Of course its pretty normal to receive the odd 'present' from your cat, but our Milly is starting to cause us problems...

She seems to be a very accomplished hunter, only instead of presenting a corpse to us, she has the annoying habit of bringing in her prey alive and kicking, then releasing it.

Of course she receives some words in a stern tone but that doesn't discourage her, and its getting to the point where we're finding mouse/shrew droppings in the house, and later discovering corpses (due to the smell) under the sofa, in the sofa, even inside the sub woofer which i then had to take apart to recover the victim and anywhere else that a cat can't get to.

As a matter of course we now have humane mouse traps in concealed areas of the house to provide her prey with a refuge, and also us with an oppertunity to evict them, though we rarely get anything in them as I imagine they're not able to make it there either due to injury, or Milly chasing them.


Any suggestions as to how to deal with this annoying problem?

If you ever find a solution let me know after 17 years our cat still brings us presents dead & alive the latest being a live pigeon we found in our lounge

Would I be right in assuming you use a cat flap or does Milly stand at the door mewing until someone goes to the door to let her in? Does she hurt the animals as such do you know? She might simply be broody and think she is being a good mother or something similar. It might sound daft but if she doesn't bite and hurt them and doesn't listen to you she may think she is doing the mice etc the favour and be adopting them?

I have sympathy. My gorgeous cat brought in an enormous, live rat the other day which escaped into the kitchen. It really was the biggest rat I have ever seen. I kept the kitchen door - into the hall - closed and the back door open, in the hope that the rat would first of all find the cat foot and then venture out the back door. I think that is what happened. There have been no signs of it since.

We've had four or five mice since, one of which I rescued and put outside, one of which our darling cat ate, tail and all (crunch, crunch, crunch, accompanied by purring).

We have also been presented with a dead squirrel. I was glad it was dead, poor thing, I can cope with and despatch dead mice but would have found it difficult to euthenase a squirrel.

What a cute thought ginock

Semtex, would your cat accept to wear a safe bell collar to warn off any of her potential live prey?

Mine got broody over one of my socks once Carrying everywhere and curling up with it and giving it the odd wash. She does it with her toy mice sometimes.

She's also a very good hunter but tends to play with them. She doesn't hurt them though. The little thing is squeaking away until her brother steals it from her - and then it's squished!

Ah bless

[/quote] She's also a very good hunter but tends to play with them. She doesn't hurt them though. The little thing is squeaking away until her brother steals it from her - and then it's squished! [/quote]

Oh dear

That is so sweet! I would love to see that

Does she have a bell on her collar ? Or I am assured these work quite well http://www.willana-lifesciences.co.uk/catalert/

My kado is a prolific mouser. He will catch it bring it back and put it in the back garden for the other cats too play with then go get another one he also catches birds. We have only ever had one mouse in the house. I was convinced there was something in the kitchen as he was sat stirring at the cooker for days. I said too my OH move them tins at the side of the cooker. OH did and all of a sudden this mouse ran out. I screamed my head of as it ran across my feet. OH tried to chase kado around the living room whilst he was chasing the mouse. I then decided that sitting on the sides would be a good idea. It wasnt as kado decided to jump up right next too me with the mouse in his mouth its tail end sticking out. I scream and ran upstairs OH had to let kado and guinness out. He took it in the front garden and eventually came in. This was about 1.30am. The next morning when he went out he went straight to the front garden picked it up and brought it too the patio to show us. It must have been a realy thick mouse as at that point i had about 8 cats. I hate mouse's or birds that any cats have brought in. I do cat sit and one time my friends cat brought a bird in ripped it too shreads i couldnt clean it up and had to get another neighbour to do it. If you find a solution please let us know

Blimey Maisie - your cat Kado cooks your dinner too?



lozza I love your sock-baby story! How sweet!

When I was a kid our cat brought in next door's Guinea Pig that it had snatched whilst next door's daughter was playing with it in the garden. We didn't know until there was a knock at the front door and found the daughter crying on our doorstep.

Thankfully the guinea pig was found unharmed under a bed in an upstairs back bedroom.

The cat, named Sookie, was an absolute expert killer/stalker that would have put the SAS to shame.

You have a couple of options.

Restrict the areas the cat can get to with the prey. The first year we lived here (countryside) I used to find half-eaten rabbit corpses under our bed. The stench was a giveaway Now I shut the door to the upstairs so they can only 'lose' prey downstairs.

One year I resorted to shutting the catflap so they had to ask to get in, as one of my cats started bringing rats. This all happened while he was wearing a bell on his collar, made no difference at all.

The only thing that has really worked is ... time. Our main hunter is now 5 and the novelty has worn off .... he's keener on sleeping than terrorising wild life.

Pickledgherkin I hope the rat did leave. I too shut the door to the rest of the house and left the back door open, but our rat wasn't going anywhere. I had to get our builder to evict it

I feel rather lucky after reading the stories above. My Stew is absolutly rubbish at catching things and in the 6 years that I've had him I've only had to contend with 2 dead mice and a bird, even then I'm not convinced that he caught them and that they were left overs from other cats.

In ten years my cat's never returned home with anything he'd caught himself either. (Although there was one occasion with a poor, somewhat ripe birdy he'd found.)