Soon I will be moving to a place that has more space (several acres) and adjoins a nature preserve. I’d love to give some feral cats a home in the garage. I have had a house cat before, and while I am not sure I want another house cat I do appreciate cats. There are several organizations by me that specialize in placing cats in outdoor/barn situations. However, the property adjoins a nature preserve of many acres. Of course I have read the facebook posts about how much damage an outdoor cat can do to song birds and other wildlife. In my garage I don’t think I’d have many/any rodents or nuisance critters that the cat would need to dispatch. Without question I’d provide clean water and quality cat food every day. I am sure the cats would still hunt for a hot meal. Thoughts? How do we balance a conundrum like this? On one hand I’d feel good being a placement for 2-3 cats that need a spot. On the other hand I don’t want to infringe on the wildlife that exists already… hmmmm. Thoughts? My guess is there can be discussion on both sides of this situation.
I have several barn cats and don’t find that they kill too much. Every now and then I find the remains of a half-eaten rat, but generally they leave the wildlife alone. I have plenty of songbirds, and there’s a family of rabbits that lives in my huge old rose bush. I often look out the window to see them grazing in the yard, with the cats just watching them like ‘nah, too much work.’ I also keep the barn cats in at night, so the hunting is considerably less than it might be. I have huge dog crates, big enough for a cat bed, a litter box, food dish, and 2-3 kitties, that they go in at night.
That said, I’d be super-leery of having ferals near a nature preserve. If you can adopt outdoor, but not feral, cats, fence in your yard, and keep them in at night, you could mitigate the risks.
This wildlife biologist promises you that there is NO balance between cats & native wildlife other than cat decimation of wildlife. A quick google search will show you many good papers on the astonishing number of animals cats kill every day (hint: like most other things, just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen). Domestic cats don’t just kill for food, it has nothing to do with their hunger level. Instead, enjoy the amazing opportunity of living next to a nature preserve & enjoying all the wildlife there & managing your property to provide even more habitat for animals you then get to watch. I’d check with your state natural resource agency for resources on providing “backyard” habitats & places to learn about how you can help your native species.
ETA – if said cats are actually wholly contained in said garage or other type of pen, with no access to roaming, then of course it is fine to give them a safe place to live out their lives. Just don’t turn cats loose outside.
As well as most often a very painful and grisly death of the cats, especially on a nature preserve or conservation area.
If you don’t have a job that needs to be filled by an outdoor cat, why would you get one? Particularly next to a wildlife reserve? They do kill so many little things. A house cat entirely wiped out a population of endangered birds in…New Zealand, was it? Oh, no. Australia.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/…tralia/595048/
I do have an outdoor cat. He’s out only during the day, he sticks around the barn, and he kills mice. We don’t feed the birds so as not to attract them here. He still grabbed all the barn swallow fledglings that wound up on the ground. 🙠If we didn’t really need his services as a mouser, he would not be outside.
I live on 3.5 acres with a couple of neighbors on same size lots and we are surrounded by essentially a nature preserve- woods, cattle pastures and row crop fields complete with roaming coyote, hawks and bunnies. My outside kitties just do not wander off our place any greater distance than 50’ beyond the fence line, into a yard or pasture.
I have a young male feral cat that has been hanging out around my barn the past 3 months. Based on Game Cam his first stop each night is to see if there is any leftover dry food in my barn cats bowl. He has started picking on my (spayed) girls so the live trap will get set and he’ll go in to be fixed and vaccinated. It’s up to him whether he hangs around or leaves once back here after surgery.
One of my barn cats is a hunter and her efforts have resulted in the Starlings no longer nesting and pooping inside my barn. She also gets mice in the barn. That has a huge value for me and I’m thankful for those outcomes. The other one does not hunt, ever.
Bringing in kitties home to live outside could possibly result in the death of some wildlife. OTOH, you have providing a home to kitties that might otherwise be euthanized so it’s a toss up, unless they turn out to be worthless hunters and instead, love having daily meals served to them. That would be a win, win!!
