Do your cats hunt?

[Mia]

Mine do, mainly insects and mice but also birds. Which absolutely breaks my heart as every year that I've lived in this area, there seem to be fewer and fewer songbirds. Live in a rural community, and my cats are safe inside my fenced property. Yet they still kill and eat birds. I've found a solution to prevent bird hunting. Both of my females hunt and were originally strays who had to survive by hunting. So it's not something I can prevent without keeping them inside for the rest of their lives, which would lead to a great deal of depression and aggression and fighting on their parts. Something I attempted for several years.

I've covered their collars with a kind of clown fringe. Made them last week. It sticks out about two inches from their break-away collars. Apparently birds have somewhat poor eyesight close up and cats eyes are drawn to movement. That's one of the reasons felines can catch them, among others.

Birds see colour extremely well, the bright colours of these collars warn them of a stealthy predator creeping up, whereas cat's see muted blues and greens. Made these excruciatingly bright yellow and red collars that stick out and so far no poor birds have been caught in the jaws of my killer pets. Which has made me quite happy, although not my felines. They look silly wearing them outside, but, if it saves birds lives, I'm all for it.

How to Stop Cats from Killing Birds

 

[Keigan]

The only cats around are barn cats, so they hunt or they are not around for long. It is their nature.

 

[nowwhat]

Ours are inside cats, but if any gecko or other small creature is unfortunate enough to wander inside, it's a goner. Their instinct to hunt is very strong and given the chance, they will stalk and kill.

 

[Questella]

Mine do, mainly insects and mice but also birds. Which absolutely breaks my heart as every year that I've lived in this area, there seem to be fewer and fewer songbirds. Live in a rural community, and my cats are safe inside my fenced property. Yet they still kill and eat birds. I've found a solution to prevent bird hunting. Both of my females hunt and were originally strays who had to survive by hunting. So it's not something I can prevent without keeping them inside for the rest of their lives, which would lead to a great deal of depression and aggression and fighting on their parts. Something I attempted for several years.

I've covered their collars with a kind of clown fringe. Made them last week. It sticks out about two inches from their break-away collars. Apparently birds have somewhat poor eyesight close up and cats eyes are drawn to movement. That's one of the reasons felines can catch them, among others.

Birds see colour extremely well, the bright colours of these collars warn them of a stealthy predator creeping up, whereas cat's see muted blues and greens. Made these excruciatingly bright yellow and red collars that stick out and so far no poor birds have been caught in the jaws of my killer pets. Which has made me quite happy, although not my felines. They look silly wearing them outside, but, if it saves birds lives, I'm all for it.

How to Stop Cats from Killing Birds

Haha your cat looks so funny. Bells can also be effective. Cats hunt, even if they aren't hunting for their own meal they'll proudly hunt something for you. I even had one boy get a bird on his harness and leash and leave it on the porch for me, I was total, "yay thanks, cat, what a dumb bird, lol." It's just instinctive for them, they're not trying to be malicious, just eons of programming saying, "oh some small critter, let's catch it." Sometimes they'll catch something and let it go so they can catch it again. I had a mouse in my house and my one crazy cat I thought would destroy it just kept catching it and letting it go. x.x Eventually another cat caught it and left it in their food bowl for me, ew. >p

I had a cat at my dads that would get rabbits nearly her size and leave them on the porch for us. Lol we will not be grilling wild hare this week kitty.

I keep looking at your kitty, it looks fancy, like those big collars you'd see people wearing in the Shakespeare age.

 

[Cinnamon115]

My indoor cat has tried to hunt the chipmunks that like to sit on the front porch... but he always forgets about the glass storm door.

 

[toothless]

my indoor only boy sits at the patio doors every day staring up at the sky and when a bird flies past he jumps up with his claws out,expecting to catch it,he does this a lot,hes so focused on the bird he cant see the huge distance in between them,i laugh at him.

the feral tom i look after who is fed by everyone including myself [he often gets free range chicken cat food from me] around here hunts well,hes bagged himself a lot of birds over time,an adult magpie was his biggest.

 

[Mia]

Wow magpies are quite large @toothless Once saw a local cat carrying a pigeon around. Made the decision to put these collars on my two females when they brought home a total of five birds in one day. One was a woodpecker, and another was a robin, the other three were chickadees. They are far too good at it.

 

[Gritches]

My cat is a killing machine. She kills anything and everything she can catch. I once found a pile of 8 mouse corpses. I mean, she wasn't even eating them, just killing them and piling up the bodies. When she catches birds she rips the wings off and eats everything but the skin and head. I should probably do something, but she just looks so happy carrying around a dead (or still alive) animal.

 

[Mia]

I've had many cats over a long period of time. Used to have this really crazy smart cat named Barn who sounds like your cat Gritches. He killed everything in the area that he could kill, once looked out the window and saw him running and dodging really, really, fast while being chased by a huge flock (murder) of crows who almost turned him into a dead cat.

He ran inside and treated everyone in the house to a re-enactment of his hunt, with the dead crow. He showed us all how he did it over and over for hours. Pouncing, stalking, and killing the already dead bird, if anyone went near the crow he growled at them. He then buried it in the kitchen cupboard among the canned goods, covering it with several plastic bags. Think it may have been a triumph for him.

