Can a declawed cat climb a 6' fence and kill chickens?

Just wondered what you thought. Maybe it's a solution.

A neighbor had a declawed (in front only) cat that could climb small trees - hugging with his front paws and pushing behind, but I don't think he could manage the sheer face of a fence. However many cats are able to jump to the top of a 6' fence which does not require claws. Lack of claws would also make chicken catching harder...

I had a declawed cat that would get stuck on roofs....He didn't need his claws to get up, but they were critical for getting down.

There is a site on predator exclusion in Australia that describes the most effective exclusion fence as one that has a sort of rim--facing out--of floppy wire fence material. Sort of like the rim of a pie crust all the way around. It is important that it be loose and floppy. I'll see if I can get the description.

I can't get the link to work--but the publication can be found by googling:

"Experimental Trials to Determine Effective
Feral Cat and Fox Exclusion Fence Designs"

or words to that effect.


Native Australian marsupials are under pressure from introduced cats and foxes--so they have done a lot of work on excluding them. If you look down through the publication you can see pictures of the fences and a diagram of how they are made.



This message was edited Sep 14, 2009 4:48 PM

I have never seen an adult cat go after a chicken.

I have seen chickens walk an adult cat out of the yard.

Our neighbors have cats, and they stop by from time to time, but they are never interested in the chickens. Now if it was baby chicks, that might be a different.

I can't answer for other cats, all I know is, this one did.

Yup, aside from being inhumane, declawing will not stop some cats from jumping up six feet easily. I have a cat who does 8' from a sit. Porkpal is correct, the "catch" would be a bit more difficult, but serious injury comes from their teeth, though the back legs can disembowel..

When I was young, my mom raised chickens, and we had a real problems with mice in the chicken coop.

My mom locked one of our cats in with the chickens for the night, and the next morning, there where no dead chickens. But there sure where a lot of dead Mice.

The only cats we have trouble with.. & really there's only been one bc any feral or stray that we see is trapped within a few nights & shipped off before they can cause major damage. Unless of course I take them in & care for them.. which after 9 i've had to stop doing. Only one ever killed a cat.. but he was huge.. he looked like a main coon crossed with a bob cat. This sucker was so big & so mean that the guys catching it were even kinda afraid of it. He was fat but he'd been on his own for some time.

My inside cats are declawed due to living with elderly people. They accidentally tear their skin so I declaw them. They haven't had a problem. I will say tho I've seen them jump a good 6 ft from flat on the floor. My guess would be that yes they would be able to go up a 6 ft fence declawed.

Hey greykyttyn, was he this big?........LOL

That white stick behind him is a yard stick...36 inches!

Wow, this cat issue has turned into a main event in my life. lol

Come to think of it though, my cat is fourteen years old and she can jump close to six feet. She does so to get to my door for food every night. Then she jumps back out and goes wherever she goes.

The city allows me to put an eight foot fence up in the backyard, so I can add a two foot extension if I want to. It can be wire or whatever material I want. The electric fence extension won't work because it won't shock the cat unless it's grounded. The man at the hardware store said even an eight foot fence won't keep the cat out.

So I'm back to thinking I need some type of sensors that will set off lights or a loud radio or a sprinkler or something. Or it's trap the cat.

I am reading about buying coyote urine and things like that, where the cat will feel there is a bigger predator around. Not a bad idea if it actually works.

Thanks for everything.

I know that coyote & fox urine doesn't detract from feral kitties.. at least not the ones in my neighborhood. Come to find out that it wasn't feral kitties using my annual bed as a litter box, it was my neighbor's cat who was doing the deed!

Can you get a big, chicken-friendly dog? I'd aim more for the sprinkler system.. that will work w/o a problem!

poor kitty.. declawed & outside? Wouldn't last 2 nights in my neighborhood

Can you attach a piece of chicken wire to the top of your fence, use brackets to extend it away, then let it hang down freely in a sort of arch on the outside? That arrangement would make climbing futile and jumping uninviting. It would also be pretty ugly but better than a dead chicken.

I was thinking along the same lines myself. My cats can't seem to climb chicken wire. Bird netting would also work and be less expensive...though I wonder a little what would happen if a cat jumped up there and got caught.

Serve him right!

