Random Question. Will a cat control rats?

[Wolf-Kim]

I have mostly mice in my barn, but now there are a couple rats that scurry for cover when I walk into the barn. I know a cat will control the mice, but what about the rats?

It's still to cold for my slithering rat eating friends, so I'll have to look in the ways of mammalian.

I know there are rat terriers, but a dog is just too much for such a small problem. And terriers are high maintenance in the sense of energy. Once all the rats are gone, my litter barn terrier will most likely run off or become destructive, in digging and chewing my stuff up, out of entertainment or the chasing of rodents. So, I prefer not to get a dog just to kill a couple of rats, while I'm waiting for it to warm up and my beautiful 6' black rat snake comes out of hiding. I know he's still around, I found a skin in the hay today. It's just a wee bit chilly for him.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have had cats kill full grown rats, I think it depends on the cat.
I am hoping my Petey will become a rat hunter/killer, even if he only gets the babies. He sure likes watching their holes

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I will probably be getting a cat for the barn. We closed up the front of the barn, so the dogs can't get in. (They've chased past feral cats that have wandered up).

It's funny because the rats don't bother me nearly as much. I think it's the close contact with the mice that have me aggravated. I'll be feeding and I don't close the bins all the way during feeding. And in the 15 minutes I'm feeding I'll come back to mice in the bins. So now that I've been a stickler for putting the lids on tight even during feeding, I catch the mice inside the rabbit cages eating the rabbit food and inside the wire brooder, eating chick food. Of course, I don't "CATCH" them eating these things until I go to check on the caged animal and a couple mice bolt ACROSS MY HANDS. Yeah, here kitty kitty kitty.

I met someone who had Manx cats in their barn, I just thought they looked cool, but when I googled it, they are known for their hunting prowess. But, if I can't find one for the barn, then I'll let Adam take a livetrap to work and catch one of those feral kitties eating out of the dumpster.

(His coworker was sitting outside watching these feral cats play by the dumpsters and a shadow came into view. He heard a cat scream and right in front of him a hawk swooped down and snatched a half grown cat and flew off with it! The cat died quickly, because within a second of flight it went limp in the bird's grasp)

 

[FarmerDenise]

So you would be saving a feral kitty from a crappy life or possibly a nasty death
You might want to stop and get the kitty fixed though, unless you want a barnyard full of cats

 

[Wolf-Kim]

So you would be saving a feral kitty from a crappy life or possibly a nasty death
You might want to stop and get the kitty fixed though, unless you want a barnyard full of cats

Oh yeah. Know all about that! Mom had a cat colony there for a while, she started having them spayed/neutered. Luckily, there is a very good low cost vets that work with programs designed for it.

Should I get a boy or a girl? People have such mixed feelings about mousing cats. I know males get larger, hopefully enabling them to catch larger prey(rats) and neutering is cheaper than spaying, but I've always heard people say females are better mousers.

 

[bibliophile birds]

a would say a feral is your best bet as it's probably had experience. mousing is supposedly a learned trait, so living on garbage and mice is probably a good education.

i say supposedly because my oldest cat, Ollie, is one of the best mousers i've ever had. i rescued him from some bushes where he'd been tossed out of a moving car with his siblings (who made a run for it when i tried to catch them and i never saw them again) when he was 2 weeks old. he definitely didn't "learn" mousing from any other cats. he is a great mouser, though. i'll be walking down the hall and see him sitting kinda funny with this blissed out look on his face and then i'll see the mouse tail sticking out from under his chest.

my other good mouser is a fairly wild outside cat. she was born here but wants nothing to do with people except at feeding time. i would guess that she learned mousing from her mother who was pretty good. i would say that females are typically better mousers because they have the instinct to feed young.

as for the rats, it really depends on the rat problem and the cat. a larger cat would be your best chance, but rats, unlike mice, will form gangs and have been known to take out a cat from time to time.

we've got a rat terrier (our 2nd) and i would argue that that might really be your best choice*. ratties are the least terrier like of the terriers. neither one of ours has been a chewer (other than on the toys we give them which they instantly gut) or really hyper. they can tend to be a tad nervous but are extremely friendly and pretty easy to train. the one we have now is a completely spoiled sausage who wants nothing more out of life than to sleep under your covers, but she still kills rats when she is at the barn. she's very efficient at it.

terriers get a bad rap and, honestly, there aren't many terrier breeds i wouldn't have (you couldn't pay me to have a jack russell after being around my uncle's) but i'd get another rattie in a heartbeat.

*eta: ok, obviously if the problem is a really small one and you have no desire for a dog as a pet, then a rattie wouldn't be the best answer. if you don't mind having a dog around though ratties aren't "problem dogs" like you fear (i'm sure there are exceptions to this). they are also good for other little problem critters like moles.

 

[SKR8PN]

Get a male, and if possible, find a Maine Coon. Friends of ours had one that got to be 30lbs +!!
I watched that cat take their neighbors German Sheppard home one day. Most possessive cat I have EVER seen!!

 

[inchworm]

I have 4 barn cats - 3 boys and 1 girl. One of the boys is a rescue cat who is just worthless at hunting. The three kittens are siblings we found on the property. Of them all, one of the boy kittens is a superior killer. His brother and siter are tied for second place. Our superior killer was the runt of the litter that we had to feed with a dropper. He was the last to mature and didn't show any aggressiveness like his siblings. But boy, can he hunt!

 

[Wildsky]

Yeah it depends on the cat, I know my lazy butt cat wouldn't catch anything, but I have had real hunters before.

A kitten needs to be educated by its mother in the fine art of catching critters. (for the most part)

We have one that roams around the neighborhood, I saw it one day carrying off a mole, it was easily the size of a rat.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Get a male, and if possible, find a Maine Coon. Friends of ours had one that got to be 30lbs +!!

yeah, Maine Coons are magnificently massive. they do tend to run into heart problems because they are so big, though, and i can tell you from experience that heart problems in cats cost big $$$$.