 

[umbrellabeach]

We keep our cats inside so they don't do much hunting (unless occasionally pouncing on each other counts, lol). Sometimes I'm with one of them and I see a bug so I try to point it out to them and get them to kill it, but if they even see it, all they do is watch it and maybe paw at it.
They like looking out the window though, and they get excited watching birds and squirrels. Even our senior cat does. He'll sit on the couch and look out the window for hours.

 

[xDominiel]

I had a cat a few years ago who hunted mice and usually hid with the kill until she had finished eating it. Once though, she came running inside with a live mouse in her mouth, and allowed it to run behind the couch. It took some effort to catch it and release it back out in the woods.

Another cat that belonged to my mother once brought home a live snake. It seemed strangely chill considering the life-threatening situation it was in, it was just hanging out (literally) in the cat's mouth until she dropped it on the lawn, then she quickly lost interest in it and it snaked its way back into the tall grass.

 

[Questella]

My cat is a killing machine. She kills anything and everything she can catch. I once found a pile of 8 mouse corpses. I mean, she wasn't even eating them, just killing them and piling up the bodies. When she catches birds she rips the wings off and eats everything but the skin and head. I should probably do something, but she just looks so happy carrying around a dead (or still alive) animal.

That's total satisfaction, cat-style. :3

 

[Alaska]

My two cats are very good killers, but do not get the chance often since they are indoor only. Any rodent dumb enough to venture into my home has a very short life.

The older cat has not been outside since he was a wild kitten, but he remembered how to hunt. He used to keep rodents alive a long time when he caught them. The younger one stopped that. He goes in for an immediate kill. He killed one the older cat was playing with. Now the older one kills right away too.

They also kill an occasional bug or spider. The older one used to do amazing leaps high into the air and catch flies. His arthritis stopped that. He makes that chattering noise when he sees one, or a bird buzzes the window.

 

[Thursday]

Our indoor cats used to hunt bugs, but when I was still living in an apartment, the eldest one mistakenly ate one that was sprayed with pesticide (the apartment sprays thrice a year in the hallway). It was very traumatic for us both as I had to rush him to the vets when I saw him pee blood.

He was on liver medication for a while but is now, thankfully, fully recovered with little interest in hunting.

He's somehow imparted the knowledge to our other cats and they've all kept from biting anything they hunted. It's rare but there was a time when a roach found its way into our room and our youngest cat managed to strangle it with his mouth and spit it out dead, neat and whole. Although it would be better if we took care of it ourselves, it was hard not to be impressed! They usually leave the friendly ones (gecko, spiders) alone.

Our neighborhood cats outside though, they leave offerings at our doorstep. One time it was a dead bird, two dead rats, a few roaches...and a slipper. Lol. I suppose they're happy we don't drive them away when they nap in the garage.

 

[Katleya]

The only outside my cat gets to go to is a little patio where birds don't land, so the maximum he can aim for is bugs, but he is making the most of that. Because we have the only door that leads to that patio, and there is no possible access to it, we leave the door ajar at night so that he can come & go at his will around dawn, and lately, I've been waking up to huge dead flies next to my pillow.
Breakfast in bed, kitty style!

He's also taken to chasing & killing mosquitoes, with a level of efficiency I appreciate.

 

[tree]

Yes, they hunt the squirrels or chipmunks or mice that
are in the house. Sometimes the rodent is still alive
when I trade them a treat for their catch.

 

[emi00PM]

Mine do, mainly insects and mice but also birds. Which absolutely breaks my heart as every year that I've lived in this area, there seem to be fewer and fewer songbirds. Live in a rural community, and my cats are safe inside my fenced property. Yet they still kill and eat birds. I've found a solution to prevent bird hunting. Both of my females hunt and were originally strays who had to survive by hunting. So it's not something I can prevent without keeping them inside for the rest of their lives, which would lead to a great deal of depression and aggression and fighting on their parts. Something I attempted for several years.

I've covered their collars with a kind of clown fringe. Made them last week. It sticks out about two inches from their break-away collars. Apparently birds have somewhat poor eyesight close up and cats eyes are drawn to movement. That's one of the reasons felines can catch them, among others.

Birds see colour extremely well, the bright colours of these collars warn them of a stealthy predator creeping up, whereas cat's see muted blues and greens. Made these excruciatingly bright yellow and red collars that stick out and so far no poor birds have been caught in the jaws of my killer pets. Which has made me quite happy, although not my felines. They look silly wearing them outside, but, if it saves birds lives, I'm all for it.

How to Stop Cats from Killing Birds

My cat who passed away during Covid lockdown would hunt lizards all the time and would eat them, only eat those actually during the last months of his life which let him live longer. We had to save a dove he caught from him once, he was quite the hunter. None of our other cats do that though. Our boy cat is the laziest thing ever, once a lizard he tried to hunt ended up hunting him by biting his claw which I had to rescue them both from.

 

[Captain Mars]

My boys are indoor cats, oftentimes I wish they had more room to run. But this cramped and cruddy apartment isn't exactly a jungle gym. Secretly, I kind of enjoy the occasional mouse or roach sneaking in here, cause it gives them more of a chance to be active. And they ALWAYS know before any of us do. We encourage it as it keeps the apartment clean of vermin, and it keeps them sharp.