Show me a good old American barn and I bet I can find barn cats there. Some are placed there by the family to keep mice at bay, and some find their own way to a warm cozy barn. If the complete truth was known, some barn cats arrive at barns because litters of kittens are often dropped off at farms when no one is looking, by irresponsible cat owners.
Now that you have the barn, and the barn cats to go with it, how do you care for the outdoor working cat? If you want the barn cats to live a long happy life, care for it much the same as you would an indoor kitty. Barn cats need quality food and a constant supply of fresh water. Even though you may be hoping that the barn cat will be hungry enough to do a job of catching potentially damaging mice, they still need to be fed a diet that will keep them healthy and strong. So what should you plan on when taking care of a barn cat? I put together a list of care requirements for the hard working barn cat.
The Hardworking Barn Cats – Part of Your Barn Crew
1. First and most important, spay or neuter your pet. There are many consequences of having a fertile female or roaming tom cat on your property. In addition to the obvious, unwanted litters of kittens, non neutered cats tend to wander, get in fights, and bring disease back to your barn. Most communities have low cost spay and neuter programs available. Neutering a male barn cats cuts down on the wandering a bit and keeps him closer to home so he can do his job.
2. Vaccinations. Consult a veterinarian for the needed inoculations for your cats. A Rabies shot is a must for all animals and a requirement in many localities. Contact with wildlife puts your cat at higher risk for Rabies and Feline Leukemia in addition to other deadly diseases.
Hard Working Barn Cats Need Nutritious Food
3. Nutrition. Did you know that cats are true carnivores? This means they need to get their nutrition from meat. Cats need protein. Cat food is higher in protein and fat, than dog food. Feed your cat a good quality cat food and your cat will perform better and remain healthier, with less allergies and less skin problems. No matter what you hear, cats do not thrive on catching mice alone. They still need proper nutrition provided for them.
Try to give the cats a place to eat where the other animals won’t bother them. Our barn cats have to eat on a shelf, overlooking the goats pen, because the goats will eat the cat food if given a chance. Also, raccoon and other wildlife will be attracted to cat food so you may get some unwanted dinner guest. And most important- plenty of fresh clean water!
4. Breakaway collar or no collar. Outdoor animals run into the risk of catching their collar on branches or other objects. Breakaway collars are designed to break under pressure, so the animal is not injured. Other, more costly alternatives would be micro chip or tattoo ID marking.
Be Observant
5 Get to know your cat and its habits. Just as you get to know if your house pet is feeling poorly, knowing your barn cat’s personality and habits can go a long way to ward off a problem as soon as it starts. If your cat normally greets you in the morning, it may ring alarm bells when the cat doesn’t show up for breakfast. If your cat likes to crawl into hiding places, it may get locked in a shed or worse, driven away by an unsuspecting visitor. One time our cat ended up in the next state by accidentally hitching a ride with the equine dentist.
After looking the whole day and calling neighbors, I remembered that the dentist and the vet had both been to our farm the day Tigger disappeared. After calling and leaving a message with both parties, we heard back that Tigger had been found in the cargo area of the dentist’s truck by his wife. The story had a happy ending but if I had not called, we may not have gotten Tigger back. You see, I recalled that he liked to get into cars when people left the windows open. Knowing his habits and behavior helped us have a happy ending.
A Place to Sleep
6. Shelter– Presuming that your barn kitty has a barn to take shelter in, this would be sufficient shelter from weather, If there is no building for the cat to go in, please consider providing somewhere out of the wind and rain for the cat to snuggle into during extremes in weather.
All of our barn cats have been treated as hard working members of the barn family. They have a job and do it well. They greet us first thing in the morning to let us know that every thing is ok. Don’t you just love it when they bring you the spoils of the hunt? Just kidding. At least we know that they are earning their keep!
For more on this topic you may enjoy Pasture Deficit Disorder’s Kitten Fort.
or Bringing a Barn Cat to the Homestead from 104Homestead.
Great piece and I LOVE all the kitty photos!
