# Barn Cats and Dogs



## whitetrashwarmblood (Aug 24, 2008)

We have tons of barn cats, but you have to get them spayed/neutered or else they WILL wonder off. We got all of our cats from ads in the newspaper saying 'FREE cats/kittens'. We have a heated office that they can stay in at night, but only one of our cats actually will come to the office at night, the others usually hang in the hayloft. We do have a kitty door that's connected to the restroom door, which is also heated. I'm sure the cats that don't go in the office will go in there at some point during the night. We have water and dry food that we leave in the office and restroom for them. Don't leave cat food it out in the barn. We found out the hard way it doesn't only attract cats. 

We haven't had a barn dog for years, but Ralph, our old rottweiler/german shepard/wolf/mastiff/whatever who wouldn't hurt a fly, did scare off MANY people. So maybe choosing a unscary dog breed would be an idea if you have a lot of people coming in and out. But then again if you want to make sure unwanted people stay out of the barn it might be good idea. Ralph never chased the horses, he thought sleeping in the very first stall was just fine. He stayed at the manager's house at night which was onsite.

I'll try and get a pic of Ozzy soon (the cat who comes in the office at night).


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## NicoleS11 (Nov 21, 2008)

we have 3 barn cats. The "momma" cat then her 2 babies that she came with. They dont have names. The one will some times come up to me but we have NO more pest problems. We have huge bags of grain and they would always chew through the bag and we would find dead mice in our grain all the time. We also live in an area were there are lots of coyotes. So we have 2 big white dogs that came together that live out in the fields with the horses and cows. One of the dogs is a 3 lagged dog. She got stepped on by one of the horses. Then we went and got pins put in her feet adn we tried to keep her inside but it just didnt happend so it ended up getting gang green and so it had to be taken off. Sad becuase she used to love running full out back and forth from field to field checking on the horses and cows. But she gets around good. lol


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## starlinestables (Nov 24, 2008)

Should I have a litter box for out door kitties? Where should it be kept? Thats another thing.. where to keep food so rodents and bugs don't get to it?


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## shmurmer4 (Dec 27, 2008)

they normally show up as strays and such here.


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## MINIATURE SHETLANDS (Nov 26, 2008)

The cat and kitten fairy dropps them off at my house in the middle of the night. I go out to feed in the morning and as I count heads sometime we have one more. So I try to get them spayed and neutered then find homes for them so that I don't wind up with more than I can handle. It cost me a bundle every year being "given" someones unwanted cat to spay/neuter and get the shots for, but I do not complain and enjoy being able to find them good homes. If you were closer you could have your pick. LOL I am thinking about getting a litter box for the outside cats, getting tired of them going where they should not.


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## english_rider144 (Sep 12, 2008)

well at my barn we have 1 cat. Her name is Inky and shes a fat little thing. Climbs the rafters and above the stalls. Make sure there spayed/nutered. We leave her food in the blacksmith crossties and she sleeps in her little heated kitty bed lol.

At the one stable I rode at they had a dog. It was some type of pointer. He was hyper as anything and would find anything for you to play with. I would come in and he'd sit there wagging his tail and carrying around a ball.


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## whitetrashwarmblood (Aug 24, 2008)

starlinestables said:


> Should I have a litter box for out door kitties? Where should it be kept? Thats another thing.. where to keep food so rodents and bugs don't get to it?



We don't have a litter box outside, but we do have one in the office if they stay in there at night. I've seen them use our indoor arena and some of the stalls as their litter box. lol
We keep our cat food next to the office door during the day, and bring it in at night. But like I said in my previous post we also keep cat food in our office and restroom(has kitty door for them to come in and out). I've also noticed that if we provide too much food that they give up the whole 'catch birds and mice thing' so we only leave the dry food out at night. We let them in at night if they wish, but if they want to stay out they have to catch their own food.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

Cats? We have a few adults cats at the barn that live in the barn and they have kittens every once in a while but as for the dogs? the ones we have were either full grown dogs already and they were just trained on a leash then left free to roam as they got used to the barn (2 chiwawas, spelling??)and the third dog arrived as puppy. She is a golden retriever. Not sure how they had her adjust to the barn but she is really good and watches the property.


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## KANSAS_TWISTER (Feb 23, 2007)

we have 2 barn kitties...well1 barn kitty......i think we have the hot spot for mice because our nieghbours cat pink cames to hunt at our barn every chance he has, boots (our barn kitty) has been with us for about 2 years now...but yes some times the magic kitty fairy comes and visits us at night too!!!! been thinking of making daisy the house cat in to a barn cat.......she keeps brining her "catch" in to our bed.


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## Angel_Leaguer (Jun 13, 2008)

Where I board there is three cats. two of them Stacy found on the side of the road... looked like they were dumped since there was kittens that had been ran over. So she brought them back and had them fixed. They tend to use the arena for the litter box so that isnt a problem. Also we dont feed them tons of food. Enough to keep them from starving but it gets them to hunt more... and it works. They have good bellies on them so dont think they are starving, also they either lay in the hay or on a blanket we have sitting out. The winter coats on them are really thick and the cold weather doesnt seem to bother them.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

I'm not sure how many barn cats I have at the moment, 2 for sure sometimes more. I can't catch any of them, they just come to eat and sleep. I have a small opening in my barn, just big enough for a cat to get through. I've been feeding them for maybe 10 years, out of the 15-20 cats that have been out there, only 2-3 have been friendly enough to pet. 
I don't keep a litter box and I never go looking for cats. They get dumped or they just show up feral and I feed them. I have no mice in my feed barn and if they leave my chickens alone they are welcome to stay.


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## 1dog3cats17rodents (Dec 7, 2007)

I posted on Craigslist asking for already speutered cats for my BO. The mice were everywhere, and so tame they'd stop to say hi after you shook four of them out of the blankets sitting there for 5 minutes. You wouldn't BELIEVE how many ads I got for "declawed indoor cat who needs to go. He/she's never been outside, but it loves to chase toy mice so it's be a great hunter" :shock: I mean really!

In the end we got two great girlies who can go in/out of the heated tack room whenever they want (w/ dry food and a litterbox) They are great hunters and very sweet, but you can NEVER let Boz in to the bathroom, she doesn't understand that potty time is private time:lol:

Boz









Chloe


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

1dog3cats17rodents said:


> The mice were everywhere, and so tame they'd stop to say hi after you shook four of them out of the blankets sitting there for 5 minutes.


Ha ha How funny! Before I started collecting cats I would get spooked by mice when picking up empty feed sacks . Now I get sleepy kitty's in them.


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## Fancy Girl Haflinger (Jan 7, 2009)

*my barn has two barn cats and a barn dog one cat is a stray the ohter is i think got in a free kittens adds in a newspaper. Then we have a beagle.*


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## ElDorado (Nov 14, 2008)

The barn cats we have are the animal shelter rejects. We pick the ones that nobody wanted or were returned because they didn't do well indoors. A couple of them are anti social and hide in the rafters all day but most of them get real friendly after a while. We feed them out of a big tray that they share with the chickens and the dog. The dog is a border collie. He likes to work all the time. He thinks he's rounding up all the horses but they ignore him.


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## shmurmer4 (Dec 27, 2008)

my puppy will be big enough to deserve his own barn space


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