Help - Cats Eating Chicken Eggs!

sunshinytraci · #1 05/22/10, 02:56 PM

Ok. I have about had it with my barn cats. They are eating every single egg that comes out of my birds. All I find are shells now. I'm pretty furious

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This has been going on for the last couple of days. I have had these cats for years and I don't know why it started all of a sudden, but it did.

My idea is to get some eggs from the store and load 'em up with hot sauce or that hot pick stuff for chicks that pick. I have a bottle of that. I can seal the holes in the eggs up with candle wick sealer so it doesn't leak out. Then leave these around the barn where the hens lay their eggs.

Has anyone else done this? Is it worth the trouble to try? Any other suggestions?

I am not at all certain I can find other homes for these cats. I haven't called the Humane Society or the County Animal Control. Do these guys take cats? I will send them with a big bag of cat food. I just don't want to have to destroy them myself......

Anyone else have a dillemma like this? I have had dogs eat eggs. That's easy to deal with using fences. My cats can climb just about anything. No, I don't have a specific coop and yard. Everyone lives in the barn together. One day, when I have money again, I am going to get another coop (last one got destroyed by brother and neighbor with a tractor. They were trying to move it for me but ended up destroying it instead. ) but with the economy the way it is, who knows when that will be.

Any suggestions would be most helpful. Thanks!

ronbre · #2 05/22/10, 03:02 PM

that's just sad..i'm so sorry, the reason i didn't get chickens is cause i figured my cats would kill the chickens and eat them..no kidding..they'll take down a big rabbit and Mitzi even tried to take down a fawn one time.

sugarspinner · #3 05/22/10, 03:04 PM

Never had cats break and eat eggs. Are you sure it isn't raccoons or rats?

I have heard of the "pepper in the egg" system working for the chickens, themselves, when they were eating eggs, and even for dogs when people thought they might be eating eggs. It might work. It's awfully hard to train a cat, though. I'm suspecting that, if it really is the cats, you'll end up having to get rid of them. Yes, the animal shelters usually do take cats.

sunshinytraci · #4 05/22/10, 03:09 PM

I'm positive it is the cats. I have witnessed two different ones doing it. I think I may go with the animal shelter idea if they will take them.

SLD Farm · #5 05/22/10, 04:58 PM

This may seem like a dumb question, but are you feeding your cats? Are you feeding them enough? I know some people expect barn cats to fend for themselves and not feed or underfeed them. I have barn cats and have never had a problem with them bothering my hens or the eggs. I have one cat that sleeps in the hen house too. I also provide my cats with plenty of food too.

AnnieinBC · #6 05/22/10, 05:05 PM

What? I've never heard of that....and I just got a kitten to eventually be down in the barn....to help me get rid of mice. I don't need a cat eating eggs!

I hope you can resolve it!

Patt · #7 05/22/10, 05:07 PM

I have never had any of my cats eat eggs before. And I have had quite a few cats over the years. Odd that it just suddenly started happening too. Is it possible something else is breaking the eggs and eating them and the cats are just licking up the remains?

I would try the hot sauce idea myself. And spend some time in the barn and make sure what is actually eating them.

As for the pound it would be kinder to just put a bullet in their brains. You will drag them there and they will sit in a cage for a few weeks under very stressful conditions and then be put to sleep. People don't adopt barn cats.

Macybaby · #8 05/22/10, 05:54 PM

I have a couple of cats (out of 12) that occasionally eat eggs. Those two know how to pick the egg up and will roll it so it will drop and crack open. But for the most part they leave the eggs alone. In my 15 years of having cats and chickens, these are the first to figure out how to get the eggs open.

I have had more problems with chickens eating the eggs - culled my whole small flock last fall and started over because of it. This spring I went from 3-4 eggs a day to nothing, and found the dog crawling through the chicken door and into the coop. DH caught her, locked her in and then they had a discussion about it, and she won't even look at that chicken door now.

If the cats had continued to be a problem, they would have gone to kitty heaven - I have three that are incredibly smart (I've had cats almost all my life and I'm serious, these guys are amazing) and they figure things out. But I think without those the rest of the cats (unrelated) would never figure things out on their own.

Cathy

#9 05/22/10, 06:04 PM

I've had chickens peck the eggs open and the cats say ,"Thank you" & enjoy the treat..but I've never had a cat be the first offender. That's weird!

GrannyG · #10 05/22/10, 07:24 PM

I would suspect the chiclens breaking the eggs open.....mine do that at times...but not the cats...they probably wait for them to break them and then eat them.

lmrose · #11 05/22/10, 07:30 PM

We have two barn cats. One is 18 yrs and her daughter is 14 yrs old. Both were born here. When they were kittens they were taught to leave baby chicks and eggs alone. They were also trained not to dig in the garden and use it for a litter box!.
This was done mostly by my husband as he worked in the barn and gardens. He would notice the cats chasing chicks and scold them. He also used a little switch if they didn't listen. He did the same if they dug in his garden. It wasn't long and the two kittens learned what was acceptable or not. They played stalking chicks but never touched them. They just drooled!! Mama cat likes to sun her self in the garden but she and Tiger never dig there.We know someday their life will end and we will have to find new kittens and they will be trained the same way.

