To be really upset with my cat

[elprup]

I adopted a young male rescue cat last summer. He’d been living stray and had a difficult start in life, so I thought I was doing a good thing.

About six months after letting him outside he began catching quite a lot of mice, which although not ideal, I could just about cope with.

However, he has now moved on to birds and has caught about four in the space of two weeks. I’m so, so upset by it.

This morning he came into my bedroom for a snooze and then went outside into the garden. I went down about 20 minutes later to find him in the kitchen with another dead bird in his mouth. I can’t believe he’s managed to kill another one just 20 minutes after being let out this morning.

He’s a lovely cat apart from this but honestly, I’m really regretting adopting him now.

I’m considering a collar with a bell but have read they can cause injury to cats if the quick release mechanism fails or doesn’t work fast enough.

I just hate to see all these lovely birds being slaughtered. What can I do?

I got my two cats collars - they chewed them off each other 😂

Agree bell collars might not make much difference.

I used to think - what sort of a stupid bird/squirrel must be so slow to let my fat noisy cat catch it ! It's natural selection - will ultimately make the bird/squirrel species stronger !

I did feel sorry for the mice as my cats seemed to play with them more than eat them and if I caught them in time I would rescue them!

Apparently causing a fuss sets the cat a challenge to bring in something better so you need to dispose of any dead birds with the least fuss possible. Apparently giving them a toy as a replacement works well too. Our cats brought in dead animals as kittens and really ramped it up when we got a dog as they came in with live animals I think that was probably due to the dog then getting over excited! They do tend to slow down as they get older.

What about magpies and crows?

They kill baby birds and they don't get slated for doing it.

My poor (now departed) Mr Booboo, who was a feral kitten, managed to kill a pigeon when he was belled, had only one eye and was 17. I always kept a belled collar on him or he'd have slaughtered everything in the neighbourhood. The collars disappeared frequently, but they did help.

One of my cats has a massive and loud bell and it makes no difference (the other two don’t hunt). In the last three days he has brought in 2 rats, a wood pigeon and this morning, a crow!!! I have no idea how he gets them through the cat flap.

Cats are hunters and will kill birds, mice and frogs, mine catches rabbits 😐

You can try with a collar but if he’s anything like my cat he will be out of it within minutes.

The fact he brings his catch home for you means he loves you 😁

We have three cats and all bring in regular kill, two more than the other one. We get shrews, voles, mice, birds...even baby rabbits. We find entrails and organs and heads and tails lying on the floor as well as corpses that have been toyed with then abandoned. It is pretty horrible and we do say what a shame it is, as we dispose of them in disgust.

Some cats aren’t very killy but lots are. Sorry you’ve been upset by it but there’s little you can do to stop it.

My cats a hunter

Usually just rats and mice but the occasional bird too

She never used to, but then last year, she just started and hasn’t stopped.

We can’t put a collar on her. She panics so much that she’s more likely to hurt herself.

That info from the RSPB makes me feel slightly better, thanks Bodgeit.

Right, off to clear up a load of feathers from the kitchen now

This is why I don't have a catflap. My cat is always hunting mice, not birds so much. He's had a few frogs too and once managed to kill a rat from across the road 😱 thought that was quite impressive as he's not a big cat.

I don't want any of that shit in my house so he waits on the doorstep/window ledge to be let in. He always comes in at night though and we don't lock him out. He leaves his 'gifts' on the path mostly as he can't get them in the house.

Also collars/bells have never been a solution for us, he's lost about 20 collars within a day each time so I've given up on them.

He's being a cat.

However would velcro collars be any good?
I've heard those exist - might be worth looking how they release.

Or www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_carriers_travel/collars/reflective_nylon_cat_collars/51994 or an elastic one which will expand if they are caught.

I haven't used either but might be worth considering if you want to put a bell on. They do learn to move without making the bell move though so it might be short term solution if use did you them.

He’ll outgrow it. Mine did this and now, at 16, just sleeps. It didn’t last long really and a safety collar with a bell really does stop it.

This is ONE one of the reasons I hate cats....I do have a 13 year old rescue cat and thankfully she's never done this shit. But years ago I had a female cat and her son and it got ridiculous both of them ended up bringing pigeons and even fucking ravens into my house along with rats etc, it was a daily thing I had to rehome them in the end (together) as it got beyond "normal" the boy cat would devour mice in my kitchen then spew up a cocktail of mouse guts and worms 🤮🤢
I had a baby crawling about and though I still miss them it was barbaric behaviour something I'd never seen before having cats...they were loving to us lovely cats but that was another level. I remember once the mum cat killing a raven in the garden and I kid you not I had 20 ravens circling and crowing in my garden for the rest of the night.
The killing isn't nice but it's cats nature and should be considered if you don't like that kind of thing.
My rescue cat who I have had for 6 years hasn't done it may be an age thing? But aging cats come with a whole heap of other issues honestly cats are fucking stressful and they don't really give you much back unlike dogs. I know my dogs wants a cuddle because she loves me...my cat wants a cuddle because she's a greedy fucker and wants food.
I'll miss her when the time comes but I won't get another.

