Neighbor's cat getting into chickens! Help!!

[Cknldy]

Got a kitten about 3 or 4 mths old. Gets fed its own food every day but loves rabbit food and chicken food. I can't set chicken feed down to grab something else or the cat gets into it! It's tried following me into coop but if it hadn't been pushed back the rooster would have gotten it kitten sees no danger and only wants the feed- not the chickens...lol

 

[happybooker1]

I have 8 indoor/outdoor cats. Some are exceptional hunters of mice/rats/shrews etc. When I first started putting the chickies out in a playpen like thing they were about 4 weeks old and the cats were FASCINATED. I shooed them off every time they even *looked* at the chickies. Now the flock is out free-ranging every day and the cats don't even hang out in that part of the property. I haven't even seen them attempting to 'stalk' the chickens. Cats are basically cowards, as one poster mentioned. The nature of cats is to kill something smaller or weaker than they are. And my chickens are Bantams but they still don't bother them.

 

[nzpouter]

Do you have a high stray cat rate? I have never heard of any cat attacking full grown chickens. 

I've had my fair share of cats in the area that are not my own. They do not stand a chance against my roosters.

yep, we do. Prime location for cat dumping as we're just far enough out of town + there's a nutter out here feeding them.

The roosters can't do much at night.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I had a stray tom cat (aren't all Tom cats strays?) kill full grown White Leghorn cage layers. He would run back and forth between or on top of the cages scaring the hens, when one panicked and stuck her head and neck out into the space between two rows of cages (where the water though was) he would grab it by the head, kill it and only eat what parts he could reach from outside the cage. Mostly the head and a little of the neck. He killed several each night just to get enough to eat. I thought it was a mink thrill killing my chickens until I caught the cat in the act. Egg production dropped so much in that one house from stress that I had to cull the hens early and restock with pullets. It had the same affect on my income as 1,000s of hens.

The above video shows how a small hawk kills a pigeon. Warning, it ain't pretty.

 

[Cluky]

So I agree with whole thing of your property your rules, howeverif you free range your birds you are bound to get this type of "attention" There isn't much the neighbour can do, cats aren't like dogs where you have to lock them or leash them.

 

[nzpouter]

I agree... let your animal roam/ wander at your own risk.

 

[animals1981]

id like to see proof that a cat has killed a standard sized chicken sounds like myth, ive never seen one show aggression to a chicken or a duck.

 

[cracked egg]

Last winter a wild kitten decided to move into our barn. We found it under the heat lamp covered with chicks. This cat never bothered the chicks but would kill birds that were around 8 weeks old. Long story short trapped the thing,kids threw a fit, released it and never seen it again. Now it has returned as a large tom again snuggled up with 4 chicks at night.
So far nothing has been killed,mice have disappeared which is good.
I'm puzzled by this cats behavior,I keep a eye on it,the dogs chase it, never see it except at night, as long as it behaves it can stay.

 

[jak2002003]

If that cat can get into your coop, then other cats and worse predators will also get in easy and kill you chickens.

You don't even lock you coop up at night?! Sooner or later something is going to get your birds.

You must lock the coop at night to make it safe.

If you kill that one cat, what good will it do, if you have a lot of stray cats and people feeding cats?

I also can not believe that a cat will take a nearly full grown ducks and large breed chickens - one time maybe a very rare exception, but you state this has happened at you place many times.

Why don't your dogs chase off the cats from you property?

If you make sure there is not food laying about to attract cats, and rats, and lock the coop up at night and allow your dogs to patrol the garden, then I think the cat problem will go away on its own.

 

[animals1981]

a cat ignored and cuddle with small chicks but killed bigger chicks? Sounds like another predator killing your bigger chicks.