Did my 2 cats intentionally do this, or are they just stupid?

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Jethro - 21 Aug 2005 05:34 GMT

My parents own 2 birds, a quaker parrot and cockatiel. They sometimes
let the birds out of their room with the cats roaming the house. They
always hunt the birds, it's really neat to watch their hunting methods.

One day, the one of the birds was walking on the top of our coach.
Princess snuck up to the cockatiel and didn't have anything to hide
behind, so she distracted the bird. When the bird was watching her,
Sylvester snuck up on the other side of the bird and almost got the
bird. (They do catch the birds once in a great while, but don't try to
hurt the birds.) Did these two cats actually team hunt or was it just
an accident?

I was just watching this show on the Animal channel last night about
swamp lions hunting those big buffalo. I find it fascinating watching
the big lions and my cats hunt their prey.

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Saul Levy - 21 Aug 2005 23:00 GMT

Kittens learn at an early age to hunt. Most of this is from their
mothers, but how much is inherent is a good question. Their play
tends to be mostly attack!

Saul Levy

>My parents own 2 birds, a quaker parrot and cockatiel. They sometimes
>let the birds out of their room with the cats roaming the house. They
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>swamp lions hunting those big buffalo. I find it fascinating watching
>the big lions and my cats hunt their prey.

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Christopher Chringle - 22 Aug 2005 08:57 GMT

Our momma cat was an indoor outdoor country cat. Whenever she had a litter and
they were a few weeks old, she would take them upriver for a week and teach them
to hunt. One time when she came back, we don't know what happened, but one
kitten was disowned by her. It must of made a very bad showing. Anyway, My mom
went ahead and turned that kitten into her indoor pet cat. So, even domestic
cats do have their hunting rituals.

> Kittens learn at an early age to hunt. Most of this is from their
> mothers, but how much is inherent is a good question. Their play
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>>swamp lions hunting those big buffalo. I find it fascinating watching
>>the big lions and my cats hunt their prey.

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Vlache - 22 Aug 2005 09:16 GMT

You mean to say that with every litter, your cat and kittens were away from
the home for an entire week terrorizing and killing the local wildlife? I
find that to be very irresponsible especially when it had already seemed to
be a regular occurrence.
Did you ever think to confine her and the kittens indoors before this
killing expedition was to be expected?

> Our momma cat was an indoor outdoor country cat. Whenever she had a
> litter and they were a few weeks old, she would take them upriver for a
> week and teach them to hunt. One time when she came back, we don't know
> what happened, but one kitten was disowned by her. It must of made a very
> bad showing. Anyway, My mom went ahead and turned that kitten into her
> indoor pet cat. So, even domestic cats do have their hunting rituals.

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Vlache - 25 Aug 2005 03:35 GMT

This reply was emailed to me this morning and to me it show a great deal of
naivety that seems to be typical of the vast majority of cat owners. As
the story goes, the cat and kittens were away for a week. The probabilities
are extremely high that - yes - there were kills made during that week.
Carnivorous animals teach their young to hunt for food by killing the prey
and getting the young to kill the prey. There is no other way to go about.
There are no theory lessons in the animal kingdom.

You may want to get hold of the September 2005 edition of the Australian
version of Readers Digest. There is an article on the feral cats of
Kangaroo Island. It is available online and maybe some non-Australian
editions also have the article. This problem is occurring throughout
Australia and most likely in other parts of the world - including suburban
areas - where cats are left to fend for themselves by irresponsible and
naive owners. You may not like Barry Green but what he is doing is
necessary and I happen to agree with him. I can tolerate cats but its the
owners that are pissing me off. If I catch a cat in my yard, it is soon a
non-cat.

>This was in the country. And we don't really know if they ever actually
>killed
>anything. You don't have to make a kill to teach hunting. Other than that
>expedition, they were not killing machines. They were normal domestic
>cats.

Vlache wrote:

> You mean to say that with every litter, your cat and kittens were away
> from
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>>bad showing. Anyway, My mom went ahead and turned that kitten into her
>>indoor pet cat. So, even domestic cats do have their hunting rituals.

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