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OT - any luck taming barn kittens?

D

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
OR...why does this keep happening to me??? Never saw a fool cat on the place until I put up the equipment shed this year. The rains early on washed away all the fill banked around the perimeter so there was a good 10" of space all around that critters could get under the walls (until I filled them all in again). First round was coons. Climbed 16' up to the eaves and then into the gables and had a litter. When early summer sun hit that black roof the baby coons came boiling out. Way too early, they were really tiny. They moved on and then the cats moved in. Apparently if you have acreage and a barn every loser in the county drops his unwanted kitty off. Soon there were kittens. LOTS of kittens. Red squirrels and sparrows gave it all a try but the plague of cats at least were good enough to take care of them. We had mashed kittens on the road in front of the place and you would see the survivors playing on the lanes. They dash into the corn if you come along. Then last week I go out to do more work on the combine engine and here is another round of kittens. Only two this time but apparently abandoned when the big snow fall came along. I put them at around 6-8 weeks. My oldest daughter can handle them but I think they are meaner than spit. They growl at me. She keeps working with them. I was just wondering if there is any chance they will ever become tame? Anyone ever tame nasty, wild-arse barn kittens? I have cage traps set for the parents so I can get rid of them. I figure I neuter these two male kittens they should chase off any new arrivals.
 
(quoted from post at 23:41:25 11/29/15) OR...why does this keep happening to me??? Never saw a fool cat on the place until I put up the equipment shed this year. The rains early on washed away all the fill banked around the perimeter so there was a good 10" of space all around that critters could get under the walls (until I filled them all in again). First round was coons. Climbed 16' up to the eaves and then into the gables and had a litter. When early summer sun hit that black roof the baby coons came boiling out. Way too early, they were really tiny. They moved on and then the cats moved in. Apparently if you have acreage and a barn every loser in the county drops his unwanted kitty off. Soon there were kittens. LOTS of kittens. Red squirrels and sparrows gave it all a try but the plague of cats at least were good enough to take care of them. We had mashed kittens on the road in front of the place and you would see the survivors playing on the lanes. They dash into the corn if you come along. Then last week I go out to do more work on the combine engine and here is another round of kittens. Only two this time but apparently abandoned when the big snow fall came along. I put them at around 6-8 weeks. My oldest daughter can handle them but I think they are meaner than spit. They growl at me. She keeps working with them. I was just wondering if there is any chance they will ever become tame? Anyone ever tame nasty, wild-arse barn kittens? I have cage traps set for the parents so I can get rid of them. I figure I neuter these two male kittens they should chase off any new arrivals.
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on't have a clue why anyone would want to do that! Just ruin a good mouser. They keep down the rats that eat wires, hoses, belts on your equipment. Tame & feeding them will ruin them & make them vulnerable to other predators.
 
leave them wild they will take care of mice etc. and their survival if they stay outside. You DON'T want cats in the house!
 
I call foul, respectfully. That is an old wive's tale. Old wive's tales are also why I am not married. Does a guard dog have
to be crazy vicious and difficult to handle to be effective? Of course not. I can handle all my cats and they take mice and
huge rats down often. My cow dogs are all nice and safe to be around but can be holy hell on a bad cow and don't yell or hit me
or they will be hard on you.

I shoe and run into horse trainers who think the horse needs to be half crazy to run fast or work hard. Again, non-sense. They
will say that cowboy horses were that way in the days of the open range. Looking at old pictures of cowboys stepping off horses
to handle cattle and calves and cowboys holding horses in a remuda with a rope, there is no way they were that bad. A half wild
horse would drag a calf to death (yes, it sometimes happened, even with a good horse) and holding horses back with a rope is a
good way to injure a hand or lose a finger or worse. I know. I have seen people dragged and a finger pulled off. If you can
hold horses back with a rope, they are pretty darn good.

A sweet cat can be holy heck on vermin; we have some. However, I think it is helpful not to over feed cats if you want them to
mouse.
 
ya don't want kats in the house amen to that ,, SKANKIE KAT just threw up twice ,, she was a Ferrell cat til my SARA grabbebbed her up and domesticated her with love ,,.. done the same thang with wild roger kat and hilarious Harvey,,. every time I take in wild cats she feeds them in the barn and turns them into pets ,,..she would b a good wife to saint francis .. lol
 
The best cow horse I ever saw could be called out of his feed bucket. He also got unloaded without a halter on the range, and would go stick his head in when his halter was held open. Cowboys that didn't know him sometimes chased him seeing no rope, his owner would just hold the halter up to get them off him, other wise he would graze around his trailer until they were done yakking and ready to round up the cows.
 
