Early Morning Hunt

[Big Lou]

Sunny on an early morning hunt.

 

[Dave 54]

Chasing grass hoppers catching and eating them eh Big Lou our Jack is a dab hand at it ,
Pepsi however hunts mice and birds nines out of ten you find half eaten corpses around the home .
Jack however being younger has a habit of bringing mice home live and then letting them go much to our annoyment ,
It's down to Pepsi to cath and dispatch them if I cant catch them first and put them back in the garden

Dave

 

[Big Lou]

When younger, Sunny would go grab a baby bunny or field mouse bring it to the patio then cruely bounce it around like a play toy. So glad she out grew of that nasty spring ritual.

 

[MitchM]

I remember seeing a study done in Britain where they counted how many birds that cats were responsible for killing over the course of 1 year.
I think the study surveyed about 1000 cat owners where the owners would report what their cat killed.
The study then multiplied that number by how many cats are in Britain.
The result was something like 55 million birds were killed by domestic cats in Britain each year.
275 million small animals total.
That's a lot!

 

[Fishylove]

Well....cats are predators. ..our Lucy is the only one here that will hunt birds.. WHICH is why i dont feed birds or put out houses. Shes small ( 6lbs or so) but mighty

 

[Big Lou]

Sunny enjoys running at birds but is no longer fast enough to catch one, I hope.

 

[HARO]

I remember seeing a study done in Britain where they counted how many birds that cats were responsible for killing over the course of 1 year.
I think the study surveyed about 1000 cat owners where the owners would report what their cat killed.
The study then multiplied that number by how many cats are in Britain.
The result was something like 55 million birds were killed by domestic cats in Britain each year.
275 million small animals total.
That's a lot!

Numbers are similar for US & Canada. An amazing toll on our songbirds!
John

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I have three cats (who do not go outside) but only one of the three seems to have any type of hunting instinct. Just ask the baby mouse who somehow ended up in the house......

 

[HARO]

We have about 7-8 feral cats around here that regularly hunt on our lot. Since these poor animals are never fed, you can imagine how many birds, mice and baby bunnies go into their bellies every year!
John

 

[Lisak1]

Imagine if the natural predators DIDN'T exist... we would be overrun by birds, bunnies and mice! Nature has a good plan!

 

[MitchM]

I don't consider domesticated cats to be natural predators.
Natural predator populations rise and fall with prey populations. We humans supplement the cats diet (and birds for that matter).
- but there is a documented decline in songbird population, so I think the cats have the advantage.
Cat ownership has never been higher.

 

[Big Lou]

Watched the fat squirrel chasing a Cardinal this morning. Mr. Squirrel finally turned tail an jumped into another tree.

 

[j.w]

I have put so many bells on my one cat and she stays only on our property but she still manages to grab a robin and once even got a little hummer. I don't feed the birds except the hummers but it wasn't at the feeder where she caught that one. It was at some blooming flowers in a garden where she sat in the bushes and waited patiently for the exact moment of the attack. I now have to but tomato cages all around that area when those flowers are in bloom. I actually resorted to clipping a tiny bit off the end of her nails..................I know you are not supposed to do that when the cats go outside as they need the protection but I just couldn't take it anymore. Guess what? It worked and she hasn't caught a robin in a week. I see her messing w/ those nails of hers tho, using her teeth to make them sharp and clawing like mad on her cat trees. I think she isn't happy w/ her nails trimmed one bit. I need to keep an eye out there for her tho as if something comes in the yard and bothers her she won't have much defense and might not be able to climb a tree. Not going to do this all the time to her, just when the robins are so numerous all over our yard in the Spring.

 

[MitchM]

I really like cats but it wouldn't be fair to have one out here.
It would be eaten by the bigger predators that are naturally out here (coyotes, wolves, cougars, owls) and It would go after the bird populations that we attract with our bird feeders.
We had a pretty scrawny cat here one year, staying under an old building. I think someone abandoned it at the end of our dead end road.
I tried to feed it, but it was too scared of me and I couldn't leave cat food outside because that would attract bears.

 

[addy1]

I anti cat fencing up around the ground below my bird feeders, where the ground is covered with birds picking up seed. I do my best to keep the cats from killing the birds.