A cat’s natural instinct is to hunt, whether it is a lion or tiger, or a domestic cat. Cats have been known for their hunting prowess for centuries, so it is not surprising that the cats we have in our homes today still possess that overwhelming desire to hunt.
It is virtually impossible, therefore, to stop your cat from hunting altogether because they possess all the necessary skills to be excellent hunters, even though you hate to think of your pet cat hunting and killing or injuring another animal. Actions can be taken, however, to reduce the amount of time your cat spends on this activity.
The best way to prevent your cat hunting is to keep it indoors. If you do not want to do this, you can take preventative measures which include ensuring that your cat is well fed and that a bird table is out of your cat’s reach, making it more difficult for it to obtain access to the birds.
You can also use other ways of preventing your cat from hunting, which I will discuss in detail in this article.
Keep your cat inside but ensure it is stimulated
One of the easiest ways of preventing your cat from hunting is to keep it inside. If you decide to take this action, some things to bear in mind are that you must ensure that your cat has access to a clean litter tray, and is kept mentally and physically stimulated by the use of cat toys and/or scratching posts.
Cats enjoy playing with toys such as plastic balls (if your cat has a nervous disposition like my cat Bess, you should not purchase a ball with a bell inside because the noise could easily scare it), toy mice, or sticks with objects dangling from a string. Cats like anything they are able to chase and pounce on!!
Other items that your cat may enjoy playing with include cardboard boxes, paper towel inserts, and paper bags. One thing to bear in mind is that you must ensure that your cat is unable to play with plastic bags because they can be dangerous for your cat. For more information regarding the dangers of plastic bags, please read my article: does your cat like plastic bags? – things you need to know.
A cat tree can also help to keep your cat mentally and physically stimulated because a cat can use the tree to scratch, climb and jump. The cat can use the cat tree to perch on, so can watch the outside world with the added advantage of height.
If your cat becomes bored, it may engage in destructive behaviour such as scratching the furniture. You should be prepared to spend time with your cat because it will not be able to interact with other animals outside, so you will be its main source of companionship. Cats should not be left alone for long periods because they can become lonely.
Advantages to keeping your cat inside include that your cat will not be able to enter into fights with other animals, be killed or badly injured by a car, or contract illnesses such as the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) or feline leukaemia virus (FeLV).
Another option is to leave your cat inside at certain times during the day. If you wish to stop your cat from hunting birds, it is wise to keep it inside an hour after the sun has risen and an hour before the sun sets because birds are mainly active during those times.
Mice can be especially active during night-time, so to stop your cat from hunting mice and other rodents, and to negate the possibility of your cat bringing a mouse inside the house as a ‘present’, it may be prudent to ensure that the cat is also kept inside at night.
My old cat Beauty once brought a mouse home as a present, but the problem was that the mouse was not dead, and Beauty had let it go, so I had to chase it around the living room to capture it and put it back outside, which was not fun, I assure you!!
If the weather has recently been bad, animals unable to find food during this time will want to come out as soon as the weather improves. You should, therefore, keep your cat inside during this period to give the animals the opportunity to obtain their food without feeling they are at risk.
If you wish to make hunting less appealing for your cat, you could try hiding food around the house so that your cat has to ‘hunt’ to discover it. This will lead to your cat being mentally and physically stimulated, thus it may not have as much desire to hunt. It also means that your cat has more opportunity to exercise, which is never a bad thing, especially for a cat that spends the majority of its time inside.
Give your cat a collar with a bell
If you wish to let your cat outside, one option you could try to curb its hunting behaviour is to give it a collar with a bell so that other animals can be warned of its presence. It also means that you can track your cat’s location more easily.
Disadvantages to your cat wearing a collar with a bell include that your cat could be scared by the noise the bell makes, especially if it already suffers from anxiety. Your cat could also become annoyed by the bell and could try to remove it, badly injuring itself in the process. For more information regarding the dangers of cat collars, please read my article: is a cat collar really safe? – the facts.
The bell could easily become dislodged if your cat has attempted to remove it, and your cat could choke if it were to ever inadvertently swallow it. A collar with a bell may not have the desired outcome as it could cause your cat to move even more stealthily because it did not want its presence to be detected. This could make your cat’s hunting even better than before, which is the outcome we want to prevent.
The best collar to purchase for your cat is a collar with a ‘quick release clip’, meaning that your cat can easily break free from its collar should the need arise. You may also purchase a collar equipped with a sonic device which is specifically designed to alert the cat’s prey that danger is nearby.