For years I thought that our outside cats weren’t doing that much damage to the local bird and amphibian populations. After all, I only saw them with the rodents… It has been two years since the last feral cat in the area died the expected feral cat death Type A* (in this case half killed on the road, yes I put it out of its misery when I found it). In the last two years my local bird and amphibian populations have rebounded. Barn Swallows, Phoebes, Oven Birds!!! (ground nesters), and various small warblers that insist on building nests about 2 feet off the ground in shrubs. And toads, we finally have toads back in the gardens.
- Type A: hit by car; B: eaten by coyote; C: rabies/infection; D: killed by something; E: poisoned accidentally or deliberately; F: shot
In other words, it is a trade off. You will reduce to some degree the number of rodents. How far is hard to say. You will also reduce the other wildlife, you just won’t really notice that. You should also be willing to scrape the cat off the highway or the drive when the UPS truck hits it.
My outdoor barn cats have not been that hard on birds. They do bring me dead rats and I no longer have mice in the feedroom and trying to get into the ductwork under the house. They are not really all that interested in toads but I am sorry to say they have decimated my lizard population and I am not happy with that. They have also reduced the vole population that had exploded eating my flower bulbs and other plants. I was happy to see them go. The squirrels and chipmunks have gone by the wayside too.
I have never lost a cat to the road, coyotes, rabies, killed by something, poisoned, shot. But mine are not feral, are fixed, vaccinated, well fed and on flea meds. I also have a pretty good fence here. They can still go out but it dissuades them from leaving and keeps larger predators out.The last 3 that were failing and were put down were about 20 years old as far as I could tell. Two of them were former tom cats and did not do any hunting except for a can opener. I know there is a risk for all these things but I try to keep the risk low. I cannot imagine how many rodents I would be dealing with if they were not here. Because I do not want to deal with poison I think they are the lessor of two evils.
Thank you, everyone. I can see it is an issue with two sides, for sure. I am going to enjoy being near a conservation area and hope to make our adjoining land as “natural” as possible. The reason why I would get a few ferals is simply to give them a good home, out of a shelter, a roof over their head and some regular nutrition. I like cats but probably not enough to have an indoor cat again. You all also made a good point that said cats may actually end up being part of the food chain for a coyote. It seems like the risk to birds, rodents, and reptiles (which I love) would also likely be too great. Kill or be killed doesn’t sound like a great concept to introduce to my new property simply because I want to give a fluffy cat a home. I think I may fall on the side of nature here, and not proceed. Perhaps I can make a small annual donation to our feral cat “rescue” and call it even. I DO still plan on getting some chickens though and any bugs or small critters that they snap up are going to have to fend for themselves. (Yes, chickens will be protected in Fort Knox - I have read the threads here about securing hen houses.)
Would you look at that?! COTH actually didn’t enable acquiring an animal for a change. How rare! 
Usually the first response is, “DO IT! SAVE ALL THE ANIMALS!”
Yes, this is one of the key draws of purchasing this property. It is really an amazing conservation area - with an abundance of ecosystems right outside our door. My plans are to contact the group that runs it to see how we can be the best neighbors possible. I am hoping if I can work to eradicate some invasive plant species, it will help them and vice versa. Likewise, if I can keep the creek healthy on my side of the fence, it will only help their marshes and wetlands that it flows into. My brain knew that feral cats and nature don’t mix when I wrote this post but I am also suffering from, “Do you know how many critters I can put on 11 acres??” LOL I am totally kidding. I have two dogs and may get some chickens. I am not a hoarder because the manner in which I care for my pets is too expensive to have too many.
Thank you for your perspective, expertise, and your reality check. True enough - what I have outside my door will be perfect enough as is.
I think you made the responsible choice. Besides monetary donations (which are always needed), you could foster a kitten or two until they were adopted. You get a kitty “fix”, get to help cats in need, and protect your wildlife, all at the same time.
Most healthy adult birds can easily and readily escape predation by cats. It’s during the breeding season that it may become a concern. It’s a tough decision because the cats deserve a place to live too, and human activity is way more damaging to wildlife but of course us humans don’t want to admit that and it’s easier to blame the cats and other species and not hold our own behavior responsible. Good luck with whatever you decide!
