Cat's bringing in mice and other creatures

pboae

kendalls_cave wrote: »

I can't keep them in the house all of the time - they are so used to going out, i was willing to keep them in at night, but one of them very quickly worked out how to open the cat flap :eek:

But a board across the bottom of the door until they stop trying. Wedge a chair against it if you have to. Lock them out of the room with the cat flap in it. Put a little bolt on the door if they can open door handles.

These are just temporary measures until they get used to it.

In the meantime, the more you let them practice hunting, the more they will want to hunt. Whether they bring their prizes back to you or not.

I wouldn't expect a cat owner to keep a cat in all the time (though some cats are happy as house cats), but cats decimate local wildlfe, they cause hundreds of millions of deaths across the UK every year. Every cat owner has a responsibility to at least try and minimise the damage they do.

Phoenixx73

Solution.... you shouldn't be such a good cat owner as the mice, birds etc are simply presents of thanks to you. but in all seriousness, Just about every cat flap i have ever come across usualy comes with a plastic sheet that can be inserted into a slot on the flap preventing it from being used, and unless your moggie is a MENSA member they cant usualy get them out. You may want to look to see if such a slot exists on your flap, and if it does then surely it will be easy enough to find the appripriate thickness of wood or plastic to block up the hole (assumin that the plastic that came with the flap is long since lost)

All of the cats I have had in the past eventually grew out of the habit after they reached maturity (for some reason it is only the kittens and pubecent cats who seem to like to bring offerings to the gods of the whiskas tin)

angchris

my cat used to bring pressies home every single night, every morning i would wake up to find mice/water voles (i live by a brook) running around my house! the record was 13 in one night :eek: i got quite used to herding live mice out of the door :rolleyes: i also remember one particular occasion when my 4 year old cat and 6 month old kitten were both stood watching a mouse feed out of their dinner bowl :rotfl: i wish i had taken a photo! the only answer is to barricade the cat flap up.

vyvyan_2

I've had the usual mice and birds etc. occasionally in the summer I get bits of sausage and the odd chicken drum stick gone cold on someone's abandoned BBQ. Once one of my pressies was a pigeon. First prize was a very large, very male and very dead squirrel (must have been a special birthday pressie for me lol)

sandy2_2

Our best pressie was a live hen pheasant!!!Brought in and placed under our bed.

Goodness only knows how she got it thro' the cat flap

WeirdoMagnet

Like you (and others) suggest, we changed routine when our cat started bringing us live presents in the middle of the night. It was no fun trying to decide what to do with a live mouse at 3am in the morning, with the cat meowing at us to tell us how pleased he was, and trying to recatch the mouse! The cat flap we had allowed us to switch it from open both ways, to only allow the cat to come in, or only allow him to go out. We allowed him out in the day, but flicked the flap so that once he was in at night, he was in ALL night!

Good luck!

Zeldazog

Phoenixx73 wrote: »

All of the cats I have had in the past eventually grew out of the habit after they reached maturity (for some reason it is only the kittens and pubecent cats who seem to like to bring offerings to the gods of the whiskas tin)

I'd have to disagree with that - Cat#1 is nearly five years old and came trotting up the path only yesterday with "something" in her mouth.

Over the summer, she managed to catch a mole amonst other things....

ZootHornRollo

Phoenixx73 wrote: »

All of the cats I have had in the past eventually grew out of the habit after they reached maturity (for some reason it is only the kittens and pubecent cats who seem to like to bring offerings to the gods of the whiskas tin)

i have to disagree with this too.

our 13 yr old cat still brings live mice and birds in for the younger cat she treats as her kitten. she brings them home and tries to show the younger one how to hunt. facinating behaviour. the younger cat still couldn't catch a cold and she is now 9yrs old. but still the older one tries!

the other 9 yr old still brings in the dead mice, birds and the occasional rabbit.

we have elasticated collars on them all. they definately work (in terms of coming off if needs be) as occasionally one of them will come home without a collar. we have bells on them all (and these go missing sometimes too) but still they bring home the prey.

i think its simply what a cat does. you will never change it unless you keep them in.

Phoenixx73

This is true. my cats have always been house cats.

katy2

I don't have a cat flap, but used to leave the utility room window open for the cat, until I got fed up of all the presents being dragged indoors. Final straw was getting up one morning and only narrowly missing treading on a rat :eek: although thankfully it was dead.

If the cat is out at night, she nows comes and wails at the window if she wants in, disadvantage I have to get out of bed and open the window, but on the plus side I can at least see if she has anything in her mouth !