Barn Cats

[Tudorman]

I've got a rodent problem - moles, voles, and mice. The family dog even found a dead rat a few weeks ago. So I'm ready to enter into a mutually beneficial agreement with a cat or several cats. I will provide room and board in exchange for vermin removal services.

The problem is, I'm allergic to cats and don't particularly want to share living quarters with any. I'm perfectly willing to provide food, shelter, and medical benefits, but the garage will have to be as far as they get. And, having never owned a cat before, I've got little to go on as far as the minimum requirements to hold up my end of the deal.

So, I'm asking for advice regarding what I'll have to provide and how to take care of a barn cat.

 

[homebrewz]

Where is the rodent problem? In the house, or the yard, or barn? Because if its in the house, I would think you're going to have to let them live where the problem area is.

Spay (female) or neuter (male) them unless you want a population explosion. They will also need a warm place to sleep if out in the cold barn. Enclosed beds of straw are good.
Growing up, we had several cats that lived outdoors in our garage in a residential neighborhood. They did well, but if we were having a really bitterly cold night, we would bring them into house's mud room. Food, shelter, water.. the basics.

Outdoor cats will generally live to around 10 or 12, where indoor cats can live up to 18, or even longer.The difference is simply due to the risks of being an outdoor cat.. cold, accidents, fights, and disease caught from other animals. A concern with outdoor cats is susceptibility to feline leukemia, and feline immune virus do to contact with other cats. These diseases are very contagious. The links below will give you more info on them.

(broken link removed to http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/felv.html)

(broken link removed to http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fiv.html)

I hope this helps.

 

[Dix]

Barn cats can be way cool

They will have to be hand tame, for obvious reasons. Is there someone else who can work on this ? *As an aside, I was allergic to cats, then when I rescued a kitten, and he got older, viola !! Allergy gone*

I'd recommend a litter of kittens (your choice of how many), then crate them in the barn for a few weeks, so they know they are "home".

Or, you could go to with something like this, locally

(broken link removed to http://shukasmith.web.aplus.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/Adoption_Application_Outdoor.doc)

I'll check back.

 

[Tudorman]

The rodent problem is primarily the moles/voles tearing up the yard, but I am getting some mice in the attic. I have secure bait stations there that work well. But the voles and moles are a bugger to eradicate.

The cat(s) would have shelter in an attached garage. I would provide food and water there, access via a cat door, most likely. Do I need a litter box to keep the cats from using the entire garage as their toilet? Is there a certain breed that's a better mouser? At what garage temp would I want to bring them in? Should I build a box for them to sleep in? How big? Should I wait until spring to get kittens, or is now ok?

As you can see, I'm a bit clueless. And although I don't HATE cats, I'm not looking for a deep relationship. I'll give them a place to crash, they hunt. No freeloaders.

 

[firefighterjake]

Barn cats can be pretty neat . . . after one of the coolest cats I ever owned died (Woodrow Wilson . . . he was the only cat I've owned that loved riding in a car -- he would either sleep on the back deck under the rear window or he would stand in the center of the bucket seats with his two front paws up on the dash so he could look out and watch the scenery) . . . I brought two barn cats home -- John Tyler and Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt was later returned after he began to fight with the other cats, would insist on peeing on the doors and would blow snot out of his nose and then catch it with his paw . . . he was a rather disgusting cat.

John Tyler on the other hand turned out to be a great mouser in his early days and was remarkably good with other cats and loved nothing better than to have his belly rubbed.

As mentioned, they would need to be fed (regularly with catfood) and watered. Shelter can be pretty simple . . . no box is needed, but they will probably like it if there is a pile of rags, small carpet square or somewhere that is up off the ground, quiet and comfortable to sleep on. If they are living in the garage I would probably box train them or train them to go outside to do their business . . . and having them fixed will definitely help in keeping the males from marking their territory . . . plus you really don't want to be over-run with cats.

I would also recommend getting at the very minimum rabies shots for them . . . although you may want to also get some other vacinnations for them as well since they will be outside and most likely will come in contact with other animals. I would get at least two cats, but I would not go overboard and get too many either . . . otherwise you'll soon be known as that crazy guy who has way too many cats living in his garage.

