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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
  
Location: In The Snow, AZ | Well, with the nights getting cooler, were noticing more mouse activity. Hubby, althought highly allergic, has decided we can get a barn cat. There aren't any "established" barn cats available. And I am worried that if we adopt from the humane society that we will end up with someones old house cat.
In saying that, a friend of ours ended up with a litter of kittens. She tries to catch and fix feral cats around the area. Apparently a few slipped thru the cracks and VOILA. Kittens. I feel good about getting one from her.
But I have a few questions. I have never owned a cat. Would like to know anything I need to know, beforehand. At what age is it ok for them to be outside, and start being self dependent? Do barn cats need a designated bed/crate? Is there a way to guarantee it wont run off? What do I need to know? |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
 
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | ~BINGO~ - 2014-09-26 11:05 AM Well, with the nights getting cooler, were noticing more mouse activity. Hubby, althought highly allergic, has decided we can get a barn cat. There aren't any "established" barn cats available. And I am worried that if we adopt from the humane society that we will end up with someones old house cat.
In saying that, a friend of ours ended up with a litter of kittens. She tries to catch and fix feral cats around the area. Apparently a few slipped thru the cracks and VOILA. Kittens. I feel good about getting one from her.
But I have a few questions. I have never owned a cat. Would like to know anything I need to know, beforehand. At what age is it ok for them to be outside, and start being self dependent? Do barn cats need a designated bed/crate? Is there a way to guarantee it wont run off? What do I need to know?
I would get two of them so they wont be lonley, I would keep them in a crate for the first few weeks in the barn so that they will know thats their new home, just keep their food and water near the crate and their litter box. They can be at least 6 to 8 weeks old when you get them, but I would be using that crate to keep them safe, so you can lock them up at night, I have a big box with blankets that my cats like to sleep in and stay warm when winter hits.  |
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  Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | I got some cats you can have. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 164
| First of all, the cat should have all it's vaccines before it can go outside. Once it is fully vaccinated, start going outside with it but don't just leave it there alone. Once you feel it can walk around and explore as you watch it and will return to you, maybe let it wander around for longer periods of time which you're doing your chores. If you get it a bed or crate, it will never sleep in it. They like to spite you! haha.... it will probably sleep in a pile of shavings or hay. They love hay bales. Make sure you get it fixed, or you will have kittens too. And if you don't, you'll probably have cat pee all over your barn. Try to litter box train in your home for the first few months, then stick a litter box in the barn as well. It might use the litter box in the barn 1/2 the time. Or maybe not at all, either way, though, it may help keep the urine more contained. Never know til ya try. Try to make sure the cat isn't pooping on your hay or in the stalls, for the horses to accidentally eat. Look up toxoplasmosis.
Edited by HannahRodeoCowgirl 2014-09-26 11:16 AM
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Veteran
Posts: 238
| If you have a "room" in your barn they can be locked into for the first week or two, this is best. Tack room/feed room etc. Food / litter box in this room for the first week or two and then leaving door open so they can come/go. After they can leave the room you won't need a litter box, they will find their own potty outside. Keep food accessible to them, but not to other critters.
And no younger than 8 weeks old to be loose in a barn situation.
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 Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | SpottedT - 2014-09-26 10:15 AM If you have a "room" in your barn they can be locked into for the first week or two, this is best. Tack room/feed room etc. Food / litter box in this room for the first week or two and then leaving door open so they can come/go. After they can leave the room you won't need a litter box, they will find their own potty outside. Keep food accessible to them, but not to other critters. And no younger than 8 weeks old to be loose in a barn situation.
good advice here. Nueter any males or they will take off in search of true love. Females I find are the better hunters spayed or not. All but one of our nuetered males sit around and work on their tans. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | SpottedT - 2014-09-26 11:15 AM
If you have a "room" in your barn they can be locked into for the first week or two, this is best. Tack room/feed room etc. Food / litter box in this room for the first week or two and then leaving door open so they can come/go. After they can leave the room you won't need a litter box, they will find their own potty outside. Keep food accessible to them, but not to other critters.
And no younger than 8 weeks old to be loose in a barn situation.
