Cats and rats

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

Would your cat tackle and catch a rat? We have one in the garden now but my cat either isn’t interested or is too scared of it. Previous cat was similar he had a white Ikea rattus rat toy which he liked to play with but one day he was scared of it, maybe he’d come across an actual rat somewhere.

My childhood tabby cat not very big used to catch a rat or more a day, dead and alive as we lived round the corner from a council dump and also there were issues with rubbish bins and an alleyway behind the houses/gardens. A rat only bit him once, he had to go to the vet.

My cat does quite regularly. Having them dumped on my feet at night is not great.

Some cats just are not good hunters though.

I’ve never not lived with a cat, in nearly 70 years, lots have been enthusiastic hunters of voles, shrews, mice and even rabbits, but I’ve never had a cat that would tackle a rat. My old terrier’s sire was a local legend for ratting, but neither he nor my current terrier would take on a rat either.

My cats have never caught spiders either.

Yes. We have chickens in our garden and our cats (we have 3) bring us a rat every couple of weeks. I don't know if it's the same cat, all of them individually or a joint effort as I usually just find the dead bodies on the doorstep.

The big lad would tackle a rat (and win), and has brought down several pigeons as well. His smaller brother stuck to mice and frogs

We have a wild wooded area behind our garden fence (foxes, rats, etc.) Our cat will catch mice but won’t go near a rat! When the fox population is lower than usual we see more of them, and the cat will quite happily sit by the house watching one with interest but never actually goes after them.

One of my current three catches rats regularly, but likes to keep them alive.
An old girl of mine was also a ratter, but thankfully she always brought them in dead.

Some cats aren’t really hunters but those that are will easily take down a rat, even big ones.

One of my cats was particularly partial to eating their heads, shoulders and front paws. We’d find the lower half of their bodies scattered around. She was a stable cat though so whilst she was well fed and looked after, her purpose was to keep the rats out of the feed and tack rooms.

My girl is 14/15 (at a guess, she was a stray young adult 11 years ago) and vaulted a 6ft fence last week with a huge rat in her mouth, barged past me at the door and ran upstairs with it, jumped over the bath and plopped it on the bathroom windowsill 😒 always been an excellent ratter and showing no signs of slowing down 😅

Boy cat isn’t very good at hunting, and little girl cat isn’t allowed outdoors for her own safety (she’s cross-eyed, not sure how it affects her vision and she has a terrible case of pica) BUT she is fantastic at catching spiders.

One of mine would try but at only 2.8kg she’d struggle, she manages smaller things like pigeons and mice but I think she’d enjoy the challenge. My other cat would run in terrified!

Yes, and regularly does. This week he left an absolutely enormous (thankfully very firmly dead) one in the kitchen

My first cat was small and would regularly catch mice but no rats. Current cats have killed 3 rats - saw them do it the last time - the small cat chased and whacked the rat (she's the energetic one) which disorientated it and then her big brother walked over and bit into its neck and shook it. Ruthless little killing machines.

Yes, both of my cats have caught rats and brought them to show me. However the foxes usually kept the rats at bay so I've mostly ended up with the smaller mice and voles.

One of my cats - not sure which - left a dead rat on the doorstep awhile ago, albeit only once

Little-ish ones. Once he caught a massive fucker and got it as far as the cat flap when it started to fight back (luckily for me) However it then took up home in a stone wall in the garden and came at me when I tried to walk past. Being screamed at by a soggy, bitey rat was a bit much, so then I had to catch it and catapult it over the fence onto the waste ground behind. Which tbh is probably what it wanted.

Yep, one of mine will tackle rats, pigeons and all sorts. He leaves the remains on the doormat 🙄

Was it dead?

I’m nearly afraid to ask but how did you catch a giant rat?

Nope - even when I had three feral rescue cats they didn't go after rats. Had to call out the council pest control and invest in an electric cat. Actually - wtf cats are happy to go after cute wild bunny rabbits but not rats.

No thank goodness my two Maine Coons are not hunters. My old cats used to bring in mice still alive and my mini labradoodle was much better at killing them, plus killed a couple rats when we were dealing with a drain issue.

CatOfHate brought in a 14" rat 18 months ago. He's 4kg, no idea how he does it.

With use of a hose, a lot of screaming and one of those two handled rake/leaf scoop things. It's quite easy to catch mice with a dustpan and brush, and pin them down with the brush, but I wanted to be further away from this, because if anything was going to start running up my arms to claw my eyes out, this was. It was standing on its back legs squealing at me at various points. No wonder the cat gave up.

Impressive teamwork there.

Sorry quoted wrong post

This is the one I meant.

No thank god!

My friends cat died after eating a rat that had ingested poison. So I really worry about that now!