Does anyone have suggestions on how I can get my adult female to return to her barn after I introduced two kittens to the barn? They are really sweet and don’t torment her, but she is now refusing to sleep in her big barn. Winter is coming and I’m worried!
HI Betty That is a concern. I don’t have any ideas for you but maybe a local feral rescue would be able to help. Or any type of cat rescue group.
I would suggest you post this same statement / question on:
https://www.facebook.com/meow.village/
This is a non-profit all volunteer group that rescues cats and has a good Barn Cat Relocation Program / mek
We had 3 older female cats living in the farm shop. When we brought in a couple freshly weaned kittens, the old cats disappeared for a couple months. But by late Oct, early Nov in North Dakota they gradually showed up more often as the temps dropped. By the end of winter we had one happy family again.
I keep almost unlimited food available at all times, and fresh water dish topped off every day.
Nice! What a good subject for a post. Great photos, too.
We’ve wondered about whether or not we’d need a cat. I guess my biggest concern is that they would use the garden for a litter box. I’m sorry if this is an ignorant question but we’ve never had cats before ~ just dogs.
If you get a cat, you would be wise to get TWO cats that are older, neutered / spayed and shots. Folks can’t put a kitten in a barn without a Mom and expect them to know how to hunt.
Craigslist often has cats listed for sale / free that fit the bill!
Also, many States have a Barn Cat Relocation Program. If you have a barn and are willing to commit, they will bring you a pair of cats, already vet checked, neutered and shots. / mek
Thanks Mindie and Meredith,
Jenny, we haven’t ever had a problem with the cats destroying the gardens, or noticed them using it as a litter box. Mostly they just like to hang out in there with us and I sometimes find the cat lying under a leafy squash plant in the shade. Our dog actually does more damage to the garden if allowed to enter because his big feet don’t know where to step! We have had to train him to wait to be invited into the garden area. This being said, cats are , well cats, and they have their own preferences. Most of ours have been very good, clean, and helpful to our farm
Really great tips! And I love all the photos. Such cute kitties!
Visiting from the HomeAcre Hop 🙂
Tammy
ourneckofthewoods.net
Great tips for the care of our devoted barn cats! Great pics too 🙂
Tammy thank you for hopping over from the homestead acre blog hop!
Sugar Cookies to Peterbuilts- interesting name! I bet there is a story behind it.
Spay and neuter, best advis! The second year at my new farm, never having experience with feral and abandoned cats I had 3 females with 3/4 kittens each. I finally caught them all and took them to no kill shelter to find out they were full, our cats were not special enough for them to keep and I should bring them back each week till they could take them. Ha! Never caught them again. The next year I caught a few, my vets office told me about a low priced clinic, got a few adopted, but 2 years later I had 23 cats. I got all but 5 of the most reclusive fixed, a few died or disappeared but next year there were 20 more kittens. It is more.that $30.00 a week to.feed them, I made a concerted effort to fix all, only 1 female was not caught, she had a litter but I think they left or coyotes got them because I have never seen them. I cannot tell you how much this costs me, I feel responsible for these lovely beings, many of.which come and go in house, sheds, barn and roam my 10.acres. I could strangle my neighbouring community for being so thoughtless and uncaring. Please neuter your pets!
Roberta, you experience is a perfect example of why we need to be responsible about spaying and neutering. So many people think that because you have property, they can drop off and abandon their unwanted cats and kittens for you. I have a friend that is going through exactly what you described. It is costing her a fortune. Thanks for commenting. Wish I had a solution for you.
It’s great that you take such good care of your barn cats. So many people don’t. I grew up on a farm and we had animals dropped off all the time. Makes me mad when people do that 🙁
Thanks so much for sharing this on The HomeAcre Hop!!!
Thanks for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop!!Great info to share 🙂
Thanks Lisa Lyn! Appreciate the comment!
Just wanted to let you know that this post is featured on The HomeAcre Hop this week! Congrats!
Excellent post!