This. I have a cat door for my feed room and I will either block the door for about a week or put them in a big crate in there. They need to establish where safety and food are located. I also usually get 3 or 4 at a time because the chances of all of them living to adulthood is not that great. Mine never come in the house. The barn is home and they learn that from the beginning. |
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Veteran
Posts: 238
| wyoming barrel racer - 2014-09-26 11:22 AM
SpottedT - 2014-09-26 10:15 AM If you have a "room" in your barn they can be locked into for the first week or two, this is best. Tack room/feed room etc. Food / litter box in this room for the first week or two and then leaving door open so they can come/go. After they can leave the room you won't need a litter box, they will find their own potty outside. Keep food accessible to them, but not to other critters. And no younger than 8 weeks old to be loose in a barn situation.
good advice here. Nueter any males or they will take off in search of true love. Females I find are the better hunters spayed or not. All but one of our nuetered males sit around and work on their tans.
This is soooo true. My last 2 barn cats have been neutered male ferals and a more worthless lot I couldn't have. I can starve them for WEEKS and they still won't catch a rat or mouse. Just meow louder at me. I think they curl up with the rats. I'd get a female, but I'll be moving onto new property in the next 6 months and don't want to have to try to move a kitty twice.
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 Expert
Posts: 1210
Location: Kansas | Males have always been just as good of hunters for me. I've never had an affectionate female cat, whereas males are always super loveable (if that's a factor for you). ALWAYS SPAY AND NEUTER. The only vaccines I've ever gotten for a cat was a rabies, but I usually don't vaccinate at all. Even when they are older and are hunting, you need to provide food for them or they will wander off looking for a place that has more of it. |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE somebody take a few cats from me!!! Trust me! Neuter your little meenews. The end. |
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Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | LRQHS - 2014-09-26 9:13 AM I got some cats you can have.
I was just reading your other thread. But you aren't coming thru AZ......
Thanks to everyone for the info and advice. I DO have a shed that I can lock them up, and later on, punch a cat door into it. My hay storage will not be accessible to a cat. But our big run in that we store all our firewood in is open, as well as the storage shed. I was only thinking about getting one, but maybe two is more feeseable. Definitely leaning towards females. And we will have it/them spayed. Really appreciate the info. |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | ~BINGO~ - 2014-09-26 11:42 AM LRQHS - 2014-09-26 9:13 AM I got some cats you can have.
I was just reading your other thread. But you aren't coming thru AZ......
Thanks to everyone for the info and advice. I DO have a shed that I can lock them up, and later on, punch a cat door into it. My hay storage will not be accessible to a cat. But our big run in that we store all our firewood in is open, as well as the storage shed. I was only thinking about getting one, but maybe two is more feeseable. Definitely leaning towards females. And we will have it/them spayed. Really appreciate the info.
I can throw them out in TX and point them towards AZ for you  |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | HarlanLivesOn - 2014-09-26 10:36 AM Males have always been just as good of hunters for me. I've never had an affectionate female cat, whereas males are always super loveable (if that's a factor for you). ALWAYS SPAY AND NEUTER. The only vaccines I've ever gotten for a cat was a rabies, but I usually don't vaccinate at all. Even when they are older and are hunting, you need to provide food for them or they will wander off looking for a place that has more of it.
We have about 30 cats and maybe 10 are altered. I'm working on it. I have 7 kittens that will go in as soon as they are old enough. We only vaccinate for rabies too. If they have survivied kitten hood without the distemper they are likely to be good to go. I know ours build an immunity to it.My father n law believes in survival of the fittest with the cats...other than always over feeding the lazy louses. So I took my select few that I have tamed and feed them in the barn. I haven't seen a sign of a mouse sense. We have a few friendly females, but you are right. The males are the personable ones usually. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Keep your cat food where the cats are too. If you keep it in the house and carry it out to them, they will start living by the house waiting for it. They are beggers that way. |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | Also, never, ever, never teach them to use a litter box in the house......they will hold it all day, run in your house and fight over who get's to use the box first.......then, you will have to scoop cat poop out. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | LRQHS - 2014-09-26 10:54 AM Also, never, ever, never teach them to use a litter box in the house......they will hold it all day, run in your house and fight over who get's to use the box first.......then, you will have to scoop cat poop out.
