How to keep cats away

[laylerschicks]

Today we came home and one of the cats on our street had killed 2 of our younger pullets. Im wanting to find a way that keeps it away (or kills) that cat but I also have pets that i dont want harmed an any way. do yall have any ideas of what i could do? id rather not have to kill it but its already killed 2 of my chicks and sent our cat to the vet twice so ill do what i have to do

 

[Sussex19]

Can you find its owner?
I'm thing you may just have to make the run safer, so the cat can't get in.
How old are your pullets? As they get older and bigger the problem might solve itself if you can keep them safe till then.
A broody hen is very good at teaching cats a lesson...

 

[springvalley123]

There was a feral cat in my yard who chased my full grown large hens! I caught it in the act and scared it off though. Usually even ferals don't mess with full grown birds, so hopefully you can keep the chicks in the run until they're big enough and mature enough to stand their ground. I once had a group of 4-8 week old andalusian pullets that ganged up on a feral adolescent cat and scared it off....

I have a some ferals and actually trapped and neutered some, so in my research I read that you'll never poison them--that is, even if you tried to medicate them with something made for cats to voluntarily take, you'd have to blend it in with kitten milk replacer after 3 days of feeding the unmedicated KMR....

 

[The Moonshiner]

Catapult or Live Trap
Either would work

 

[Matejka]

Live trap the unwanted cats. Then, this is the sticky/risky/ gray area. There are many things you can do after you catch the cat(s). I will mention several and probably get roasted for some.....
Animal control
Dispatch it (kill,shoot )
Relocate (make sure if you do this that the cat is covered-if it can see it will return)
Give away (with disclosure it eats chickens)
If tame-try to find owner (explain cat is in danger )


Personally, I own cats, they are almost impossible to keep from wandering/prowling and don't want harm to come to them, however, if an animal (tame or wild) is threatening me or my property I shoot.
AND, if my cats/dogs were/are causing problems somewhere I expect that person to do the same. We have to protect our property, containing our animals, predator proofing, and protecting.

 

[SouthofFla]

Once they've brought down more than one bird, the cat cannot be educated to leave birds alone. You need to look at permanent solutions, and talking to a neighbor who owns this cat will not do the job (long and tiring experience speaking here). If your county has a live trap program, you can save the cost of buying a trap, but if they catch the wrong animal first, you're usually stuck-- in some places, they haul that animal away even if it's yours. It's much better to spring for the $70 or whatever to get a raccoon-sized live-trap and trap it yourself. These things do not normally injure the animal. You might want to check ahead of time whether taking it to Animal Control will count as you having abandoned one of your animals to the county, as the lingering consequences of that might affect your decisions. In some counties, getting your dog back from Animal Control is more difficult and expensive after you have abandoned an animal, and in some counties you can't adopt within a year (or longer, for all I know) of abandoning an animal.

 

[SouthofFla]

Having a raccoon-sized live trap on hand is a good thing in the long run. You never know when you will have to trap one, and this size is good for a number of different critters that turn up to maul or kill your birds.

 

[Matejka]

I have several different size live traps. Tsc had a 2-pack on sale for $49. I have caught
14 raccoons in 17 days (dispatched)
Possum (released)
Chickens (released)
My cat (released)
A frog (not sure HOW-he has released)

 

[ihatedarkroast]

An electric wire around your yard you can plug into an outside outlet would probably work. You can pick up a used fence generator off facebook cheap and get a little high tensile wire and plastic step in posts at the farm store or hardware store.

As for trapping and taking to animal control... The way it works is, you trap the cat. Then you call animal control, explaining a stray is in your yard and they will send an officer to come pick it up. Just make sure it's legal for your chickens to be free ranging where you live before they come.

My neighbors have done this to my dumb dog Baxter before (although he only kills our chickens so far). I had to leave work early, take half a day to fill out paperwork and pay a $40 fine to bail him out of doggy jail. I have the escape artist microchipped so they called me within an hour of him being collected. -.- I did NOT like them doing that as my dog would have come home on his own if they left him alone. The $40 fine and embarrassment of the police being called has HIGHLY MOTIVATED us to keep him home. My 4 year old keeps letting him out by accident tho.

With a cat, odds are that it will be put down after a few weeks at animal control if no owner shows up to claim it. Because all the shelters are flooded with feral cats and surrendered cats. They breed in the wild like crazy and it's a huge problem. So you may want to check if it's someone's beloved pet before you drop it off, as some people never bother to go to animal control or can't afford the fee to get their pet back. But animal control is also the first place many people will look if they have lost a pet. So it's really up to you.

 

[springvalley123]

Live trap the unwanted cats. Then, this is the sticky/risky/ gray area. There are many things you can do after you catch the cat(s). I will mention several and probably get roasted for some.....
Animal control
Dispatch it (kill,shoot )
Relocate (make sure if you do this that the cat is covered-if it can see it will return)
Give away (with disclosure it eats chickens)
If tame-try to find owner (explain cat is in danger )


Personally, I own cats, they are almost impossible to keep from wandering/prowling and don't want harm to come to them, however, if an animal (tame or wild) is threatening me or my property I shoot.
AND, if my cats/dogs were/are causing problems somewhere I expect that person to do the same. We have to protect our property, containing our animals, predator proofing, and protecting.

Animal control---I'd call first, in my entire area (two whole counties that I've called, at least), they DON"T take owner turn-ins, much less strays or ferals. I think shooting it is more humane than trying to relocate it, it depends on its environment, which unfortunately includes the OP's baby chicks. It may be a tame cat, but probably won't act that way once trapped. One of the "ferals' I trapped turned out to be imprinted on humans and very tame, you'd never have known it when she was trapped.