Cats having a constant source of protein from the garden

[FluffyBoots]

MY cats are very very good at catching small fluffy things of the rodent variety. Think shrews and baby mice. They are a team to contend with, and often I come down at night and they have several holed up in different corners of the house. it is a nightmare. They often behead them and leave bits (they don't like the tails) of intenstine, often gall bladder.

I could leave them outside, but they are terrified if they can't get in and will shout a lot to be let in (my fault, that old talking to them thing when they were babies making them more vocal).

Should I

• YABU - allow them to bring takeaway's into the house. It is their home. I have ny own takeaways. YANUB - harbour them under lock and key so that they can't go hunting.

NOTE - Some of this may perhaps be tongue in cheek x

I'm open plan unfortunately. I can keep them in the kitchen and three receptions rooms. But can restrict from coming upstairs. At least I don't have to wake up in a sea of small decapitated furry things.

Can you send me a link please? I can't seem to find them on Amazon. And do they cost the earth?

I guess the question is, are you a cat lover?!!

Get it.

Keep them in at night. They're wreaking havoc on the local wildlife. Mice may be plentiful (but not all types are) shrews, bats etc are not. I'm a cat owner and cat lover, but my little serial killers stay in at night and like it.

Yes, bells. Unfortunately mine can play Amazing Grace on theirs. They positively ring. The shrews regroup in amazement.

Keep them in at night. We always kept ours in at night. Cats will hunt more at dusk and dawn and it also reduces them fighting with other cats. My mum decided we would keep ours in after one to many vet trips for injury from other cats.

Has always helped reduce the presents they brought home also.

www.onlycat.com/

OP do you think that keeping your cat in at night will cause it harm?

I have and love cats who do go outside. We do not let them out at night, for this very reason. I love and value wildlife too. Most feline hunting happens at night and it has a huge impact on native mammal populations.

It’s the obvious, simple, responsible solution. I can’t comprehend why you insist on letting them out at night to wreak havoc on wildlife. Why are you making that choice?

Be aware that once an animal has been bitten it’s as good as dead. Cats have bacteria in their mouths that infects the wound, causing death. Sentimentality over playing animal hospital with injured wildlife is misplaced.

We have this thorough the summer and to top it off, every time it happens cat 2 wails at the top of his voice that he's brought us dinner until one of us goes to look at his magnificent efforts. It got worse when I was pregnant, they were clearly worried about my nutritional intake bless them. We now lock them out at night. Took a while for them to get used it but it's worked. We forgot the other night and we're woken to loud proclamations of our takeaway being delivered. Reminded me not to forget again!

The problem is that it isn't just at nighttime that they go hunting. My girls bought something in yesterday afternoon.

I also think that they can actually have a responsible place in society. My previous boy was, allegedly, an amazing ratter. We lived on the side of a hill, and a lot of neighbours who actually backed onto the hill were being bothered by rats. He saw them off. Chased them up the hill apparently. A legend in his own Iams time.

So is the problem that you like to protect these rodents? It certainly isn't nice to have the mess in one's house. As it is, I guess that it boils down to the fact that all animals have a hunting instinct. In having cats, you have to achnowledge that to restrict their hunting is to remove their hierarchy.

As a responsible cat owner, I will be getting one of the photographic catflaps that have been described on this thread. Unfortunately, this will probably mean that I won't be able to humanely put their kill out of distress and frequently have to clear up a pile of corpses outside the catflap.

You might not need to - mine were (are) prolific hunters - mice, shrews, birds, rabbits… we were on three rabbits a day at one point. I’ve had an OnlyCat for a few years now and they don’t even bother to try bringing stuff in now so it’s very rare to have any corpses. It honestly is the best thing I’ve ever bought!

For this reason alone my cats are out until 6am. They are insane hunters. If I keep them in they wail they house down at 2am to go out. I have to live here too and this is the compromise!

but mine are much less fussy, OP. They eat the whole of their prey. So that’s something.

Remove their hierarchy? You do know that domestic cats are not native to the UK? That they’re a domesticated, human-bred, imported species? They are not natural. They have no place in British ecology.

Domestic cats are an introduced predator that have a detrimental effect on native mammal populations.

Yes I care about that, of course I do. And I act to mitigate that impact.

Cats do more damage by hunting at night than during the day. Small mammals, including bats, mice, voles and shrews are out predominantly at dusk and night-time. So keeping cats in at night doesn’t prevent hunting but it does reduce its impact.

