**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[karimw]

Quote:
X2 - I end up with "lost" cats all the time. The last one came with a belly full of 7 kittens that are now my problem too.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote: It's perfectly legal if you post a sign on your property stating that you have video surveillance. That means they have been warned & therefore anything you catch on video is admissible in court. Sometimes even posting a sign without actually putting up a camera is enough to deter them.

Just a general note on kids, without good supervision and helping kids see the wrong or problem with what they are doing, they cannot become better people without a miracle. It takes a village . . . .

It takes exactly what I grew up with. All of the neighbors knowing each other & working together to help out with each other's kids. If I see 1 of my neighbor kids up to no good not only do I give them an earful but I let their parents know they got an earful & what for. Then it's up to the parents to do something about it. Sadly, there are so many these days who just don't even care what their kids are up to & don't even attempt to discipline them.
IMHO, put all the kids to work on a farm again. OR other wise keep them busy and contributing. I worry I will be taken to task for making my kids do chores. THe rules have changed drastically and kids are not required to helpout in families any more. I grew up having few chores and little I was responsilble for; when I grew up I didn't know how to take care of so many things. I want my kids to be better prepared than I was.
My kids have chores & get in trouble if they aren't done.

Quote: Guess next time I should just let JJ deal with it HIS way. Taking it to the pound would have the same result.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Nicely said.

I had a kitten walk out of the wood years ago, maybe some 9 years ago now. We were on our way out the door one evening when we heard mew-mew. A tiny kitten in the middle of no where. I put it in a carrier w/ food and water and delt with it when I got home. I found a good home for that kitten. With another older cat and a single woman that is at school all day. In those days I was functioning as a cat rescue. Mostly all the cats lived with me!!

My cats do not touch my birds, nor the mice in the house. We resorted to live trapping for 1 1/2 years to get everyone of those #^@&#^! mice! My dogs don't touch the birds either--unless they go into the dog pen.

THe right animal for the right job.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote:
Nicely said.

I had a kitten walk out of the wood years ago, maybe some 9 years ago now. We were on our way out the door one evening when we heard mew-mew. A tiny kitten in the middle of no where. I put it in a carrier w/ food and water and delt with it when I got home. I found a good home for that kitten. With another older cat and a single woman that is at school all day. In those days I was functioning as a cat rescue. Mostly all the cats lived with me!!

My cats do not touch my birds, nor the mice in the house. We resorted to live trapping for 1 1/2 years to get everyone of those #^@&#^! mice! My dogs don't touch the birds either--unless they go into the dog pen.

THe right animal for the right job.
My momma cat kills everything BUT birds. She was still young when we 1st had chicks in the house & got whapped for even looking in the brooder. I do the same to her 5 kittens & they now leave my brooders alone as well. Snakes, mice, moles, chipmunks, etc...those are an entirely different story. There are no screens in most of our windows at the moment (remodeling) & she climbs in & out as she pleases. She ha brought 3 snakes, 2 chipmunks, 1 mole & 2 mice in the house for her babies to "play with" in the past week. Five 9 week old kittens batting a 2 ft garter snake around the kitchen floor is quite a sight to walk in on.

JJ is scared to death of snakes & was having a cow this morning because she brought in a live 1. I had to go pick it up & carry it out to the chicken pen. My favorite hen made a quick meal of it. She swallowed it whole & still squirming.

You should have seen the wiggling bulge her crop made for the next couple hours.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

My cats won't touch chicks. They like to watch the chicken TV but they prefer their food in already-prepared nuggets that plop out of the automatic feeder. Eating something with fur, a beak and claws is beyond their motivation level.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
Not to mention dumping domestic pets is illegal. One it transfer your problem to someone else and two it usually does not end well for the pet.

Quote:
I can't tell you how many pregnant cats got dumped where I used to live. I'd have to round them up and take them to animal control.

My cats won't touch chicks. They like to watch the chicken TV but they prefer their food in already-prepared nuggets that plop out of the automatic feeder. Eating something with fur, a beak and claws is beyond their motivation level.

 

[Razadia]

My cats won't touch chicks. They like to watch the chicken TV but they prefer their food in already-prepared nuggets that plop out of the automatic feeder. Eating something with fur, a beak and claws is beyond their motivation level.

My 2 cats (we have 6 in all) don't care about them either. In fact, they aren't even interested in looking at them. When Mouse (my oldest) is outside she'll sleep on top of the coops and cages or near them, but she doesn't want them any closer than that. Trouble (our only cat that isn't fixed) has been inside the game coop with me at night, but he just wanted to see what I was doing. He ended up keeping me from getting bitten by a shedding rat snake. He saw it before I did and hissed at it. Trouble's sister, Mia, would rather hunt wild birds. She knows better than to go after anything living in a coop, cage or box. Our 15 year cat, Smudge, has never in her life wanted to hunt anything. She was tossed around by a dog as a kitten (he wasn't trying to hurt her, he just wanted to play) and she's never been right since.

The cat in question isn't all there himself. His only choice is to live inside or not at all. He's just not cut out for outside living. It makes it hard to teach him certain things, like staying away from the brooder.

Jasper has spent his day near the brooder. He's worried about 'his' babies. He has had so many chances to kill chicks in the past and never acted on it. Mom swears he was a hen in a past life. I remember one time we were cleaning up a storage container to brood chicks in and mom put the box of chicks on her bed, but didn't close the door to her room. When we came in to get the chicks, Jasper has dumped the box over and gathered the chicks up against his belly and was cleaning them.

Ever since then he guards whatever the babies are in when they first come in the house from the coops or come out of the bator.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Not to mention dumping domestic pets is illegal. One it transfer your problem to someone else and two it usually does not end well for the pet.

Quote:
I can't tell you how many pregnant cats got dumped where I used to live. I'd have to round them up and take them to animal control.

My cats won't touch chicks. They like to watch the chicken TV but they prefer their food in already-prepared nuggets that plop out of the automatic feeder. Eating something with fur, a beak and claws is beyond their motivation level.

Years ago I boarded a horse at a very large facility in rural RI. TONS of cats, and everyone was spayed and neutered. Everyone. Not many kittens around. If there was, they found a nice home. That took time and effort on the owner/ manager's part to get the situation under control and keep it that way.

No reason to have unwanted pets. I have heard of a local service that is like a vet hospital on wheels, and the pets can be fixed for a very reasonable fee, and shots, etc.

 

[karimw]

Quote:
I HAD it under control. When we moved to the acreage the lady who lived there had a bunch of cats. I asked if she would kindly take them with her, but there were 15 left that were "too wild to catch". Gradually I got the mtrapped and fixed and just had my last one spayed last summer. She couldn't evade the chicken net when she was the size of a basket ball. She delivered her last litter in captivity and went to the vet as soon as they were weaned. My problem is the nearest place that will work on wild cats is over an hour away and costs about $180.00. My local vet charges $45 for a nueter and $80 for a spay, but you have to be able to handle them safely. Anyway, I was feeding 18 - 22 cats depending on which neighbors tom catss are visiting, now I have about 30. Ugg.

 

[coldupnorth]

Quote: We have many feral cats running around here and mostly courtesy of the neighbor who hasn't spayed/neutered any of his barn cats. It wouldn't be a problem, but he doesn't feed them, they are on their own, so all those kittens growing up have become feral. We have one of the mother cats that has decided to use our pole shed to raise her litter of kittens. I would like for those kittens to be given a chance, but not sure what the best way of going about it is. Kittens are about 2 weeks old now. It would be nice to get momma spayed too. I've been feeding momma, so she gets a little more used to me. Any suggestions?