Our dog was trained the same way. She loves to sniff chicks and frogs and even eggs but knows to leave things alone. Occasionally she will pick up a frog or tad pole and carry it around but never hurts them. She also has picked up eggs and laid them down without breaking them.One time our rooster got out of the henyard and Molly picked him up squawking and brought him to me to return to the henyard. He didn't have a mark on him from her teeth but he also never flew out of the fence again either! Cats and dogs can be trained but it takes patience. It also helps to have, in the dogs case, a breed suitable for a farm.

Harry Chickpea · #12 05/22/10, 07:39 PM

Shelter, or take 'em out back and SSS. No room for bad behavior on a farm.

Pennsyltucky · #13 05/22/10, 07:54 PM

I've read that coffee grounds and marigolds repel cats. You may want to start there.

Cornhusker · #14 05/22/10, 08:10 PM

We have a tomcat that was caught breaking an egg today.
He'll be gone tomorrow.

motdaugrnds · #15 05/22/10, 08:56 PM

Imrose, that story about your dog taking you the rooster is very funny. I nearly fell out of my chair. It is so much fun having animals that "think" and know how to help.

When we first settled here, we had no fencing. We were given one rooster and 6 hens. We built a small house; but they had no pen. We would let them out whenever we could and that rooster seemed to know exactly where our boundary was as, when his hens crossed the line, he would go after them. He would do a little dance around them and get them to come back across to our side of the land. It was so funny to watch. (The only thing I can think of that would give him any idea as to our boundary line was the way we mowed and weeded the land.)

As for cats eating eggs, I would never put up with that. Since you stated it just recently started, I would wonder what had recently changed for them.

ChristieAcres · #16 05/22/10, 10:06 PM

Since there are occasional cats, dogs, and other "pets" that wander down our driveway, in addition to the wild critters (coyotes...), we have a very protective dog and also an electric mesh fence. We don't lose chickens or eggs. Now, a nearby neighbor, who had chickens, no electric fence, and no protective dog? He lost 16 chickens to an "unattended" dog. That owner was presented with a picture of the dog in action and a bill for almost $300. The dog is now kept tied up. I don't doubt that dog will do it again, the moment he can get away.

There was a feral cat here, unbeknown to us when we moved here. He went for my ankle one day... bye bye cat! After he was gone, we discovered the damage he had done under our home (destroyed some flexible ducts).

I like cats, but not at all a good fit for our homestead. So, I trained our dog to kill mice!

7thswan · #17 05/23/10, 05:45 AM

I guess that's would might be getting the eggs from the 4 free range hens I have. They are older so I put them out to "pasture" and the young ones have the coop. Those confounded cats in the barn cause so much trouble. Atleast we got them out of the pole barn and they have the cow barn now, but if you want to keep them try anything in those eggs. I'm trying to think of things that cats hate ,for you to use? Maybe Oggie knows.

TheMartianChick · #18 05/23/10, 10:02 AM

It sounds as though the cats aren't getting enough to eat... Do you feed them or do they have to live off of what they catch?

Bearfootfarm · #19 05/23/10, 10:12 AM

Quote:

I have witnessed two different ones doing it.

Unless you actually saw them break the eggs, I'd suspect the shells are too thin, and the cats are just taking advantage of already broken eggs
Even my dogs can have a hard time breaking strong egg shell

wyld thang · #20 05/23/10, 10:38 AM

I would give your chickens some oystershell. I agree unless you saw the cats actually breaking the eggs they were just cleaning up. It's most likely your chickens pecking the eggs.

ronbre--I had 7 cats(now 6) and the chickens, the cats could get into the chicken yard and coop if they wanted to. They never bothered the chickens, though I'd see them stalking the chickens when the chickens were out, but it was just playing--they would pop right up out of the grass, the chicken would jump, but that was it. All the cats are hunters too, like rabbits and young possum etc. Also the cats are all pets, not half wild--I think that would make a difference probably.

Something I found out that really works to discipline a cat or make it stop what it's doing is to hiss like a cat and kinda spring forward a bit aggressively. Cats have a pecking order, and hissing is one way they assert dominance. If one of my cats is into something it shouldn't, or they are fighting, they stop and run away if I hiss. It can be in the middle of the night and I hear them rummaging around in the next room, I'll just hiss and they stop and run away. It's gotta be a sharp aggressive hiss, not a leaky tire hiss.