natural born killers

Feed her every day. Either free feed or at least a couple meals a day - follow the directions per amount on the food you use.

Ultimately if you don't like a cat hunting and bringing you home what she catches, all you can do is limit her roaming - either with an outdoor enclosure or by making her a house cat.

Free feeding -- which is having food available at all times, usually in the form of dry kibble -- does help to limit the urge to go hunt, and having toys for her to "hunt" in the house also helps greatly. You're never going to completely get rid of that urge though. Like you said, they are natural born killers. It's an instinct that's hard wired in an not going away. Bells on collars do sometimes help, as well, but most cats learn how to move silently with them while they're hunting. But of course when you're trying to sleep, and the kitty wants your attention, that bell is going nonstop.

Actually, a well fed cat is a better hunter. They have more energy to spare for it. The instinct to chase and kill will always be there, though a well fed cat will be less inclined to eat (or eat all of) their kill.

I have a couple I keep outside in a cat proofed backyard. They have dry food put out in the evening with enough to last them overnight and through the morning, plus get a can of wet each a day. Any bird stupid enough to land in the yard and stay there long enough to catch their attention is quickly caught and killed.

No wonder my Hannah gets every single gecko that comes into our house or the sunroom! She's VERY well fed!

Also, bringing home the "prize" is a sign of affection and she's showing you that you're her family. She's providing for you and is very proud of it. If she continues to go outside and continues bringing back her prizes for you, be sure to praise her and gush over her capability and then quickly dispose of the evidence.

Well Put and from all the research quite accurate ....

If you have a yard, you can put up a fence like this: http://www.purrfectfence.com/
Or use a product like this: http://www.catgoods.com/

Or you can use a lot of interactive play and keep her indoors full time. All of ours (8) are feral rescues. All were born outside and lived there several months. Our 7th rescue was outside for two years, our last is 3 or 4 years old when rescued. Both live inside full time quite happily. We put up bird feeders (squirrels are entertaining too) - suction cup stick-up on the windows so it's like HDTV or 3D TV for them, and we give them a lot of interactive play, especially with wand toys (da Bird toys, with feather, mice, and "rabbit tail" attachments, and Neko toys, esp the spider and dragonfly attachments).

I'm going to start warning everyone about this, but if you have bird feeders do not put them right up against your home. (hummingbird feeders are fine) Keep all bird houses a few yards away, too. Birds and bats carry fungi such as the histoplasmosa that I'm currently dealing with. Most people and animals won't get seriously ill from it, but young or immune compromised animals will. So will people with health issues that lowers their immune system. It's serious and can be deadly and is simply not worth the risk just for a bit of entertainment value.

Please, everyone, do not get this fungi in high concentrations up around your homes where you or a pet could come in contact with the spores.

And Stephanie, wild lizards carry parasites, too. In some areas they carry flukes (they're a natural host in the cycle) and some nasty protozoa. Make sure your cat gets checked/dewormed regularly. That goes for all hunting kitties, even the indoors ones.

I didn't realize you had a problem. But how does moving the bird feeders away from the window help? I thought the problem was in the droppings.

If it's an issue of air flow moving the fungus within breathing distance, then I'd think it was still OK if the window were not to be opened. ??

Birds carry it on their feathers and in their feces. When birds hang out at one spot they ruffle their feathers, may lose a few, and poop. (especially starlings and blackbirds which do tend to carry it) The area my kittens came from was a petfood warehouse. Birds get in the rail bay and sometimes in the main warehouse to eat dropped grain and pet food - they don't actually live in there, though, due to people actively trying to keep them out.

The spores can also be ingested and cause a GI infection (which can also disseminate) - in animals and humans. If you say, had a bird feeder near a flower bed or garden then went digging around in it to plant anything you'd kick up spores and could breath them in or even ingest them.

Anyone cleaning out bird houses, pigeon coops, or even chicken coops needs to be careful, too. If it's really dusty you might even consider getting a respirator for doing so. And change your clothes as soon as you come in so as not to spread spores around.

I just want people to keep this in mind. It's not that common for it to cause serious disease, though exposure/infection is fairly common in itself. But when it does happen it can be months before enough symptoms show for anyone to realize something is wrong.

So maybe move those feeders back a couple yards and put something under it that wouldn't be good for fungi growth. In those that can cement could be easily kept clean.