Stacykins
Overrun with beasties
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2011
- Messages
- 476
- Reaction score
- 8
- Points
- 76
I've never kept a barn cat, so this is new territory for me.
Though all feed is kept in metal bins, I am noticing mice and mouse droppings around. Traps work, sometimes. I am never going to put down poison, so that won't be a method of control.
I am bringing home a kitten August 4th, when she is eight weeks old. I already have her booked for her first appointment with the vet to start vaccines, on August 5th.
The plan is to have a spoiled barn cat. She'll eat the same high quality grain free dry food my house cat does, with wet food each day too (better hydration with wet food). She'll be vaccinated, spayed, and microchipped. I may have her ear tipped when she is spayed, if she ever does wander, so people will know she is altered.
She is the daughter of a very good mouser, and currently lives outside with her mother. Hopefully eight weeks is enough time to learn from her mother. Though if it isn't, I will get frozen mice from the pet store (the kind used to feed snakes) offer those as things to play with/whole prey. That way, she can learn the smell of mice, that they are tasty and also good toys.
Part of me worries that she will be so young when she comes home. I am setting up a crate in the barn for her, with litterbox, soft stuff, food, and water. But I almost think at night she will be a bit lonely. It'll be a while I think until she can actually roam. Would it break her of being an outdoor cat if I brought her in for the night while she is still quite young? Then, as she ages, revert back to getting closed into the barn at night (night time is when coyotes are more likely to eat cats, so I'd rather not take that chance)? It could help socialize her to the dogs, and my indoor only cat.
In the picture, she is the one on the right. One girl, two boys. I am told girls are almost always better at mousing. Name will be determined once I pick her up! They're all handled daily, so she won't be feral
Though all feed is kept in metal bins, I am noticing mice and mouse droppings around. Traps work, sometimes. I am never going to put down poison, so that won't be a method of control.
I am bringing home a kitten August 4th, when she is eight weeks old. I already have her booked for her first appointment with the vet to start vaccines, on August 5th.
The plan is to have a spoiled barn cat. She'll eat the same high quality grain free dry food my house cat does, with wet food each day too (better hydration with wet food). She'll be vaccinated, spayed, and microchipped. I may have her ear tipped when she is spayed, if she ever does wander, so people will know she is altered.
She is the daughter of a very good mouser, and currently lives outside with her mother. Hopefully eight weeks is enough time to learn from her mother. Though if it isn't, I will get frozen mice from the pet store (the kind used to feed snakes) offer those as things to play with/whole prey. That way, she can learn the smell of mice, that they are tasty and also good toys.
Part of me worries that she will be so young when she comes home. I am setting up a crate in the barn for her, with litterbox, soft stuff, food, and water. But I almost think at night she will be a bit lonely. It'll be a while I think until she can actually roam. Would it break her of being an outdoor cat if I brought her in for the night while she is still quite young? Then, as she ages, revert back to getting closed into the barn at night (night time is when coyotes are more likely to eat cats, so I'd rather not take that chance)? It could help socialize her to the dogs, and my indoor only cat.
In the picture, she is the one on the right. One girl, two boys. I am told girls are almost always better at mousing. Name will be determined once I pick her up! They're all handled daily, so she won't be feral