[pochanike]

i was wondering if anyone else has or would train their kitty to hunt like the mother would. my cat is a bit old but considers me his mother i think because he will suckle my ear and knead my face everynight when i lay down for bed. anyways i found him when he was super small and he wasnt weaned either so i'm assuming he wasnt taught to hunt.

what is the best animal to teach hunting with?

i have crickets that i feed my tree frog and started off giving him ones that died in the cage before they got to be food. he doesnt eat them but he smells them and plays with them

now i'm starting to give him injured crickets (dont ask me how i injure them) and he is killing them "finishing the job" so to speak. anyways. do any of you know which other animal would be best for him to learn with? i read this is how the mother teaches them to hunt in the wild and i want him to be prepared in case he ever gets lost or something to that effect.

i dont want him to be a complete idiot on the outside world in other words. any thoughts?

 

[Richo]

Did you think of trapping mice, using a type of trap that doesn't kill them. Set them free outside with your cat watching and see what he does.

I would think that many adopted kittens are taken from their mother before they are ever trained to hunt. Just like grooming and using a litter box, I think hunting is a natural cat instinct. I could be wrong though.

Just curious, why do you feel your cat needs to learn to hunt?

 

[Jeanie]

My cats have never been outside, and were to young to hunt when I got them. However, as fall came, I was given a lovely intact (thank goodness), but dead, mouse. That's really unusual because I have a Riddex, and that keeps them away.

It's true that mother would teach the babies. However, if they eat mice, etc., they will get worms. I wouldn't advise it. My area has built up, and I can't allow my cats outdoors. Of course, that's a different can of worms, and a lot depends on where you live. Cats chase moths in the house and anything else that moves. I don't think you'll need to teach your kitten. The instinct is pretty strong.

 

[pochanike]

though he is inside most of the time and plays with anything that moves i have noticed that he only plays with them. i bought him a hissing roach (they dont fly) and let him try to kill it but he played with it for hours and never killed it. so i started bringing him dead things and worked from there.

when they bring you something dead they are "mothering" you so to speak. he's trying to teach you how to hunt

isnt that cute?

anyways yeah i'm working with him. he is finally killing things that are injured that i bring to him and next i'm going to try a hissing roach again and see if he'll kill it this time. today was his first injured cricket and he killed it very efficiently.

of course i wouldnt want him to eat mice but if i know that he can kill them i'll feel better about things. the problem is that he is scared of the outside and doesnt know what to do out there. all the sounds scare him and at first i thought it would just take him some time to get used to it but its been two months since the first day i let him outside and he's still scared. he will sit behind me in the chair that i'm sitting in and will meow insistently that he wants to go inside.

i think it has to do with that bird that attacked him haha j/k but a bird did attack him, he came running to me, crawled up leg and shirt and jumped behind me... wow did that hurt.

 

[Jeanie]

Cats that are not hungry will still play with their prey, sometimes for an hour or more. I'm afraid we're on opposite ends of this subject though, because when I was able to have inside-outside cats, I did all I could to keep them from killing other animals. Believe me, if a cat was hungry, he'd eat what he caught.

 

[pochanike]

yeah i guess we are on separate wavelengths here. i dont mind him killing things. i made sure i fed him before i gave him the injured cricket. i actually would love to have a little hunter on the prowl in the house though, that way anything that makes its way in wont last long. we have a field across the street where they knocked down a house and we had to put many rat traps out for those stupid field mice.

i think that it is natural for him to hunt, but i want to give him something to work with i guess. not being encouraged to hunt when they're young can repress the instinct very much so (read it in the cat book).

 

[Richo]

Every cat I've known of that is well fed will kill mice and leave them on the door step of the house sort of to say "look what I brought you". If your cat does not like to go outdoors, why do you want it to go outside? There are so many dangers awaiting cats outdoors. If they are happy inside, that is the best and safest place for them. I would never let mine outside.

 

[pochanike]

the problem is that though he seems to be afraid outside he will dart out the door and run outside, usually only to the backyard. when i take him to the front yard he sits behind me and cries. plus there are so many other cats in our neighborhood that i'm sure he'll encounter and i'm afraid he wont know how to behave or act around them.

he is fixed and a female cat came into our yard while i was outside in the front with him and started rubbing herself all over the driveway, he ignored her i'm assuming because he's fixed but it worries me that there are so many other cats around and they are all outside cats and for the most part fend for themselves. i'm afraid he'll find himself in a situation outside by himself and i wont be there to help him and he wont know what to do.... does this make any sense?

 

[Jeanie]

If I were you, and had a situation like that, I'd keep my cat indoors. A slight scratch can turn into an abscess very easily on a cat. They are very vulnerable to infection, and the vet bills and toll on the health of your cat are just not worth it. If you can do it, I know of many owners who build an outside cage (with a top, of course) with inexpensive materials. You could make a wonderful, roomy playpen, and you can include branches to climb and a kitty door into the house. I wish I could build one myself!

 

[pochanike]

i can do that, but there is no way to attach it to the house as we have a deck all the way around the back of the house and it would look tacky imo in the front of the house.... but my cat doesnt like to climb, i guess it scares him (i put him in the tree once)

sometimes though when my mom is doing laundry she opens the back door, leaves it ajar, and he runs out. my cat is afraid of my dad so if he's around my cat wont even think about coming back into the house until i get home so he ends up being out there for a few hours (sometimes over nine hours when i'm at work on sundays)

 

[Jeanie]

If you really are concerned about your cat's safety, you can carry him out to an enclosure and put him in.

 

[pochanike]

i could, but i might as well not let him out at all in that case.

 

[tanyuh]

That's the best idea.