Which breed/colour of cat are best hunters?

[Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain]

Mine is a tabby white moggy. Excellent hunter, recently upped her game to rats!

previous half Siamese half moggy good hunter but preferred mice and frogs, scared of rats.

Half oriental white cat and sister black with white bits. Ferocious duo, apart from rats. One fell into the pond once as she was trying to catch fish and got tangled up in the net. Wood pigeons, mice, nothing was sacred. Had a white brother next door who was part of their hunting gang I suspect…

Tabby childhood cat, Tigger, not that big but ferocious rat hunter dead and alive, caught them daily much to the disgust of my mum. Once bitten by one, only time at vet, lived to 17/18 with no boosters.

Our tuxedo cat is a fearsome hunter. When our last cat died at the age of 22, thr local mouse families moved in, and when Wilfred arrived, he caught his first mouse at 12 weeks, and caught one a day for the next week. We’ve never seen a mouse indoors since. He’s four now and has brought in a steady stream of birds and mice from the garden but his speciality is frogs and he catches them constantly as soon as they start appearing in late spring. He doesn’t usually try to kill them but loves patting them to make them hop. He’s managed to catch a couple of pigeons and last year he caught a squirrel; we managed to get it off him and get it into a box but it died of shock quite quickly.

Was the Burmese a good hunter? Family friends of ours had one called Jasper, choc point. Lovely miaow. Seemed lazy. Friends Tonkinese don’t hunt and hardly go in their garden (no cat flap) but scare off other cats. They’re only 5 though and just coming into their personalities which include stealing toast from the toaster!

Don’t we value wildlife? My male cats caught nothing. Female cat did but I wasn’t boasting about it!

Wow! His mum taught him well to hunt at 12 weeks. Once years ago my mum was over and we saw Sooty (half oriental half moggy) tapping a frog 🐸 to make it jump. Poor thing.

We do but mice and rats are fair game.

We had a cat (not the one posted above) who murdered a baby magpie. The parents and their family/friends were relentless. He couldn't leave the house without being divebombed by gangs of angry magpies. You'd see him skulking along on his stomach being screamed at. They made his life hell. Strangely, they left the non-murdering cats in peace.

When he caught this magpie, it's partner was dive bombing him and Frazer ended up releasing the bird back to freedom. Probably for the best, by the sound of it!

a lot of farm cats seem to be black and whites; we had one off a farm when i was a child. he was a great ratter even though he lost half his ear to one! lived to a ripe old age.
I have had a lot of gingers and they tend to have a very feisty nature so may be good at ratting.
I think really it depends on the cats character as well which you cannot tell until you have them at home with you for a certain length of time plus as they grow and develop.
there are lots of feral cats which are crying out for homes but are happier living in a barn or stable want a bit of food but are not good at human interaction ie you cannot cuddle them most do not want to come into a house either. on the plus side you will have a great hunter

I'm glad there were witnesses 🤣

Our white girl was a frequent mouse catcher. On the day she was diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma she caught three mice, and I can remember saying to the specialist vet through pools of tears, but she just caught a mouse before we brought her in, how can she be dying? (She had totally atypical presentation of the cancer.)

We have a ginger boy now, and he goes through phases - last year I found him proudly sitting with a baby bird in the utility room. After a live mouse was brought in we now do “mouth check” with the middle door closed before he can come in to the kitchen.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain I get the rats but I’d be upset if a cat caught a harvest mouse for example. No wonder we are seeing songbirds disappearing! All this boasting about the birds being caught is atrocious and worrying. It’s better to have males who maybe won’t catch much.

Persians couldn’t catch a cold. I’m glad to say! That’s why I have them. I would burn the house down if I was given ‘gifts’

My big tabby boy is quite the hunter. He only eats mice, but has caught birds, voles, moles, shrews and 2 baby rabbits. The last rabbit being on East Saturday, beheaded and disemboweled and left on the dining room floor.

Most prolific was a dilute tortoiseshell.

females!

Out front of the house near where bins are, a tabby mate keeps coming trying to catch the birds who nest in the grill above the box room. House martins. No matter what I say to him… he still returns. But too high to climb up. Little bugger.

She was a terror. Used to bring in birds daily during nesting season, not always dead. On one occassion I came home from school and three birds were flying around inside the house.
Also killed and brought in squirrels, rats that were larger than her, pigeons etc.
I heard a scuffle outside once and saw her chasing a labrador off 🤣.
Edited to add that I'd forgotten that she caught bats on accasion too.

Easter present for you obvs! Better than an a chocolate egg in his eyes….

Bloody hell! Still where they’re originally from (Burma) I guess there must be all sorts there to catch.

I mean basically he could’ve been an executioner in the Middle Ages 🤣. Feel sorry for bunny tho

We used to have bats outside our holiday home in SW France. In a hamlet surrounded by farms and fields. The farm cats would sometimes use our garden. Thankfully no gifts. One appeared at a window one night and frightened the life out of me! The cockerel 🐓 was a pita on the farm next door, cock a fuck doodle doo!

i mean the bats are prob still there. House sold now.

before woodland next to church and playgroup was built on we heard woodpeckers regularly cats never caught them but heard them and went wtf? They couldn’t work out what it was let alone see them. We have 🦉 owls too but cats never touched them. Think some cats know which birds to definitely avoid!

By the way, my old half oriental black and white female caught a wren once. It was holed up in the lean to. A bird protection sanctuary rescued it and reported afterwards that the catted wren (that was the term) healed, was fine and was released. Thank god!

My tiny tortie girl is the same! She specializes in any /every sort of rodent, plus snakes (alive or dead).
I had a tabby boy who was brilliant at hunting... underwear! I had whole bags of thankfully freshly washed socks, knickers and bras, along with the occasional glove...

Neighbour's all white cat was a prolific hunter. He used to go to the local brook and bring back rats daily. Some were so big they would drag on the floor as he brought them back. He appeared to rule the local houses as other cats stayed well out of sight when he was about. Neighbour warned me not to stroke him even when it appeared that was what he wanted as he wasn't averse to a bite or a swipe if the mood took him.