Cats hunting

[sleepwhenimred]

My cat has discovered a love of hunting since becoming an outdoor cat recently. I'm waking up to little "presents" almost daily now. They won't keep a collar on at all. Is there anything I can do to discourage this?

[MontStMichel]

Keep them in at night! Cats are crepescular (sp?) hunters - ie they hunt at dawn and dusk. They will still catch the odd thing in the daytime, but hopefully they are too tired after breakfast and have to sleep it off for hours!

[Fluffycloudland77]

They need to be in overnight anyway as it’s a bad time for car accidents.

Our bengals always been in overnight apart from one night when he refused to come in till 4am and dh waited up for him.

[gwhizz75]

We’re dealing with this issue at the minute too and have come to the same conclusion as the PPs. Our boys generally bring mice in overnight or the odd bird at dusk so now we are getting them in before it starts getting dark and keeping the cat flap locked until the morning. I feel bad for them because they love going out but my nerves can’t take it anymore! I was dreading coming downstairs in the morning, or getting up for the toilet in the night. Never know what you’re going to find and in what condition!!

[HippyTrails]

ensure you say thank you very very much to your cat for it's lovely gift - this is for you & if you appear displeased they will think it isn't enough & bring you bigger & better ones

[sleepwhenimred]

@HippyTrails that is hilarious. I will definitely thank her as I carefully dispose of her prize.

Thank you all. We will just have to keep her in at night and ignore her inevitable protests!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Little dead gifts are a part of the Cat/Human relationship.

We haven't had any from our new cats but they've only been out a handful of times , during the day and well supervised .

Previous cat brought in a whole manner of trinkets - fieldmice, sparrows , bits of bread, chicken skin a live frog (I rescued it from her , frog was unharmed ) and a starling that she wranged through the catdoor,the kitchen,hallway ,stairs and onto our bedroom floor alive (managed to keep it in a box overnight and released it)


Three of us in the house are vegetarian so the cats view us with suspicion and pity . I think they'll TagTeam and bring us the fat pigeon in the garden. Hopefully not the squirrels or magpies .

There's no way round it except acceptance

[MontStMichel]

Imo, this sums the cat take on life, as we went to work on Friday - our female cat was in the back garden, trying (and failing) to catch a rook! Her brother was in the front garden, sniffing the flowers!

Females are much better hunters, because they have to feed kittens - although perhaps rooks is being a bit over ambitious!

[Guiltypleasures001]

We had a rabbit in our shed, dh couldn't find it over that weekend, helpfully the cat found it for us, and left it in the middle of my kitchen floor.

She had dragged it through the kitchen window, which was nice 🥺

[Judystilldreamsofhorses]

Our cat is five, and just this last few months has started to kill things. She doesn’t bring them in, but “plays with them” in the garden, chucking them about, twirling around, jumping in the air, absolutely full of joy. She’s in overnight, but her prime killing time is actually about 8pm, when it’s still broad daylight.

[Guiltypleasures001]

Ours is in at night, her prime killing time is when she's awake 😒

[SciFiScream]

Glad I found this thread as my two are so good at hunting and killing. They go through quick release collars so fast (I buy batches from Amazon).

So our cats are:
Always collared
Extra bells (up to 3!)
Not let out at prime killing time (dawn/dusk/after weather changes)
Kept in overnight/when it's dark
Well fed
Played with
Well groomed

Still catching lots of birds, rodents and recently a frog. One cat brought home a pigeon bigger than she is!

We've chased them so often they don't bring their prizes home now but ideally I'd like to stop them.

Any other suggestions? I've looked at the cat bibs and riffs online but don't want to buy if they don't work.