Why do cats bring prey to their owners? Why do cats bring dead animals home: scientific research and observations The cat brought home a bird

Many cat breeders are faced with the fact that after a walk in the house there are carcasses of dead birds and rodents that the pet brings from the street. For unbalanced people, this becomes a real stress, and if there are children in the house, then such behavior of a cat or cat can be scary. So why do cats carry dead animals home and how to wean a pet from this?

Why does a pet bring dead animals home and put them on their owners

If your cat began to bring such carcasses from a walk and leave them in a conspicuous place, this only means that you have earned his respect. The animal thus shows you that it is ready to bring you food and share it with you. After all, most often the cats themselves do not eat the caught animals, but only bring them. And this applies to all cats, regardless of their usual diet. Even if the cat eats elite food, his hunting instincts remain at the same level, and the cat needs to realize them to one degree or another.

Is it necessary to wean the animal from such behavior?

If you were able to earn such respect from your cat, it is worth considering whether it is necessary to wean him from behaving this way? Perhaps you should show the cat where to put the corpses after the hunt so that they do not lead to dirt and bad smell. For example, you can show that you need to leave your prey only on the balcony, and not on the owner's pillow. This will save your nerves and save you a restful sleep.

Be sure to praise your cat for the work done, because the animal tried very hard to please you. Do not scold the cat, it is better to treat him with something tasty and healthy. Also, do not forget about timely vaccination and treatment for worms and fleas. Indeed, in the process of hunting, an animal can become infected, and treatment can be difficult. By protecting yourself and your pet, you can be completely calm about his health after each hunt.

Treasure this attitude towards yourself and do not violate the high level of trust that you were able to win in the eyes of a cat or a cat.

By the way, cats can bring home strangled animals and birds in an attempt to teach kittens how to hunt and choose prey correctly. Therefore, if your cat has had experience raising her offspring, then this behavior may be a simple maternal instinct directed towards someone in your home. Even if at the moment you don’t have kittens, this instinct in animals is incredibly strong and can manifest itself in a variety of forms, including this one. Thank your beloved cat and reward her with her favorite treat, the animal will definitely appreciate it and will only trust you more.

Many cat owners are concerned about the hunting instincts of their pets. After all, even if a cat is well fed and never let out of the house, it still carries this instinct and a genetically predetermined need to act in accordance with this instinct. But if many people understand this, then why cats bring their prey to their owners is much more difficult to understand.

One of the reasons for this is that the cat's body requires a large amount of protein to ensure normal functioning. This by itself implies that the main food of a cat can only be meat or other flesh. However, instinct is one thing, and the disgust that some cat owners experience when they see their pets presenting them with freshly killed prey is another. Individual owners then feel a kind of alienation towards their cat, and the prey presented to them as a kind of insult, and all because they do not understand at all why cats bring the prey home. In fact, the cat brings prey to its owners, simply because it wants to take care of these two-legged creatures, which, in the opinion of the cat, are not capable of killing prey for themselves.

When a hunter returns from hunting, he proudly carries home his prey, and in this respect cats are no different from humans. Demonstrating great satisfaction with all their appearance, they lay the killed prey at the feet of their master or under the door.

When a cat brings a dead mouse to its owner, she thereby demonstrates her concern for him.

The cat brought the prey. What to do?

If the owner of the cat realized why cats bring their prey to the owners, then it is quite natural that there can be no talk of any abuse against the pet, not to mention punishment. In this case, you should not be angry, but be proud that the cat decided to honor you by presenting such a valuable gift. Therefore, the best thing to do is to take the prey in a hygienic way and get rid of it. Then the cat will think that you liked her gift, and you appreciated it and ate it. It is better to do this when the cat will not see this, otherwise it will not be clear to her why you, instead of putting the mouse in your mouth, put it in a jar, which you then send to the trash can.

If a cat has mastered the most difficult art of catching birds, it can become a source of serious problems for the inhabitants of your yard. With this in mind, you should think carefully when equipping bird feeders. For example, place them in open areas where the cat cannot sneak up on prey unnoticed. And to further reduce the cat's chances of successfully catching birds, you can hang a bell on its collar.

To understand why cats bring prey home, you need to look at the issue from a cat's point of view.

True, this does not always help: some cats manage to catch birds even with a bell. At one time, Internet users became aware of a cat that hunted birds on only three paws - she used the fourth limb to hold a bell.

Flies and other insects are a natural and valuable part of a cat's diet.

