Adult acting "violent"

Our adult cat (a 6 year old) has recently started to bring in kills and fight with other local moggies. We thought this was just a reaction to his new environment (we had moved area to a place with a bigger garden in a more countrified area) or to the fact that he lost his sister, whom he had been with since birth, a year ago and has been a little distraught since. He has not, to our knowledge, been a territorial cat before.
In an effort to reduce his boredom, we took on a kitten, which he has taken to quite well. He has not come home with bites or scratches on him for the last month, which is quite a bonus.
However last night he brought in two live voles within 5 minutes of each other. Obviously, we petted him and made a fuss over his gift to us (before removing them from his claws).
Does anyone have any ideas why he has gone down this seemingly violent path?

He is not being violent, he is being a cat and following his instincts which is to hunt and provide for the family (you) You stated that you have moved to a more countryfied area, hence you will have more wildlife for him to chase, and he will have to fight to keep his place with the other cats around. Is he neutered? If not, neutering him will help.

He will keep bringing in fresh kills as long as you keep petting him and making a big deal over him when he does this. What you need to do is ignore the kill and ignore him when he brings it in. He will more than likely pick it up in his mouth, and follow you meowing loudly proclaiming "Mom pay attention to me, I brought you this." But just ignore him, turn the radio on loud and when he finally drops the creature in disgust, take a piece of newspaper, and wrap the poor rodent up and dispose of it. Once he finds that he no longer gets fussed over with these kills, he will stop bringing them to you. But basically he is showing you, he is a good provider.

We will try the ignore option when he brings home his kills. To be honest, we had read in a book that praising him for his actions was the way to go, because as you rightly stated, he is just being a cat and it is in his nature.
As for the “violent†nature I had commented upon, let me expand on that. In his past two houses, he encountered many cats and did not keep annoying us or our neighbours with lengthy fights. In fact, he was extremely sociable. This all changed when we moved, and he has faced off with every cat we have seen him encounter. So much so that he has twice come in with bleeding wounds (one of which needed stitching). This is quite a change in his behaviour, and I wondered if this and the hunting/killings were connected.

the hunting and kills are connected to the more territorial nature. Where you lived before, he had established himself as the "head hancho" so to speak. Now that he's in a new wilder, and more open area, he has to defend his territory wherease before it was his by rights. Give him a bit of time, lot's of love, and a few treats, and once he's settled in he'll be fine. he just needs some time.


~ Salem