Help - Cats Eating Chicken Eggs!

I think I would feed the cats farther away. Also crack some eggs over the food for a while. Maybe ween them off em.

I bet you dollars to doughnuts it is your chickens eating the eggs!

I tried filling 2 eggs with mustard with no effect.

I tried setting a 5 gallon bucket on its side and that HAS worked.....assuming they lay in the bucket and they don't, always. On the GOOD side I now have a dozen eggs in the fridge!

NEXT thing I will do is to set out golf balls. They LOOK like eggs but there is no payoff!!!!!!!

Don't know that I would give them raw eggs it may give them a liking for it. I feed a few strays that turned up, twice a day like all the rest of my critters, and so far no damage to the livestock or eggs. Just keep their belly's full and they won't need to eat the eggs. Mice on the other hand they will go for just out of curiosity. You don't need to 1/2 starve the cat to deter mice.

In the summer, our chickens are in a secure "tractor" but in winter, they live in a hoop house that is very accessible by our 2 barn cats. One will politely nap in there because it's so warm but the other does eat eggs. He opens them himself by biting into them after he's pushed them into a corner. I have seen it happen more than once. He is a very well fed cat. He is the last of 3 adult rescues I brought home and the only reason he's still here is that my DH likes him more than he likes eggs. I won't cry salty tears when he leaves and at his age, I hope it won't be that long.

Incidentally, he spends his winter days in a cage in the barn with food and water because he will make a beeline to the hoop house from that barn. He was stupid enough to open and eat an egg I had brought to the barn from the hoop house while I was right there to see him.

Why not install nests that open from the outside? Put a few golf balls inside to encourage the birds to lay eggs in a real "nest". Eggs roll towards the back where nothing can get to them. You gather the eggs and no critters even see them.

I find it very unlikely that cats are breaking and eating the eggs.

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My cats aren't able to crack the egg without help. But when I saw one pick up the egg out of the box I'd set it in (amazed they could get their mouth around it) take it to the edge of the table and let go, I knew for sure they were doing it.

It is unsual to have a cat that figures out how to get inside an egg, I've had way more problems with hens eating eggs than cats, and the cats I've had over the years have always had access to eggs, and I routinly feed them extras so they all know they are edible.

If it bothers you, I'd cull the offenders as it is not a common thing for the average cat to do.

Cathy

My cats don't bother the eggs, the hens lay them in boxes off the ground. I've never seen them eat anything chicken-related. The hens pursue the cats and keep them in line. LOL. I feed my barn cats, everyday and they do not go hungry, and they mouse like crazy (moles, mice, snakes, etc.)
I'd look at if you are feeding your cats enough protein.

Honestly, we would get rid of the cats. I will leave it up to you to find an answer to your own cat removal issues. But they would be gone if it were me.

I do use the green hot sauce (extra hot) to deter the dog from chewing on things. It only took a couple of times on the hose, phone wire, patio furniture, etc, and the dog leaves it alone. We show it to him when we bring it out now, let him smell it, and drip a few drops on anything we want him to leave alone. He doesn't chew on anything he can smell the hobenero sauce on. And he weighs well over 100lbs, so yes, it will stop chewing. Cats are much smaller than LGDs.

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I just read the answers and found out you haven't seen the cats actually eating them. If not, then I agree it is the hens. Hens can become terrible egg eaters if you don't gather them quickly enough. Also add some oyster shell calcium to their feed to help. Sometimes you just have to start with new hens or change your nest boxes so they tilt and the eggs roll out of the hens reach. Good luck.

I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.
I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.
I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.
I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.
I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.
I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.

He did not push it off onto the barn floor to break it then eat the "treat."
He did not wait until a hen broke it then he got the "inside."

I have seen my cat break and eat eggs.

Please refer to post #24 for a description of how he did it.
Written tongue in cheek so don't get your feathers ruffled or drop your egg basket. Cats will surely come from the woodwork to clean them up.

LOL! So let me get this straight have you ever actually seen your cats eat eggs MOgal?

I haven't had chickens yet (but may have found a free coop today, yay!), but we've had lots of cats. The late, great "Peter" was a kitten and then a brazen young cat when I lived in a little city apartment. He loved bread - cheap white bread. Go figure. I wired the cabinet door shut and he managed to undo it while I was at work. He ate the bread and threw it up on the carpet. Bad kitty! I can't remember now what I finally did to keep it safe from him, but I did manage somehow. He was so spoiled and seemed helpless; turned out he was a fabulous mouser when he got the chance.

Hoping for a satisfactory solution to your problem. Not that I have a vote - you know what's best for your situation - but if I did I would vote that if you decide they have to go, give them a quick, painless death yourself before you let them linger in an animal shelter.

Bless you, Patt, me darlin'! Yes, I've seen that rotten old cat break and eat eggs. He also gives the other barn cat a hard time, hissing, trying to run the nice cat off his feed dish as in Rotten Cat leaves his own dish some 10 FEET away to bother Nice Cat. Actually, DH is away on business this week. It might be a good time for Rotten Cat to find a new home.

One of the OTHER 3 rescues (NOT the egg breaker/eater) would chase the ADULT hens until one old broody hen taught him a lesson. Chicks artificially hatched and brooded were fair game with that other cat. He never got one but it wasn't for lack of trying. He didn't last long here. I didn't want to bring up that subject previously since I'd probably be told it was one of the dogs harassing the hens. I tend to trust my own eyes.

Thanks for seeing that while I was trying to get my message across, I was also trying to show a little levity in doing it. Glad I could give you a laugh.

A shelter isn't an option for me, MANY LETTERS, unless it's the private, no kill shelter from which the 3 rescues came. I've held my dogs, cats and goats when euthanasia was the only option and even took a cat in for a friend who realized the necessity for her sick very old pet but who couldn't deal with it herself. My vet looked at the cat for a minute then commented that he didn't remember ever having treated him before. When I explained that I was doing it for a woman I knew, he looked dumbstruck for a second and made a some comment about the quality of friend I was to her. Wasn't even my cat but I cried almost as hard as if he were.

I just wanted to clarify a few things, even though I have pretty much decided that I am going to find new homes for the cats involved.

It is definately the cats breaking open the eggs. I have witnessed it two separate times. The first time one egg was in a nest and I was busy and didn't pick it up right away. I turned around for five minutes to clean up something and heard some crunching and there were two cats fighting over a broken open egg. The egg was in fine shape right before and no hens or any other animals in sight.

They bite them open and the shells ARE hard shells. Harder than grocery store egg shells. These three cats I have only had for a year and are the only cats I have ever seen breaking open eggs in the seven years I have had both cats and chickens. I think an accident happened where they must have been playing around with it an accidentally broke one open. Now they are addicted I guess.

I also free feed them cat food. They have 24/7 access to cat food as I keep their bowl filled up. I am an over indulgent mom with them I guess as far as cat food goes, but taking eggs goes way too far.

Thank you everyone for your comments and insights.

I have a zillion cats and some sleep in the coop. If any cat here bothered a chicken or an egg I wouldnt think twice about getting out the gun.
They have cat food available all the time here and field mice and voles galore.

No toleration here for bad cats or bad dogs or any bad critters.

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The cats are blessed you take such care. Man, felines can be so stubborn!