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.

My boy is a silver tabby and terrified of birds! I doubt he has killed anything in his life.

Well that proves all the theories about tabbies being excellent hunters bless him! Apparently it’s down to mother cat to teach kittens to hunt.

My black cat is most jealous of all of this hunting talk - the closest he’s ever got to killing anything is bringing in a random pigeon feather!! Very proudly I might add - but I did watch him just pick it up off the grass!

My Burmese is a ridiculously good hunter. He's only small but pure muscle and regularly catches squirrels and rabbits. In fact today he unlocked a new level and presented us with a baby deer 😱 literally about the same size as him. My friend had a Burmese when we were growing up and he caught a pheasant.

best hunters were:
ginger male - when I was a kid
black male - when I was a kid
grey tabby male - now 15, still hunts
black male - only 3, big hunter

My girls are/were prolific hunters and leave me the entrails. They were rescued as about 10 week old kittens in Greece. It was hunt or survive. A clouded torby and tabby and white.

The tabby and white can't any more because calici virus and a difficult kittenhood means she developed gum issues and has only six teeth.

My current cat white with big grey spots on his body and grey tabby markings on his head, bum and tail is a hunter. Birds, sparrows, and young rats.

My 2 black and whites in their short lives, one had a mouse, the other a bird.

My grey and white tabby, a bird which hopped too near the hedge he was hiding in. I was impressed as he was 10 and he shot out and caught it. I caught him doing it screamed at him, he dropped the bird which flew off and I carried him, slightly protesting, into the house.

Interesting about mother cat theory.
All of ours came from family pets that had kittens, so not really a mother teaching hunting situation.
But all ours had access to big gardens and fields as young cats.

I would also say that ours hunted rats, mice, shrews mainly.
Occasional bird, especially pigeons, and one liked to catch frogs.

I thought the RSPB had said that cats don't really impact bird populations, the birds they catch are thought to be the sick/unhealthy ones, or ones that have fallen out of the nest before they can fly etc.

My two cats. The mum lived in a basement ground floor flat and that’s where the kittens were at bottom. They had a garden with patio doors and might have let mum out but doubtful. Can ask as was brother and his girlfriend’s cat. Same with half Siamese cat, got him at 5 months old but certain he was never allowed out as we gave him his first injections.

My black and white semi long haired female cat is a highly efficient killing machine. Thankfully winding down a little in her middle years. But during the spring and summer, there's a corpse waiting most mornings. I think she's absolutely stealthy - furry feet are silent and her reflexes are truly amazing, she weighs nothing and is incredibly agile..
My b&w boy, nada.
My brown orientals, nada. In their whole lives they've managed a couple of baby birds and baby shrews. I suspect more out of just stumbling into their nests rather than hunting.

Burmese are meant to be demon hunters. My friend’s tonkinese don’t catch a lot but no cat flap just patio doors. Have not caught much and they do go out and see off other cats, but like to play fetch with their balls inside. Only 5 though becoming more Tonkinese in character. And steal toast from toaster!

You have to admire the little killing machines!

Our female bengal is fairly lethal to the local shrews and mice even with her bell collar. She rarely gets birds but we get a rodent a week on our front step. We're out in the country though with plenty of fields which she roams.

Cats apparently get used to hunting with bells on. And stealthily crawl around without making a sound. Sly little felines. Mine all refused to wear collars tried to get them off on the patio mostly so I gave up. I did try… they wore them for maybe a year max.

It turns out I was being a bit prematurely smug about him not being a hunter! He is scared of birds but not mice

We had a blue-grey moggy growing up. He was a brilliant hunter, he even brought a seagull home once. Didn’t see his skill as an asset tbh

😂This is the kind of childhood memory I always think of when I see people spending a fortune on "making memories".

Actually some of my strongest childhood memories involve cats, and the rodents they brought in... The kind of memories that can't be planned or bought!

When rescuing a mouse you need to grab it by the scruff of the neck so the bugger can't bite you!

Our female Siberian x wandering tom is an absolute demon. We've had squirrels and countless rodents meet their death. The worst was the thrush that she brought in then released in dh's home office. She must have bitten through an artery as it flew round the room spraying blood everywhere like something out of a horror film.

All my cats have been hunters, but the most prolific was a very small tabby and white female. She was amazing - you'd be walking along the road with her (stayed on a farm) and she'd suddenly pounce into the long grass and back out in one fluid movement, scooping up a mouse as she went.

Currently have two tabby sisters - medium-sized rat on the doorstep this morning. Also catch all manner of birds - up to and including wood pigeons - mice, voles and shrews, frogs and bats.

Actually I think my stepdad also set fire to it too, psychopath! And the rat was never found afterwards.

Luckily my mum wasn’t using the tumble dryer anymore as electricity was too expensive for it.

All sorts, it doesn't seem to be colour or size we have had small black and white hunters and big cats that don't Ginger tabbies that were hunters and not. It just seems to be the cat.

Visited my friend today and her 2 5 year old Tonkinese apparently have caught mice but not much else. They only stay in their garden and see off other cats. They steal most human food, her DH’s pasta the other day plus toast from the toaster. That counts as hunting no?!

But don’t most people agree that feral cats or farm cats (whatever colour) are good hunters? I know that’s not to do with colour. I think tabbies are probably top only because related to Scottish Wildcat (I think).

My 6yo tabby female is a bit of a useless hunter. We used to have mice under the shed and she just used to stare at them and pat at them half heartedly. I think she considers herself far too superior for such nonsense.

My 2yo black female is a bit better, she left a rat half the size of her (she’s tiny!) for me once and I often see her playing with mice in the garden.

I have somehow trained them well (!) and they never bring anything in the house.

My mum has a 4yo black long haired female who is an absolute prolific hunter. My mum has chased mice up curtain poles 🤣. She also eats her prey and then is sick, much to my mum’s disgust.

My neighbour’s 11yo black and white long haired male is a good hunter too. This time of year I’m often seeing my neighbour releasing rabbits back into the bushes !