to want to stop my cat from leaving 'gifts' for me to find in the mornings

[blackmonday]

my cat has started bringing in dead and alive animals through the cat flap and I can't stand it. I know it's only natural for them to hunt but I can't stand waking up and finding torn apart birds, mice (sometimes live) and frogs in the kitchen. I am totally squeamish and can't cope with it at all, plus the kids find it upsetting. The cat can't go all night without going to the toilet so i have to leave the cat flap open. I can't abide litter trays in the house so that's not a solution. is there any way of stopping her doing this? thanks,

Put collar with bell on cat altho that a bit cruel IMHO. Although not as cruel as keeping cat inside all the time.

Our 2 cats go through phases of hunting stuff, but seems to have quietened down a bit lately. Worst was a poor live blackbird 'stored' in my bedroom.

Good luck!

'Put collar with bell on cat'

ROFL!!

Never bloody worked with my cat,or my mum's!

Only thing that worked is when we moved house, I decided against putting a cat flap in the back door. He tells us when he wants in or out, and we have a litter tray as well if he is shut in.

Apart from controlling their entry to the house, there is nothing you can do. It's natural for cats to hunt.

It's our poor milkman I feel sorry for. He has to step over various disembowelled fauna to deliver the milk. I put in a one way cat door so they can get out but not back in without me letting them. The house backs on to woodland so there is a lot of small furry stuff out there for them to get . I think it's actually a magnetic catflap but the magnets are long gone. I put cat houses in the garage so they have somewhere to go at night if they are shut out of the house.

Magnetic catflaps!

Another reason why I decided not to get a cat flap again... my cat is a ginormous brown tabby but as he is a neutered tom, is a complete wuss. He was bullied by this even huger black tom cat at our old house who forced his way through our magnetic cat flap to beat up my poor mog

Apparently you should praise them lots everytime they bring something in.

If you don't praise them, the theory is that they think that they haven't impressed you enough or pleased you so they bring more presents in.

Not sure if it works though.

You can't alter nature. Cats hunt. They love hunting but rarely need the nourishment provided by their prey. Hence they eat bits, get bored and then leave you headless carcasses or bits of tail (tail clearly not being tasty).
I've never known a bell to work either since cats are amazingly skilful at hunting without ringing collar bells. Basically, you have chosen to have a cat. You'll need to toughen your children up and try and be less squeamish yourself. Get some heavy rubber gloves and a shovel so that you can easily scoop up "remains". In the meantime, try a magnetic catflap or just not letting your cat out overnight. Not that cats hunt exclusively overnight.

Hello...my cat uses a covered litter tray in the house so doesn't need 24hr access to the garden via a catflap. Which means that any presents are dropped on the backdoor step for me to find when I take my washing out!!

If the cat has left something clearly dead then I spray the remains and area with kitchen cleaner with bleach...this gets rid of any flies etc buzzing around. Then I have an old brush and shuffle saved for this purpose...get my rubber gloves on and shuffle up solid mess into a dog poo bag. Brush up any feathers etc then spray the area again to clean. Dispose of dog bag double tied in a binbag into my outside bin.

Once he had a little bird that was ok but seemed dazed...we shut the cat into the house and took the little bird and placed into the hedge to recover. Checked again an hour later and it was gone...I said it was better and flew off. Cynical 14year old nephew said that it had been caught by another cat or a fox!!

My cat must be getting smart to my efforts though as he recently wandered into the house bold as brass...straight into the kitchen...opened his mouth fully and deposited a LIVE MOUSE on the floor!!! I hadn't even seen that he was hiding it. Mouse tried to escape up a pipe in the kitchen and had to be retrieved by me and an old pair of BBQ tongs!!!

The first time my cat caught a bird I cried and felt so responsible and like a bad mum!! I kept saying that I couldn't look at the little hunter in the same way...then he climbed onto my knee and fell asleep. And I forgave him

Bells don't seem to work, however they might bring in twice as many critters without one! My cat is only a kitten, in the summer she was very small yet was already bringing in butterflies and frogs so I'm dreading fledgling season when even my camp old wussy cat (RIP ) would bring in baby birds.
Can you make the catflap one way? So if she has to go out she can't bring anything back in. It's a shame but they all do it. I can only suggest a really big bell!

i can make the catflap one way, might do that. i'm always up at about 6am to let her back in. would that be okay or a bit mean?

Get rid of cat flap. Let cat in and out yourself and if it stays out past your bedtime, consider getting one of those outdoor plastic cat houses so it has shelter in teh cold.

outdoor plastic cat house sounds like a great idea. She can bring her prey into her own house to her hearts content!

I've been wondering about whether to get a kat kabin for the past year or so now

Get rid of cat flap - cats can learn to 'hold on' all night esp if allowed a trip out prior to locking the door. It may take a week or so but she will get it. I still see them standing at the French door though bird in mouth - yuck but at least they can't get in. There is wooden playhouse too

Poinsettydawg, we have a kat kabin and it's completely brilliant. It stays permanently in the garden and my mog curls up in it very happily day or night if he is stuck outside (no cat flap here).

No suggestions to stop unwanted gifts I'm afraid. Ours went through a phase of bringing in critters but then just stopped - don't know why.

We got fed up of this too. Our cats went one better though and brought in rats that were still ALIVE. NOT fun at 3am, let me tell you...!

We lock our cats outside at night now.

so glad I don't have cats anymore.

The worst were the ones that were in agony, nearly dead so you had to finish them off rather than leave them to die slowly and in pain.

I would definitely say that dead/dying animals is worse than a litter tray. Locking him in is the only way you will solve this, collars with bells don't work

good to hear you like the kat kabin, flora. I'm sure I'll get one one day

My cats leave them right outside my bedroom door. But they are indoor cats, and their kills are their stuffed toy birds..and catnip socks!
Sorry, I wasn't much help.

My cat brought a live one in a few weeks ago then left it behind when she saw me coming - we put a mouse friendly trap down but never caught anything so assumed she'd been back and eaten it.

About a week before christmas she started staring at the cooker like it was a TV which was strange, then boxing day when I put my baking trays away I found the little rodent sitting in the cupboard under the cooker. From the looks of the nibbled food I found in there it had been living on chocolate that had slid under the cooker so it got called smarties .

We did catch it and put it outside and hoped the cat had learnt her lesson, then two days later my m&d came to stay so she brought them a blue tit in for a pressie. It did get a smack bum for that one.