How to find a barn cat

[stb]

I would like to add a barn cat to my group of critters. I’ve had house cats before but never a strictly outside cat. So, what do I look for? A grown cat, a kitten, half grown? Boy, girl? Obviously I will spay or neuter whatever I get. I was hoping a tough, worldly cat would find me, but so far no luck. And, when I get it, I suppose I confine it to the barn for a while? I would have to use a large dog crate (which I have) because it’s too hot to shut the barn up.

Any and all advice on barn cat management is welcome. I would love to give some cat a death row pardon, so will probably go to a kill shelter to adopt, I’m just not quite sure what to look for. I don’t want to throw some former house cat out to it’s death. I need a cat with street cred, I guess, so how do I find it?

[doubleback06]

Just be wary, that depending on the shelter, some of them will not adopt cats/kittens out to you if they know they are going to be kept as an outdoor barn animal.

[jherold]

If you can’t get them for free from a shelter, I find 4 month old female kittens work the best. Young enough to move. Old enough to have a bit of sense. DO NOT BECOME ATTACHED. Barn cats, depending on location, can have a relatively hight mortality rate. I think if mine as working cats, not pets. They are employees, not family. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like them or take care of them to a certain degree. Just that if they decide to move on, I’m not allowed to worry too much.

[SugarCubes]

In my area the humane society has a barn cat program, they will bring you a feral cat (or two, or three) and will give you advice on how to acclimate the cat to it’s new home. These cats have “street cred” lol, and over time most become tolerant, if not friendly to humans! Best part, they come spayed/neutered, with all shots, and they’re FREE!

[moving_to_dc]

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8742141]
In my area the humane society has a barn cat program, they will bring you a feral cat (or two, or three) and will give you advice on how to acclimate the cat to it’s new home. These cats have “street cred” lol, and over time most become tolerant, if not friendly to humans! Best part, they come spayed/neutered, with all shots, and they’re FREE![/QUOTE]

Same here. Several of the local shelters are adopting out the “unadoptable” cats as barn or warehouse cats. I have 3 of them so far, and they were delivered to me by the shelter. No adoption fee, either.

[stb]

Thanks for the ideas, y’all. A neighboring county has a barn cat program at their animal shelter, so it looks like I’ll be going there for a cat.

[downen]

In my experience, the timid “scaredy cats” seem to have a longer lifespan because they don’t roam as much. We had one such cat that lived in our barn for over 21 years! Quite a few more were lost to the road, coyotes and unknown causes.

Make sure to cage kitty for a bit until it settles in, or else it might scamper as soon as you let it out of the crate. I’ve found a bigger dog crate works well, one big enough for a litter box, bed, food and water. Once they seem acclimated to the strange sounds and smells of the barn, they are more likely to stay. Also, set up a “safe spot,” some sort of little hidey place up where they feel safe, off the ground, especially if you have dogs.

Best wishes for you and your new kitty!

[rhymeswithfizz]

My local shelter has what they call a “working cat” program, for barn and/or feral kitties. Brilliant!

[2DogsFarm]

Learn from my Fail :o

My first barncats were 2 kittens who wandered up my driveway one 4th of July.
About 8wks old, give or take -one gray/white tuxedo girl & orange tiger boy.
I kept them in a garden shed with a chickenwire-fenced yard attached, assuming it was escape-proof, only to come home one day to find both climbing back into the shed.
Sadly orange boy became roadkill at around 6mos.
His “sister” seemed to become roadwise after that & lived in my barn quite happily for the next 10yrs.
Vermin (mice, voles, bunnies) became scarce during her reign.
Lost her last May to unknown injury - found her unable to get up, rushed to the vet, where she passed while being examined.

I replaced her (really no replacement, she was Special) with 2 young guys from a local shelter with a barncat program.
See this:

Older guy has now become a fixture upstairs where he considers me his personal bellyrub dipsenser.
The other one is still MIA. I know he’s there - cabinet door always opens as I go back upstairs - sometimes with the other one in sight.
Sigh…
Dilemma:
Do I try 2 more for the barn & let these 2 remain housecats?
I soooo enjoyed the cathair tumbleweed-free zone my house had become after losing my last housecat January 2015.

