Neighborhood cats bugging my birds

[lbartsch]

This afternoon when I went out to put my chicks to bed, there was a cat (that belongs to a neighbor 2 houses down) cornering my chickens against the fence. I shooed her away and sprayed the hose after her hoping to scare her off. A couple of hours later, I went into the backyard to get something and the cat was there again prowling around the yard. The hens were locked up safe in the coop - lucky for them. Our neighbor lets this cat roam free all day and night and just feeds it and/or lets it in when it wants to come in. I'm afraid this cat is going to come during the day and kill my birds when they're free ranging. Do you guys have any suggestions about what to do? Is it wrong for me to ask her to keep her cat inside or something? What else can I do? Thanks for the support.

 

[Imp]

Yes, I would talk to the owner.
You don't mention what kind of chickens you have, but it is unlikely a cat is much of a threat to full grown large fowl chickens. It isn't impossible, but greatly improbable. Most will put the cat in it's place. If you have some of the small breeds, bantams, or chicks that could be different.
Keep up the aversion therapy.

Good luck,

Imp

 

[sassifrassi]

Quote:
Agree. I have 4 cats - tough ones. And they are all scared of my chickens.

 

[Momma on a Mission]

I have 2 outdoor barn cats that are interested in our chickens. Our Calico stuck her paw through the wire and got a serious pecking.

Now she just lays down next to the coop and takes her baths. The other cat talks to the chickens and our rooster chats back at her.

 

[egghead@1265]

I read this the evening you posted this, and then went to bed shortly after. Honestly, I had to check in with you as I haven't stopped thinking about the cat situation at your house! Are your chicks safe yet? You sound like such a sweet person as your note is so polite. I can't imagine confronting people about a pet that they leave go so carefree. We have a housecat, and also our daughter has a cat that we rescued from near death (this cat had anything & everything wrong with him when we found him outside by an old place we were at a few summers back...)

BOTH of these cats go CRAZY when they see any kind of bird out the house windows! I can only imagine what either of these cats would do if they had a chance at a small bird! Also, a friend of mine, pointed out a neighbor in her area who just takes out animals who trespass onto their property! YIKES! In some states it is considered trespassing and well...

I did do a google search, and not surprising there are a number of people who have the same situation as yourself and their chickens. Either a cat or dog, leaves/wanders from their own home and enters the chickens yard resulting in an attack on the chickens. One post even mentioned a motion yard sprinkler that would go off and spray intruders when you are not around, like a motion detector light... not sure how that would work, and in cold weather climates one couldn't rely on that to work. I do KNOW Cats HATE having water in their faces though, but also are very intrigued with birds...

This summer I chose to approach a new neighbor of ours in which we found his dog running lose in our yard several times. I chose to walk over an introduce myself & our family which turned out to be a very worthwhile use of my time. My hopes were to explain our love/concern for our chickens safety, so we didn't have to later or possibly at some point confront them in grief/frustration/anger--- PRIOR to having something potentially awful happen!!!
After going through introductions and such, I mentioned our son had just began with chickens, lets them free range at times, and ...So, I told them that we have some concerns for their safety and such..... Well, immediately he told me that his neighbor growing up actually had chickens and HIS DOG actually got into their coop and killed ALL of their chickens! Well, the neighbor shot his families DOG, he told me! I nearly fell over!

SERIOUSLY! I asked him if he/his family were devasted over the shooting of the families dog? He said, when the neighbor came to tell us, my mom just said THAT IS what WE deserved! We need to take care of our pets. And they paid for the neighbors chickens!

Well, I was lucky on that one, and he went on to tell me that he would love to get chickens at their house too! He has kept his dog TIED up now, and he also just put up a coop with chickens of his own! YEAH!

However, we had a silkie chicken taken out by a hawk, nearly right in front of our eyes! So, even with that, can't always protect them!

Plus, our property has so many wild animals, we keep our chickens most safely in their run. Our yard backs up to a wooded/ county/ reforestation type of land which allows hunting during hunting season, along with hosts a fair amount of creatures naturally occurring. We are aware and have seen animals such as: raccoon, squirrel, deer, chipmunk, rabbit, bear, fox, snake, owl, hawk, skunk, eagle, opossum, to name a few!

I wish you the best of luck, and hope your chicks are safe and happy!

 

[lbartsch]

Thanks for your super nice post. So far the cat has been behaving. My chickens are 18 weeks old so they are almost full grown. I think they can probably take the cat on if they have to. I just feel bad for my chickens because they just had a horrific raccoon attack two weeks ago and we are still dealing with the aftermath of that. We lost one chicken and two were very badly injured. One of the injured ones in recovering nicely and the other is very slow going and will be having her third surgery next week to try to repair her leg (otherwise they might have to amputate it). it's been very tough and not what we imagined life with chickens to be. But we take our commitment to our animals very seriously so we are doing everything we can to get them healthy again.

I haven't seen the cat in a few days. Maybe because we've had some rain. To be honest I've been more obsessed with locking them up early to keep them form the raccoons than I have been about the cat lately.

Your post was so nice though and I really appreciate your concern and support.

 

[chicks4kids]

Honestly, if you were to talk to your neighbor about the cat, what do you expect them to do? Lock it up?

Outside cats are exactly that....outside cats. They roam the neighborhood, and I have 3 myself (outside) that came from 2 different neighbors, so don't think I'm against cats. I love cats, but the ones that stalk your chickens....well, they gotta go. Plain and simple. Even if you think the chicken could get away, cats will wait for the opportune moment and seize it if they want to. Honestly if you see a particular cat as a predator, then take care of it-take it to a shelter, SSS, whatever-this cat is doing what it knows, and you are noticing it's behavior...something needs to be done.

 

[Wild Prime]

I understand your situation perfectly. Our next door neighbor has an extremely fat cat named Daisy that roams the neighborhood killing squirrels and birds. ive found her many times lurking next to our coop, eyeballing our hens. We've talked to the cat lady a few times and all she says is "Oh, if you see her just shoo her back my way." She comes over all the time and nothing short of a BB gun will keep her away. Good luck with the cat

 

[Erica]

It's rare, but I had a full grown standard hen almost killed by a neighbor's fluffy Snowball. I caught the cat in the act and chased it off, but the hen was badly damaged. The owner swore it couldn't possibly have been her cat because 'her cat wouldn't do anything like that'.

To keep the peace we developed a roster system: her cat was allowed out for half the day, my birds the other half. I'm sure the neighbor felt she was doing me a great favor. So was I, not letting my dog free range in her yard.

If it happened today and a neighbour denied responsibility (or made me agree to give my backyard to her cat for half a day), I'd probably be a bit less inclined to play cat-friend.

Best of luck with this thorny (clawy?) issue.

regards
Erica

 

[matt0550]

There comes a time for action in situations such as this - when diplomacy fails, you must defend yourself and your property. Anything short of this and YOU are putting your stamp of approval on the actions of the violator.
In my case, after speaking with the owner of the offending cat multiple times to no avail, I contacted local Police. The animal control officer came out and issued a written warning to the cats owner who then made snide remarks to me while walking to my truck a few days later.
Since that time, her cat has disappeared mysteriously, though I hear rumor that it found its way to a rescue center two towns away
There is always a solution folks, put yet thinking cap on - it'll come to you.