Training cats to leave chickens alone

[imnukensc]

My cat, who is the murderess of anything that flies, flutters, creeps, crawls, crabs, slithers, slinks, skitters or otherwise moves, respects the chickens. When they were out free ranging at about 3 months old, there was a stare down. The cat blinked first.

 

[Ruralhideaway]

My cats hunt for fun, they have free choice cat food plus leftovers (including chicken ). The males do nothing much except face down possums and skunks and guard kittens. The females fixed or not hunt daily.

I wouldn't trust the big males especially with little chicks alone under say 10 weeks, they are territorial. But they've all been ran off authoritatively by pullets so they stay clear now. The kittens that grew up since having chickens just want to hang out with them, but not too close. The chickens stalk the cats not the other way around. They present zero threat.

I guess every animals different but even the super placid(almost "special") little Cochin bantam hens I had years ago got fearsome with cats. So much meaner than a cat.

 

[Trish1974]

A rooster is the best training aid for getting cats to leave chickens alone; at least that has been my experience. I assume your bantam is too small to put enough of a scare in the cats though. Is your bantam an adult?
I have the opposite problem: my chickens chase the cats!

 

[Suzi18]

My cat "Coop"er loves to hang with the girls. He even lays in the run with them while I'm doing chores.

 

[apryl29]

IMO you can't 'train' a cat not to bother/kill chickens. I have my own personal cats that have been around my chickens and they don't bother them.. they're both elderly and do hunt, but neither of them have shown any interest in going after any of my chickens, even the bantams. That said I do keep an eye out for my cats, but they don't seem to care about the chickens one way or another. BUT we had a stray come around last fall and he scared the heck out of us. He seemed ok at first, but then I noticed he would slink up around them when they were dusting and popped out from a tree and scared our bantam cockerel. Our chickens are rarely out ranging unsupervised, and if I leave them out alone it's just to run inside for a minute. Now that we know he's about we're extra cautious and listen for alarm signals from our boys. I think once they have the idea that they could attack/ kill an animal that thought will always be there. I sure as heck would never leave my cat alone with a rabbit or a small bird, or a hamster/ mouse b/c I know she's killed those. When I was young I had a cat that would actually climb into our hamster's cage and sleep with the hamster, once we found the hamster curled up on the cat sleeping. He'd even remove the hamsters from the cage and take them to the kitchen to play with them. Our other cats weren't so kind and would kill them.

 

[Sassysouth]

My dogs have always done fine, but I would never leave them alone unsupervised, especially with a bantam. They look too much like toys. Even if they didn’t want to eat them, they could “play” with them and kill them. Too risky.

 

[GldnValleyHens]

I'm understanding what you do during the day time, but what about at nite, or if you go out, just curious

The flock is all locked up at night, and the cats sleeping, or as they should be doing. Being nocturnal hunters, they probably are roaming around the yard. I often am naughty and forget to lock up the girls until like 8 at night, and once, a cat was missing, the female who never does anything wrong, and she was locked in the coop! She followed me in.
I also thought about grabbing a chicken and hitting ( gently) a cat with it, but that would terrorize the poor bird. Maybe that's a good punishment for Nancy the Guinea after plucking out tailfeathers of her friends

 

[mothergoose]

We have both feral and friendly barn cats and one house cat. We do leave cat food out in the barn at all times and even the feral cats go in and eat cat food after we have left the building, so maybe that makes a difference. We have never had any trouble with our cats and chickens. We keep our chick brooders covered...no sense in unnecessary tempting. But our ducks and our guineas hatch their own babies and have free range of the farm with them and the cats never bother them...not even the feral cats. We hatch chicks in the house and start them inside before they go out to the brooders and our house cat loves to lay and watch them but never bothers them.

 

[GldnValleyHens]

A rooster is the best training aid for getting cats to leave chickens alone; at least that has been my experience. I assume your bantam is too small to put enough of a scare in the cats though. Is your bantam an adult?
I have the opposite problem: my chickens chase the cats!

The bantams are adults, but act like scared babies. Man, I have 3 roosters, I wish ONE of them would work up their courage and chase the cats!!

 

[staceyj]

My cat "Coop"er loves to hang with the girls. He even lays in the run with them while I'm doing chores. View attachment 1246337 View attachment 1246338 View attachment 1246340 View attachment 1246343 View attachment 1246345 View attachment 1246345

I LOVE COOPER!!!!!