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've had 3 cats, only one of those would hunt. We backed into fields and he would bring in voles, shrews and mice mainly. In the summer he would climb up the trellis during the night, jump on the bed through the window with gifts for me. That was fun

My neighbour's cat (he was trying to move in) once brought me all number of gifts. I 'cured' him by simply acknowledging and then removing - not making a fuss either way. In the end, he stopped. Another cat that lived near me would eat his prey - that was different.

@Mileysmiley I love Simon's cat , thanks for the post it made me chuckle

Get a safety collar and put about six bells on it. That's what I did and my cat hasn't caught anything since

A bell on a collar will only work in the short term, it will teach the cat to stalk more effectively so as not to alert the victim to bell, I hate collars on cats, Op he is just doing what cats do, sadly they are little serial killers but they are cute and fluffy so we forgive them their shortcomings.

Would you consider keeping him inside permanently OP? It's not the done thing in the UK (and I wouldn't do it personally unless medically necessary), but in the US it's completely standard, and you'd be considered very irresponsible to let them out. They of course have larger predators that face a real threat to pets, and the climate can be riskier too. If American cats can thrive indoors I'm sure yours could too. I follow a few rescue cat accounts on IG and adult ferals and strays are often rehomed as indoor domestic cats.

For goodness sake stop the high meat diet! Haven’t you heard of climate change what chance have we got when we’re feeding meat to bloody cats!

My cat doesn’t catch anything as I don’t let her out, you can also reduce his hunting ability by cat proofing your own garden, its easy and fairly cheap.

My cat had an easy release collar, she ended up with a severe neck injury when it became snagged on a door handle when I was at work. She needed surgery, she was lucky not to be strangled. Her collar was a ‘safety’ collar, she weighs 6kg so a big cat. I would never put a collar on a cat, I was just ignorant to the risks at the time.

Cats are hard wired to kill birds and mice etc Nothing you can do about it really!
If you want a pet that doesn’t kill things maybe consider a rabbit?
Deffo shouldn’t return the cat though otherwise you are punishing her/him for being what they are

@shelikesemwithamoustache my rescue boy dragged a live pigeon in through the kitchen window the second week we had him. (also, i love your Bowling for Soup user name)

we have four cats (well, 5 temporarily but the extra one doesn’t go out) and have had all manner of gifts. our little black and orange girl is named Ted Bundy (Teddy for short) and grew into her name by becoming a prolific and ruthless murderer. she once brought in a live bird, was persuaded to let it go in exchange for Dreamies (these exchanges are like Sicario - carefully planned but occasionally go wonky), whereupon one of the other cats caught it. the bird was eventually released, having had quite the morning.

apart from the pigeon, my rescue boy brings tiny things to me as an expression of his love. we got him at 7 months. until he arrived he had never been outside, having been mistreated and injured as a tiny boy. he was taken in by RSPCA at 5 months with a hernia from squeezing, horrible eye infections and his teeth were painful with bleeding gums. 2 years later, and he is basically Burt Reynolds - all shiny hair and gleaming teeth - and mostly stalks butterflies with the occasional shrew. the initial excitement seems to have worn off a bit, and he doesn’t do it so often now.

bear with him, OP. he’s just being Cat. for a rescue, that’s an awesome thing. mine has only learned to play, and have a wash, by being around other cats as he wasn’t taught as a little, and his socialisation window was when his abuse happened so he literally didn’t know what to do about anything.

anyway. i understand that it is in fact Against The Rules not to post photos of your cat. here is mine.

1: RSPCA Sad Face
2: Burt Reynolds, and
3: Idiot

For goodness sake stop the high meat diet! Haven’t you heard of climate change what chance have we got when we’re feeding meat to bloody cats!

Meat isn't a luxury for cats, they need it, unlikely the majority of people in Wealthy countries,

I think you are being rather OTT. They are cats

My cats used to bring mice in all the time and I hated it too.

One solution - get a cat flap installed. set it to one way - cat can get out but can't get in unless you open the door for it.

A bell could work too on his collar.

When we moved house (out into the countryside) our cats who'd never caught much before started bringing us multiple dead mice and birds every single day. We tried shop bought collars with bells, which didn't have much effect, so they now have quick release collars and attach 3 or 4 bigger bells on each, and it seems to have done the trick, haven't had anymore dead animals, apart from one mouse in the night cat2 lost his collar, which proves they're working! We bought a huge bag of the bells on Amazon, and another set of 20 quick release collars. The bells have a keyring clip so you can just attach them straight onto the collars, and it's cheaper than buying the collars with the pathetic little bells on. They've only lost one collar each so far, and we found one outside anyway. I couldn't handle the stress of finding dead animals every morning, so this was our last resort. Cats are probably annoyed I've put an end to their fun, and the ridiculous jingling is annoying as hell, but it's a small price to pay, to save anymore little creatures being killed imo!

My cats got a bell with a safety collar, he’s never killed anything x

Meat isn't a luxury for cats, they need it, unlikely the majority of people in Wealthy countries

Cats are a luxury too surely? Logic fail I’m afraid.

For goodness sake stop the high meat diet! Haven’t you heard of climate change what chance have we got when we’re feeding meat to bloody cats!

Cats are carnivores by nature (they have a short gut and canine teeth )

Humans otoh can live as vegans or vegatarian.

I have been vegetarian by choice for the last 39 years of my life so in theory , I can have cats because I do care how animals are kept and killed .
But it goes against my ethics because I am keeping a meat eating animal who I have to buy meat based products for .

If we all thought too deeply , we'd never do anything .
Maybe the answer is to ban the breeding of all animals unless they are a certified breeder , not for profit . And by law they will keep any animals they don't sell .
Then there will be no Gumtree I have an adorable litter of kittens for sale £50 each.....blah blah adverts .

They might be a 'luxury' but no more than the other 101 luxuries that many of us in wealthy nations enjoy daily or frequently. I suspect that most won't be in a hurry to stop eating out, eating meat, buying food grown abroad or out of season, driving, going on holiday, shopping for things we don't need, living in a house bigger than we need, having parties etc.

Cats are no more a luxury than any other domestic or farm animal, no more a luxury than having a child or a partner. Its just someone/ something you choose to live with and help meet their needs and they meet some of your needs.
Its not a luxury to feed an animal what it needs to be healthy, especially if you're also attempting to stop it catching its own fgs

exWife - I love your cat. Good for him (and you)!

Do some research, maybe when you’re assuaging your not very great guilt you can see what rspb advise about when to keep your cat in to minimise killing of songbirds. Shame as their populations are struggling at the mo, please try to make some effort. And get a Velcro collar with bell. Cat will be fine.

I had cats that would bring in birds, i didn't bat an eyelid. Why? Because they are doing what comes naturally to them. I have a kitten and when she decides if she wishes to go out and catches a bird I can deal with it because it is instinct.

Just think how many more wild animals he would be killing if you hadn't adopted him!

It's OK to feel sorry for the wild animals in question but please don't get angry or upset with your cat or let it affect how you feel about him. He really isn't doing anything wrong.

Try telling Burke&Hare here not to chase the pigeons and squirrels

My two have aspirations

My cat used to remove the ringer from the bells on her collar. The dog actually killed more birds than she did. He was an ace frisbee player, so bird on the wing was pretty easy.

Our little ginger bastards have been known to bring in dead squirrels. That's fun to find.

And Little Ginge once opened the cat flap and posted a live mouse through it into the kitchen, then buggered off. He was most perturbed when he came back and we had got rid of it.

Cats are fuckers.