I'm with you, Jim--we had dozens of barn cats at home, and many of the best mousers were friendly. We rarely had a cat that couldn't be handled at all--occasionally a batch of kittens would be wild at first if they had managed to get a few weeks old without being found, but that was by far the exception, and even they almost always gentled down with care, feeding and attention. Over the years they dragged back untold hundreds of mice, moles, rats, and other small rodents, plus some things that were neither small nor always rodents--woodchucks, rabbits, weasels, muskrats, starlings, and once a full-grown duck!
 
We got one I tamed. He keeps the mice out of the house and is a vicious killer. He doesn't eat what he kills, just kills. He goes in and out and is house broke. My 2 year old grad daughter can carry him around and he never gets mad or scratches. He's well few too. Doesn't seem to curb his desire to kill. Rats, mice, chipmunks, gophers and any other rodent he can get, birds, insects and small snakes. Nothing is safe around him. I've watched him kill 3 chipmunks in under 10 minutes. He'd get one, drop it at my feet and went after another. Haven't seen any mouse sign in the house in almost 2 years now.

Rick
 
I've got five barn cats, you have to fix the females nutering the males won't help you as other males well wander in, get the females fixed, They will also inbreed I saw a male cat breeding his mother., I found I can pet some of them when they are eating as I only feed them once a day I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.
 
Years ago, had a litter of kittens fall down inside an office wall. The secretary could hear them crying, had to cut the drywall to get them out.

I guess they were old enough to be weaned, never saw the mama cat. They were some kind of mean!!! They got loose in the office, took 3 of us with welding gloves to get them boxed up! I was going to take them to the humane society, but one of the Hispanic men I worked with wanted them, said his wife could tame them.

I asked him a few days later what happened with the cats, he said his kids were playing with them! Asked him how, said his wife gave each one a hot, soapy bath with flea soap! Said it calmed them right down.

Could truly be an "old wives tale"... or not? Just what he told me!
 
Barn cats get to be a problem at my place. Each year we have to do a cat culling to keep the number reasonable. As far as taming them, good luck. Funny story, my 93 year old grandfather caught some males in box traps with the thought of getting them fixed. So we dumped the wild cats into feed sacks and off to the vet he goes. I wish I could've seen seen the looks on the faces of the pretty little vet techs when that old bugger walked into the office with 2 feed sacks full of wild cats! Hahaha!
 
Yes you can tame down wild kittens. The older they are the longer it will take. As for neutering the males. You can do so but it really will not help much. They will still chase after any females in heat. I really wonder if they will stay around your barn anyway. Your not there everyday and there will be little activity to keep them there. Your going to have to feed them some what regularly to keep them around. It is BS that feeding a cat will make it not hunt. They all will hunt. I am not saying feed them until they are fat but regularly feed them and they will stay around and still keep the vermin under control.
 
It is common to have the Wiley wild barn cat come to a truce with you, can get to the point they allow a light petting, but don't pick me up or try to pin me..... We will come when its feeding time, but kinda stay more than arms length the rest of the day.

Those can be some of the best barn cats ever. They hunt, stay out of the way. Perfect.

We seem to have 6-20 barn cats around at any given time. Some get very friendly to the point they are allowed to sneak in the house for an hour or so a day, others never tame down. Depends on their personality.

We've got a female, must be 6 years old, she comes at feeding time and wants to be held, grabs onto my wife over the shoulder like a kid, purrs, loves a neck rub. Sweetest kitty you'd know! Never had kittens, only comes to meal time about half the days, see her mousing all the time the few times you see her, she will visit the yard in front of the house but doesn't sit there. Won't go under a vehicle, runs away when i start a tractor. I really don't know where she nests for the night even after all these years. What a heck of a cat for the farm!

If they are kittens, the younger they are and the more your daughter works on thrm, the more likely they will become tame.

I didn't look at the other replies, some folk are kinda harsh on cats, I'm sure you got a lot of extreme replies along with others. So it is. I like cats, they make you earn friendship, and do a good job earning their keep on the farm. I've mentioned before, we had a 1 year old Tom barn cat came home with a busted broken tail, I spent $400 on him which was foolish, but he spent the following 10 years on 'his' hunting route around the ditch, getting striped gophers (ground squirrels). For decades dad and then I would lose 1/4 to a 1/2 acre of corn along that ditch to the gophers, and then weeds would grow in and just make a mess of that ditch bank. Terrible. Well that Tom cat cleaned that area out, I get great corn crop there. 1/3 acre of corn, ten years, 150bu an acre, that cat netted me 450 bu of corn in his life.

