1st Live catch_ what do you do?

Pollycat

My cat has been a phenomenal hunter, although he's getting on a bit now and is not as quick as he used to be.

He was a farm kitten and has never really lost that feral instinct.
Whatever he's caught (usually voles, birds & rats), he brings home, yowls loudly outside the kitchen door to attract my attention then when I tell him what a good lad he is, he eats it.

All of it, except some small internal organ (gall bladder? bile duct?).
Voles take around 20 seconds, a large rat takes 2 or 3 minutes.

In my 30 year experience of keeping cats, you just can't stop them hunting.

lavidaloca

My best present from my only female cat was a live rabbit brought into our lounge. She deposited it on the hearth and lay down beside it. To do this though she walked between two great danes who were lounging in front of the fire and they never batted an eyelid. DH picked the rabbit up and took it outside down the garden and it took a few minutes for it to recover and then it was off.

GemmaB78

I've had all sorts from our two, particularly Jools, the boy cat.

They started with worms, then moved onto May bugs (the crunch they make as they are being chewed is quite revolting!), then onto bigger prey.

We've had:
numerous mice
ditto birds
rats
rabbits
moles
voles
squirrels

There were two 'best' catches that stick in my mind.

The first was a pair of magpies. He bought the first one in, meowing his head off to let us know. I said 'thank you Jools', took it off him, wrapped it in a plastic bag and put it in the bin. 30 mins later I went into the kitchen and there it was on the floor. How the hell had he managed to get it out of the bin? He hadn't - he'd caught ANOTHER one.

The second one was the rat which was still alive. He let it go and it kicked up a right old noise, squealing away. I jumped up on the sofa, yelling to my DH -to-be, to get it out, get it out. Floyd, the staffy x got excited, ran out to see what was going on, picked it up, shook it and dropped it - twice. So poor old Ben had to fend off the cat and the dog, whilst rescuing the rat, and dealing with a hysterical me!!

RacyRed

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

How on earth did you cat manage to get a live rabbit past 2 great danes! No need to ask who is boss among those three

These have had me in stiches! And I'm now wondering what kind of presents I can expect in the future. :eek:

The boy is still quite young and is just beginning to find his strength... but he was so proud of his first mouse

lavidaloca

RacyRed wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

How on earth did you cat manage to get a live rabbit past 2 great danes! No need to ask who is boss among those three

These have had me in stiches! And I'm now wondering what kind of presents I can expect in the future. :eek:

The boy is still quite young and is just beginning to find his strength... but he was so proud of his first mouse

Sadly none of them are with me now. She was quite a character. She used to sit under my office window eating dry bread or whatever she could find. So I brought her home to get her a good home and she did! I had quite a few danes and so had a "dog room" she used to sit on the chair arm next to the door and as a dane came through the door she would grab it by the muzzle with her two front paws and tap them either side of their face! They just used to shake their heads and walk on. Although last in she was the boss of the existing cats and dogs.

Millie's_Mum

I find with my cat its best not to throw the kill out too quickly, she generally eats them and leaves the nasty bit (as per yours pollycat, we aren't sure but some sort of 'mouse organ') but if she isn't eating it and I pick it up and throw it out she goes straight back out and kills another, so its safer for the birds/mice/small mammals population if I leave a while between her bringing it back and me removing it.

The other cat is only any good at catching butterflys which are clearly very dusty and not very nice tasting as she usually ends up coughing for hours after eating one.

RacyRed

Oh dear, I think Yogi has been reading the Old Style board!

I was cooking up some chickens for them today, some for now, most for the freezer. As usual Yogi was supervising very carefully while I was pulling off the odd stray feather and getting the chickens into pan sized portions.

He suddenly shot out of the cat flap and I thought to myself "At last! He has learned that chickens take a long time to cook and he will get a bit when they are done, so it is pointless pestering me before they are ready" Progress!

A while later the cat flap went again and I heard a little "meow" behind me. There was Yogi sitting proudly in front of a dead pigeon - a cold, well-dead, headless pigeon...
:eek:

Moneysaving little fella must have decided that I could cook his bird for him while I was doing the chickens!

Of course I praised him, carried the bird outside and set both cats to work plucking it

Mutter_2

RacyRed wrote: »

Oh dear, I think Yogi has been reading the Old Style board!

I was cooking up some chickens for them today, some for now, most for the freezer. As usual Yogi was supervising very carefully while I was pulling off the odd stray feather and getting the chickens into pan sized portions.

He suddenly shot out of the cat flap and I thought to myself "At last! He has learned that chickens take a long time to cook and he will get a bit when they are done, so it is pointless pestering me before they are ready" Progress!

A while later the cat flap went again and I heard a little "meow" behind me. There was Yogi sitting proudly in front of a dead pigeon - a cold, well-dead, headless pigeon...
:eek:

Moneysaving little fella must have decided that I could cook his bird for him while I was doing the chickens!

Of course I praised him, carried the bird outside and set both cats to work plucking it

I don't get the love for cats, but then praise them for killing birds.Make your mind up. Do you love animals or not?

How would you feel if my dog killed your cat? Should I praise him too? "Yay good boy, you took the head off the cat"

Pheasant was a visitor to the bird table.
6am, horrible screams. Later found a piece of Pheasant. Could only have been a bloody cat.
Ive tried to like them, but loath with a vengeance.

RacyRed

Mutter wrote: »

I don't get the love for cats, but then praise them for killing birds.Make your mind up. Do you love animals or not?

How would you feel if my dog killed your cat? Should I praise him too? "Yay good boy, you took the head off the cat"

Pheasant was a visitor to the bird table.
6am, horrible screams. Later found a piece of Pheasant. Could only have been a bloody cat.
Ive tried to like them, but loath with a vengeance.

Ah no Mutter, he hadn't killed it, he'd picked up a bird that I'd guess died overnight. It was stone cold when he brought it in and he'd only been out for 20 minutes or so.

The praise was for giving it up to me untouched, I'm trying to teach him to do that so that if, heaven forbid, he brings anything home alive I have a chance of saving it.

I love all animals but, if I'm watching a blue tit on the bird table and a kestrel swoops down and gets it, I know that is the way of the world.

Cats are predators and they are also, like many creatures, prey. I'd never encourage my cats to hunt, they are well fed and do not need any extra food, but their nature dictates that they will try to hunt. The only way I can have any influence on that is to encourage my cats bring anything they do catch to me untouched, so that I might at least have a chance of saving their victims if it is still possible.

I don't think Yogi will be touching birds again though, he threw up some feathers a little while ago and appears to have gone off the idea of pigeons entirely.

Buttonmoons

Oh had a cat (swift) that lived to age of 17 and was STILL hunting, she had survived getting swept away by an overflowing river and run over, she had a bit of a dodgy leg so god knows how she managed.

The one that sticks in my mind from the storys he has told me is Swift (which was a TINY cat) killed a rabbit and took it home, only for all the baby bunnies to follow, so there is about 5 baby bunnies in OH's parents living room and the dog zooms right in, picks them up one by one, carries them to his basket, and proceeds to groom them, lol.

The dog also did the same with the baby chicks, she'd had a litter of pups in Egypt (where they brought her back from) only 1 survived (which they kept) and was obsessed by babys. She stole the cats kittens aswell and ended up getting a mighty big scratch on her nose for that!

Really lovely dogs, though you couldn't be near them if they saw a sheep, looked like they had rabies with all the foam they produced!