Thanks for educating people about s/n and actually FEEDING barn cats. Come visit my barn buddies when you have a chance: http://www.tailgait.blogspot.com
Wonderful post Janet! I enjoyed reading your story and helpful information. Love your photos (and your cats)! ~Katie
OMG! I love your post, and the pictures are beautiful! I’ve always had indoor cats, but when we moved to Magnolia Holler, a barn cat came with the house! (She had a litter and 2 more showed up, so now we have 8 in our happy feline family!) Gaining their trust was the hardest, and took the longest.
@magnolia Holler, thanks for visiting and leaving a great comment. I hope you are enjoying living the homestead life! I hope you will check back soon!- Janet
My wife and I just purchased some property with a barn on it (Machine shop). I got it cleaned up and safe and we decided to get a couple of barn cats to keep the rodents at bay (lots of “evidence” of their infestation). We found a group here that places ferral cats with people looking for barn cats. The have them spayed or neutered, checked for diseased, give them the necessary shots and notch their ear. All of this is done by volunteer vets and the cats come to you at no cost. The only requirements they have are that you agree to provide food, water, shelter and continuing vet care as it’s required. After doing some more checking it looks like there are simular groups in other states. We liked this option because these cats are unadoptable and would have been distroyed and since they were born and raised in the wild they won’t have to relearn how to live outside of a house. If you’re concidering getting barn cats I’d recommend you look for a group in your area like this one. (The group providing the cats for us is : (Missouri Barn Cats) http://www.missouribarncat.org/
Thanks Mike. Many states are beginning programs like this to give the homeless and feral cats a home
What a great post! I volunteer with Dane County Friends of Ferals, in Madison, WI. We work to reduce the pet overpopulation problem in southern Wisconsin by offering a monthly low-cost spayathon for outdoor cats. We also take any and all cats the local humane society labels “feral” and spay/neuter, vaccinate, and rehome them. Many decide to become pampered housecats but we also seek out safe rural or barn homes for the dedicated mousers. Our outdoor cat adoption fee is only $20 per cat and we provide guidance like your information above. We recommend keeping the cats contained in the barn or other shelter for the first 3-4 weeks with regular feedings so they are less likely to leave when released. Some of our “barn” cats have moved right into the house after all, including one who was adopted by the family dog 🙂 Thanks for the great post.
Jennifer THank you . I loved reading your comment and all that you have done to work with the feral cat population. Keep up the great work.
We have three beautiful barn cats abandoned by Mama cat who came to our secluded 45 acres. Mama was a very friendly female who was lactating that came to visit us. We had her spayed, but her little ones were always hiding. Trapping the youngsters was quite a task, but all three were “fixed” and vaccinated. Then mama disappeared, and I am pretty sure she now lives down the road. So Dexter, Lucifer and Princess of Darkness have remained in our barn, with daily feeding and cat boxes for shelter filled with an old sheepskin parts. They have become friendly and loving members of our family, but they guard and defend our barn from roaming cats that drift in.
Pat, it sounds like the kitties have a fabulous new home at your place! Our best cats “found” us.
I purchasing an old farmstead, and now 6 years later I have 23 cats…all but 6 are spayed /neutered because I have yet been clever enough to trap them!
Someone…dropped off two Mamacat’s and 6 kittens with feline herpes and although I have been giving them the medications from the vet I noticed that a few of my older barncats are now showing symptoms. such as runny eyes and congested noses.
I was wondering if others have had this problem and if you had any suggestions, I love all the cats they are happy and otherwise healthy
I live in the New England area. Three kittens were born on our pool shed. The mom eventually abandoned her kittens and even hisses at them whenever she’s around. The kittens are about 4 months old and love playing and running outside. We bring them inside here and there for a couple minutes to have them get used to people and being indoors. You can’t go up to them they have to go up to you. Two of the three do like to be pet. We feel these kittens would be best in a farm because they love roaming and running outside and playing. I’m looking a nice family to take them in on a farm and to make sure they keep and stay warm in the winter. These cats love one another and ways stick together. If you know a good and friendly home for these kittens to live on a farm please email me. I want them to have the best cafe they need. We are getting them there shots and everything to make it easier to find them a home.
we have just been accepted into Forgotten Cat’s which is a local no kill rescue for five Barn Cat’s
We were researching barn & feral cat’s and came upon Your website which we found very helpful. Our biggest fear is losing any of the Cat’s so any advice how to keep the Cats from running away would be deeply appreciated. Thank You, Cedarville, N.J.
