The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Cats => Topic started by: Womble on September 12, 2012, 09:46:03 am
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A friend was asking me how you go about introducing a new cat to hens and chicks. However, I don’t really know, since our cats came with the smallholding and were already well used to poultry. It’s quite incredible really – our cats will stalk pheasants but not hens, and will hunt chaffinches but never chicks or ducklings.
I’d have thought you’d have to get a kitten rather than a fully grown cat, so it can be trained not to eat small yellow fluffy things, but how?
Any thoughts folks?
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It is for this very reason that I am resisting getting chickens/ducks. Would love them but we have six cats and although soft as anything I could not trust them. We did have chickens and cats together when I was a child but I can't for the life of me remember if there was ever a problem.
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We got (actually found) a very small kitten as we didn't find it's owner - probably feral - when it was very young I would take him out to play on the patio and the ducks would virtually surround him - he would move forward, they would move back, then they would move towards and he would back off.
It seemed to work and he's been fine with ducks and ducklings - thank goodness
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I have chickens, ducks and a cat and have never thought about there being a problem. One of my broodies also has 4 chicks. They are nearly 4 weeks old and have been free ranging this week with mum.
My cat doesn't seem to be the least bit interested but maybe thats because she is 11 years old, although that doesn't stop her catching mice. She wasn't brought up with chickens either as we have only had them for 5 months.
Henrietta (broody mum) is very protective of the chicks and I think she would see the cat off if she got too close anyway.
My neighbour has 5 cats who are always in my garden/field and I haven't noticed a problem with them either.
Sally
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We adopted a 9 month old killer cat (lots of presents - shrews to moles)- she stalks the chickens and occasionally has a go at scattering them, but I think they may have had a go back as she treats them with respect now. I dont let chicks out to free range until they are a reasonable size though (all ours are incubator raised) as she might chance her luck if they were small.
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My outdoor cats kill mice...quite big ones too. They also bring in dead birds esp fledlings but are scared of the chooks Mrs broody (whichever one it happens to be at the time) flies at the cats! Dad will also come to help. Ive never had any problems even with escaped quail that the cats try to help me catch.
Last year one was out in the woirkshop (quail house overwintering site/ cats food place) the two cats were very interested in it and couldnt work out why I wanted to catch it, They tried a bit of stalking but did no more. I wouldnt trust them with a Quail without me there though.
If I do have chicks without a broody they are in a roofed run too. As much as to protect them from the other hens as preditors.
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I had three adult cats, two of which were hunters, when I first had ducks, then hens. The hunting cats would bring home rabbits but I never saw them touch the poultry.
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Same here Mad, think my cat is too lazy to be bothered - maybe I feed her too well :hungry:
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I had killer cats but they never went for poultry. Mind you I wouldn't have small chicks out on their own (ie without a mum to protect them) for reasons other than cats.
Reminds me once of taking my dog Skye for a walk and him coming back with a sort of funny look on his face, especially around his mouth. When I looked closely there were two little legs sticking out one side, kicking wildly. I grabbed him and opened his mouth - one pheasant chick, rather damp but unharmed :D
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Our little kitten will not be going out on his own until nearing a year old. At the moment he is only four months old. For the last couple of months of having him I've carried him out to meet the hens. He is curious but wary due to their size. I'm hoping by the time he is going out he will just accept them as part of the surroundings :fc:
Our last two cats lived with guinea pita, rabbits, chinchillas, hamster and gerbil over the years and never attempted to hunt them, despite both hunting voles and rats. They just seemed to accept these animals.
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Our cats bring all sorts of things back from mice and voles to rabbits , phesants and even Stoats :o
one of them only once stalked a buff orpington with her chicks and got attacked by mum and the cockeral and since that day she has never gone down by the chickens and if the chickens are in the field she does a detour rather than pass them
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An adult hen is more than a match for a cat.
In Exmoor, both my cats regularly caught partridge, and one got the occasional pheasant - but our hens (just warrens and Black Rocks) used to take mice off the cats and there was nothing the cats could do about it! :roflanim:
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An adult hen is more than a match for a cat.
In Exmoor, both my cats regularly caught partridge, and one got the occasional pheasant - but our hens (just warrens and Black Rocks) used to take mice off the cats and there was nothing the cats could do about it! :roflanim:
So made me smile - remember Penny Hen pottering about - dive into the grass and emerged with a poor wee shrew!! She was well into her teens so I let her be and probably almost as good a hunter at the cat!!
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One of our Muscovy drakes caught a shrew last week, poor wee thing was still squealing it's head off when the muscovy gulped it down, poor wee thing, shrews are so cute.
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Shrews are cute, but I gather they don't taste very nice, from various felines turning up their noses over the years.
Mind you, if you swallow them live I guess you're not so fussed by minor details like taste :o
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I read somewhere that chickens have 250-350 taste buds, compared with our 9000. When you think about it, that explains quite a lot!
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All my cats were adults by the time we got the chickens and there has never been a problem. Hen puts the cat away when she has chicks. One has even pecked our Jack Russell on the nose for smelling her bum, should have seen his face :innocent:
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:roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: Sabrina
Can't feed my big dog outdoors because the hens chase him from his food bowl. ::)
My cat was an adult when we took her in and seems to think of the hens as part of the crew .... even the tiny pekin hens. We do keep chicks in their runs for a while though because we have seen her stalking some that stray too far from mum.
Our cat regularly brings back nearly fully grown rabbits and yet she seems to see our house rabbit differently (though we never leave her alone with him just in case). She will walk up to him and touch noses and seems gentle around him.
Maybe cats sense that poultry and pet rabbits are different. ???
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Funny how they seem to know the livestock and pets are different from wildlife - must be a disney classic in there somewhere!
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Ive never had a problem with my birds and the moggies. I dont think Ive ever seen a cat chase one of my chooks even when I had them free ranging right up to the house. Henry does come with me to see the chooks when I feed and water them, but as soon as they see him, they make a right old din and he scarpers as fast as his paws will carry him. I dont know whether having Jethro helps, as he is quite a large cockerel.
Freddie and Henry are very keen hunters of everything normally, but I have never worried about the chooks.
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I believe that having a cockerel helps - if the hens wont see the cat off, then the cock will.