Some domestic cats also master the art of fishing, which they indulge in in the aquariums of their owners. Of course, there are many more successful anglers among wild cats. Especially famous in this regard are jaguars, Sumatran cats and fishing cats, the very name of which indicates that for them it is fishing that is the main form of hunting, and which, moreover,. The skill that these cats demonstrate is truly amazing. As for feral domestic cats, their habits differ little from those of hereditary wild cats, and they successfully hunt insects, birds, various small mammals (mainly rodents) and even small lizards.

While most cats are sweet and cuddly creatures, many of them have annoying habits of their own. Someone tends to sharpen his claws on furniture, jambs and wallpaper, someone climbs the curtains, someone demands affection from the owner as soon as he sits down to work.

But, perhaps, one of the most unpleasant surprises that a pet can bring is a bloody, brutally tortured mouse, planted in a boot or on a favorite sofa.

Why does a cat bring mice and birds to the owner

Although the process of domestication of cats began more than 10 thousand years ago, they have retained their wild hunting instincts to this day, as well as the ability to digest raw meat. A person can babysit a meowing pet as much as he wants, tie bows and feed him with expensive food, but the instinct of a predator will not go anywhere.

In the wild, mothers teach their kittens to find their own food. To begin with, she brings them dead animals so that the kids begin to perceive them as food. Then - the wounded, so that they learned to kill. Finally, he takes the cubs with him on hunting trips, where they learn to track and catch prey on their own.

Some breeders suggest that cats, bringing mice to the owner, “boast” of their hunting success or bring prey as a token of gratitude. It also happens that they tend to hide their legitimate prey in the safest possible place, and it is possible that this will be the master's bed or closet.

But most likely, the cat brings home mice (dead or injured) because it found in its owner a blatant lack of hunting qualities. And honestly tries to save him in the way that instinct tells her. Indeed, in the harsh world of predators, a bad hunter is always doomed to hunger and deprivation.

It is curious that more often cats bring mice or other animals to the owner, and not cats, because they have a strong maternal instinct, and they can perceive their household as unintelligent kittens that need to be taken care of.

What to do if the cat brings prey to the owner

Do not scold your pet when he brings a dead mouse or bird into the house. Such behavior is a manifestation of care, which is quite understandable. It is best not to panic, but to slowly throw away or bury the dubious present until the animal sees it.

No amount of spraying, lectures, and punishment can convince a cat to do what it does best - hunt. All you can do is keep the predator at home or put a bell collar on your pet to give the prey a better chance of escape.

This phenomenon is more familiar to those owners of cats who live in rural areas or in the private sector. If a cat walks on the street, then it can return home with prey, which will not only surprise, but also frighten the household. Why do cats do this and why? Let's look into the issue.

Obeying instincts

When a pet appears on the doorstep with a mouse in its mouth, the owners act differently. Some treat such "gifts" calmly, while not understanding why the booty should be carried into the house. Others are indignant and consider the animal a mischief-maker who litters in the house, scares the household. Both those and others are wondering why bring a mouse into the house if there is delicious and favorite food in the cat's bowl? And really, why do cats do this?

First of all, we recall that all cats are predators by nature. They always got their own food and went hunting. Today, domesticated animals, in the presence of a food base, simply cannot deny themselves the pleasure of hunting. By the way, representatives of many recently bred breeds do not have a developed hunting instinct. He simply died out in the process of selection. Therefore, they look at gophers, mice, voles simply as a moving toy without any threatening motives.

So, hunting instinct makes cats catch small rodents and birds. Further behavior is explained by a number of reasons. When the prey has already been caught (perhaps it is still alive or half dead), the cat goes home with it in its teeth. The pet can eat the mouse on the threshold of the house, or it can wait until the door opens and run in. After all, all hunters, including people, always carry prey to the house. This is dictated, again, by the instinct of caring for offspring, which also needs to be taught to hunt, to eat food of animal origin.

Even sterilized cats, who are unfamiliar with parental instinct, will carry their prey to the house or to its threshold. But he is in them by nature! And all pets, regardless of whether they are sterilized or not, take care of their owner. Of course, they do not know that people do not eat small rodents, so they try to please the owner, prove their usefulness, and demonstrate their skills. By the way, some cats can bring a mouse into the house and just put it on their owner's pillow. To him, and not to other family members. So the cat proves its fidelity, the ability to share the food obtained in gratitude for taking care of it. This is how the owner should perceive such actions of the ward. You should not yell at the animal and defiantly, shouting, throw the mouse out of the house in front of the getter. Just thank the cat and quietly remove the rodent from the house, wash your hands after that. Without a doubt, after the first such "gift" there will be a second and fifth.