Paid me back the vet bill 3x.

Got a combine, had $1400 of damage to the wiring, from mice and rats. I have 4 cats living in new shed, no mice damage now. Yea the cats leave their own issues in the gravel, but its a cheaper trade off!

Some don't care for cats, I'm happy to have some.

Paul
 
If the small cats are caught early they will tame down. I had a tom and a female cat show around my place. Next thing I had a few kittens playing around my chicken pen. I trapped the mother and dad and took them to the county shelter. I caught the kittens, they went to a adoption place. a week or so later I still saw a kitten, I finally trapped him. He is a house cat now. He is friendly when he wants to be. He has taken to my wife more than myself. He was out just a bit too long outdoors. We have two more cats that stay in the house also. One outside cat. She goes in the tack room each night. I like my cats, They may hawk up a hair ball sometimes, and a few scratched chairs. I can put up with that. Stan
 
We never let cats hang around the farm. They would get into cow and other feeds and do their business and then you would have to through a scoop shovel of feed away because cows wouldn't eat it. I have a motto "the only good cat is a dead cat".
 
I tamed a lot of them when I was young. I heard kittens inside a double wall of an abandoned barn. Got Dad to help me. The mother was so wild I stuffed her inside my jacket sleeve and held both ends of the sleeve closed to take her home. We put her and the kitchens in the enclosed crawl space under the porch. I tamed the kittens and it didn't take long to tame the mother too. She turned into a fantastic cat. Never came into the house much, until she wanted to go under the porch to have her next batch of kittens.
 
Why bother to tame the cats ? just let them work for you . We have 15-20 cats around the place. rarely ever see a mouse or a rat unless a cat has it . Cats show up at chore time for a drink of milk , and we will put some dry feed down once a day , every other day . Rather feed cats than buy rat poison. We store a lot of hay and straw , and have pit silos , so only a fool would say there are no rodents .
 
While I don't hate cats, I sure hate walking in cat poop. That stuff stinks to high heaven. And then if you track it into the house, you've got the stink staying in the house.
Just a few months ago, I had to work in a crawl space of a neighbor's house to fix the furnace duct work. I knew it was going to be a bad day when we drove up and watched a bunch of cats run out of the dirt crawl space that I had to crawl into next. The smell is almost as bad as hog manure.
While they might keep the rodent population down and I don't shoot cats (my border collie keeps them away), I don't welcome cats on my place.
 

I'm not a cat lover, but a lot of that is because the low life, no good, scum sucking townies keep dropping their pregnant cats off "out in the country". Last spring we took about 15 that we'd captured as kittens to be fixed. We've captured more since then and will have to fix them too. I'd kill the things but the cost of a divorce is more than the vet.

But, yes, you can tame them and get them purring and your wife and kids will fall in love with them and you will be spending $$$ on cat food and litter and eventually you'll have the filthy things crapping in your shop and peeing on your tools. Why you'd want that I don't know. Cats are death on song birds and rabbits and near useless on rats and mice or anything that fights back.

Like I said, I'm not a cat lover.
 
When my Grandparents were here, we had one old Grandma cat that was friendly, then you had to find the kittens of the others to have any chance of taming one or two. We regulated the population with the live trap.
At one point, we somehow ended up cat-free. It took less than 90 days to be overrun with mice. They were everywhere, even running the workbench while you worked! And, despite not buying off-farm feedstuffs, rats showed up! Aggressive control measures were a pain, and kept populations from growing at best.
We picked up a couple of unwanted cats, no more mice. We found ourselves cat-less again about 18 months ago- one son had a friend with four kittens dropped off at their place- we took them all in, and the effect on my wife was unbelievable! She, allergic to other cats and NOT a cat liker, even, took to these babies like almost nothing else. She found an organization nearby that will fix any feral cat for $10 each. Hardest part was putting our friendly kitties into live traps to prove them feral! $40 later, all four fixed and have a clipped ear tip to prove it. The two that are still with us (busy road out front) were hunting in the hay field yesterday, even.
A neighbor's fixed female has moved into our barn now- she and the others aren't friends, but she does earn her keep out there. She stays quite fat, despite minimal feed from us. I would never again be without at least one barn cat.
 
