Cats that bring you home animals they have caught?

[sunshine4]

We have 4 beautiful cats that now have a cat door to go outside and back in
on there own. The only fall back is that 3 out of the 4 like to bring mice,moles,SNAKES and birds back in the house and usually drops them at my feet or on the living room floor. Before the cat door was put in they would drop them right outside the door. My main problem is most of the time they are still alive and they drop them at are feet or rug and they take off and hide before cat can get them again!!!! Some of them we are unable to find and they end up dying and the smell locates us to them.
Why do cats bring home animals to us like that?
Why would they bring them home alive and let them go?
Are they thinking they are bringing home a present to owner?

 

[tnr1]

Welcome....my parents had an indoor/outdoor cat who would bring home presents and some of them were alive. There was one instance where Raskal brought home a bat that was still alive and due to concerns over rabies...we had to have the bat put down. Fortunately the bat didn't have rabies..but after that..I decided that any cats of mine would either be indoor only or would have limited outdoor access.

One way you can keep your cats from bringing home prey is to have an outdoor enclosure that they are allowed to go into but does not allow any other animals in or let your cats go out:

http://www.just4cats.com/

http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-worldenclosures.htm

http://www.catsinternational.org/art...nclosures.html

Katie

 

[zanniesmom]

Yup, they like to bring them in alive. I think maybe because they don't need them for food, so they want to continue playing with them in the comfort of their own home. And they may be seeing us as particularly dull kittens that need help learning to hunt. You aren't getting the hint? But really, there are lots of parasites they can get from live prey, and there are cars and coyotes and dogs out there. Better for kitty to stay inside and bring you stuffed mice to learn on. Becky

 

[charcoal]

My mom's used to bring her dead mice and my mom thought she was offering them to her first. She would pet her and say "good girl" and the cat would take off with the mouse and eat it.

I don't know what I would do if my kitty was bringing me animals that were alive!

 

[yayi]

Welcome to TCS!

All my cats are indoor/oudoor and yes, all are bringers of gifts. They are alive, because they are giving you the honor of deciding their fate like the gladiators asking the caesar if it's thumbs up or down.

 

[zanniesmom]

Originally Posted by yayi

Welcome to TCS!

All my cats are indoor/oudoor and yes, all are bringers of gifts. They are alive, because they are giving you the honor of deciding their fate like the gladiators asking the caesar if it's thumbs up or down.

Something tells me it's thumbs down.
Becky

 

[amy-dhh]

Tough situation! They do it though because they love you. It's like a gift (they don't know you are horrified by it). Comere used to do this is his younger days, but because we didn't have a cat door he left them on the front stoop. Usually mice or moles.

Can't offer any advice... don't punish them for it, it'll just confuse them. They really do think they are giving you something nice!

 

[sashacat421]

Originally Posted by ComeresMom

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Can't offer any advice... don't punish them for it, it'll just confuse them. They really do think they are giving you something nice!

Yes! Sasha brings in mice and then as soon as he makes eye contact with me he stops and bites the heads off in my presence. He turns and alks away, chest pufed out.....

I agree with Yayi, too~ it's a gladiator thing of major affection and "contribution" to the family, I think.

 

[jennyr]

My cats have always done that - my RB Sheba used regularly to leave frogs, alive and dead, on my pillow. Dushka brings in live creatures, mice, voles, birds, lizards, but usually does not want to share them so I have a fight with her to get them away if I can. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't.The most awful thing is when you are left with something injured, and you have to kill it because you know it will not survive. But it is the cat's nature, and having chosen a place to live that is as cat-friendly as I can make it, I do not want to curtail their freedom.

 

[maverick_kitten]

my kitten brings me the worst kind of prey, other peoples underwear! i was told that they do it to contribute to the family, the kitty version of grocery shopping!

maverick's mum used to cat beetles and drop them on her owner at night!

yuck!

how should you react when they bring you creatures?

 

[charcoal]

I would pet him or her and say good kitty! then let them take it and do what they want with it.

 

[zanniesmom]

Originally Posted by Charcoal

I would pet him or her and say good kitty! then let them take it and do what they want with it.

Ummm, my cat Patches wanted to eat them on the dining room table. Well, not all of them, not the guts...

Becky

 

[jennyr]

If something is dead then I let them have it, putting all of them onto the balcony to fight or play over it. They normally eat all of whatewver it is. If something is still alive I try to rescue it, even if I then have to kill it - though I am not sure of the logic of this as cats can probably kill something faster than I can, but I just hate to see anything suffering.

 

[leli]

My mom's cat brought a rabbit once....now that's a talented hunter lol.

 

[acat]

All of the cats I've had bring tributes things home, usually headless. It's amazing how proud they get over catching door mice... Occasionally they bring something still alive to play with later

 

[buckeye23]

Dakota will do this with her toy mice. She'll bat it around for a bit, then pick it up, walk over to me and drop it in front of me. Or, better yet, will jump on the bed with it while I'm sleeping. From there 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. I'll wake up later and find fake mice in my sheets.
2. She'll drop it right behind me, it rolls down to where my body meets the mattress and she'll paw at it. So I get a nice little kitty back massage if I'm laying on my side.

Kinda makes me glad...who am I kidding...makes me REALLY glad that she's an indoor only cat. I'd hate for her to be indoor/outdoor and find real mice in my sheets!

 

[maverick_kitten]

Originally Posted by buckeye23

Dakota will do this with her toy mice. She'll bat it around for a bit, then pick it up, walk over to me and drop it in front of me. Or, better yet, will jump on the bed with it while I'm sleeping. From there 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. I'll wake up later and find fake mice in my sheets.
2. She'll drop it right behind me, it rolls down to where my body meets the mattress and she'll paw at it. So I get a nice little kitty back massage if I'm laying on my side.

Kinda makes me glad...who am I kidding...makes me REALLY glad that she's an indoor only cat. I'd hate for her to be indoor/outdoor and find real mice in my sheets!

lol, i completley agree!

my kittens a bit over confident with her hunting skills. her faveroite prey is my 14 year old brother!

 

[rockcat]

I always believed it was a gift, but someone once asked me "Where do you bring your groceries?"

 

[myrage]

I have one cat who gets to go outside, and she leaves us 'flingers' as hubby and lilbro calls 'em, for us on a daily basis. Moles, mice, etc.

She's so sweet. Luckily since we have to let her in and out she leaves them there so the men of the house can 'fling' them into the trash can.

 

[myrage]

lol, I was thinking about it... When I was a kitten (in my mom's cat Sam's eyes) She felt she needed to care for me. My mom would find spiders, mice, bugs, etc in my crib when I was a baby. She took really good care of me

Kept me clean, tought me to crawl... I just couldn't figure out how to jump in and out of my crib like she did... I didn't get it. lol