I've got an outside cat that can climb chicken wire. he might not be able to at that height. but he did climb 3 ft of it to get to me after jumping up a couple feet when i was inside the pen working & had shut the door. :) Cats are amazing creatures. They can get to anywhere they choose with enough time to figure it out. They will get something they want whether you wish them to have it or not unless you remove them or the object of their interest. They are stubborn, smart & patient. With 3 in the house & 5 outside. I've figured that out. A sprinkler might work for a time.. but if the cat is determined to visit your chickens then he will find a way around the sprinkler.

kassey_51 - this cats head was a good 6 to 8 inches across at teh widest part.. looked bigger.. i'm just guessing but it was not a normal cat head. His head was absolutely huge. he was a probably close to 30 inches not including his tail. Which is what lead us to believe he was crossed with a bob cat.. which happens often in this area. idk how much he weight.. not sure they even checked. but he was big. He liked to talk tho. I'd sit several feet from him & talk to him & he would talk back. he just wasn't a friendly cat at anything closer than 20 ft. He wasn't the only one.. but the biggest. There was 5 solid black cats, all the same family, various ages & sizes. One I rehomed to a little old man who'd lost his cat. This was about the only nice one of the bunch. I sat down & talked to him. Within 10 mins I had a half feral cat laying in my lap with me afraid to even breathe. Mom threw some cat food into a cage & he waltzed right in to eat.. but when i slammed the door.. shesh. You'd thought you'd released a tiger.

I have a declawed rescue cat, both front and back. She came that way. I'm not a big proponent of declawing, but I can see why they did it. She's mean as sin! But I like mean cats and we get on fine. The corgi is terrified of her, though! And she beat up our rescued Catahoula Leopard dog. The Catahoula put up a brave fight, but before I could reach them to separate them poor Pumpkin was slinking away with her tail between her legs.

Well, anyway, Dilly Dally (the cat) once jumped out of a second and a half story window (who knows why =:o) and then climbed back up the Virginia creeper to get back in.

Some cats can do anything they set their mind to. And some cats have really good mousing instincts, but haven't been taught by their mothers how to channel the drive.

I posted some links about cat fencing on the other thread, but if anyone's interested, I'll send them privately.

Terri_emory, it's more likely she's mean _because_ she's de-clawed. It causes everything from biting to litterbox avoidance. A cat without defenses is a very insecure cat, and will often lash out just to prevent any possible threat. They are essentially crippled, and like some people who find themselves suddenly incapacitated, they can lash out. Even when it' is done "properly", it's not an easy adjustment. Not all cats have issues, especially if the amputations are done when they're very young, but the vast majority do.

I suspect Dilly-Dally was de-clawed because she had an unacceptable behaviour, maybe scratching the furniture, and the declaw was much easier than training her and providing an acceptable alternative. There are other solutions, but they take some kind of human participation. After it was done, she would have had no other manner of defense other than biting, and so that became her response. I'm sorry for Pumpkin's attack, but imagine how defenseless Dilly-Dally feels confronted by dogs (ahing she may have had problems with in her previous life) with only one way to defend herself.

Sorry, Hot Button. Obviously :)

catmad, you don't have to apologize. I don't like seeing cats declawed either. I think I did say I'm not the one who declawed her....

One of the reasons I adopted her was her attitude. She didn't feel sorry for herself there in the pound or really didn't seem to be scared of anything at all. In fact she fully believes she should rule the roost wherever she goes. She proceeds through life with total elan and disdain for all subordinate creatures.

She wasn't afraid of Pumpkin. She was just laying down the law--it was a pecking order fight. (Pumpkin is new to the pack--she was dumped on our road--and not in a nice way, either) When a door is opened Dilly Dally goes in first. All other dogs and humans can go after her if they feel like it, but she goes first. If she walks up to the water bowl while the dogs are drinking, then they have to back off and let her drink until she is through. She used to sleep with our older son before he went off to college. She would sleep at the bottom of his bed. If he moved about too much or invaded her space she would bite him (not hard but as if she were playing with another cat) and swish her tail back and forth. He loves to tell people that he would wake up and see her eyes glowing red in the dark. She also destroys all toys given to her. I really get the impression that she finds them insulting. Oh, and she loves to watch the home shopping network. That is a whole other story =:o.

Most folks we know can't figure out why we keep her, but we just like her. But I can see where some one might not understand her. The folks who had her first (whoever they might have been) should have just taken her to the pound, claws and all. But they didn't and declawing didn't seem to work out anyway--the lady at the pound said the previous owners were scared to death of her. So now we have her. And despite the fact that she expresses her complete and total disdain for each of us every day, she really does like us back and she seems happy. (Oh, by the way, she also hates other cats).

I do feel bad for other cats who have been declawed. But please don't feel sorry for Dilly Dally, she doesn't :). As our shop foreman says, "That cat hit the feline lottery when you adopted her!"

That is such a cute story.

