Cat Hunting

Cat Hunting skills have never really been lost throughout the whole process of cat domestication. Your kitty will still feel the need to go out and hunt birds, mice, frogs, in fact anything that is small enough to catch. This is a puzzle to most people as they can’t understand why cats continue to hunt, even though we provide plentiful food and water for them.

Funnily enough it was the cat hunting skills that first endeared the cat population to humans in the first place. Thousands of years ago when humans began to grow their own crops, mice and rats began to become a problem in the storing of these foodstuffs. The cat’s ability to kill rodents with ease and their apparent acceptance of humans meant that they were welcomed into people’s homes. So cat hunting was admired, in fact cats which were prolific hunters became very valuable animals and their off spring could be bought and sold for large sums of money.

The cat – the perfect carnivore

From a very early age kittens are taught by their mothers that mice and birds etc are good to eat. She will bring them to her kittens alive and dead to play with and to eat. Eventually they will watch her stalk and catch prey and will learn the techniques themselves. There is no way for us to prevent this, even if kittens lose their mother they still have a natural instinct to chase and catch fast moving small items.

The need to kill does not remain for most domesticated cats as their owners provide their food for them. However it seems that cat hunting is more than just a way to feed them selves but is also a sense of pleasure for them. Many happy hours are spent hiding and stalking prey and then pouncing and chasing the prey around. In fact I’m sure a lot of cats do not want to intentionally kill the prey. Little Mo always looks so upset and disappointed when her furry plaything stops running away. She then just leaves it for me to find in the morning. Rarely does she have a chew at it.

Unusual cat hunting behaviour.

  I am often asked questions about certain strange cat behaviour associated with cat hunting. Many people just can’t understand what on earth their cat is doing when they catch sight of their prey. Here are the two most commonly asked questions and answers here.

• Chattering teeth – Have you ever seen a cat watching a bird through a window? It’s body tenses up, the bird is fixed with a constant stare and then quite strangely the cat begins to chatter its teeth and emit a strange rattling noise. This is known as a vacuum reaction. The cat has become so engrossed in the sight of it’s prey, that it starts to imagine that it has already caught the prey and is killing the animal with it’s bite. The cat has a very distinct way of biting its prey, which ensures a quick death with little risk to it’s self. This biting action is similar to the chattering teeth motion you see at the window.
• Head swaying - Cats will often sway their head from side to side very quickly just before they pounce on their prey. It is important for the cat that when they do pounce that they do not miss their target. Cats have binocular vision which when they shake their head quickly allows them to accurately judge just how far away their prey is and so gives them a better chance at hitting their target.

Why do cats play with their prey?

• Firstly for a well-fed domesticated cat living in a nice clean home, finding a mouse or rat can be a rare experience. So the excitement of the chase is something that your cat wants to prolong and enjoy. After all if it wanted to it could just use it’s specialised bite to instantly kill the prey, but where’s the fun in that. After all the cat is not attacking the prey for food, so the instinct for the chase is the stronger of its emotions.
• Secondly, you may be watching a female cat trying to catch an animal and keep it alive to present to her young family for training purposes as mentioned above.
• Lastly it may be that the cat is nervous of its prey and does not wish to get hurt. This is especially true with rats, as they can give a very nasty bite. In these cases the cat is probably trying to subdue the rat until it is able to give the killing bite, which has to be administered to the nape of the neck to be sure of killing the prey outright.

Why does my cat give me dead animals?

Is there anything we can do to stop our cat hunting?

A bell attached to a collar is a good first warning to any prey that may be being crept up upon. Perhaps a little frustrating for your cat, but they still some of the hunting experience.

Keeping your cat in side during the hours of dawn and dusk when small rodents are most active may safe the odd field mouse etc, but the birds will have to be vigilant all day long.

Make sure you feed your cat adequately so that it does not go out still feeling hungry and on the lookout for an extra snack. Follow the guidelines on the cat food for your cat’s size and age.

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