How do you feed barn cats without feeding barn rats?

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I have a perfectly good cat that I'd like to spend more time in the barn. I think he would if I put his food in there, but I'd rather not feed the rats out there too. Any ideas?

-- Laura Rae Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), December 07, 2001

Answers

Just feed him an alloted amount at each feeding. No more than he can clean up at each feeding. But...if you want him to catch the mice and rats...don't feed too much so he isn't hungry when the critters come around!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.

A well-fed cat hunts just as aggressively as a starving one. Hunting is driven by instinct, not hunger. However, some cats have a stronger hunting instinct than others....

-- Debbie (risingwind@socket.net), December 07, 2001.

Do you really have rats? If you do maybe you need more than one cat. Feed them on top of something tall, something they can jump to get on. If you catch mice in your house in a trap, give it to the cat, it'll help with the hunting instinct. You do not want rats in your barn.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 07, 2001.

Put your cat food out first thing in the morning, and only enough that will be cleaned up thru the day. Rats---usually---will only come out to eat under the cover of darkness.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), December 07, 2001.

Remember, cats are carivores. I feed my barn cat one or two chicken gizzards every day or so. Fairly simple to keep. When you bring a package home, let it unthaw, separate gizzards on a cookie sheet, freeze solid and put in a zip lock bag to keep in the freezer. That way I only need to pull out the next couple to unthaw, cut up and feed. The cat also gets fat trimmed off meat and skins.

If you have electricity to the barn, consider using a nightlight so the cat can better see what is moving.

A lesson learned. I brought home a pallet load of feed and just set it on the floor. Unfortunately this allowed mice to get at the feed from the bottom safe from the cat. Next time I'll put the pallet up on blocks so the cat has access under it.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 07, 2001.



I got a free chest freezer from someone, and use that to keep all my grain in. It will hold a half a ton, poured out of the bags. I think it's 26 cubic feet.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 07, 2001.

Like Cindy, I keep all my feed, cat and dog food too, in old chest freezers, they keep it fresher longer too, which is important since in the winter I will get a ton at a time to have plenty in case of inclement weather.

Marcia's right, keep food out only during the day, as soon as it gets close to dark, say, three thirty or four o'clock this time of year, put it in a rat proof area ( I use inside the pickup truck which is right next to where the cats are fed) for the night. You also want to do that since possums and coons are liable to find the food at night too, and they eat up ALL the food you are putting out!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 07, 2001.


I feed my barn cat on my front porch once a day. Half a can of soft food and a handful of dry food. He comes to eat then goes to the barn to sleep or hunt. He caught a mouse just this morning, so I know feeding him isn't discouraging his hunting in the barn. Our grain is stored in covered barrels, but when the horses eat their oats, they spill them onto the floor of their stalls which attracks the mice who have left huge holes by the wall in each stall. They go from stall to stall through their tunnels so there is no where I can set traps that the horses wouldn't be stepping on them. Thankfully the horses don't mind the cat in their stalls!

-- Epona (crystalepona2000@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.

I feed the cats and keep all the feed in metal trash cans. I have not seen any mice or rats (alive) since they have been in the barn. Before I got them the rats were everywhere even in broad daylight. I went through a lot of rat poison. We made sure there wasn't any poison around when the cats were brought to the barn. Now I just have the cats, and we feed them to keep them around. They come up to us and are quite friendly. My husband saw one of them with a rat in it's mouth so they are doing their job. The horses have gotten use to them. Feed them, it keeps them tame.

-- PJC (zpjc5_@hotmail.com), December 07, 2001.

We feed our cats on the porch too. I know it doesn't stop our cats from hunting. Our oldest mama cat catches a mouse or something(rat, chipmunk, etc...) every day and drops it in front of our old chocolate lab. Guess that she is thanking her for protection or maybe they are just very good friends. The cat hardly ever eats her kills. Just gives it to the dog. Funny to watch.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.new), December 07, 2001.


I had a cat (neutered male) that was an excellent rodent catcher/killer. He used to kill mice. Then my older cat died (she never caught a thing in her life), and I got a new kitten. The male, once he was used to the kitten, liked her pretty well. Soon, he was catching mice but not killing them -- he was giving them to the young cat, apparently to teach her hunting skills. Unfortunately, she wasn't "into" quick dispatch -- she'd play with them until they either got away or died. And she ate their heads. Yuck. I much preferred the older cat's just killing them and announcing his prowess so that I could throw out the body. He's gone now -- sure do miss him. We no longer are in the "mouse house", so I don't know what the young female would do nowdays. I have seen studies cited that indicate the better hunters get that way because some other cat taught them to hunt.

-- Joy F (S.Central Wisc) (CatFlunky@excite.com), December 07, 2001.

Thanks for all the great input! My kitty was feral as a baby, and I did find a killed rat in the yard once. I'm just looking for ways to encourage him to spend more time in the shed with the goats (and rats), without feeding the rats. I think the twice a day thing might work out well. I don't usually get home until after dark these days, but since I've seen the rats during the day, I don't suppose they care much what time it is. Now, he comes in twice a day to eat. Maybe if I just feed him once a day in the shed, I won't leave too much, and he'll still visit inside the house (a good thing, since he seems to have pretty much wiped out the rodent population base in the basement). Thanks again for all your ideas!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), December 07, 2001.

If you have neighbors with rats, you can bet your tushie some of them will find their way (rats, not neighbors, but that's a possibility too) to your barn. We are the only "farm" within a 1/2 mile plus, and we did have a few rats about 10 years ago. I went and had a serious talk with the 3 barn cats, and that was the end of that. I keep feed in the original unopened paper sacks until I dump them into metal containers. Plastic won't do, as the rats will chew through that to get at the feed. Anyway, we have been rat-free for many years. I think it has to do with having "Good" barn cats. Ours are all neutered, and are very well fed, but not overly. They hunt the fields and bring their prizes home for us, which is fortunately a plethora of mice, and very rarely a bird. They all get their rabies shots, and are very friendly. In my opinion, "wild" cats are to be avoided. Our guys and gals even "protect" the baby chicks and turkey poults. GL from balmy Maine!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), December 07, 2001.

I have more problems with my chickens eating the cat's food. They are so pushie they chase him away while he's eating. He's a great mouser though. I feed him canned in the morning and some kibble at night, and he eats almost everything he kills. This cat even kill a small oppossum.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 08, 2001.

I have one of those wind up mousetraps that catches them alive. When I have a new kitten that needs an introduction to the fine art of hunting, I set it up. When I have a few mice trapped, I dump them into a large washtub, and drop the kitten in with them. The lightbulb usually goes off after the first chomp, if the cat comes from a good hunting bloodline. One kitten had no idea what those furry little things were, but when one ran under him, he bit it on the butt reflexively, and that's all it took. Two minutes later, he had two in his mouth, and one under each paw, and was growling and snarling something fierce. = )

Special note - Some adult cats, no matter what you do, just won't 'get it.' They want no part of those nasty little things, not even when someone else kills them and offers to share. Start them out young for best results.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), December 09, 2001.



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