We used to take in stray cats and had SO many. The one that is still here has a similar attitude as your cat. We used to say she thought she was the QUEEN and regal. She just had this attitude even as a small kitten. My daughters loved to blow in her face to see her paw with claws outstretched swipe at their faces. It was a dangerous game, as she sometimes hit her target. They also would gently pull on her tail, which they called the "bell tail" just to see the fire come out of her eyes. They thought she was hilarious and would just giggle and giggle. All our other cats were loving and sweet, but not this one. She was the queen and would not tolerate insubordination. If you messed with her, you would feel her wrath.

Her first name was Sweetypie, which was shortened to Sweety, which was quickly shortened to Witty.

She has this attitude, the way you expressed it.. a "complete and total disdain" for all of us lowly ones beneath her, human and animal.

She hated our other cats and moved down the street to the Bed and Breakfast. We used to joke that they were feeding her Little Sheba everyday and all we had was meow mix here. They must have liked her because she lived down there about ten years. She also frequented the beauty salon across the street. Then the lady at the beauty shop had a heart attack and died, and the bed and breakfast closed down. Now she's back with me. She gets Purina now. Our other cats are gone, they either died or disappeared. She was fourteen years old last spring, and still has her attitude, and still totally unpredictable.

She really scares me when she sleeps with me, especially if she's up by my head. If she's in my spot, I have to get a pillow or blanket to move her over. I don't dare touch her or pick her up.

She must be a very healthy cat, and even at her age, still very pretty. She's not really a mean cat, she just doesn't want to be bothered.

Come to think of it, I'm kind of like her. I try to get along, and mind my own business, but if someone messes with me, I might scratch or bite em.

People sometimes see her and think she's so sweet and want to pet her, and I cringe inside and think to myself, "You don't KNOW this cat!"

[G]. I have the same kind of cats, ones that were nevber adopted because of purrsonality issues. The worst offenders (other than declaws) are the singleton bottle babies. They grow up with no "catly discipline", and behave like human children run amok. At one time we had a big male (neutered) siamese, who was wonderful at raising kittens. They grew up civil and well-mannered, unlike the little hellions I was responsible for. The well taught kitten learns young that biting and scratching are acceptable only in certain circumstances, and Mom will box their ears if they forget.

Light_for_Jesus, you are exactly right. We are somehow drawn to cats who are at least a bit like us in some secret way. =) We can't really be the free spirits we would like to be in polite society, but cats can and do.

catmad, I do enjoy the "commanding" personalities that some cats seem to have.

I guess the point is that declawing really won't change the cat's personality or determination to do what their instinct tells them to do. In many cases it can cause more problems than it is worth. IMHO.

Oh, my gosh, kassy_51! That is one big cat!

OT
I have nothing but kind thoughts for those who adopt declawed cats, my comments are in no way addressed to these caring humans.

"I guess the point is that declawing really won't change the cat's personality"

I don't want to belabor the point, and of course I don't have all the answers. But the evidence is that declawing can substantially change both personality and behaviour.

http://www.declawing.com/htmls/declawing.htm

The part about behaviour is about half way down, and I suggest getting there quickly, without looking at the pictures.

I'm done, everyone will make this decision for themselves, but I hope only after understanding the consequences, and the alternatives.

I was just trying to find some way to keep that cat out of my yard, and looking at all the alternatives. I think I may go with the fence netting, driveway alarm, sprinkler sensor, or a combination of things.

The man from cat "fence-in" called yesterday and said, you use netting, not wire. That the cat can't/won't climb netting, but they can maneuver over wire. He's sending out a brochure, but I found a site that gives instructions and would probably be a bit cheaper if I can do it myself. You get flag poles brackets, wooden dowels, put those up and somehow with staples and fishing line put the netting on them. It has to be loose I think. Well, here's the site: http://www.feralcat.com/fence.html

I want and need peace, and don't want to hurt my neighbor or the cat. In the long run, that would only cause problems. So, I think this is a good alternative for me personally, and probably should have been addressed earlier. I'll let you know how it goes.

I appreciate all your comments.

I'm so glad you found it helpful! It really does work, and once it's done, it's done. As I said, even the squirrels will get thru:)

Kassy51 - I have a cat that big, ok, I mean that long....he's not that big around....lol. When Jinx stands on his hind feet, his front paws are flat on top of our 36-inch high counter. I've never had a cat that long before. I have to really watch when I'm using the pull-out cutting board since it's lower than the countertop, he will grab anything that's near the edge.

A declawed cat should never be allowed outside. It has no way to defend itself against predators.