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I think that hunting for a housecat is more than just instinct...it's our job!
After thousands of years of domestication, the instinct could have been bred out of us, but that would defeat the whole reason that we came to live with humans in the first place: to keep their homes and food stores safe from vermin. Historians have even connected the extermination of cats as witches' familiars during the middle ages as being a direct cause of the rodent-carried plague that wiped out nearly half of Europe's human population.
It may seem horrible, but cats are predators and that's why we were domesticated. The only real way to keep us from taking prey is to keep us indoors. Other than that, the best idea I can offer is a bell for your collar, so that the birds can hear you coming.
When I lived in AZ, they were indoor/outdoor and after a while, I got tired of catching live bunnies in the house and once we even had a live bird to catch because they bring them through the cat door.
Those weren't as bad as an eviscerated animal that I had to clean up once. It wasn't recognizable and I had to use a steam cleaner on the rug.
I am glad to say that my brood are indoor only now and I don't have to deal with all that anymore. But I never punished my cats for doing any of this. Sure, I was mad that I had to do all that extra work, but that was MY problem....not theirs.
Oooh this might be a good place to ask something I've always wondered!
When I was doing all my pre-cat reading, I saw somewhere that while hunting and killing is instinct, a kitten needs to be tought to eat it's prey. If a house cat is not tought by the mummy cat to eat animals or birds it has killed, when they are grown they will kill small things, but not eat them. Is this actually true?
It also reminds me of a cat my husband talks about, from when he was a child. Each year when they set up the Christmas tree, they would put a present out each for someone else in the family. Each year Kringer (the cat) used to add to the presents with things from outside! It was the only time of year he would ever bring anything inside
this discussion reminds me of a show mom was watching. it was animal planet's most extreme: killer cats. it was a countdown from 10. kitty cats were #1. we are obligate carnivores. for us it is instinct. we have a very healthy prey drive shall we say. we all know i'm a diva. i'm beautiful, long luxurious fur, cuddly. i look like a coddled cat who gets satin pillows . that's why mom named me killer. the first few days i was here mom saw me with my toys. it was to remind her regardless of how cute i am, i'm a killer. a mouse got in once. i took care of that. dad found an eviscerated mouse and mom said the kitchen looked like we played hockey with it. it looked like a crime scene. if you want a vegetarian pet, get a bunny. if your mom is cross, maybe you need to be kept indoors. our mom is a vegetarian. she loves animals. but she never loses sight of what we are. our uncle pudge was a supreme grade a mouser and she was his cheering section . when we "kill" our toys she tells us how proud she is we're following our instincts. just our opinion.
Kringer's story is hysterical! I'm absolutely sure he knew what was going on! Gift-giving season and all that!
And Killer...NOW we know how you got your name. Got a laugh out of that one, too.
My childhood kitty was an indoor/outdoor cat (semi-rural area), and she used to bring home the occasional birdie/mousie and leave it in her food dish. I don't think she ever ate the things (they were usually half-alive), but she knew that they were "food" and thus belonged in her food bowl. (She was a Friskies girl and lived to be seventeen, thank you very much.)
Has anyone seen the photograph somewhere on the Internet that someone took of their cat's morning present of three little birdies? They were all lined up in a row: one on the walkway to the front door, one on the front steps, and one right in front of the door...bet Mr. or Ms. Human got a real thrill when he/she opened the door that morning to bring in the newspaper...
Mom calls us her 100% all natural pest control.... when we dont catch something she thinks we should, she "fires" us.... MOL!!! I've been fired more times than I can count. Hehehe...
All kidding aside, yes it is sad when we kill a cute animal like a bird or bunny. But we are following our instincts, and sometimes those cute little animals taunt us so bad... Like the pigeon last year that would strut right in front of me, and look at me! If that window wasn't there, I would have got him!
By the way, please also remember that most prey which is caught is either 1) old, 2) sick, or 3) very young.
Cats and other preditors help keep the bird populations, the squirrel populations, and the rodent populations in check. They help weed out the sick or dying, and they help with so-called "natural selection". Build a better cat, then nature will build a better mouse!
Dulci used to come into the bedroom with a twitching tail hanging out of her mouth. apparently, like many cats, she often swalled it mostly whole, and it wasn't always fully dead.
As others have said, usually the animals cats hunt for are old and/or sick. Besides, When you adopted your cat, surely you knew that your cat is a carnivorous animal which would most likely hunt at times. Now, I've seen my aunt/grandma's cat kill a mouse before me (granted that cat was a mostly outdoor cat until the last years of his fairly long life (16 I believe)).
For cats, they're following their instincts. For feral and stray cats, that's how they survive. House cats can't get rid of those instincts easily and well frankly, I wouldn't really want to. My cats are indoor cats, but if they were outdoor cats, I would praise them for bringing me the prey they had caught/killed. Yeah, I'd probably be grossed out, but remember, they're doing these things for you. They're saying, this is how you catch prey/this is for you mommy/daddy.
Cats are beautiful and dangerous at times. Cats are killers... this shouldn't be news to you. :/
And this reminds me of the bit in "Alice in Wonderland" in which Alice meets a mouse and manages to put her foot in her mouth not once but twice...
Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was: at first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.
`Would it be of any use, now,' thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there's no harm in trying.' So she began: `O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!' (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, `A mouse--of a mouse--to a mouse--a mouse--O mouse!' The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing.
`Perhaps it doesn't understand English,' thought Alice; `I daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the Conqueror.' (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.) So she began again: `Ou est ma chatte?' which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. `Oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the poor animal's feelings. `I quite forgot you didn't like cats.'
`Not like cats!' cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. `Would you like cats if you were me?'
`Well, perhaps not,' said Alice in a soothing tone: `don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing,' Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, `and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face--and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse--and she's such a capital one for catching mice--oh, I beg your pardon!' cried Alice again, for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. `We won't talk about her any more if you'd rather not.'
`We indeed!' cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end of his tail. `As if I would talk on such a subject! Our family always hated cats: nasty, low, vulgar things! Don't let me hear the name again!'
`I won't indeed!' said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. `Are you--are you fond--of--of dogs?' The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: `There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you! A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly brown hair! And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things--I can't remember half of them--and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and--oh dear!' cried Alice in a sorrowful tone, `I'm afraid I've offended it again!' For the Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.
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. that's why mom named me killer. the first few days i was here mom saw me with my toys. it was to remind her regardless of how cute i am, i'm a killer. a mouse got in once. i took care of that
. dad found an eviscerated mouse and mom said the kitchen looked like we played hockey with it. it looked like a crime scene. if you want a vegetarian pet, get a bunny
. if your mom is cross, maybe you need to be kept indoors. our mom is a vegetarian. she loves animals. but she never loses sight of what we are. our uncle pudge was a supreme grade a mouser and she was his cheering section
. when we "kill" our toys she tells us how proud she is we're following our instincts. just our opinion.
