Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Do you think it's possible for a cat to kill a squirrel?

39 replies

rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 16:52

I have just noticed on my garden something that looks suspiciously like a squirrel's tail. It's furry & was definitely attached to something but I'm trying to convince myself that none of my cats would be able to catch, let alone kill a squirrel. They've never had anything bigger than a vole and there is no sign of any body with the tail. Please reassure me that my cats couldn't possibly be squirrel killers! I know it's nature but this is the yuck bit of cat ownership. Haven't looked too closely at the said item as I 'm being a bit pathetic & don't want to touch it. DH can sort it when he comes home.

OP posts:
Poledra · 10/03/2015 16:57

Oh yes they can. A former work colleague of mine had two cats. They learned to hunt as a team, and dragged a poor squirrel in through the catflap one night. The squirrel then died, messily, on her hallway carpet, necessitating an interesting insurance claim for accidental damage...

cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 17:08

Depending on the cat, the squirrel and the circumstances of the confrontation? Yes - I'd say so.

cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 17:10

.....an 'interesting' insurance claim.

I bet it was. Grin

Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 17:15

My husband has looked & it seems to definitely be a squirrel tail but there is no blood (other than a bit where it was previously attached - sorry tmi) & no trace of the body. One cat is a portly ginger tom of 16, one doesn't go out so it's not her & then a 3 year old male but both cats that go out are never left out overnight. Perhaps it was a fox - hopefully.

OP posts:
morethanpotatoprints · 10/03/2015 17:16

Yes, my friend had a wild/hunting cat that would kill all sorts of things.
I think they hunt really well if thats how you treat them.
The cat never came into the house just stayed in annexe thing at back of the house. it was a stinky thing.

autumnboys · 10/03/2015 17:20

We had a very tame and domesticated cat who killed several squirrels and a couple of really big rats, so yes, definitely possible.

Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 17:26

I might just have to accept it then. The 2 boys that go out are definitely domesticated, sleeping on our bed at night. At least we don't have a cat flap so never get brought any presents inside. I still might hold with the fox though!

OP posts:
BellaBearisWideAwake · 10/03/2015 17:28

My cat killed a squirrel in his active youth. And a magpie. And many many rats and mice.
Magpie was the worst. All the other magpies in the gang took turns dive bombing our cat. It was bloody scary. That taught him.

cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 17:29

I'm afraid that I think it's more likely to be a cat than a fox - cats and squirrels are more evenly matched when it comes to fighting. (Foxes can't really climb for example.)

stealthsquiggle · 10/03/2015 17:31

Our soppy sleep-on-the-bed cats kill rats and cute fluffy bunnies (not so cute when decapitated and dragged around the kitchen), and previous cat definitely caught and ate squirrels so I would say it's almost certainly the cats rather than a fox TBH.

Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 17:34

Ok I'll just have to accept that one of my cats is a squirrel killer & even worse, a squirrel eater. Yuck.

OP posts:
Pipbin · 10/03/2015 17:34

I grew up in the country with many cats. Some domestic, some farm cats. We had rabbits, rats, crows, and once even a weasel.

Allstoppedup · 10/03/2015 17:39

Yeah, my old cat used to bring back large rats/squirrels and once a seagull- he really wasn't a big cat eitherwap God knows how he took them down!

Just wanted to say that Foxes absolutely can climb. We had one that used to frequent our back garden and it used to leap up onto the fence and walk along the thin edge exactly like a cat- I was shocked as I always assumed that they would move more like dogs! Having said that, I don't think they can manage trees! Grin

juneau · 10/03/2015 17:43

I want a squirrel-killing cat! Fecking squirrels are the bane of my life ...

UniS · 10/03/2015 17:46

Squirrels, rabbits all quite killable by cats.

wigglybeezer · 10/03/2015 17:47

My friends cat killed a red squirrel and left it on the doormat. Sad

RubbishMantra · 10/03/2015 17:49

Yup, MCat killed 4 juvenile stoats over 2 days.

A friend of mine had a cat that enjoyed killing squirrels.

When I lived in London, I used to see urban foxes leap about with the same athleticism as cats. Up onto a car, then the garage roof, then the roof of the house.

mrsminiverscharlady · 10/03/2015 17:51

My cat used to kill squirrels, eat the head and then leave the body somewhere in the garden. Very grim.

FoxyVeganJane · 10/03/2015 17:53

My cats kill squirrels usually young new season ones or very old ones, they do the same with rabbits, we've had water voles and pygmy shrews, mice, rats, water shrews, moles, moths, big insects, small lizards and lots of birds and spiders.

Some we've managed to return and set free, some dh has buried so he can dig them up later and show the dc the skeletal structures. I'm not sure they go as far as the beach but if they do I'm sure I could add fish to the list. I tried once to add so many bells to the cats they could rival a Morris dancer, I tried this for two nights, they still came back with the same amount of kill so I took the bells off. I'm a vegan living with prolific killers it's a bit frustrating but they'd rather hunt than eat cat food.

CloserToFiftyThanTwenty · 10/03/2015 17:55

Yup - much harder to dispose of than the usual mice and vole corpses

cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 18:06

Yes - foxes can leap very well if they're young and motivated. Climbing up trees is a bit beyond them though.

OP - maybe both of your cats are in on the kill. (They could be hunting in concert - some cats do.) You'll not be looking at them in the same way from now on?

Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 18:12

Oh no don't say that - both of them!!

OP posts:
Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 18:17

Mind you still not quite as bad as the time we found one of our cats with a guinea pig. It seemed to have survived but we couldn't catch it so the rspca came out & caught it & took it to the vets. We put up posters around the area thinking it must be someone's pet but on contacting the vets the next day the guinea pig had died. I'm ashamed to say we then took the posters down pretty sharpish.

OP posts:
RubbishMantra · 10/03/2015 18:26

Well you have to protect your own, don't you? Even if they've committed the ghastly crime of guinea pig murder. Grin

Original poster
rugbymum143 · 10/03/2015 18:29

I know - that was my thinking Grin

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread