Extreme killer cat

[teaandakitkat]

Our last cat was a crazy killer. Almost every day she killed something and brought it in. Not just small birds or mice, but pigeons regularly, once a half-dead crow flapping pathetically on the floor, baby seagulls and once our neighbours budgie, but that's a whole other story.
I've grown up with cats my whole life and never had a cat like this.
I'd love to have another one but I couldn't cope with another extreme killer.
Is there any way of reducing your chances of getting a killer? Apart from keeping it indoors? Particular breeds or anything, or is it just luck?
Our last cat was a Bengal korat cross if that makes any difference.

Well, that's why I have my boys on cat chasing duty in my garden.

weeds cats largely get injured by badly fitted collars without an approved release mechanism.

Cats also get injured by cars and other people, do you keep your cats indoors too? I'm not opposed to cats being out side, but it's the same reasoning.

There is some evidence that bells can help good hunters get better at it, but it sounds like most on here haven't even bothered to see if a bell would have any effect.

How do you think we know they don't work then, crispy? The last cat I had with a bell only jingled when the bell hit her food bowl.

Quick release collars don't always release when you need them to. I'd rather mine were safe. I have no control over other people or their cars, but I do have control of a collar.

No mine is indoor / outdoor. I live in a rural area and he mainly kills mice. However, he is indoors at night, but it seems to be dawn and dusk that are prime hunting times.
I appreciate there are other risks that cats face outdoors, such as cars, but I can't control those, whereas I can choose to not add an additional risk by using a collar.
Cats are not the only predators here, there are lots of owls, buzzards, hawks and foxes which will also be preying on small rodents.
There are differences in the way cats and dogs are viewed legally too. Cats are treated more as a wild animal ( so they don't have to be restrained or reported if run over) in the UK. In certain Australian states, there are compulsory curfews though to protect wild life. Possibly other countries too?
Cats have been valued over the years for their mouse and rat catching abilities, they don't really have any other practical application for mankind, so it's never been bred out as a trait.
Dogs, on the other hand, can hunt, retrieve, herd, guard, protect, pull carts or sledges etc. so a lot more effort has been invested in breeding for these traits in specific breeds. Guard cats or assistance cats are never really going to be an option.

Therapy cats exist though weeds ! Cambridge uni has a library cat.

My girl cat leaps to my defence and cuddles me whenever DH shouts at the telly...

Bells don't work. Cats learn how to muffle them in their neck fur when stalking. By the time they are ready to pounce the bell's ring is too late. I put a bell in my cat. Didn't make the slightest difference.

Cats hunt small wildlife - it is in their nature. Mine kills rats, mice and pigeons.

Why the fuss about this? It is a genuine question. We have an mice in our garage - if the cat reduces the population there it would be a bonus. Why the surprise they are hunters?

Therapy cats are a different thing, a cuddle with a furry, purring cat will always cheer me up 😀
A cat can do a lot of damage to be fair, I think vets worry more about being savaged by a cat than a dog, but if you are selecting an animal for personal protection a doberman, for example, is probably a better bet than a creature that sleeps 15 hours a day and can't really bring down anything much bigger than a rabbit!

living because there are posters on here enquiring if a bell works.

You do have control over what other people do with their cars, you could keep your cat indoors and reduce the risk to zero, but i imagine you believe the benefit of being outdoors outweighs the risk to the cat?

I in turn believe that the minuscule risk that a safely fitted cat collar, with a bell , presents to a cat is worth it for the carnage they can reek on the local wildlife - if it works. Some posters on here are flatly refusing to fit them.

Can't comment on your experience of cat bell, it's certainly not mine, alongside alerting any potential prey it also alerts me to their whereabouts when I'm bringing them in for the night. Maybe it wasn't a good cat bell ?

weeds I am aware that cats are natural predators, but some people on here seem almost proud of the senseless killing of wildlife.

Owls and such like hunt to feed themselves, you presumably feed your cat so it doesn't need to hunt?

I am also cat owner and have had several over the years, indoor/ outdoor cats, so I appreciate their nature and that you can't really train them not to hunt, but I do know that I would be doing what I could to minimise their opportunities.

The cats used to have bells but they fell off and we never got around to replacing them. The birds have only just discovered our garden (new development) so it hasn't been an issue re cats killing them.

Indeed , my previous cat scratched a vet's eyeball weeds. Ouch

I don't think we are making 'light' of cats being predators, actually. We are juts balancing that against the risk of them being strangled by their own collars.

My vets advise against all collars, and are fairly clear that bells don't tend to work. As far as I know, my cat has not killed anything endangered. He likes mice, voles and shrew. I am not keen on this , but I have him now and love him to bits in all other ways.

I keep my cats in at night : mostly a s a protection to them, but as I said, they still hunt.

crispy , out if curiosity, did your cat's hunt then stop when you fitted bells? Or have they always had bells so you assume they work?
As I said before, previous cats haven't really hunted, this one is a prolific killer, so a lot of cats don't seem too bothered about pest control.
I'm not having a go, but genuinely interested in any empirical evidence.
If I'm honest, I don't mind him killing mice, as I said, I'm rural and the houses here are old, so preventing an infestation isn't a negative to me. However I'd prefer him not to kill birds, reptiles or amphibians.

My cat Vladimir (the impaler) has been banned from the cat flap. He has to wait at the door. He has learnt to put the prey under his paw and then cry to come in! I have to frisk him on the way in.

Bengals are notorious killers. Get a cat that birds can see easily. White is good, not a stripey, well camouflaged moggie that can hide in undergrowth and jump out. I am cringing at the crow, did you manage to get it treated and saved? Crows are tough.
You can get a bird alert collar, that makes a noise when the cat leaps. You could also get an older rescue cat, from 1-3 are the peak years for catching birds. A slightly older moggie might have many years left but be far less keen to hunt. Out of the 10 cats I've had, the majority were not birders but ratters. Particularly as they got older. One (female) cat only caught things when she had kittens (I rescued her when she was pregnant, I'm not irresponsible!) She mainly got frogs, no birds. Then she never bothered again, once the kittens went. My white cat watched the birds but he was easy to see. My stripey, white nosed cat was well camouflaged but more interested in rodents. I'm catless now though, I live somewhere rural with lots of birds and I don't really want to risk it.

My last cat did have a very good collar, from my vet. It was a plastic tube, quite rigid, so that it wouldn't be able to twist (the big strangulation risk if a cat get caught by the collar) It also pulled apart, so the cat could either back out of it, being a fairly solid ring, or it would break open. I don't know if they are still available or have been disproved in some way, but certainly it was the only collar that my vet was happy to put on his own cats.

I've heard the ginger cats hunt in the day (which is certainly what mine does) and tabbies in woodland and darker skies.

You have given me hope with your ages 1 - 3 thing. Hopefully, my huntsman only has a year of peak hunting to go... we've only had one bird ( a blackbird) an I think my blood curdling scream deterred Clyde from ever bringing me another one. And an enormous moth creature that made him sick for about 3 weeks.

weeds in my life time (mid forties) I have had around 8 /9 cats, that have all lived to a good age. I can count on one hand the number of times they have brought home birds & mice.
My last cat, who came from farming stock and was very much an outdoor cat - he came in for cuddles and food! never once in his 13 years on this planet came home with any wildlife trophies and I too live in a rural location.
It is not odd that I have managed to have so many cats and not encounter this problem ? perhaps I should go help the op find a new cat seeing how I am so good at picking the non hunting ones?

marmite Vladimir is a fantastic name! No cat flaps for the same reason, although if it's dark I've missed some.

crispy I'm happy if mice and rats are kept away from the house. Birds here tend to be clever enough to wait until there's no cats about (and we get a lot of birds). It might be that your cats aren't hunters and you've been lucky. Many people have confirmed that bells don't work for their cats and I have seen first hand how dangerous collars can be. I wouldn't force a cat to be an indoor cat, no.

beans My last cat was 15 when she died and still hunted mice and rats until she was ill. She was an extremely playful cat though. 😬

Urgh I forgot about frogs. She didn't have much success with frogs thank god. Hoping these new ones continue to fail.

crispy, very odd and didn't really answer my ( genuine) question about the bells.
I would have said I had the knack of picking a non-hunting cat up until now, but my current boy, from a group of inbred cats, rescued from a house where they were never allowed out, has proved me wrong.

Living aaaaaaarrrrrrghhhhh!

weeds were they all huge? I can't imagine your boy being kept inside if he wanted to go out, let alone a family of giant bear-cats!

living His brother / cousin / uncle / nephew, or possibly all four relationships to him at the same time, was in the same rescue and was the same size. All the shelters in the area were crammed with enormous black blobs!
Someone commented the other day that he looks like a wolverine!

weeds ahahahaa wolverine does somehow seem more cat like than a bear! They must have had a bit of a shock when they rescued them