Just saw a black cat chasing my chickens!

[Chukarbuds]

Here I thought is was a varmint in my trash every night and eating the cat food I leave out in the sun room for my cats! I heard my babies clucking loud, which they havent begun to do yet.. frantically. Ran outside and saw this black cat in mid air after my baby! Okay.. what should I do? What can I do? My chicks have been free ranging for over a month in my tiny yard, which is fenced in with a 8 ft wooden fence. Do you think a cage trap baited with fish canned cat food will do the trick? Then take the cat to the humane society? Its not fair I cannot let my chickens out because of a cat! Please help? Im really mad. I want this situation immediately taken care of....

 

[DianaMallory]

Well you stated you leave cat food out so you baited it in. I don't know how big your chickens are but I don't believe my cat could cause any harm to my big girls! If the cat is being fed then I don't think it would make a real effort to kill them. But yes you can catch them in a live trap, just remember that might be some little girls cat so don't destroy it! I can not free range my girls and wouldn't ever again after my last 2 times dealing with predators! My girls are completely caged with hardware cloth. I live in the woods!

 

[Chukarbuds]

Well you stated you leave cat food out so you baited it in. I don't know how big your chickens are but I don't believe my cat could cause any harm to my big girls! If the cat is being fed then I don't think it would make a real effort to kill them. But yes you can catch them in a live trap, just remember that might be some little girls cat so don't destroy it! I can not free range my girls and wouldn't ever again after my last 2 times dealing with predators! My girls are completely caged with hardware cloth. I live in the woods!

Thank you Diana.. I have put some thought that it might be some little girls cat. As more time went on, I calmed down a bit. My young male cat is even afraid to leave the property now because of this mean ol blk cat! LOL. I feed my cats in an enclosed glass porch which has two sliding doors on either end. My cats eat and come as they please. Even the squirrels have found their way in! my chickens are about 3 months old, not big enough to take care of themselves. I am going to keep them in their pen. I have no other choice. The cat wins!!!

 

[Oregon Blues]

If the cat was seen in the act of chasing the chicken then the cat definitely intends to harm the chickens. The chickens and the cat were not playing a friendly game of tag.

Catch the cat, take it to the humane society. If it is some little girl's beloved pet, her family will go down to the humane society and pick it up. Then, if they really love the cat, they will keep it home.

People who turn their cats out to fend for themselves don't care very much what happens to the cat. The world is full of dangers to loose cats and being taken to the humane society is very safe compared to all the other things that could happen to the cat.

 

[Mike Winters]

if its a little girls cat and she loved it it would be inside with a pink bowtie. got any lead vitamins sounds like its trying you take over your cats territory

 

[DianaMallory]

Well I don't think I would trust the cat either your girls aren't big enough to fight it off. I live in the woods and we have loads of predators including furrow cats. So my girls stay pinned up in a totally enclosed pen. I have been through losing 2 other flocks and don't want to go through it again. So I took extra precautions this time. If you trap it I would ask around your neighborhood before trying to take it to a humane society, I know ours doesn't even take cats sometimes because they are over whelmed with them. And remember Cats do serve a purpose in the food chain! They kill mice and rats.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i've struggled with this issue. Some cats will kill chickens, even full grown standard-size ones. It all depends on the cat. The trouble is, in our area anyhow, that cats are considered "free roaming", which means they don't need to be contained in the owner's yard. But our Animal Control does allow anyone to trap and turn in any animal you find in your yard that isn't yours. i had to do this once. i've found talking to owners is not very helpful. There are people who think it's perfectly fine to get a cat then toss it outside all day and night to fend for itself. Inevitably, the bored and curious cats end up in the yard with the interesting chickens in it.

And so, all my small birds are in enclosed pens. i let my ducks roam around our back porch with plenty of tree cover for protection from ariel predators. The neighboring cats have stopped bothering our ducks, and our ducks have learned to stand en masse and stare at the cats until they slink off. Then we have geese that escort any intruder off the rest of our property.

Personally, i would trap and take that cat to your local SPCA or Animal Control. It will just keep coming back and causing havoc and headache until you do.

 

[Chukarbuds]

if its a little girls cat and she loved it it would be inside with a pink bowtie. got any lead vitamins sounds like its trying you take over your cats territory

You got it! my young male hasnt been outside much lately. I can tell hes scared. pls tell me what you mean?? " lead vitamins"???

 

[Mike Winters]

i meant shoot it with a bullet if its threatening your pets and livestock. if it catches your cat out side it might chase it off and make it to scared to come home

 

[bobbi-j]

If a stray cat and squirrels have found their way into your porch, how long until raccoons, possums and skunks find their way in, too? I'd only leave the doors open during the day, and even that's not a guarantee that you won't have an unwelcome visitor from time to time. As for the cat, I agree with the above statements - if it's some little girl's beloved pet, hopefully Mommy and Daddy will learn to keep little Snookum's pet indoors when they have to replace the black one that just disappeared...