OT--Pole Barn / Cat Access

I have a pole barn, with a lean-to shed on the side, which is covered with metal. I like to have cats around for the mice, but not the other critters that are getting in. I have unscrewed a panel section and it is being propped open 4 inches or so with a piece of wood so the cats have free access. The only problem is that something else ( raccoons, fox, opossum, coyote… just not sure) is getting in also and eliminating the cats.

I figure the cats go out looking for females and find a new home or get captured by coyotes out in the woods, so sometimes we loose one.. The other day I found two half eaten rabbits hidden behind some stuff in the barn. I figured the rabbits accidentally found their way in and the cats got em’. Today I find a little fur and a toe of my boy’s favorite cat in a hollowed out section in the bottom of the square bales of hay. Something had made a 1ft x 1 ½ft hole in the hay and had a snack. Would not have even noticed it but the hay was spread around everywhere on the concrete floor behind the hay stack. Tore all of the hay down, but did not find anything else.

The other day the two dogs (half black lab, half collies) killed a raccoon the size of a small beagle, probably 20-25 pounds or more. It must have been a heck of a fight as they were tore up some on their noses. The dogs are sisters and know how to tag team a good fight.

I thought that was the culprit responsible for eliminating the cat food. Since the last 4 days of single digit temperatures and blowing snow I noticed the cats were eating an awful lot of cat food, but now I guess we had another visitor snuggled up in the hay.

The little boy, his sister and the wife are heartbroken. I’ll go out and get some sardines tomorrow and clean up the old Nitro Hunter and charge the spot light. Does anyone have a suggestion for a cat access into and out of the barn that will foil the other critters?

maybe something higher like a open window...cats jump...coons and possums dont.

i got a feeling you got something meaner in hay stack...have never lost a cat to a coon or possum here.

Fishers have been known to snack on the odd cat... Have any of them around?

AARON

The cats in my barn are getting into my milkhouse through the hose port for the bulktank I don"t know how they learned how to lift the lid to get in but they do. Check at your local milk plant I"m sure they would sell you one or have an old one they would give you.

No Fishers around here. I had to look them up to even find out what you were talking about.

BCnT what "something meaner" would you be referring to? Someone suggested a mink, but we live 2 miles from the lake or any streams.

I was wondering myself, can a coyote catch a cat? Maybe in deep snow or something. But I was thinking about that the other day.

We have a terrible time with coons getting into the cat food and killing cats if they can corner them.
We also lose the good hunters that get out in the fields to coyotes.

I have live trapped more than 200 coons in the last 3 years. Our cat killing ended when I caught an old rouge coon that was too crippled to hunt normal game. Lost a 2 month old kitten to a coon or skunk this fall.

i feed my cats on a table on front porch...killed plenty of coons and possums rite there and cats just move over and lettem eat...i lose my roamers to coyotes and red tail hawks and occasional snake bite.

I'm pretty sure a cat can fit through a smaller opening than a raccoon. You might tighten up the hole. And keep the cat food in a secure lockup and only put out what the kitties will eat up right away. Lots of animals including mice like pet food.

Coyotes will clean out the feral cat population,don't have any problem catching them as most Coyotes run in packs especially in the Winter

I seem to remember seeing a hi-tek cat door that was activated by some sort of device on a collar. No collar, no open. Of course, if you have a lot of cats that could get expensive, and some people, (and cats), seem to have a problem with the whole idea of cat collars.

My sister had a cat door that could be locked, if you had one of those and locked it at night, it might keep out most of the unwanted visitors.

One time for a group project in a marketing class in college we had to work out a marketing plan for a new product. The group I was in came up with a pet door with a high tech electonic opener that captured the individual pet's voice and responded only to that pet.

Our objective was the marketing plan, we didn't have to actually design the product. I always thought it was an interesting idea.

you could make an access up off the ground with a little bit of a jump for the cats to get to the opening. that will deter a few of the undesirable critters. as far as what is getting them we had a problem years ago with cats disappearing, lost some good mousers. mom fed the barn cats by the chicken coop. one day in the middle of the afternoon, she was feeding the cats when a skunk came out from under the chicken coop and killed one of the cats. wouldnt of believed it if i didnt see it myself. dispatched the skunk with the 12 ga. may want to try and sprinkle some flour around and see what kind of animal tracks are in the barn.

I have heard that a mouse eating dog food (do not know about cat) will be immune to most mouse posion due to some chemical in the dog food.

Sounds like a good place for a live trap. You might have a few cat spend the night in it at first, but other than ticking them off, they wont be harmed. After you kill off the racoons, skunks and possums, things should settle down.

I too think an opening maybe 3' high would help. Make a little wooden shelf under it. A cat will jump up and go on it. Most varmits wont make the jump.

Gene

Always wondered about good ideas and teachers. My wife wrote a story in college which impressed the instructor and over the years a couple movies have been made off of that theme.
So it looks like to patent or copy write stuff when you go to college.

I had never heard that. But I was always taught that a mouse would eat the best food available first. And as either cat or dog food would be higher protein than mouse poison he would refuse the poison. So I'll stick by my opinion that you don't want pet food available to rodents. Keep it cleaned up. That cat or dog don't need to be snacking all hours of the day and night.

It may sound like some work, but after loosing 4 good cats to "night critters", we have been shutting the cats into a room in the barn at night with food and water. If we're going to be aaway for more than a few hours, we add a litter pan. No other critters get access to that room.
It takes the cats a few days to get used to bing "shut-in" like chickens every evening - -then they look forward to the food and security, especially on cold nights.
I couln't make my kids stand loosing more pets without giving it a hard effort

Depending on where you are, badgers will eat a cat. They are usually nocturnal, but I saw one running across the field during the day carrying one in it"s mouth. They also like to burrow, and could easily fit into your pole barn.

I put 'em in the garage at night. Just leave the door open and the light on awhile and call out and they come running quick. The leaving them in the barn at night wasn't working. They're outside all day but it didn't take much to train them that their food was in the garage at night. Plus its warmer for them. They hunt mice during the day because they can't just eat their food until the night.

Here in Southern Michigan there are 3 kinds of animals we could well do without, deer, raccoons and coyotes. We should have "open season" on all of them IMHO then bring back the pheasants, ducks, cottontail rabbits and fox squirrels we used to enjoy hunting. Sorry Bambi, but you belong up north in the wilds, not down here. If we want to hunt you, we and all the city boys, can go up north and enjoy hunting you like we used to.