Based on Play - Mouse or Bird Hunter?

Just wondering if anyone noticed if their cat would be more of a mouse or a bird type of hunter - based on how they play with toys/string wands, like "DaBird".

We have several string-wand toys for the cats (bought at the shows). Some are short, some longer. They have either feather attachments, or a mouse or something like that.

I was playing with Charlie and Ling with a "mouse on a string" and Ling tends to stay close to the floor as if she is hunting mice. Even if the mouse is flying, she would rather chase it on the ground then to do jumping.

Charlie, on the other hand, likes to do the high leaps and catch whatever is on the end of the string.

So I said that Ling was more of a mouser and Charlie would be the one to leap at birds or flying things if he was outside. BTW Ling was a product of barn cats, so wonder if that has anything to do with wanting to stay lower on the ground and be fast to hunt mice (she never has, but her mom was an excellant mouser).

Roxy would be a bird hunter!! She jumps and flips for Da Bird. And even when she plays with her catnip mouse she tosses it in the air and jumps for it!! She also likes to catch it with her paws

I think most actual birds caught and killed by cats are caught and killed while the bird is on the ground.

Originally Posted by Enuja

I think most actual birds caught and killed by cats are caught and killed while the bird is on the ground.

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It also depends on how high the cat can jump. Most of my cats are mouse hunters (they're easier to catch ) but Ichi and Joji are good jumpers and I've seen them leap 4 feet up to catch a passing bird.

I would say bird hunter for Samba and Tubee, but I think Root is a mouse hunter.

Manda

Chase would only chase things on the ground.. and generally only string, at that. He really never liked any of the attachments. But he did catch a few mice in the house in his time. He was never outside to get at any birds, though he did love to watch them out the window.

Kitty generally doesn't go after toys in the air for long.. but she does have a great time chasing flies if she happens to notice one buzzing around, and she will leap at the walls going after the laser pointer. She'll bat at things on the floor too. So I guess she's both?

Punkin is the mouse hunter. I sometimes put down a sheet of masking paper, which is about 3 feet wide and 5 or 6 feet long. I put a hole in the middle, about 6 inches, and then I pull a string under the paper. Punkin loves that. It's the old, "mousie rustling in the leaves" hunting instinct.

Sterling, on the other hand, waits until he can see the string, either through the hole in the middle, or the after it comes out from under the edge.

Punkin wants to catch the feathers on the string toy on the ground; Sterling wants to jump after it in the air.

Cats who are good bird catchers are generally those who learn to judge the take-off of the bird.