My cat keeps killing animals

[kazzianne]

Help!! I have 3 cats,who all occasionally kill a mouse or shrew,and deposit it in the kitchen or at the bottom the stairs for us to find,and whilst this annoying ,we can cope with it.However,the middle one,a female called Meg,is now dragging whole rabbits intp the house.I got up this morning to find a fully grown,disembowelled rabbit at the foot of the stairs,and blood everywhere.This has happened more than once.I have had to wash blood off the walls where she has dragged it in - god knows how she got it in the cat flap!! What do I do?? We cant go on like this - we dread looking down the stairs in the morning now to see what is lying there.

[rio116]

You really can't do anything short of keeping your cat in,cats are natural born killers i'm afraid. Even a domestic cat that is fed will still kill just because they have a natural instict which can never be taken out of them. You could try keeping your cat in at sun down and in the morning till after 9ish as this is when song birds and rabbits come out to feed,in between that time most are in the air,under ground or in borrows! Also,put a loud bell on your cats collar so that other animals will hear her coming. That is all you can really do,hope this helps.

[kazzianne]

Thankyou for that,but not very easy to put into practise.We actually have three cats,and live in a very rural village.What with people working different hours,and children ina nd out,it is impossible to be able to keep them in.They do have bells actually,but this cat in particular seems to be able to creep up on anything.We could just about deal with it if she left them outside,but this is really starting to distresst my little boy,and I really dont want to have to get rid of the cat,but not sure what else to do!!

[rio116]

I have 4 cats and also live in a rural village. We feed them at the same time every evening,about 7 and they are then kept in all night.We don't let them out in the morning untill as late as possible,obviously if everyone is going out to work then they are let out earlier but just before we go. Try putting two bells on. Everyone in the house knows not to let the cats out when they are in. As I said,cats are born killers so if you don't want to get rid of her then keep her in all the time or accept that she will always kill things. Why don't you get rid of the cat flap,that way the killed things will be left outside rather than in the house? We don't have a cat flap and our cats just let us know when they want to come in.

[Bohne]

Now I start being grateful my kitties only bring in small animals.
The problem with them, they don't kill always the mice, but bring them in to play, and then at some point lose interest, and let them go.
Not sure how many mice my husband and I had to hunt down in the house in the last couple of years...

But that's still better than finding them dead one in the bed under the covers.
That has happened a couple of times, too.

However, I just think it's natural. They can't help it.

[kazzianne]

I guess I could try to keep them in,I just really dont want to have to keep a litter tray in at night - they smell foul.Or would it be best to keep them out? Or is that cruel? The younger cat is only 11 months old.What to do for the best! Admittedly the catflap isnt helping things.

[andy-hughes]

Have you considered taking the cat flap access away?

Your cat is being a pack animal. You, as head of the pack, deserve her kills as a 'treat', so she brings them in for you, to show her loyalty to you.

the only way to stop her is by making her access controlled, so you can stop her bringing anything in with her. That's really the only choice you have - it's not possible to train cats out of this behaviour, it is as inbuilt as having whiskers and a tail.

[kazzianne]

I guess you are right.So what would be for the best - to leave all three cats in or out at night?

[gessoo]

We had a cat that used to bring in his dead beheaded rabbits and stuff them in the back of the washing machine for future use. We didn't realise initially until a bad smell led us to two dead rabbits!

My cats are in at night and don't have a cat flap. It does help. However, they are both totally useless mousers - even ignoring the recent one we had in the kitchen!!

[gessoo]

I wouldn't leave cats out at night. They are more likely to come to harm in the half light of dusk or dawn when all the little animals are on the roads and most cat deaths from accidents are known to happen at this time.

Personally, I wouldn't be able to sleep if my cats weren't in and known to be safe at night. But then I may be just an old softie!!

[smudge]

We always let our cat out for a wee mid evening, then called her in for the night.

It was bad enough listening to other cats fighting in the night, without her adding to the Chorus!

Whenever I used to pull out our bed to hoover underneath it, there would be many a pair of spindly birds legs, beaks & feathers left for me to clear up!

[teag1rl]

It's not cruel to keep your cats outside, give them somewhere cosy out of a draft and I'd have thought they'd be OK, there's thousands of farm cats looking after themselves not tucked up in cosy houses at night. The only thing I suppose you've got to worry about is the road, but can't see why that would be any more dangerous since they can come and go now as they please anyway.

[oscartony]

you could always let it play with somebodys bull terrier so it got a taste of its own medicine apart from that tape the catflap up and evict it for the night.

[rio116]

cats are not pack animals,dogs are. The only cat that lives in a group is a lion,the rest are solitary. Cat litter trays do not smell fowl if cleaned every day. I would take the cat flap away,keep them in at night as it is not fair to keep cats out all night if they are used to being kept indoors,there is also more risk of something happening to them,especially around bonfire night etc.

[lankeela]

Just close the catflap at night and re-open it in the morning.

Feed them late at night so they come in when you call them before you go to bed.

[whiskeysheri]

Our cats love to be out at night and come in to snooze in the day. They have to go out through two cat flaps to get outside. There's one from the kitchen into the garage and then one from there to outside.

They've never brought us any presents during the day so we let them roam the house while we're at work, but at night we close the kitchen door, so they can keep warm in there but still get out if they need to. They rarely bring us anything back anymore, but if they have, it usually stays in the garage to be cleaned up. As Bohne said, they sometimes bring back mice to play with. x

[Toureman]

I agree with Tabatha let the cats carry on just as they are and don't be cruel enough to put bells on their collars!

Our cat brings home mice, rabbits, moles and birds! she always eats the mice ,rabbits and birds sometimes after playing with them but never the moles.

She brought a mouse into the house one day and it escaped from her, she was trying to find it for about a week afterwards, I found it under a low cupboard in a bedroom, the mouse had been stealing food from the cats bowl and storeing it there.

You cannot alter their natural instincts, the only way to be kind to them is to put a catflap on your shed or garage so they can go somewhere safe at night.

[rio116]

tabatha and toureman,it is not cruel to put bells on cats collars,they still manage to kill things,i have 4 cats who all have collars and they constantly kill things. People who put bells on collars are the people who understand that we as cat owners must try to help ,as best we can,the quickly declining song bird population which our cats are part of.

[Schlomo78]

I had the smae prob with my cat so every time I bought her and her brother a new collar I added a bell to hers in an attempt to stop being inundated with mice,shrews,moles, rats and birds. She has at the moment no less than 5(!!!!) bells on her collar and although it has stopped her catching things so much, she still manages around 2/3 a week. I read that in fact when cats have a bell on their collar they get used to it and just become even more stealthy! My last hope was a magnetic cat flap which helped slightly as it takes her a moment or two to get in the door due to all the bells getting in the way of the magnet! I think they escape from her more frequently now, but I cant see that she will ever stop.

[Gilli]

People who own cats have to be prepared for the fact that they may hunt things.

I have 5 cats right now, 3 of whom hunt and whilst it's not pleasant clearing up bits of creatures, feathers etc., or chasing live mice about, it's perfectly natural too.

I don't keep my cats in at night - they keep themselves in, sleeping when we do (and some) and seem to do their hunting during the day, so I feel there's little I can do to limit that. I have no aversion to bells, but have given up on collars as they were being lost (presumably snagged on undergrowth) at the rate of 2 or 3 a week, and impossibly expensive to replace.

As it seems to be a nightime problem for you, and if you are wary of a litter box, do you have a shed or garage they could overnight in instead ? Or, can you restrict access to only part of the house, by closing internal doors etc., so, say, they can only get into a couple of rooms ? That way, any nasties could be kept from the children's view.