Wanted: Kitten/ adolescent cat/ stone cold killer

[nt650hawk]

the cat is afraid of you outside.

[Falko]

I bet he heard all the cool cats "hang" at Tricky's house...

[butcher bergs]

All I want is death to one critter by summer's end.

[e30addict]

All I want is death to one critter by summer's end.

[nt650hawk]

Present your cat with any dead mice which are caught in traps if you are using traps while you teach your cat to take over the job. Mother cats will often teach their kittens to hunt by first bringing them back dead prey, to set an example. Encourage your cat when they hunt and kill a mouse

[Sidavong]

saw this thing pop up on my homepage... "Researchers strapped video cameras on 16 cats and let them do their thing. Here’s what they found"

Researchers strapped video cameras on 16 cats and let them do their thing. Here’s what they found | Science | AAAS

[butcher bergs]

Update:

He finally kills!



A lot has happened since the last post. Last summer, after he finally was comfortable with the great outdoors, Edward killed many grasshoppers, saw him snatch a dragonfly out of the air and a headless frog showed up on the front steps. That frog was reduced to a pair of legs by the next day. Shortly after that, I was standing on our patio when, 6 feet away, Edward chased down a chippy and had him in his paws...not once, not twice but FOUR times and still didn't execute the kill. However, between the frog and that chippy, at that point I was hoping we'd be good to go for rodent control but I was way off the mark!

I have no idea what changed over the course of this past winter but he was eager to go outside once things warmed up a bit. His first victim, ironically enough, was a small bird. The cat that didn't want to go outside and was climbing the screens to get in....yeah, that guy caught a bird! I could not make out what it was as he walked triumphantly to the back of the house. No sign of the bird after the fact but hey, he caught something.

Then, a few weeks later, a couple of shredded field mice appeared. It was obvious that his kitty training was becoming effective!

As of now, he cries like crazy to go outside and can't wait to be out there. I also have seen several instances where he's taken out chippys in the front yard. My favorite so far was the one he caught 7' away from the front steps as I was sitting out there.

At this point I can say two things with certainty: 1) I still don't like cats all that much, and, 2) sure it may have taken a couple years but I am now enjoying the absence of chippys, squirrels and field mice running free around my house.

[G21forme]

It can take a good month for a cat to adjust to a new home. When I moved my Maine coon wouldn't leave the guest bedroom for 2 weeks. This thing is a mouser at 22#, but he's a ginger so crazy too.

[nt650hawk]

https://youtu.be/L5CJEOI8fmk

[Degsy]

That's not true in general. That used to be the working theory for farm cats -- they wouldn't feed them, on the hypothesis that hungry cats would catch more. But someone decided to actually do a study and see if that was true, and it wasn't. Well-fed and healthy cats were more successful at catching rodents.

My personal experience is that it's the attitude of the cat. I free feed all my cats; they can eat when they like. Some of them don't hunt, and some of them do, and the deciding trait is whether they like to hunt or not. Kind of like people.

The one among the current batch who is into it, hunts all the time, regardless. Funny thing was that as a kitten/young cat, he had no interest. Probably didn't even know it was a thing to do. Then, when he was about a year old, my daughter's snake decided it didn't like one of its mice. Snakes do that sometimes; inexplicably turn their nose up at a particular mouse. So we went out to the big lawn, with the mouse, and the young cat, and set them down together, and it clicked in the cat's head. He killed that mouse, and ate it, and has been an enthusiastic hunter for ten years since.

PhilB

That's fascinating that the snake turned down a particular mouse. i wonder if they can smell cancer or something.

[Garandman]

We lost two cats to Coyotes. One just disappeared. The second we found some of his fur in a neighbor’s yard.

[aldend123]

It can take a good month for a cat to adjust to a new home. When I moved my Maine coon wouldn't leave the guest bedroom for 2 weeks. This thing is a mouser at 22#, but he's a ginger so crazy too.

Yep. I'm sure I've said this one before, but a semi-feral cat moved in with me and he lived under the bed for the first few weeks. It took him several months before he'd stay in sight if I stood up. Years after he knew me as the source of his favorite food, he still wouldn't let me pick him up. He wouldn't let unfamiliar people know he existed. They can take time to get to know their surroundings before deciding to own the area.