As for mousers . . . it all depends. I've always had mixed breed cats and some have loved mice . . . others have hated them and preferred chasing birds, chipmunks or squirrels. The sex of the cat doesn't seem to make much of a difference either . . . oh yeah . . . also be prepared for your cats to bring home these "gifts" to you . . . usually minus a head or you might just find the entrails . . . and sometimes their "gift" is something you would rather they had not killed (i.e. song birds.)

Having cats around will not guarantee you a mouse free existence . . . my cats regularly find 'em, but two years ago I had a mouse problem in my crawl space and attic -- the two places the cats don't go. Rather than using poison and risk having a cat eat a poisoned mouse and get sick . . . or have the mouse die in my walls and rot away I use resetable snap traps . . . it has been awhile though since I've found a mouse in one of the traps.

 

[savageactor7]

Every now and then over the years we'll end up with a cat or 2 in the garage. Outside of just acknowledging them with a friendly hello I just leave them alone and provide no food or water. They pretty much take care of themselves and will move on when the rodent pop declines. We throw out corn for visiting ducks, geese and turkey and I guess that will bring on the rodents too.

Wild cats will defend themselves if you get too close...they aren't your friend.

 

[Highbeam]

I've never seen a cat get a mole. They pretty much live underground. You'll need the scissor traps for the moles which I've employed this year with great success. The moles irritate me and I get em. My cat brings me mice from the woodpile and from around the barn. We have chickens so we have chicken food and there will always be some rodents but keeping them under control is pretty important.

I'm a dog guy but admit that cats are pretty easy. Find a litter at a supermarket so that you can get a few for free and then spay/neuter them. I think you will find that it is cheaper to neuter a male than to spay a female so that might help your decision. Also, smaller cats seem to be better mousers than the cougar sized breeds.

 

[homebrewz]

I'd have to agree with the last few posts.. litterbox, yes.. although in the summer, they may go outside a lot saving you the chore of "cleaning" the box.
They like to sleep or hang out in a comfy private space, like that back room near the boiler of the plant that the supervisors don't know about.
When it got down into single digits, or below 0, we would check on them to see how warm they were and would sometimes bring them into the mud room.
Since you have an attached garage, maybe it won't get quite that cold in there, in which case it would be fine. As far as when to get them, I'm not sure.
Perhaps wait until late winter if you're going to get kittens and raise them, so they have the warmer months to acclimate to their surroundings.

Aside from rabies, and booster vaccinations, you should at least also vaccinate for Feline Leukemia (FeLV). Its very contagious in the cat population.
It is true that neutering is cheaper than spaying. The operation is simpler and doesn't take as long. I, uh.. won't go into the details (I know the vets at an
area clinic and have helped out on occasion.. they let me ride their horses).

As far as being a good mouser, it really depends on the cat and their personality. My neighbors have an indoor/outdoor cat which is an excellent mouser. Unfortunately
she also nails some chipmunks, birds, frogs, etc. I have seen her catch some moles on occasion.

 

[Gooserider]

No personal experience, but I've always heard that mousing is a LEARNED behaviour, not instinctive - any cat will chase things that move, and play with them - but the notion that "mouse = dinner" as well as playtoy is a learned thing... I've known people that had cats which would play with mice, both outside and bringing them home for further entertainment... Usually the mouse would eventually get "broken" and stop moving, but not always, either way the "house ape" gets to clean up the remains. A true hunter WILL get mice and anything else that's small enough to eat, but will not leave a lot to clean up....

Moral of story is that your best bet for success in hiring a good "rodent control engineer" is to look for a litter of kittens with known descent from a mousing mother - ideally someone elses barn cats.

Gooserider

 

[lass442]

In general, female cats tend to be better hunters than males. But I don't understand why you don't just put some De-Con in a few corners of your house. Between food and vet bills, and no guarantee that you'll end up with a good little mouser, eliminating rodents with poison and good grub control will be more cost-effective. Grub control is key to eliminating moles and voles, since their primary food source is grubs. Milky Spore is good at killing the grubs and environmentally sound.
Chickens are good for keeping insects under control in the yard, too. Guinea Hens are awesome tick-eaters, but they're noisy (good watch-hens). Wouldn't recommend keeping them in the garage, though.