And another explanation for such actions of the animal is the intimidation of strangers and the marking of its territory. When a dead prey lies on the threshold of the house, the cat asserts itself, shows its strength on its territory. So, it is clear why your pet brings rodents or birds into the house.

About hidden threats

Cats should not bring captured animals into the house, because they can greatly frighten the owner. Of course, this rarely happens, and if the owner himself is a hunter, then no mouse will frighten him. But other owners, especially if they are female, may suffer from ornithophobia (fear of rats, birds, mice). Such a phobia can bring a person to a panic attack. This is a jump in blood pressure, and shortness of breath, and a general deterioration in well-being. As a result, the prey brought into the house becomes the reason for getting rid of the pet: it is given away or sold.

Another danger posed by such gifts from pets is diseases carried by rodents. For the cats themselves, the worst of them is leptospirosis. Cats die from this disease. Rats are often carriers of distemper, rabies, from which death also occurs in pets. Mice carry encephalitis, piroplasmosis, fungal infections. All types of wild prey pose a threat to the life of a cat. Bites of rats, for example, in most cases lead to suppuration, abscesses.

It is worth noting that the hunting instinct of cats sometimes develops into a global scale. We are talking about the fact that animals begin to hunt chickens, chickens, ducklings in a neighbor's barn. And this already threatens the owners with scandals with their neighbors.

Pets who prefer self-walking and returning to their home whenever they feel like it often bring dead animals under the owner's windows and doors. It is terrible to think that a gentle purr can kill a living creature, especially when it comes to harmless chickens, pigeons and rabbits.

Alas and ah, the cat is a real hunter, some have a sharply sharpened purr tooth for prey, others prefer to lie down in the sun, rarely reacting to birds and bats. Tumblers and lazy people cause resentment among the owners of private houses who have got a cat, including so that it catches mice. What can be said? You were unlucky.

Good hunting skills are possessed by colored representatives of the cat family and some breeds of noble blood, for example, a luxurious Russian blue with emerald eyes. Experts assure that girls cope with catching mice much better than the representatives of the stronger sex.

In any case, opening the door and seeing a dead mouse or sparrow on the threshold is not very pleasant. Why do cats carry dead animals home and lay their prey right at the feet of the owner? We asked veterinarians about this.

natural instincts

For catching mice and other small rodents, birds and animals, there are two main instincts given to the cat by nature:

1. The hunting instinct - wild cats hunt more often than domestic ones, because if you don’t catch something edible, no one will bring food on a silver platter. This does not mean at all that the animal is evil, aggressive and dangerous - it can hunt and calmly perch on pillows near the hostess, putting a cute muzzle on her knees. It's just that cats are adapted to a predatory lifestyle.

Do not forget that the people themselves domesticated the purr, but the instincts have been preserved from their ancestors. By the way, not every furry feeds on its prey, the very fact of catching is important to it, it has done its job, walk boldly. Catching a mouse is a necessity that is explained by evolutionary development.

1. Parental instinct - from time immemorial, a cat mother, taking care of her offspring, teaches kittens to eat right, delivering them dead animals as food. There is an opinion that sterilized cats become lumps, but practice proves the opposite - it all depends on the characteristics of the character of a particular animal, a sterile beast is able to hunt no worse than those who can give birth to offspring and pass on their experience to children.

It's not about kittens anymore, a sterile cat considers you a member of her family who needs care and attention. Bringing the killed prey into the house, the purring pet seems to say - I remember you, look what I brought you, I tried so hard.

Therefore, every time you open the door and see a cat with a mouse on the threshold, remember that in this way the animal shows its boundless love. Do not scold the fluffy for devotion and fidelity, what is given to her by nature, because she presented a gift from the whole cat's soul.

Purr's hidden threats of loyalty

If a cat periodically brings dead mice and sparrows into the house, every pet owner should be aware of the hidden threats of such souvenirs:

1. Rodents are carriers of infections and diseases, while they themselves feel great, adapting to almost any environmental and living conditions. A cat that is accustomed to feasting on a mouse can catch leptospirosis, a disease that is fatal for a fluffy cat.
2. If the purr catches rats, the risk of the cat contracting distemper or rabies increases. That is why veterinarians give advice to vaccinate all cats without exception, including domestic ones, against infection.
3. Mice can be infected with encephalitis, piroplasmosis and fungal diseases.
4. Bites of rats are fraught with suppuration and abscesses.

The owner, whose cat constantly hunts animals and birds, should pay attention to changes in the behavior of the cat and the well-being of the animal. Do not let the beast catch chickens, scold for misconduct, shaking your finger and speaking in a displeased, stern tone of voice.