The neighbor kid who is actually a mentally challenged adult, let it slip that they captured one of mine. Which I could care less. I don't make friends with them and told him to get a few more, Anyway he said they had it locked in the house trying to tame it. I haven't asked but I assumed they succeeded.
I have a couple who have been here a few years, the rest seem to come and go. I don't like cats but I like the fact there are no birds in the barns and haven't seen a mouse or rat since they showed up over 20 years ago. I have to control the population of them and keep it at about 6-7. I give them a little cat food everyday and they drink out of the livestock tank if nothing else. They can always eat spilled out feed by the feed bunk. They have hay and straw around to sleep on or keep warm.
 
There is some truth to that for sure. I don't mind or hate them, grew up with a bunch at the farm, and recall a few that were unique, one that I tamed at about the same age, who turned out to be really something until a car got him and he had to be put down, that stung a little, no different than a dog.

I can do without litter boxes and cat urine stench, a place I frequent, soon as you get to the entrance of the house at this farm, the cat urine smell is over bearing and around here there's a tom that sprays here. I just hate that along my vegetable garden fence, more so when produce is hanging !!!! I've seen some unreal mousers here at times,all live inside too! One was here for 10 or more years, he finally must have bitten the dust last winter, all black, short hair, and I have seen him all over this 98 and surrounding acres, he used to sneak up behind my stand during hunting. Coyotes never seem to get any of these either as many of the same one were around, but last years harsh winter, only one I see left, that darned neighbors Tom!!!!!! Orange nasty one too.

Sometimes I don't get why people have the ones that literally don't do anything, eat sleep and the rest, neighbor has one that is afraid of everyone, hides all the time, that I don't get at all.

To the poster: you can tame them, or lets say its possible, you have to take your time. The one I did, I was more aggressive, I captured him, gave him a lot of attention, literally won him over and he sure was something, those are rare from what I recall. I was in high school living at the grandparents small farm, somehow had kittens and they were growling, snarling, hissing..... I picked one and never gave up, it seemed really noticeable when I got over the hump so to speak, he trusted me and was really nice after, but he did fight me a bit and I had no idea which way it would have went, being nice, kind/gentle but firm, seemed to do it.
 
I've tamed one over the last few weeks. It showed up earlier this summer with it's mother and another kitten. The mother and other kitten have gone missing. When I weaned the calves and put them in the barn,that kitten started coming down close enough for the calves to sniff at it and even lick it. I took some cat food down there to it so it would stay in one place. I started going in among the calves when they were fooling with it and got a hand on it and petted it. That was about all it took. In just a few days I ended up with a new best friend. It's turned in to quite a pest. Every time I go in there it starts howling and comes running. The blasted thing is right under foot all the time now.
 
I guess bottom line here is the piles of feathers here and there around the shed and the near total absence of rodents. Our local shelter has a $25 barn cat program. They neuter them and check them over, clip the tip off one ear to mark it as "processed" and return them to the "owner". That and a little bit of feed is cheap a fair exchange for the pest control. The parent cats have been here all year and I rarely see one of them...just tracks all over the sand...and the feathers. Need to keep the truck windows rolled up. I have traps set for the parents but no luck so far. Guess I will see how the daughter fairs with getting them settled. Still think a couple of male cats settled in the shed will keep most of the other cats out. Works here at the house, anyway.

Funny story. We have a huge black tomcat here at the house...neutered. I brought him home from the shelter years ago, he is pretty old now. Scary claws on this cat. I was in the back yard one day years ago and saw him stalking a chipmunk. Rodent went up a vertical wood wall and then turned left and went horizontally across the wall. The cat was right with him the whole time. I never saw such a thing, really fast and like he had sticky feet. Rodent finally went to the top of the wall and launched himself into space, cat right behind him. That was the last I saw...pretty sure when they hit the ground it was all over for the chipmunk.
 

There are two methods to train an animal. One being through fear and intimidation, and the other is with love and compassion. Which do you think works the best?
 
(quoted from post at 10:57:13 11/30/15)
There are two methods to train an animal. One being through fear and intimidation, and the other is with love and compassion. Which do you think works the best?
Click to expand...

Dont think my drill Sargent got that memo.
 
(quoted from post at 17:05:54 11/30/15)
(quoted from post at 10:57:13 11/30/15)
There are two methods to train an animal. One being through fear and intimidation, and the other is with love and compassion. Which do you think works the best?
Click to expand...

Dont think my drill Sargent got that memo.
Click to expand...

Their method works best in the time they are allowed to get the job done.
 