[CVPeg]

Also check with local vets. I adopted a cat that did not work out inside. My vet knew a couple of farmers interested - she kept a list of those needing barn cats. And she knew who was good about taking care of them.

[pony_baloney]

If there’s a large racing stable in your area, they’ll probably have barn cats that don’t really belong to anyone. A lot of trainers just rent the barns and the cats just show up.

[Linda]

Agree with all of the above. One of the parents in our local pony club works at the shelter and from time to time, she will call me to say that she has a cat that she thinks would work in our barn. (and her other option is to put it down…sigh) So of course, I tell her to bring it. We have found that the older (not kittens) have a better chance of success. We live in the country and regularly have bob cats, raccoons, and an occasional mountain lion in the area.

We keep the cats in the barn at night and so long as they don’t try to find a way out, they usually live a nice long life with us. They also dramatically reduce the rodent population for which I am very grateful. However, even the really tough ones occasionally “disappear” in the night. Breaks my heart. But at least I gave them a chance at a longer life than they would have had if they had stayed at the shelter.

[4THEHORSES]

OP, take a look on FB and so on for any groups that regime feral cats. There are plenty of them in our area and those cats make the best rodent catchers. Plus they’re accustomed to living outdoors so being a barn cat is a upgrade for them.

With some time and patience it’s surprising how friendly they can become.

[Mozart]

Too bad way way far away from me, I have a barn cat I need to rehome!

[Babble]

We too got our barn cats from a shelter with a specific outdoor cat program. Two pieces of advice that we got from the shelter were helpful:

-They insisted pairs of barn cats were better than one, as with two, they were more likely to stick around than wander far (no idea if this is true, but they have stuck around for four years, which I think is a decent amount of time for an outdoor cat). We ended up with a mother and her son that came from a hoarding situation.

-As Downen mentioned, they told us to give them time in the barn before letting them free so that the barn becomes home base. In our case, we kept them in cages for a few nights in the grain room, and then let them out but kept them free in the grain room for another week or so to acclimate. We also fed them dinner at the same time every night so they would come back in the evening. Four years later, they will wander, but when they are home, they know exactly when to head to the grain room for dinner. If they are home, we lock them in for the night. And feeding them cat food hasn’t seemed to deter their hunting - they have all but eradicated our mouse problem.

I know that their prospects at a long life aren’t great, but I contend that every cat should be so lucky to live in a barn - they seriously have a great life.

[ponysaurus]

I got two fabulous barn cats off Craigslist. They were cats that, for whatever reason, “failed” at being inside pets but were awesome barn cats.

[shakeytails]

My current barn cat was a freebie from the shelter. I stopped by just to see what ferals they had and the ladies practically loaded this cat in my car. I hadn’t brought a carrier- no problem we’ll lend you one, just return it next time you’re in town. She had escaped and lived in the ceiling of the shelter for weeks- this cat was a huge PIA for them. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with people and the following day when I let her loose she promptly disappeared from view for about 2 weeks. I knew she was around because the cat food I left on top of the tack room was getting eaten. Now, she’s friendly much of the time and answers when she’s called- and I did absolutely nothing to make her that way.

My best barn cat ever was one I “stole” from a friend. She was a stray that kept getting into their old farm house to hunt mice. I brought her home and had her spayed. She was aloof but very watchful- I swear if anybody ever attacked one of us that cat would have scratched their eyes out. At times she would demand to be petted (but never picked up); I’d get annoyed with her and tell her “Go kill something”. She’d go away and come back a short time later with an offering of dead vermin. We had her for about 10 years before she disappeared- I’m guessing her reflexes got slower, she was too far from the barn, and got “got” by a fox or coyote.

[talkofthetown]

Announce very loudly and in no uncertain terms: “I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CAT.”

[vxf111]

[QUOTE=CVPeg;8742950]
Also check with local vets. I adopted a cat that did not work out inside. My vet knew a couple of farmers interested - she kept a list of those needing barn cats. And she knew who was good about taking care of them.[/QUOTE]

I got the same thing, a failed housecat (failed SEVERAL homes). The thing that made her a lousy housecat make her a GREAT barn cat.

[Mozart]

[QUOTE=talkofthetown;8748638]
Announce very loudly and in no uncertain terms: “I DO NOT NEED ANOTHER CAT.”[/QUOTE]

S