Should you praise your cat for bringing home dead animals?

[pokerfan]

Mine are indoor so n/a but this is an interesting take:

[Arugula Latte]

1. My indoor kitties are forced to offer me toy mousies and large decorative puff balls

usually in the middle of the night.

[NV Whino]

2. I had a friend who "trained" her cat to switch from dead birds to dead leaves

Kitty got lots of praise for leaves. My friend ended up with a lot of leaves.

[Flaxbee]

3. Ivan (my big tuxedo) just brought us a rather large mouse earlier today -- and I praised him.

I have gotten very upset (not on purpose - I know he does it out of instinct and love) when he's brought birds and bunnies and chipmunks and squirrels -- he rarely brings those anymore. But we live in a rural area near farms and there are just scads of mice ... so I tell him he's a good boy. He loves the praise. And then he gives the mouse to Novi (one of our females) and she eats half of it. Usually the back half, for some reason.

[NV Whino]

6. Grayson, my athletic male is the hunter in my household

He brings in rodents (yay!) and the occasional bird (boo). The killing field is the bathroom floor. Makes cleanup a lot easier. Millie brings in a mouse once in a while, but she's in winter hibernation at the moment. Beau is too civilized (AKA lazy) to dirty his paws with vermin.

[Flaxbee]

9. I have a glass storm door that always stays shut -- so there are often mouse guts on the

doormat. I shudder to think where the carcasses would end up if we had a kitty door.

[jmowreader]

8. Fewer bones in the back half, naturlich

The front half has the head and ribs. All your prime mouse cuts come out of the back.

[Flaxbee]

11. yes, I did consider that -- skull and ribs might not be tasty

It was so nice here today - about 66, snow all melted - so I was sitting outside on the porch when Ivan brought Novi her treat. Good sized mouse, dead on arrival (which is not always the case with Ivan. One other strict instruction I have given him, in addition to no birds, no bunnies, no chippies, no squirrels, is: bring them home DEAD or able to live if they escape -- for a while there he was bringing home mice with broken backs and it was horrible).

I heard the crunch as Novi bit through bone and skin and tendon. Ugh. Went inside to leave her to her treat.

[pokerfan]

4. if I had an outdoor kitty

I would train kitty to bring us cash.

[NV Whino]

7. Unfortunately kitties don't seem to understand the monetary system.

After all, food magically appears in their dish in the morning. What need have they of coin?

[ailsagirl]

5. Mine are indoor so that's not an issue, but...

(in former days) I cringed every time one would bring in a mouse or lizard.

But it's their hunting instinct and it never goes away.

[azurnoir]

10. Lol reminds me of an incident years ago

between my SO's elderly Maine Coon and my much younger male tabby-Sadie the elder cat let her disdain for the younger one be known-he caught a house mouse and looking oh so proud of himself dropped at her feet and took a couple of steps back with a "do you like me now?" attitude-no such luck Sadie sniffed the mouse and got eewwwww dead rodent look-whapped my poor kitty across the head with one of her massive paws and strode off -guess there's no pleasing some-

[dipsydoodle]

12. Depends

I don't have room for an elephant.

[yuiyoshida]

13. My kitty never goes out doors

Though he spends hours and hours at night looking out the window. Its his own Cat TV, with night things to watch at night, and birds to watch during the day. I know he would love to be out there, like the tiger he is... but there are tics, fleas, dogs, coyotes, skunks, not to mention fast driving cars that would be happy to run him over flat.

He has his cat box, and Yes I am the number one kitty box cleaner, and he has food..and snacks and all the hugs he can deal with. It think he is just happier with "cat Tv".

[KT2000]

14. Yes

when I let a stray cat come into the house for the first time, I left the sliding door open so she could come and go. Later, when I went into that room, I found a pile of dead critters in the middle of the floor - couple mice, a big worm of some sort and something I could not identify.

Over the years (9) she has brought me mice and rats. Now, she is an indoor cat so I guess I have to hunt for myself!!