Anyone ever tame nasty, wild-arse barn kittens? I have cage traps set for the parents so I can get rid of them. I figure I neuter these two male kittens they should chase off any new arrivals.
Click to expand...

Mixed results taking a feral cat into the house. We have a barn separated from the house by trees with no neighbors so it is the perfect spot for drive by catting. We get lots of "donations". We also have a population of truly feral cats. I tolerate cats in the barn (turkeys, sheep, chicken - always rodent feed available and I will not use poison so if a cat wants to stay I let them.

We currently have three that weren't doing so well. Two had been torn up by something (coyotes?) and weren't going to make it. So, being idiots, we got them patched up and took them indoors. Both have been excellent house cats and for the most part happy to be kept indoors.

Moe (all black) was so little he never got to be used to being alone and feral. He lost a leg but he's a fighter. Pitiful to watch walk . . . but he runs just fine and is a sweetheart.

HPIM2485.jpg


Mooch had what I thought was a large tumor but turned out to be a kidney! Something had grabbed him across the abdomen and tore him up. It's a wonder either of them survived - cats is tough! And now they're both galloots enjoying the good life. Best of friends, love people, took right to litterboxes. Moe tries to dig with a phantom leg.

DSCN1533_zpsgxx935dz.jpg


Cricket - another one we brought in - is SKITTERY! She was starving and emaciated. Pretty little thing but she will only be affectionate on her terms. If she comes to you - and she does - it's OK. If I try and pet her or approach her . . . gone. Anyone different in the house . . . gone. Try and take a nap on the couch - in your face rubbing and purring. She also does not like the other cats at all.

HPIM2630.jpg
 
Spook, is sitting here in my lap now, a wild barn kitty born this summer. His brother Specter is terrorizing the other cats judging by the sound. There sister Slate is asleep in my office chair. Marshmallow is asleep on my bookshelf, she was a true feral adult. I spent a year taming her to get her inside and another year for her to truly trust me.

Tonight, as every other, I'll make a special trip, 6 miles each way to feed and sit with my feral barn kitties at the other farm. A can of wet food and a big bowl of dry. So far one of the 3 will let me pet him.

Its a process and a labor of love.
 
Feral cats can be a handful even after tamed. Mikey is trying to fight my foot right now. He's 12. He drinks coffee and wakes me if the alarm clock doesn't go off. Handy on a Tuesday, shite on a Saturday. If I ignore him, he bites me. Not hard, but when you get bit on the backside while brushing your teeth at 4:30AM, it gets your attention. He will be missed when he passes.

The other cat? Not so much...

Aaron
 

I brought three kittens to the house, because they were abandoned by their mother. They were easy to handle, because they were starving. I had to start them out on kitty milk replacer, then moved onto wet cat food, then dry. It was quite an adventure having them in the house while they were growing. After they were back in good shape they became playful, mischievous little balls of fur. After they were feed they would run and play pretty hard, then they would crawl up on my lap for a snooze. I sure miss the little buggers.
 
(quoted from post at 19:08:11 11/30/15) Put them and a large rock in a gunny sack and drop it into a barrel of water. . .
Click to expand...

I'd probably want to do the same to you if I knew you better. ;-)

But for now the rock would probably be good enough for you and quicker.

Cats, kids and marriages - you get back what you invest into them.
 

I had to put my foot down and tell the red head...no more cats, two is enough. Of course she put her foot down on mine hard and said she would get all the cats she wanted... Guess who won that round :oops:

Of course we still only have two but the shelter knows she is a push over and will call again....soon. Ugh.
 
A couple years ago we were up to 17 outdoor kitties all started with 1 prego mommy.
Now down to 4 most gone by-way of the road. Last one hit in road would join me on stoop and climb in my lap.
Of the remaining 4, Blacky will run in front of us and flop on ground for lovins (petting).
Fuzzbutt (long hair) will sometimes do same as Blacky.
GG (Gray Girl) will tease/torment us by flopping on ground for lovins but usually jumps up and runs a few feet, just before you reach her, and drops again.
Scamp... name says it all as she is very skittish LOL
It is nice not needing 30 lbs dry food every week but I do miss the ones that are gone.
 
I agree withe the ones that say leave them feral. IMH the best cats are the ones that are 100 feet away with a mouse in their mouth. My dad used to keep cats around the barn and at times he had 20+. You couldn't do your chores without one of them under your feet and tripping you. The tame ones may be just as good mousers but they are more of a pain in the arse. If you want a good pet get a dog.
 
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