 

[wiringlunatic]

We've had two indoor cats, one male and one female. I admit that that's limited experience, but I've heard others say as well, that the males like to play with their food, while the females actually hunt. Our first cat, the male, caught a lot of mice, but let some get away too as he was playing. Our current cat, the female, has no front claws and only ever got one mouse (that I know of) but loves to catch flies and other insects. Like other females (or so I've been told) she eats what she kills. Our neighbors have two indoor/outdoor cats, both males who kill anything -- mice, moles, squirrels, birds from another neighbor's feeding station, etc. and I don't think I've ever seen a bite missing from them, they're just killing for the fun of it. If you live in a colder climate, either adopt an outdoor cat or wait until it's warmer to start so that as the weather gets colder it can build up it's winter fur and not freeze. Use caution digging in any mulched flower beds and cover any sandboxes as these are favorite "outdoor litter boxes"

One other thing, firefighterjake said about not using poison so a cat won't eat a poisoned mouse and die. I spoke to an exterminator about that when he was putting poison stations in our house and he said that "secondary poisons" are illegal now. A secondary poison is a poison that makes what it poisons poisonous. In other words poisoned mice (using legal poisons) should not be able to harm a cat. It is my understanding that many, if not all of the rodent poisons used today are lethal doses of blood thinners like Koumadin. The mouse dies of a massive stroke, but does not become toxic.

 

[LLigetfa]

Keeping the cats out of the house will depend on whether you have children and how good they are at emotional blackmail. We always had barn cats on the farm. As kids, we would sneak one or two of the tamer ones in the house. There was enough heat for them in the barn from the livestock. We never fed them per se but they did get some milk when we did the milking.

You have to accept that the cats will also catch lots of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, etc. I remember seeing one of our barn cats dragging home a rabbit that was bigger than he was. The barn swallows would torment the cats all day long by diving at them and the cats got their share of those that got too close.

Cats do catch moles/voles but AFAIK they won't eat them.

 

[SlyFerret]

Your local animal shelter will have a nice selection of kittens/cats that want nothing more than a good home (and I think your garage would qualify for most of them). While our cats didn't come from the animal shelter, they provided us with some very good information on hand raising kittens.

My wife rescued two kittens a couple months ago. She was out riding her bicycle and saw something by the side of the road. Upon closer inspection, she realized that they were two tiny kittens. We live out in the country, like many of you guys, and the only reason that I can think of that these two kittens were where they were was that somebody dumped them there. There wasn't a barn/house within at least a quarter of a mile.

At best guess, the kittens were about 3 weeks old. She bottle fed them, taking them to work with her every day until they were weened. They're about 12 weeks old now, and tearing around the house. They probably started life as a littler of barn cats, and have managed to land in the lap of luxury.

We had outdoor cats when I was younger (Freddie Joe and Mr. Jinx). They didn't take much to take care of. We left food/water on the porch for them, and had a cat door that let them get into the garage. Along the way, we acquired another kitten (Moochie) that decided our porch seemed like a good place to crash. My cousin still has Moochie, who has been upgraded to an indoor cat.

Being outdoor cats, Freddie and Jinx would occasionally come home a little worse for wear after a run-in with another creature in the neighborhood. For the most part, they took care of themselves. My parents lost both of them (they were littermates) this past summer/fall, about 4 months apart from each other. The cats lived to be 16 years old (pretty good for outdoor cats).

-SF

 

[myzamboni]

We have an outdoor cat that has 'adopted' us. She is not feral, but rather a cat that was abandoned by renters who moved away. Ferals typically will not want to make eye contact with you on first encounter. Our girl would, and after a couple days we were able to pet her. We won her trust with food and she has been ever-grateful since. We took her to the vet to get checked out and she handled it better than our indoor-only cat. Turns out she has been spayed, so we got the FIV, Rabies, Heartworm shots/treatments. On cold nights she sleeps in our garage(we close the back door when we go to bed for her safety (we provide a just-in-case litter box, food and water). Warmer nights, she hangs out in the garage, eats, and then by 10pm takes off for the night. It is a nice arrangement as she has human interaction, and we love her personality.