Barbara and Tom, what great news. I am so glad that communities have realized that these unwanted cats can have a great future as barn helpers.
My only advice to you would be, after you follow the protocol of keeping the cats in crates for the first week or two, when you let them out, do it in a room if possible. For example the feed room, or a barn office room, even an enclosed stall would help. Then maybe they won’t just bolt and run off. The food, served regularly should encourage them to stick around. good luck. I would love an update on your progress. garmanjanet@gmail.com – Janet
Janet : so sorry for the late reply. Since taking in our “Babies” we could not be happier. Sadly we lost one “Spazz” who fell victim to a Eagle attack. Spazz was one of God”s greatest creations when it came to being a cute and adorable Kitty. Spazz had a bad habit of going where He should not go. I rescued Him from a tree after He was chased there by a couple of coyotes and had several other encounters with predators. Two of our Cat’s have moved inside, one “Buddy Clovis” is all personality and He goes out weather permitting from early morning to late afternoon after dinner he makes his way to ur bed where he enjoys sleeping with us till the next day. the other Binky Bells came in after being in a fight with something and had nasty wounds that required my attention. Binky Bells now refuses to go out and is a happy indoor Kitty.
Patches & Sly Sly are bother and Sister and are always near each other, they reside in our barn. To show You how much we love our BarnCats my Wife Barbara had me install heat and air conditioning for our outside ?? Cat’s they also have filtered cold water vis a fountain for warm weather and heated bowls for colder tempts. Today Patches rewarded me with a muskrat She must have caught from our lake She placed it right at the from door making sure my Wife Barbara would scream upon seeing the dead rat.
In addition to Patches and Sly Sly we somehow became parents for three more feral Cats that moved into our barn and made themselves quite comfortable. After three months of feeding the feral I can now pick them up and pet them for short periods of time. I’m a former k9 trainer and handler and we have two German Shepherds and one Border Collie and its amazing to see how the Dog’s and Cat’s get along. We had chance to watch two vultures trying to get to some food I put out, Patches and SlySly and the other ferals were not about to share the food with the vultures and a fight for the food began. As soon as our Shepherds heard the fight they came to the Cat’s defense taking out one nasty vulture and driving away the other missing a lot of feathers. We could not be happier with our Barn Cat’s
I have a question. I’m debating taking in some feral cats to live in my pole barn. Right now there is no way for them to enter and exit when they please. I would provide food and water for them. I am not interested in the additional work of scooping a litter box for outdoor cats. Any suggestions on providing them a place to do their business and keeping a sanitary barn with minimal work?
Thank you!
Hi Tiffany Not sure if I completely understand the question. You are thinking about having barn cats but keeping them inside the barn all the time? If that is your plan, I don’t know how you could avoid the litter box issue and keep things sanitary. Maybe I am just not thinking outside the box enough but I think it’s either/or situation. If you keep them in, you would need to clean up after them. Good luck
Tiffany, I put a litter box in the our Barn two years ago and it has never been used, The Barn Cat’s prefer using the Great Outdoors as their bathroom, in these two years Ive never seen any of our cat’s go to the bathroom nor has there been any sign such as dug out holes then covered up that Ive seen. Cats are very very clean.
This is a very nice post!
