The Neighbors Stupid Cat.

[andythescot]

On my way to locking up the girls tonight, I heard A LOT of squawking, my initial response is to bolt toward the henhouse, and open the doors to see what is inside. As soon as I open the door, the neighbor's cat dashes out (as well as a RIR.)

So I screamed like a girl and chased the cat off my property. And so now I am dealing with six discombobulated hens. Three of which are running around, one is in my arms, and two are in the coop. I herded them all back into the run, and I waited for them to go in. My smaller of RIRs keeps bumping into things in the run, and when she tries to go up the ramp into the coop (she prefers flying,) she crashed into the coop and eventually walks up.

Once they were all roosting, I take the small RIR off and inspect her. She smells like cat, and her comb is bleeding. I don't want to jump to conclusions, since the whole coop smells like cat, so I'm going to wait overnight to see how the comb looks in the morning. I don't think the others will peck at her, since its super dark out, and they wouldn't be able to see it.

So how do I keep the cat away? How do I treat the cut? And how do my parents and I talk to the neighbors about their darn cat?!

 

[SparksNV]

I have a cat that has been in our run 3 times. No injuries so far. I just posted about using coyote urine to deter the cat but not sure if the chickens can smell it and it make the chickens anxious. I did sprinkle Havahart's predator powder around (smells like pepper). Sorry about your roo.....

 

[True Grit]

Perhaps if you live trap the cat and take it to them they will get the hint that next time you trap it you will take it to the pound and they will have to pay the fine to get it back. They already don't care that their cat is free to get killed by a dog, run over, stolen, kill birds and wildlife.

 

[arch_cpj]

I have found that setting a trap and catching a cat is easy and cats have a good memory catch the cat and set the cage in the coop or the run get the garden hose and douse the cat then rattle the cage yelling like a goirl then douse it again do this 3 or 4 times and then let the cat out... cats have a good memory and will likely stay away...

 

[sunflowerenvy]

sorry about your roo just spray water toward the cats and it will learn not come near the chicken


except for my cat she walk right by[1foot] a loose chicken that flew out of the run. my cat walk into the coop with me and chickens walk up to her nose to nose nothing happen so far

 

[Ahab]

Tried a super-soaker water cannon with a touch of white vinegar in the reservoir? Not cruel, exactly, but certainly discouraging--and memorable. Foxes and coons don't care for it, either--nor, for that matter, does a certain local goshawk.

 

[hennylove]

Sounds like you have some good ideas. When we first got our chickens all the feral cats in our town were hopping the fence to check out our chickens (or the table scraps I was feeding them) So we decided to put an electric wire around the fence and as soon as we had all the bright yellow insulators on the fence posts, before we even wired up the electricity, the cats quit hopping the fence.

Recently one of my RIR got grabbed by a raccoon and her head & comb were wounded, and her eyes swollen shut. I went to Big R (our local farm supply store) and got a spray called Vetericyn. It worked great, and okay to spray on face/eyes. It kills bacteria and heals. www.vetericyn.com Hope your henny is better soon. Mine healed up real well, I was afraid she would be blind, but she seems to be back to normal, still not laying though, but I am hoping she will again someday.

 

[andythescot]

I like the trapping idea! Its been raining here a lot, so maybe the cat was trying to shelter in the coop? Which would mean there is a lack of dry shelter for it at their house... They are weird neighbors.

The RIR was looking alright this morning, she has dried blood on her comb, so I think she is alright. I tried to catch her to inspect if further, but all I got were a few tail feathers... She always has been flighty, meaning she is back to her normal self!

Thanks for the idea everybody!%2Pr

 

[Miltonchix]

I tried different forms of hazing. None of them worked. The cats were just afraid of me, not the chickens. Most of them were ferals and quite vicous. My German Shep. would keep her distance.
SSS was last resort.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Well..dogs are one thing. Keeping a cat on it's own property is another thing...it's almost impossible to do it. I have 2 cats and they are not always on my property or in the barn like I want them to and like they should be to catch the mice and snakes....my 3 dogs however, are always on my property and if they got off of it, and someone said something I would apologize immediately and make sure it NEVER happens again.