My big/little hunters

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

He's fierce, all right. Birds and mice should be frightened!

My childhood cat was a hunter, as well. Her mother was an urban alley cat and raised her kittens to hunt. We couldn't keep her inside -- not without going crazy anyway. She "gifted" us with all sorts of critters, even baby bunnies plucked from their nest (not much of a challenge, I'd say). The neighbors used to call her "Killer," and complained after she died that the squirrels and rabbits were running amok in their gardens.

My indoor cats just hunt bugs, which is fine with me. We had a small infestation of sewer flies a few weeks ago (thankfully taken care of!), and all those flies in the house drove the cats nuts!

Last year my cats caught a few mice in the house. The mom of the kittens I adopted after finding them sitting on the porch all wet after a storm kills her gifts. My older cat, who was about 4 then, didn't know about that part. She offered her offering and it ran into the closet with the shoes.

But they are my bug removal system. Last year when spring sprung there hordes of them. Oklahoma has insects that crawl and fly that I'd never seen. But once my then only cat discovered them they vanished. I hardly ever see one this year with all the kitties. Much better way to keep them down over using poision. And free cat toys.

I really prefer if the mice just stay outside. But since I won't use poision cats are a reasonable way to control them. On my block atleast, there are lots of animals and nobody uses poision. I've had a major mouse investation and its incredsable the damage you can get, not to mention the risk of disease they carry.

One way I've heard to keep from getting any rodents in your house is to have a pet snake. They can smell them and will not nest near a snake.

As for eating, flies and other insects are a gulp. The dogs love to catch flies too. The mice Mom caught were presented to me and were tossed out in the yard for one of the ferals to dine on. The one my older cat caught who she chased to the bathroom after she let it go was gone...

[Masika]

Originally Posted by Garden of Eden

Masika, stalking and hunting is the natural instinct of the cat, yes, even domesticated ones. As for the diarrhea, my educated guess, is that it is from eating raw bird, something your cat has not had previously, and his digestive tract went WHAT??? No harm done.

As for experience with what your cats are doing.....One year, my Karma, strictly indoors, got out of the back door, and because of who he is, did not run, and I thought, "oh how cute". Within two seconds, before I could blink my eyes, that cat jumped and caught a bird on one of the bird feeders. Shocked, I ran over to Karma, and told him to put that bird down NOW! He did! But, he was spitting out feathers for a few hours.

The bird was OK. He flew away unharmed. Whew!

Tau is fine, no diarrhea, just one incident and she has been fine.
I agree, her digestive track went "what the heck was that?"

Cats are fast as all heck, and if I didn't have a roof over the compound the bird might have gotten away. Merlin just flew up there, and he too would have flown the "coop" haha. It was hard, but I gave it a burial after. I now many cat peeps let their cats run free, but we have two coyotes in our park, and I believe there is now a litter. In the middle of the park there is a fenced in pond area, lots of trees, excellent hiding places. ducks, geese and rabbits all make their homes there. We have notice a huge drop off in feral cats and rabbits. Our poor neighbor say one of her cats being carried away, but she still lets one run loose *smh*

Two of my cats walk on leashes, but I carry a big walking stick and keep an eye out at all times. one man was out walking his dog and the coyote was stalking them in broad daylight. I was up at about 2am the other morning and say one trotting down the middle of the road. No doubt you can't let any animals run free around here.