body behind. This is gross, but minks or weasels will take off the head and drink out the blood. Raccoons will take off the head seemingly for sport.

We have some pretty wild cats near us... some are twice the size of our cats, but they never mess with the chickens. Baby chicks would be another story.

 

[Folly's place]

Most house cats will leave chickens alone, but every other predator will love your birds. House cats would take unprotected chicks, and otherwise may be hunting the mice and wrens that hang out around chicken coops.
Keep your birds in their safe coop and run (hope it's predator proof too!) while you sort this out, because whoever it is, that critter will be back, soon!
Set up a game camera if possible too, and see who visits.
Don't have any feed outside of their coop and run, because scraps left out also attract critters.
Mary