True dat!
I had a big fat house cat named George. He was the coolest fat cat ever. He loved to go outside and eat grass and come in and yarf all over my carpet. His first stop was the litter box though. Gotta go gotta go gotta go!
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | wyoming barrel racer - 2014-09-26 11:58 AM LRQHS - 2014-09-26 10:54 AM Also, never, ever, never teach them to use a litter box in the house......they will hold it all day, run in your house and fight over who get's to use the box first.......then, you will have to scoop cat poop out. True dat!
I had a big fat house cat named George. He was the coolest fat cat ever. He loved to go outside and eat grass and come in and yarf all over my carpet. His first stop was the litter box though. Gotta go gotta go gotta go!
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| I have 5 barn cats and my boys are just as good of hunters as my girls. I adopted all mine as adults. I went to a vet clinic that raises kittens that re found on a ranch. This lady takes them to the clinic, pays all their expenses and they live in a cage there till adopted. I went for one and came out with 4 I felt so bad for them. I kept them confined for a few days then turned them loose in the barn. Boy did htey have fun experiecing grass, trees and just being able to run around. They are a little wierd acting but are great mousers, I don't have a single mouse dropping in my barn. I feed them wet and dry food and they still hunt, I find remnants of little critters all the time. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Be sure to keep a close eye on them until they get bigger. Around here, if there is anything little running around, the hawks will start to hang around stalking them. Owls are also a problem for very small kitties.
I sooo want a kitten, but things around here aren't right for moving one in.
LRQHS, I would take a few, but I'm afraid my own dogs will kill them. They are very dangerous around anything small and prey like. Maybe a tough older cat that will stand its ground. But, I would feel bad if I brought one in here only for it to get attacked. I was hoping a stray would maybe move in on its own. Every time one shows up, I put food out for it. But, I have a crazy neighbor cat who won't stay over here and kill any mice, but goes crazy when another cat shows up and comes over to run it off. |
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 Midget Lover
Location: Kentucky | Yes - get a female. Mine is a 3 year old male that I got as a rescue. He is WORTHLESS. He is very sweet and follows me like a dog, but I've never seen hiim hunt anything. Except sun rays.
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 Triple Extra-Ordinaire
Posts: 4244
Location: Okla | I kept mine locked in the tack room for a few weeks. then in the barn with doors closed. They have a itter box. And I feed them may once very two or three days to encourage them to hunt. They are still young but they both are HUNTERS. they have brought in field rats, birds, etc..But they know barn is home, they don't wander up close to the house. |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | Nita - 2014-09-26 12:08 PM Be sure to keep a close eye on them until they get bigger. Around here, if there is anything little running around, the hawks will start to hang around stalking them. Owls are also a problem for very small kitties. I sooo want a kitten, but things around here aren't right for moving one in. LRQHS, I would take a few, but I'm afraid my own dogs will kill them. They are very dangerous around anything small and prey like. Maybe a tough older cat that will stand its ground. But, I would feel bad if I brought one in here only for it to get attacked. I was hoping a stray would maybe move in on its own. Every time one shows up, I put food out for it. But, I have a crazy neighbor cat who won't stay over here and kill any mice, but goes crazy when another cat shows up and comes over to run it off.