@pictish

I came downstairs one morning half asleep and trod in the guts of a dead pigeon yuk! My husband had to wash my feet for me because I nearly threw up. :(

He’d been living stray and had a difficult start in life, so I thought I was doing a good thing

So basically you were doing it for You , there were literally 1000s of cars out there , you could've got a cat because someone was allergic/moving/gone into hospital. But you chose an ex-stray .

Your cat has had to survive being a stray . He has made it while hundreds don't . Let him live his life .

Yes , I am a vegetrarian (as are my DH and DD)
I kept guinea-pigs for years but I kept them 100% safe because cats and foxes will have them.

I have 2 cats now (CPL) and they will be hunters I can tell.
It's part of being a cat.
No collars , I don't agree with them, they're chipped .

They also wear real fur , do I tell them off for that?

If you cannot cope with his lifestyle it might be kinder to return him to Rescue ? He has a good 10-15 years ahead of him. He might be happier somewhere else unless you can accept that you didn't research him and adapt your expectations .

Can you tell I'm

Just to say to anyone who is considering a rescue, not all strays do it! Mine was stray on the streets for 4 years and the most he's brought me is a leaf (he was very proud of it) and a white feather which I had seen in the garden beforehand
He couldn't catch a cold

Also start to be aware of the global damage your meat eating is causing. As well as any gardening/lifestyle choices.

Eh?! What does this have to do with the OP's problem?

I wish we could do a cat-swap. Our house is overrun with mice and our cat runs away from them. There was one running around the kitchen sink the other day and we took her over to show her and she took off like a streak of lightning!
Unfortunately we're quite attached to the silly thing.

Miley I have popped a shrew. Think standing on a slug is bad?
Sorry folks, that’s awful I know. It is gruesome.
I cleared up some partly digested creature this morning. I love the cats, all three...they are friendly, fluffy, adorable companions but they are murderous twats as well and it’s easily the number one downside of owning them for me. They are otherwise very well-behaved and delightful.

Collars do cause injuries as earlier posters have said. There was an animal series on television years ago, with Rolf Harris, that featured a black cat called Mackenzie. Mackenzie had a severe collar wound from an elasticated collar and was only just saved from having a foreleg amputated, but the wound took over a year to heal. If a cat gets a forelg caught in a collar that doesn't break, the collar can easily saw into the soft flesh behind the elbow. It often doesn't heal properly because the flesh is moving with every slight movement the foreleg makes.

My cat gets on well with Ancol reflective breakway collars. He has his name, address and phone number on a metal tag on the collar, and loses a collar every couple of months. He's a high maintenance mog. Most of the collars have been returned, they've been found hanging on a fence, sometimes just lying in someone's garden or on the street, but three times neighbours have gone to the trouble of fishing a collar out of a tree. I'm very grateful to my neighbours who do this.

Get a breakaway collar, definitely not an elasticated one, and also not a flea collar. Flea collars cause skin problems in many cats, and there are better ways to treat a cat for lfeas. Mine has a six-monthly injection at the vet, it works.

One of ours is a hunter (well, the others half-heartedly chase butterflies!) and likes to kill mice and eat them, except for the head which she leaves for us, mostly outside but often in the hall. Its not pleasant but she's a cat. She's from feral stock so I assume its in her blood to hunt. You can't rehome a cat for being a cat.

Get rid of your catflap?

Then you are in charge of admission to the house...

I have a boy hunter. He has still managed to sneak things in through open doors or windows on warm weather but with a catflap we would be a treasure trove. Also, don't let them out at night, or at dusk.

You'd better hope he doesn't bring a live frog in. They won't eat them : but you are saddled with a frog hopping all over your front room.

My previous cat would have helped if she had hunted. We had regular mouse infestations in our old house and she slept in a cupboard while they all scurried around her.

My friend has this with her cat.She doesnt like it ,but accepts its what cats do!.I have a dog as couldnt cope with all these"gifts" either TBH. He probably thinks he is doing you a favour by helping you with food!Maybe try him with a collar and bell?.If not then you will have to learn to live with it or get a different pet!

We've always had cats but only one truly great hunter. Nothing was safe which was sad at first but yes its what cats do. Ours just did it incredibly well. The benefit to us was that spiders didn't dare darken our doorstep while she was alive. The cats we have now just give dirty looks to the occasional bird but are far too lazy to bother with spiders.