Here’s some advice from the Mammsl Society:

While some strategies have been shown to be largely ineffective in reducing predation – such as bells on collars –there are some techniques that have been proven to make a difference in many cases. These include ensuring cats receive a complete, meat-rich diet, playing with them daily to satisfy their instincts, and using a BirdsBeSafe cover on a quick-release collar. Limiting their time outside through implementing a night-time curfew can also bring predation down by reducing opportunity, without limiting a cat to experience of indoors life only.

I came to say this.

It’s been a game changer for us. Prey is kept outside (90% of the time).

Cat has smuggled one or two past it, but it takes a few attempts and he’s only brought dead prey in since we got the zero mouse (had a huge problem with him releasing live mice in the house, shrugging his shoulders and watching them cause huge damage).

Yes, I am perfectly aware and thank you for bringing that to the table (I would say bird table but that would be facetious). They were bred from species with strong hunting instinct which were required for survival.

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Thank you all for your great recommendations.

I've just looked at Zeromouse and they seem to be coming in at £300ish. Are there any cheaper alternatives?

Have a look at the OnlyCat VIPs Facebook group if you want to know more about it. Users post reviews and stories, tips, profile settings etc on it so you can get loads of information from actual users rather than the website (plus see funny videos of the contraband detection!)

Mine used to bring frogs that would SCREAM in a proper horror film way. Or bring tiny birds and release them in the house. I used to take them to the bird sanctuary and had to lie I found them as I felt embarrassed to enable the bird abuse...

Once he brought in a tiny live baby mouse, I tried to take it off him and he ate it really quickly right in front of me. Crunch crunch.

OK - to wade in a bit here - I have tried all kinds of things including Zeromouse/bells/restricting their movement at night - keeping them in and locking them out etc. It is upsetting to see small mammals being killed and played with. Unfortunately, mine will just adjust their hunting to the daytime and leave offerings outside the back door or on the patio.

I have been grateful at times though - as we are in the countryside we often get mice and small rats in the house - God knows how they get in (we do have a cellar so maybe there) but they do - and my girls will make sure they don't proliferate too much.

They have toys and scratching posts and are very well fed and content - but - the hunting instinct is very strong - they even stalk each other.

I do think there is an element of gift-giving in this as well - I had COVID badly and was pretty poorly and main assassin cat upped her gift-bringing and would come to find me and tell me very vociferously that she had brought something in - going as far once to actually bring a rat to me - I really believe she thought it would save me from starving.

I honestly don't think there is anything to do about it - short of just not having them - but on the other hand - both cats were rescue cats that were abandoned and far too young to leave their mothers and we rescued them. I think they like to rescue us too.

I read somewhere that cats see us as large hairless types of cats that are unable to hunt and there is an element of them helping us out.

Well, the Scottish Wild cat is native. And they are similar to the domestic moggy. Gamekeepers were less than happy to let them do their natural hunting. They were being poisoned, and on their way to extinction before the outbreak of WWI. The interval of the war gave them space and time to recover a little, as human endeavours were focused elsewhere. There would have been many furry predators which were eliminated by people.

I bet if we brought the Lynx, and wolf (both were native) population back, more than a few wild critters would be affected. I suppose the lynx is just another sort of puddy tat, just bigger.

30ish years ago I had a pair of newborns (humans, not cats). I also had two cats. One had had 4 kittens, and I managed to rehome the last one, took them to the vets, whereby the vet put first cat on the pill, and announced that the other one was pregnant, and did I want him to get rid of them? Huh? I was 37wks! How could I even think about that! Anyway I went into labour the following morning. Second cat had 3 kittens when my humans were just a couple of weeks old. First cat went loopy having been put on 'the pill'. Second one used to leave the babies the stairs. There were cats, kittens, babies, hormones, just bouncing off the walls. It was mayhem.

Gawd that must be pretty gruesome! Mine do sometimes bring in mice and birds.
The mice it's upsetting as they 'play' with them which really is just torture. It's sad to watch so I try and catch it and put it out in a bin bag.

With birds apparently they go for one bite that kills it instantly which is less cruel. But still sad.

None of mine have ever got anything bigger! But we are in the middle of the big city. Or maybe cats are just too slow!

It wasn't that I had reservations. My younger cat made it clear that that putting any kind of collar on him was Not Happening.