Well, I sure appreciate the thought lol. I do have one called Scrapper (for a good reason), but he is my pit bulls favorite and that cat really makes me laugh. |
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 Husband Spoiler
Posts: 4151
Location: North Dakota | I also suggest a female for a hunter. I love my boy cats because they sure are friendly but the one is worthless. He is the happiest go lucky cat in the world and just wants to be a lover. He would probably adopt a mouse as a friend. The other male though is pretty handy. He hunts down gophers and snakes (though I like snakes and wish he would leave them alone). I call him our fourth dog because I honestly believe he thinks he is a dog. My females on the other hand love to mouse. They are both friendly cats but they have more of a mind of their own while the males are more obedient like dogs and actually come running when I call their names. I did have one female cat though that was the coolest cat ever. She was just like a dog...came when I called, followed me out to fix fence or whereever I went, jumped up to ride on the back of the horse with me, I even taught her to sit. Oh and she got rid of all the pigeons in the barn! When we moved in pigeons had taken over our barn and sometimes you could hardly even hear yourself think over their chatter but as soon as miss Sour Patch got old enough to head outside (we found her when she was about 4wks old) those pigeons didn't stand a chance. She patrolled the rafters daily. Sadly she disappeared this spring and I'm afraid a coyote got her. :( I still hope that maybe she just ran off with a tom cat and she will find her way home. That's not like her but I would rather think of her on her way home then being eaten by some stupid coyote.
Edited by Just Bring It 2014-09-26 12:53 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1432
Location: Never in one place long | Wow, awesome of your friend to practice spaying and neutering! that can make an amazing difference! I've adopted 6 cats from the humane soceity and they have made amazing barn cats! I think cats adjust JUST fine to being outside cats, its natural for them unless they're had their claws removed. Just thought I'd state my experience with "rescue" cats! Our shelter also has a feral cat program where you can adopt a feral and let them loose at your house. It works amazing for providing farmers with cats! :) |
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Expert
Posts: 1210
Location: Kansas | I have two male cats that since moving back in with my mom are mostly inside cats. She spoils them- they have access to dry food all day and get canned food every night. They still kill every single thing they can get their paws on. There is actually feild rat guts all over my back step that I'm waiting for something else to eat so I don't have to clean it up....  |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | Love the cat in the bath tub lol! |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | LRQHS - 2014-09-26 1:25 PM Love the cat in the bath tub lol!
Hey I thought you would be on the road by now?  |
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Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | HarlanLivesOn - 2014-09-26 1:23 PM I have two male cats that since moving back in with my mom are mostly inside cats. She spoils them- they have access to dry food all day and get canned food every night. They still kill every single thing they can get their paws on. There is actually feild rat guts all over my back step that I'm waiting for something else to eat so I don't have to clean it up....
LMAO That sounds like me. When they leave body parts laying, if I leave them a day or 2, they will almost always go away. All of mine are boys btw and they all 4 hunt. The one girl I've had was freaky shy and I accidentally killed her because of it (hid under my truck and didn't come out). |
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Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | Southtxponygirl - 2014-09-26 1:46 PM LRQHS - 2014-09-26 1:25 PM Love the cat in the bath tub lol! Hey I thought you would be on the road by now?
lol...I leave tomorrow morning. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | LRQHS - 2014-09-26 2:03 PM Southtxponygirl - 2014-09-26 1:46 PM LRQHS - 2014-09-26 1:25 PM Love the cat in the bath tub lol! Hey I thought you would be on the road by now?
Oh heck I thought it was today, lol... |
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Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Love the pic of the cat and dog in the tub! |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| If I were you I would post an ad on craigslist, on the local Facebook page requesting farm kittens or full grown cats this way hopefully they have the instincts to catch, and are used to not being in the house.
Also I would ensure my horse blankets hay bags, horse boots out of the cats domain, as it seems they like to urinate on the blankets
I would also discuss with the vet about distemper vaccines, as my one aunt had all of her 20 some cats die from distemper about 20 years.
And LQRS too bad you don't live closer to me, my other aunt I swear will become the crazy cat lady, I always joke with people if you want to get rid of their cat drop it off at my aunts, she takes all strays into the vet for medical care and spay or neuter, she probably has about 25 at the current time.
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Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | Lol, so hubby says he only agreed to one cat. Poo. But we will see what happens..... We don't do Facebook. So I'd be unable to post, or whatever its called, on there. I may look into seeing if the humane society has a feral cat program. I don't think we would have much of a problem with hawks. We do have hawks and big black birds, but they've never bothered the chickens.... The kittens that the neighbor has are about 4 weeks old right now. So we will have to wait a few weeks if we decide to go that route. I really just want to have all my ducks in a row before jumping in.Sorry about any typos, I'm posting from my phone. Blech. |
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