Barn Cats

[grsthegreat]

This is my so called barn cat. She insists on being out in barn all day, but has finally agreed to come indoors at night. Gets along with house cat and my dog. Had her chipped and spayed. Have chip operated cat door in tackroom to allow her to have some safety if she stays out all night.

No mice or other rodents in barn.

Follows me and dog everywheres i go during the day. If i open my shop….zoom, she in the shop. I have to leave door open until she decides to leave. She is on the hunt for mice. Looks everywheres in any shop she enters.

 

[Jstpssng]

Neighbors wife lost her dog after it found the mouse bait

I once killed a feral cat after it ate mice who ate the mouse bait. I haven't used it since.

 

[Hay Dude]

We had a feral cat named “GC” (stood for “Garage Cat”) she was feral, but would sit with me and let me pet her-sometimes. She would bring me a dead mouse with it’s head ripped off every day after work
If she got into our house, she would try to kill our 2 female house cats, so GC always lived in the barn or garage.
When we moved, we had to find a new home for GC, so a lonely old guy down the road took her in. He stayed in touch with us and shared pics with us. She has been “broken” by him and is now a house cat.

 

[BackRoad]

65 years with no cats...and now owned by 2 ferals! Both "Vetted", fixed and clean...

The left was a domesticated who was dropped off likely due to age. Maybe 12 years old and living her best life now (and not sure she could even catch a mouse)!

The right we saw born, and at 6 months old he made it a mission to move in. He would climb up on the kitchen window sill and greet me when I made morning coffee...who could say "No" to that?

Brings mice home as a gift pretty regular, so earning his keep.

They are "were cats" since they come when called and both act more dog than cat!

 

[EddieWalker]

There is a gas station about a mile from my place that I think people dump their cats at. I've seen cats hanging out in the parking lot there, and I think that sometimes they wonder off into the woods and see the light on at my house. They just show up, so that's my theory.

For the longest time it was just one or two that hung around here. I left food out for them, but didn't pay them very much attention. They lasted a few years they disappeared.

About 5 years ago a calico showed up that that had kittens. She raised them and once they got big, some solid white ones showed up and then we had more kittens.

The timing of this was kind of interesting. We have about 200 chickens, 40 or so guineas, 4 turkeys and there could be anywhere from 50 to 200 ducks in our pond. I leave food out for them in the chicken yard 24/7 and the mouse population had become overwhelming. We tried every trap out there and couldn't keep up. One day my wife put a hose in a mouse hole in the floor of the coop and over 80 mice came out, one at a time. The chickens ate every mouse!!! But most of the time, the mice are out at night when the chickens are asleep. This led to a horrific snake problem with over 40 snakes being killed in just one year!!!

After that calico had her babies, and they grew up, the mouse population vanished!!! In the last five years, I haven't seen a single mouse. Last year I killed 3 snakes all year that were in the coop eating eggs.

I don't like cats. They make the worse messes with their pooping everywhere and throwing up on everything. I have to cover the seats of everything we have. They are worse than chickens at pushing stuff off of shelves. Except for killing mice, I don't know anything good about them. But since that's such an important job, I buy dry cat food for them every week, and deal with them.

 

[BackRoad]

Nothing more cute than a little calico kitten!...

('cept maybe a long eared Beagle pup!)

 

[HawkinsHollow]

But what about the songbirds?

I am only partially kidding. This is a huge discussion point on my neighborhood FB group about outdoor cats, about how they decimate the populations of songbirds. I get both sides of the argument. I hate to see any animal population negatively impacted due to human actions. But I get the need for rodent control. Do you outdoor barn cat people see a lot of songbird attrition due to your little killing machines? I was never raised a cat person but I would probably have an outdoor cat if my wife wasn't highly allergic to them. She refuses to allow it, it is just a war I am not willing to wage.

 

[EddieWalker]

We have a bunch of feeders for the birds in our back yard, by our porch. My wife is kind of obsessed with them. With the increase in cats, it seems that we've had more birds at our feeders over the years. I don't think one is related to the other, but the increase in birds is because she keeps adding feeders for them.

The backyard is fenced in for our dogs. We have 7 Akita's right now. Any cat that goes into the dog yard usually doesn't do it twice. We have seen them up a tree, and when we lock the dogs in the house, the cat will eventually come down the tree and leave their yard. If a cat is really stupid, and goes in the yard again, it never turns out well for the cat.

The cats ignore the chickens, and even the baby chicks when a momma hen hatches them. I have seen a few squirrels that were eaten by my cats. Usually all that's left is the skin and bones. It's very rare to find feathers from a song bird, but it's happened a few times in the last five years.

 

[2manyrocks]

With that many snakes, they'd be going after the bird eggs, too.

 

[scootr]

Same here, no noticeable impact on the bird population... our cats are free. They do ask for a donation and I have given twice totalling $150 in 5 yrs. Much less than the cost of spaying them so I don't end up with 10 or 20 of them. 2 or 3 seem to do the job and the cost is pennies a day in food and wormers. I try not to feed them too much so the incentive to hunt is high, not that I keep them hungry. But I have overfed and they become fat and less active. The cats I get are truly feral. There is no petting these hissing spitting monsters. I did have one that came when called to feed and sniffed my hand but when I touched her she exploded okay I said were good...no more of that.
I tried a house cat but had to rehome her as we had 6 dogs in the house...