Neighbours cat

raquellish

Hatching
11 Years
Nov 11, 2008
3
0
7
Sydney
Hi there,

I think I may have a problem with my neighbours cat.
We started with two bantams Martha and Betty, and one day Betty escaped and flew away many months ago. I thought at the time it was just typical Bantam houdini-esque behaviour ( and I like to believe that she lives in the park)

We replaced poor Betty with two big cross-bred laying/meat birds Molly and Polly, (not for eating though) and in January, Molly was found dead in the coop with no apparent cause (although I now suspect shock).

So now we're down to Martha and Polly.

There is a silver coloured housecat (looks fat and well cared for) which I have now chased from our yard many times although I never seem to get to the water pistol in time.

This morning the cat was in the chicken coop, stalking our remaining bantam, Martha who is hopelessly clucky over Polly's eggs.

Fortunately, Polly is a very clever girl who was standing on the roof of a rain shelter in the coop and making stranger danger noises (which unfortunately sound a lot like laying noises) and she's such a big girl that I'm not too worried about her. But Martha was refusing to budge from Polly's egg. She's not a very big girl.

I chased the cat and screamed at it and it freaked out and ran to and fro a couple of times in the coop trying to work out how to get out again. It got pretty tangled in the bird netting that encloses our coop and eventually found its way out a hole that it got in through.

Ive closed the hole up. Do you think a house cat will go after a roosting Bantam?

I now suspect that the cat chased away Betty, and caused poor Molly to fall off her perch with fright.
Polly is now trying at every opportunity to get inside the house as I'm fairly sure she knows there are no cats inside.

Any ideas on getting Martha to lay off the constant roosting vigilance? They aren't even her eggs...We can't get a rooster, we live in Sydney and I don't think the neighbours would appreciate it.
 
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Yes, a cat will go after a bantam. You have a real problem. I suggest measures for securing your coop! If the bantam is sitting on eggs she is trying to go broody. You will either have to give her a clutch of eggs to sit on to hatch and then give away the baby roos or break her of the broodiness by putting her in a small pen by herself until the urge passes. Good Luck
 
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by the way
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I dont know where you are located but there are many products that will deter pests...in canada we have one called "cridder ridder"...it is a pepper base no no harmful chemicals..and when i slemmed it, it smelled like really strong black pepper and it worked for getting rid of a skunk..(she decided that undr the sun porch was a good place for a den and babies)
 
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Sorry about your dilemma. I too wondered if my cats would bother one of my hens if it were to go broody. They sleep IN the coop during the day. Right now they don't bother one another even if a hen is laying. But.....I always wonder if my cats are going to 'go for it'. I guess it depends on the aggresiveness of the cat. Sorry, I can't be much of help.
 
I was just thinking, we let the girls out into the yard most days to fossick around and there was one time I caught the cat, in the backyard watching the chickens, so no fences between cat and chicken or anything.

Do you think the cat could just be spending months getting ready? I was kind of hoping that maybe the fact that the cat hasn't actually attacked a chicken yet might mean that it hasn't got the balls or its looking for mice (which are definitely there).

Or could it just be working up the courage...?

The coop is somewhat secure, it could be better but my boyfriend built it and said that it just wasn't worth it to build a solid coop with tough chicken wire. (he did come round to my idea of a roof though, when Betty first flew away), but the roof is made of bird netting, the soft kind you put over a fruit tree.

My main worries are:
1. Martha (bantam) will get scared like Betty and fly away and we wont be able to find/recapture her. (we went through several weeks of this with Betty before she finally disappeared and it was really traumatic)

2. Martha will get attacked/killed by the cat.

We are in Sydney, Australia by the way.
 
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Update:

Turns out the cat lives next door! (I didn't know where it was coming from).

The next door neighbour came over looking worried, asking if I'd seen her cat who has been missing since this morning.

I explained that I chased it out of our coop this morning and that it had been stalking my chickens and she was really apologetic and said she'd keep him in from now on (just as soon as she finds him).

I feel a little teensy bit bad that I've scared her cat away and now she has a lost cat, but I'm sure he'll come back, and in the meantime, cat and chicken owning neighbours can co-exist and that's one cat who wont be let out again for a while!
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And on the eight day God created the house cat for he new hunters wold need target practice.
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A kitty in your yard is your pet, a kitty in my yard is a stray and will be shot on site. All my neighbors know this. They keep their kitties in their homes.
 
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really?
gee
i wish i lived where ur from.

in aus a gun is illegal.....unless registered for hunting.

and we have strict animal cruelty laws...perhaps more strict than usa?
 

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