I think the biggest issue with “feral” cats is that they reproduce like crazy. So, assuming you are talking about an altered animal, and one that you are providing food and shelter for - I think it’s very different. My cats can be outside as much as they want, but don’t really leave a 100’ radius of my house. The certainly kill mice and moles, and the occasional baby rabbit and this week - some kind of baby mink or weasel type animal. Never birds, but I also don’t have a bird feeder. But 9 days out of 10, they leave the house, sleep on the patio, then come back in and sleep in here. I don’t think they have made any dent, whatsoever, in the local wildlife population.
YMMV, and in particular, you may want to exercise more caution near a wildlife preseve.
That DOES sound like fun…
I’m closing on a property and choosing not to take in a cat from the local feral/barn cat group. Yes, I’ve already been asked! :lol: I think I first learned about the songbird decimation here on COTH. Did a little research… I was so naive to the damage an outdoor cat has on wildlife. 
Prior to that, cats went with barns like peanut butter goes with jelly. Barn cats were SOP.
It helped me to put a cat in the perspective of a dog. It is a pet we choose to own, just a different species. Would we get a dog, turn it loose, and let it wander day or night, on and off our property, peeing and pooping on others’ property, crossing roads, fighting with other animals, and killing wildlife at random? The impact pet cats have on the environment is evident. Zipping flamesuit.
I’ll have to figure something else out for rodent control. Fingers crossed there’s a healthy snake or hawk population that will be happy to patrol your property. Lock up the feed and enjoy watching nature taking care of nature. :yes:
My outdoor cats are now indoor cats due to proximity to roads and traffic. I lost 2 cats to car strikes and decided that was enough.
That said, I really haven’t seen any difference in wildlife population except for 2 creatures. There are now rabbits everywhere. If you go outside at night, you can’t miss the rabbits zooming around the property. It makes me nervous, as rabbit burrows and horses are not a good combination. So far the rabbits seem to be just coming here to eat, and leaving in the morning. I hope it stays that way. We have ancient rabbit burrows that every once in a while open up, with a leg swallowing hole. Those areas are carefully watched because all it takes is some rain and you have a hole.
The second creature that is benefiting is the mice and rats. We have lots of mice- enough mice that the owls sit guard over our property by night, and the hawks sit over the horse pen by day. And we still have plenty of mice. They get in the horse blankets, poop on the saddles… The grain is locked up but they love to eat hay. There is no way to mouse proof the feed room. Not without pouring a concrete floor, taking the feed room sliding door down, and replacing it with something else. At least when the mice do make it into the house, they get dispatched quickly enough. They chewed a hole in the attic ceiling and used an electric cord as a ladder to get up and down into the spare bedroom where I store the cat food. When I started finding dispatched mice, I eventually figured out where they were coming from… it didn’t immediately occur to me to check above the shelf in the closet!
OP: fostering cats can be wonderful, my current cat (indoor!) is the most wonderful rescue. Yes, she has her boundaries! But I always wonder why on earth would someone dump such an intelligent animal?
For the skeptics on birds/cats and the idea they don’t really do that much damage: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncom…and%20mammals
Never birds, but I also don’t have a bird feeder.
You are in utter and severe denial and willful ignorance if you believe this.
You only know what you think you see or witness, you have no way of knowing how far your cats roam and certainly no idea of what they kill or don’t kill as a whole.
I wish people with this frame of mind would put a video camera tracker on their cats so they can learn the real truth of the harm outside cats cause.
We are closing on 20 acres and when the barn is built it will be filled with barn cats! We have 3 indoor kitties who never go out but I want to give a good home to outdoor only kitties. They will be fed and locked up at night, neutered, vaccinated and well cared for. I would like it if they kept the mice and birds out of the barn by whatever means necessary.
This is an excellent idea to get your “kitty fix”.
I’m not sure what your reasons are for not wanting an indoor cat, possibly bad behaviour?You could also build a nice outdoor enclosure if you do decide to get an indoor cat. Outdoor enclosures are a very useful tool for keeping cats happy and content and they definitely help prevent any possible unwanted bad behaviour.
Get in touch with your Conservation Area and ask them if there is anything you can do to help, they may have some very good ideas. I lived along a conservation area along a long and large canal. I fed the wild birds and all kinds of waterfowl during the harsh winters and helped rehab injured birds.