Since she was on her own for at least a year (we would occasionally catch glimpses of her in the neighborhood), she is a very good hunter. I am assuming this was out of necessity and not a learned behavior. She still goes on the hunt for 'sport'. We've had the clean up what was left of a couple birds, couple mice, and couple lizards.

Oh, and she loves to lay in the yard and watch me split wood.

 

[LLigetfa]

the only reason that I can think of that these two kittens were where they were was that somebody dumped them there.

City folk do it all the time and most cats/kittens end up feeding the foxes. Helps keep the foxes out of the hen house.

Most animal shelters have been taken over by PETA types. If they caught wind that you want barn cats, they'd tar and feather you.

 

[firefighterjake]

. . .

One other thing, firefighterjake said about not using poison so a cat won't eat a poisoned mouse and die. I spoke to an exterminator about that when he was putting poison stations in our house and he said that "secondary poisons" are illegal now. A secondary poison is a poison that makes what it poisons poisonous. In other words poisoned mice (using legal poisons) should not be able to harm a cat. It is my understanding that many, if not all of the rodent poisons used today are lethal doses of blood thinners like Koumadin. The mouse dies of a massive stroke, but does not become toxic.

That's good to know . . . thanks for passing on the info.

One concern I would still have with poisons however is having a mouse die in my walls . . . I've been to one home that had this happen and the stink was pretty bad . . . fortunately it was only for a short time.

 

[firefighterjake]

Your local animal shelter will have a nice selection of kittens/cats that want nothing more than a good home (and I think your garage would qualify for most of them). While our cats didn't come from the animal shelter, they provided us with some very good information on hand raising kittens.

My wife rescued two kittens a couple months ago. She was out riding her bicycle and saw something by the side of the road. Upon closer inspection, she realized that they were two tiny kittens. We live out in the country, like many of you guys, and the only reason that I can think of that these two kittens were where they were was that somebody dumped them there. There wasn't a barn/house within at least a quarter of a mile.

At best guess, the kittens were about 3 weeks old. She bottle fed them, taking them to work with her every day until they were weened. They're about 12 weeks old now, and tearing around the house. They probably started life as a littler of barn cats, and have managed to land in the lap of luxury.

We had outdoor cats when I was younger (Freddie Joe and Mr. Jinx). They didn't take much to take care of. We left food/water on the porch for them, and had a cat door that let them get into the garage. Along the way, we acquired another kitten (Moochie) that decided our porch seemed like a good place to crash. My cousin still has Moochie, who has been upgraded to an indoor cat.

Being outdoor cats, Freddie and Jinx would occasionally come home a little worse for wear after a run-in with another creature in the neighborhood. For the most part, they took care of themselves. My parents lost both of them (they were littermates) this past summer/fall, about 4 months apart from each other. The cats lived to be 16 years old (pretty good for outdoor cats).

-SF

My wife rescued a cat in a similar fashion . . . after she told me two years ago that we had four cats too many she ended up bringing home cat #5 (although we're now down to 4 cats after a death this past Fall.)

It was January and we were in middle of a cold spell with sub-zero temps. She was driving in to work in Pittsfield and was on a stretch of road where there are absolutely no homes when she spied something small moving beside the road. She stopped, drove back and discovered a small, black kitten. Ice was balled up on her paws and her paw pads were blistered and cracked from frostbite.

She immediately picked up the abandoned kitten and brought it to the vet before going to work. After work she picked up the kitten and brought her home. The vet told her later that he had no doubt that the kitten would have died if she had been left out in those temps for a few more hours. As it was the paw pads healed, but she lost the tip of her tail and the tips of her ears to this day are missing some fur.

We ended up calling her Lucky . . . which was appropriate due to her rough start in life and lucky break with my wife driving by . . . plus a few weeks later my wife found her dangling from some window blind cords (again my wife saved her . . . this time from an accidental hanging.)