Bought a stable,came with 10 barn cats. Got them used to me feeding them supper in a stall ,for a month.Then dressed in double pants ,triple shirts,heavy work gloves a scarf and knitted toque. Got together some gunny sacks,a welding glove ,and made some rabbit hutches.One day at feeding time i had my wife close the stable door on me and the cats.Picture 10 wild cats hanging off the stable door,hee hee. I caught all the cats fairly quickly because they could not bite through the welding glove,but the big black male was another level.He got under the workbench and up in the wall.I had to get Hulky and rip off the planks by hand to get at him.Man could he bite,right through the welding glove.I didn’t let go just squeezed a little more till he opened his mouth and let go so’s i could stuff him in a gunny sack.Then all cat were caught ,gave the wife the ok to open the door ,and into the rabbit hutches.The vet could only take a few at a time,but in the end walked me out to my car with his arm around me and said,not many people would have done that for barn cats, thanks.We have lived here 30 years and done this a few times.If you don’t have the strength for the job ,deligate,hire someone.We had the cats fixed and i brought them all back to continue ratting out here amongst the chicken farms and turkey ranches.Where rats love to live.
loved your story and we wish there were more people like You the take the time and effort and expense to neuter the feral cats
Excellent information and reminders. When I was young, our barn cats were a very important part of keeping the rodents out of the hay and feed. I agree that it is important to take care of them.
Back in the early 90s, we lived on 160 acres with kids, horses, mules, dogs, cats and occasionally a few goats. When we first moved there, we went to buy a tractor, came home with a tractor and 2 free kittens. Both kittens grew to be beautiful cats and the local lothario visited. They each had a litter of 6 kittens. So we went from 2 to 14 cats. We had the Vet give all their shots, the kids each picked out a kitten to keep, took the rest to the local sale barn and gave them away. Both Mamas were spayed and with those 4 cats, we never had a mouse. Loved those cats.
I would like to know what time of day is better to feed the barn cats so that they will get their nutrition but do their hunting.
I haven’t noticed that it makes a difference
very useful article
The very friendly barn cat showed up last summer. We all (3 families) liked her and she would hang out and play and made her home in one of the two barns. She was friendly to the chickens and stalked mice, barn swallows and an occasional squirrel. Winter came, I was worried, and bought all kinds of things but she was fine. I do have a heated water and food bowl on the landing of my stairwell. At the bottom, I have put a cat door. Here’s the issue- I have started letting her in-it’s still cold out. I’m not ready to do a cat litter box and sometimes I go away for several weeks and she takes care of herself fine (leave a lot of kibble just in case). In fact she was fine before I started feeding her. Anyway, she really likes the warmth in here. Last night I let her sleep in the house. She didn’t poop but she peed on my boot.Obviously, she wants to come in more and more and I feel guilty by putting her out the door (where she eats) and saying goodnight. But she has been doing this for almost a year! So what to do? I plan on having her spayed and shots and all but she is happy outside; perhaps not as happy after finding out she could fall asleep in my arms or next to the radiator. I have watched her outside, She is happy, not fearful. I can’t put a cat door in the upstairs door (landlord) so is there a way to keep her going to the bathroom outside? And also how to tell if she has to go? The dog tells me. I also worry about her going from the hay barn “climate” to the “indoor” climate- that it may not be helping her. Please help.
Hi Janet,
I need expert help with a situation involving barn cats. There is a farmer nearby that is about 73 years old, and recently sold all his farmland, and still has a barn which has about 25 barn cats in it. He does not neuter/spay the cats, so they keep giving birth to kittens . He does not get them vaccinated and rarely puts out food and water. The cats are suffering and dying. My Mom, who is also in her 70’s has volunteered for the past 2 years to bring them food and water about 2-3 times a week, so they have been ok, but about 3 weeks ago, the farmer saw her there feeding the cats and told her to no longer come to the barn. We have been to the barn and there are dead cats, and no food or water. I guess if we go on his property we are trespassing. One particular cat that had a problem with her jaw and swallowing, who was also pregnant, my Mom had been caring for for 2 years, was laying on the barn floor dead 2 days ago. Her kittens that she had been nursing in a different location were also dead. Please help us.
Responded to you via email. I suggest looking for a trap neuter and release organization in your area.