How Often Do You Feed Your Barn Cat(s)?

[Wellspotted]

At other barns where I have been the barn cats are fed daily. Free choice, dry food always in their bowls.

At the current DIY barn one boarder brings a can of food maybe every other day or so. In between she expects Barn Kitty to hunt the mice and rats; thinks BK won’t hunt if she’s given food.

The other day she told us she had locked BK in the feed room and when she came to let her out BK had killed 3 mice/rats. Didn’t eat them, just killed them.

I am not a boarder; I just go out to meet a friend, do a little coaching, occasionally ride/work horse. I have been taking BK food but I think I am the only one who takes food regularly and sees it gets in her bowl. My philosophy is that a cat has to have enough to eat in order to have enough energy to hunt.

I told this boarder that if they would leave the feed room door open, BK could get in to kill the mice/rats and not have to be locked in with them.

There is no BM and I’m not a paying boarder.

What would you do? Am I pampering BK? I would be tempted to “rescue” her but she belongs to the barn.

[jetsmom]

I feed the barn cats daily.
Barn cats that are fed well will be healthier and kill for sport. they will kill more mice than a cat that is hungry and only kills for food. They will then lay around to conserve energy.

[JoZ]

Daily. Absolutely. My seven barn kitties and I vote that you continue to pamper BK. If you can call regular meals “pampering”… :no:

They are killing machines. Our barn is no place for the squeamish… :eek:

[superD]

The cats at my current barn, and really any barn I have been to, have dry food out at all times. They then also get can food daily.

Every time I am there they have all sorts of “kills” laying around.

They need to be healthy and be fed in order to hunt.

[Lynnwood]

Feed them and point out to her that cats kill for sport and will kill whether she is hungry or not. However if she feels she needs to eat the kills mice and rats carry worms and other parasites that she may not want the cat ingesting and then pooping out all over the farm.

Feed the cat and save her self a few vet bills.

[chemteach]

daily

[LauraKY]

Canned twice a day, dry food out all day. They hunt for the fun of it.

[sk_pacer]

Mine have free choice dry food and tinned food daily (one large tin split between four). Those boys are hunting fools. They spend their time slaughtering mice and leaving the dead things on the step for me, and yesterday, someone caught another pigeon. Hungry cats don’t hunt, but well fed ones certainly do a fine job.

[Bacardi1]

It’s nothing but an old wives’ tale - & an extremely sad one at that - that depriving cats of good nutritious food on a regular (as in DAILY) basis increases their mousing abilities.

Cats will chase & catch (& kill) anything that moves, regardless of feeding. Think about it - drag a piece of string in front of a well-fed cat & it goes ape-sh*t, even if it’s just filled it’s belly.

In addition, intelligent people do NOT want their cats to eat their prey. That’s the fast-track to numerous parasitic & bacterial infections. Nothing like watching an underfed barn cat throwing up a ton of spaghetti-like worms at your feet.:rolleyes:

Try to rise above old-school/lazy/cheap/whatever & FEED YOUR CATS!

[betsyk]

We have a raccoon problem, so the barn cats are fed by a couple of selected boarders when we come out, and food is taken up when we leave. I swear the cats know who drives what kind of car, and come out of nowhere when their people arrive! They may eat 3 times one day and once the next day, but they’re healthy and happy and we go through a lot less cat food than when we fed it to the raccoons.

[ken]

Well said Bacardi. Wellspotted, you’re in a tough spot (pun intended!) If BK is dependant on you for food, you might as well “rescue” her. You say she belongs to the barn, but there is no BO, only you & 1 boarder that supply food. Same situation happened to me…no one fed (or vaccinated) the barn cats because I did. I ended up leaving said barn & “rescued” them. They are fat, happy & humble house cats now

Thanks for going out of your way for BK - may good kitty karma come your way!

[ChocoMare]

Daily. One kitty has never hunted. It’s beneath her station. The other is a Hunter Extraordinaire’! She’ll leave her prize on the rug in front of my tack closet, then come find me to sit in front of me, look up and smile

[2ndyrgal]

Dry Food, free choice, replenished in the am

And all of my kitties bring me yummy, delectable, usually live mice every day.

[sk_pacer]

Some of my barn cats think they should be fed more than once a day - one just came in with me and cleaned up the remnants of the house cats’ breakfast…poor starving barn cat!!!ROFL

[HPFarmette]

Daily, sometimes twice, they both are feral but come into the tack room when I’m feeding the horses and I put dry out for them. I can’t leave a large amount out free choice for them because of the damn raccoons…

[2DogsFarm]

Barncat - aka The Verminator - gets fed when I feed horses.
Twice a day plus a latenight snack.

Dry food doesn’t stay out all night so other things - raccoons, opossum, etc - don’t mark me as a free buffet.

I feed minimal canned food - maybe a tablespoon at a time.

Little Miss V generally eats her kills.
As evidenced by the “parts” I find in my barn.
Did you know:
1 - the gallbladder is indigestible and is always left for me. Little hard green mousy gallbladders…
2 - voles are always hurked up in a pool of slime after being eaten whole

[Renaissance_Lady]

I feed mine dry food 2x/day to keep it fresh, a teaspoon of canned food per cat 2x/day and fresh water 2x/day. I shut the end doors at night to keep out others and shut mine in–(after having a skunk take up residence for about a week once). If mine want out at night, they can climb over the dutch doors that are all open at the top.

I would be very tempted to abscond with the kitty. I believe in neutering and spaying all strays and ferals here and everything MUST get a rabies shot. Like those above, the more game a cat catches and eats, the more increase in parasites, disease, etc. And a happy, healthy cat WILL easily hunt, even if not hungry–its their nature.

[Wellspotted]

Thank you all very much for your replies! I think when I move I will take BK with me. My kitties may have something to say about that, but since one of them is a rescue he should at least be sympathetic!

The boarder that feeds BK occasionally, locked her in the feed room to hunt but doesn’t leave the feed room open for her to access, works for a vet doing dog behavior therapy.

I think someone needs to do a little therapy on her!

I also really appreciate the posts about not leaving the food out all night because of the raccoons et al. I had thought of that too, but since I spend so little time at the barn I haven’t wanted to take up BK’s food at night because I wouldn’t be back out the next morning to feed her again.

I may be moving away soon anyway and if I do I am going to try to abscond with her.

[tallyho392]

i agree whole heartedly with all previous posts advising good, plentiful food…
AND, if you get them used to coming to you for canned food, it’s tons easier to count noses, catch for vetting/altering, find injuries, etc…