Research by the RSPB has shown that cats wearing collars with bells came home with 41 percent fewer birds than those wearing an ordinary collar. Cats wearing collars with sonic devices attached returned home with 51 percent fewer birds compared with cats wearing an ordinary collar.
If you do not wish to place a collar on your cat, you may decide that putting a hair scrunchie around your cat’s neck could be a better option, and would look stylish.
Please be careful when utilising this method, however, because the scrunchie could easily become tangled around your cat’s neck, possibly causing it to suffer a serious injury. All in all, it may be prudent to refrain from taking this action, however stylish you may think your cat looks; it is simply not worth jeopardising its safety.
Take preventative measures to ensure the safety of animals in your garden
If you wish to place a bird table in your garden, you should ensure that the table is at least 6 feet high so that your cat is unable to jump up to it. To prevent your cat from climbing up to reach the table by other means, you should also ensure that the table is at the top of a single pole to make it that much more difficult for a cat to climb up to it.
Cats can jump tremendous distances, so you should ensure that the bird table is nowhere near a place such as fence posts or trees. My cats Beauty and Patch were excellent at climbing trees. Your cat could be the same, and so could be able to take a flying leap from the position and land on the bird table.
If you have a bird feeder you must ensure that it is placed on the branch of a tree that is inaccessible to your cat, such as a branch that would not be able to stand your cat’s weight.
Consider putting down traps for any mice in the house
To prevent your cat chasing mice that may be in your house, it may be a better idea to put down catch and release traps so that the mouse can be caught in the trap and released outside, rather than falling prey to your cat’s hunting instincts.
Keep your cat well fed
If your cat is well fed, it may not have as much desire to want to seek out other ways of obtaining food. If your cat knows when its meals will be, it will soon get used to this routine and will be quite content to sleep inside most of the day.
Another option would be to sometimes offer your cat raw food such as a raw chicken neck, which will help a cat to keep its teeth and gums healthy. You should always consult your vet to ensure that adding food of this nature to your cat’s diet is suitable for it.
Please bear in mind, however, that just because a cat is well fed, it may not mean that it stops hunting animals – after all, a domestic cat sometimes hunts for the thrill of the chase and possible capture, so you may not be able to eradicate this desire completely. A well-fed cat may not want to actually kill the other animal, but it could play with, and pounce on it, possibly severely injuring it.
A farmer may exploit a cat’s desire to hunt, ensuring that a farmyard cat is well fed because if it is undernourished it will disappear to look for food. If however, it stays around the farmyard it may help to capture mice and rats that could have a devastating impact on the farm crops and the health of the farm animals.
Consider using a cat bib
If you feel that you are unable to stop your cat from hunting, and have tried all other methods, it may be worth placing a cat bib on your cat.
The bib is attached to your cat’s collar, hanging down over its chest, and can stop your cat from killing other animals because it can interfere with your cat’s coordination. The cat will, therefore, be unable to successfully coordinate an attack on the other animal. A scientific study has shown that a cat wearing a cat bib was unsuccessful at catching birds 81 percent of the time.
Dispose of any dead animal as quickly as possible
If your cat ever comes home with a dead animal, you should dispose of the carcass as quickly as possible. If you find a dead animal in your garden, you should always remove it before your cat can get to it. You should always wear gloves for this task – this would be preferable to picking up the animal with your bare hands!!
Whether or not you wear gloves, you should always wash your hands thoroughly after disposing of the animal – you do not know what kind of parasites and bacteria the animal may have on it. You should never place the carcass in an inside bin; it will begin to smell, this smell permeating through your whole house.
To dispose of the carcass, you should first place it into a bag, tying the handles if possible, and then place it in the outside bin.
My cat Patch once came home with a dead vole that was almost as big as he was!! The only action I could take was to praise his hunting efforts, and then dispose of the poor unfortunate animal when he was not looking.
It is best not to display a negative reaction if your cat brings a dead animal home. If you show it that you are unhappy, it may think that it has failed you in some way. It will, therefore, have more desire to hunt because, in its eyes, you did not like that gift, but may like an alternative. Your cat is desperate to please you.
You should never shout at your cat; this will not help the situation because your cat is only doing what is in its nature to do. Your cat thinks it is doing a good thing because, in its eyes, you are another animal unable to feed itself.
A cat thoroughly enjoys playing with a mouse, so automatically assumes that you will too! If you shout at it, it will become scared of you, and you could forever jeopardise the relationship you have with your cat because it has brought you the ‘present’ to show its affection for you.