Barn Cat?

[zing]

We had fox and owls in the barn for years and rarely saw rodents. The foxes got killed off by some idiot neighbor. Coyotes moved in a few years later. Then bald eagles moved onto the property and killed off the owls. I like the eagles and tolerate the coyotes. But neither one will go inside the barn. I would rather have my fox and owls back.

All of this talk about owls had me thinking "Where would one procure a barn owl?" because they seem like an idea solution but I have never seen one around here. Then I saw your eagle comment and that would explain it. We have a number of bald eagles here and see them soaring over the fields all of the time. If the eagles didn't get them, they would probably leave to seek safer neighbours anyway.

 

[TomSeller]

All of this talk about owls had me thinking "Where would one procure a barn owl?" because they seem like an idea solution but I have never seen one around here. Then I saw your eagle comment and that would explain it. We have a number of bald eagles here and see them soaring over the fields all of the time. If the eagles didn't get them, they would probably leave to seek safer neighbours anyway.

Well before the bald eagles moved in, barn owls were always around, keeping the mice population down. After the eagles moved in, we were disappointed that the owls "moved out". Then one year an owl reappeared (maybe a pair, but never saw two). I was so very happy until one day the owl took off out of a barn window and "oh no!" headed straight towards the bald eagle tree. Sure enough, one of the eagles nailed the owl in flight. I then realized the original pair did not "move out". I would rather have owls than eagles. The eagles are kind of interesting when they come down, sit on a fence post and visit while I am working, but they don't keep rodents at bay. Ravens and hawks hang around during hay season, but don't nest on the property.

 

[MountainGuardian]

The first thing I would say from personal experience is that you don't want to be feeding barn cats for the most part or they tend to not hunt... We have like 15 of them right now and they do an incredible job of keeping down the vole, mole, mouse, starling, gopher and even catfish population. We feed our cats dog food, it gives them enough to get through lean times but is missing key nutrients they have to hunt to get. We feed a small amount daily to them but we are here all the time. If you get a good cat that is used to hunting just start him out with small amounts of food left out and then over time get the cat used to being fed something just when you are home.

If you are over run with mice one cat or even 40 won't do you a great deal of good, it didn't for us anyways and we literally got up to 40 cats at one point. Our last farm was 200 acres 155 of which was in barley the year we got it, we wanted to get out there quickly so we set a mobile home out in the middle of standing barley.... You could quite literally sit in the living room and see up to ten mice at a time. I finally started breeding domestic white mice and letting them loose in the barn. They interbred with the wild mice and we started seeing the prettiest golden yellow colored mice.... I was hoping that the domestic genes would undermine the wild natural traits they had developed and they would be easier to deal with.... In the end it turns out, just changing the color was enough to decimate the mouse population, within a year you couldn't find a mouse anywhere.

My biggest problem is with voles out in the hay field, the cats do a wonderful job on them even in the winter you see them bringing in big fat voles to eat. One thing is for sure, cats are plentiful there are millions in shelters, if what you get doesn't work and the cat doesn't last, which is likely, you can just pick up another. Our population is close to self sustaining but not quite, we have to get another 2 to 4 cats every 3 or 4 years or so to keep the population up. We have a lot of predators here coyotes, wolves, owls, hawks, eagles, red kytes and the list goes on, so cats are definitely on the menu for much of the wild life around here.

 

[MossRoad]

So you're spending how much on cat vaccinations each year?

 

[MountainGuardian]

So you're spending how much on cat vaccinations each year?

If you meant me, we do not vaccinate, if one catches something they will die off, kind of like nature. We have lost maybe 6 or 8 over the last 15 years to illness, but with most of them deaths have been from predation or accidents, fan blades, snow plowing, tractor tires etc. I find it interesting, I have a friend, a 70 year lady who rescues cats and dogs, she makes sure they are all vaccinated and have the perfect diet and go to the vet every time anything may be wrong with them, and 5 out of her 8 cats have major medical problems ranging from cancer to immune diseases to 2 completely unknown diseases, our cats are healthy as horses though with no medical care or proper nutrition or anything. Granted, any of ours that get seriously ill will die rather than go to a vet to be kept alive so that would tend to leave only the healthy ones.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

If you meant me, we do not vaccinate,

This is NOT good.

I understand your point but this is not necessarily about keeping YOUR cats healthy. I'll skip that debate .....

By not vaccinating your cats, you are placing all other cats in the area at risk. Feline leukemia and FIV are both highly contagious and fatal. The reach of the damage/suffering could be vast.

 

[MossRoad]

Sigh..... I was hoping that wasn't the case. :thumbdown:

 

[kidr]

Probably had a lot of suicides among those cats. WOW.

 

[ovrszd]

For some reason I don't see Mountainguardian as living in an area that he is too worried about the cat "social network" in the neighborhood. He's using his cats for a specific purpose and that is not as pets.

Welcome to TBN Mountainguardian.

 

[Country Geek]

If you meant me, we do not vaccinate, if one catches something they will die off, kind of like nature. We have lost maybe 6 or 8 over the last 15 years to illness, but with most of them deaths have been from predation or accidents, fan blades, snow plowing, tractor tires etc.

Yup, just like nature.

I find it interesting, I have a friend, a 70 year lady who rescues cats and dogs, she makes sure they are all vaccinated and have the perfect diet and go to the vet every time anything may be wrong with them, and 5 out of her 8 cats have major medical problems ranging from cancer to immune diseases to 2 completely unknown diseases, our cats are healthy as horses though with no medical care or proper nutrition or anything. Granted, any of ours that get seriously ill will die rather than go to a vet to be kept alive so that would tend to leave only the healthy ones.

You had cats with those problems too, the main difference is that yours are all dead from neglect. Or accidents with blades, snow blowers, and tractor tires, just like nature.

You need to at least vaccinate for rabies. You are playing with fire otherwise. A quick google confirms that rabies is a significant problem in Idaho.

Around here 40 cats on a property without vaccines or veterinary care would be a criminal animal hoarding case.