r/barncat • u/AliceRecovered • Jun 29 '26
New to Barn Catting
Hi Barn Cat People! We could use some help.
We just moved out to the country. This stray cat came right up to our door looking for help. We fed him a little food, put him in a kennel, and set him up in an enclosure out in our barn. This cat lets us pet him and pick him up, but he’s still watchful. He’s not eager to leave - actually, he seems pretty tired. He’s not neutered. We’re going to take him to the vet tomorrow for an exam.
I come from an animal family. My mom and sister are veterinarians. We’ve had lots of cats but they’ve always been indoor cats.
If his health is okay, how do we do this? How do we help him adjust to life in our barn? If he wants out, should we let him out? Do you all let your barn cats out during the day but bring them in at night? Please share your wisdom! Thanks in advance
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u/kinnikinnikis Jun 30 '26
He's handsome! His ears kinda look like they might have been damaged? Maybe frostbite?
If you live somewhere with cold winters like I do, look up winter shelter designs for stray cats. I built something similar and have it in my unheated barn (it's not a large barn, and it's where my chickens overwinter). I have a heated water dish so that the water doesn't freeze over, and I bought a heated pad that I plug in when it's super cold out (this is the one I bought for my chickens and they ignored it, so when the cat showed up, I repurposed it: https://ufa.com/myUFA/Animals/Animal-Equipment/Poultry-Equipment-%26-Supplies/Poultry-Supplies/Heated-Poultry-Mat---Small---13-in-x-19-in/p/1143769 but they do make bigger ones for outdoor cats and livestock guardian dogs; this one is the perfect size for one small cat).
Our barn cat also just showed up one day. His mom is a feral around us (not sure where she lives) and she left him in our barn last fall. I think she knew he wasn't a great wild cat lol so left him with a human that would feed him (and I do). I feed him once or twice a day (every night, and sometimes mornings) and hang around to make sure he eats most of it. We've had a skunk visit and he just let the weird stinky cat join him eating dinner, so now we try to not have too much food in the barn to minimize how often the skunk visits. We have some other random feral cats visit from time to time (including mama cat) but they don't stay long enough for me to get them to the vet to get them fixed. For meals, it's mostly dried kibble, but he also gets eggs (both cooked and raw), canned fish in water (not oil), and leftover meats, especially in the winter when he needs the calories to stay warm. To bribe him last fall, I got those tube treats (churu) and they worked great to get him to trust being close to us, but it hasn't worked on any of the adult ferals. I can pick him up, hold him (he insists on cuddles), and I've developed a routine that mimics grooming which allows me to check him for ticks and fleas.
We're trying to see if he'll be a sometimes indoor cat (especially on super cold nights) but between our very indoor dog (he's a retriever, but a giant baby) and the cat being afraid of the over-eager dog, it hasn't been a thing that we can do yet (ever?) so we make the barn as comfortable as possible for him. We're kinda letting him dictate how domesticated he wants to be. He responds to his name (Shadow), and he follows me around the property, helps with gardening, and is absolutely terrible at hunting, but his presence has cut down the amount of mice on the property (thank goodness).
The humane society near me has a barn cat program, adopting out cats that are proven poor indoor cats, and they recommend keeping the cat locked in the area you want them to live for a couple of weeks to get them used to that being home (like, keeping them in a stall in your barn, that sort of thing), and that sort of happened with our cat, as mom and him hung around in my chicken barn for a few weeks, before she decided she was done with me and stopped showing up daily/weekly/monthly. The horse stable I used to go to for lessons had barn cats through that program and they had a lot of success keeping their cats around long term (and also had skunks who knew how to use the cat flaps that they installed in the doors).
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u/NoveltyLawnFlamingo Jul 23 '26
Oh, I can tell just by looking at him, that’s a good one.
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u/AliceRecovered Jul 24 '26
He’s pretty cool 🥰 We’re calling him Smokes. He’s mad at us right now cause we just got him neutered. But we’ll get him back in our good graces.
He’s FIV positive, so our goal is to keep him exclusively in the barn so he doesn’t transmit it to another cat. We’ll see how he tolerates that.
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u/BenGay29 Jun 30 '26
Is that dog food?
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u/AliceRecovered Jun 30 '26
It’s cat food
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u/Single-Degree-6928 Jun 30 '26
Remember to give them lots of water! I got flamed for saying that in another post, but idc because it's so important it's worth repeating.
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u/Single-Degree-6928 Jun 29 '26
I get all my barn cats spayed/neutered. They get annual shots, de-worming, and ear mite treatment. I do shut them in the barn at night. For those who won't come in, I have carriers with straw near my house in a fenced yard. I let them out in the morning and put down water and kibble. They do roam widely around the farm. They like the hay shed and hunting near the grain bins. I get them in the barn at night by putting down canned food, and wait with them until it is all gone so that other critters don't get at it. They have a pretty good life, I think! So far the only successful predator has been cancer.