Wednesday, February 10, 2010

How can I stop my cat from bringing mice into my home and eating them?

My mostly indoor cat started hunting and eating mice. Yuck. I am worried about worms (or something else) for him and for me, he sleeps with me. I feed him a good quality food and leave it out all day. He loves being outside and uses it for the bathroom. He hates, hates, hates litter boxes. But I do not want half eaten mice inside my house. He is 13 years old, in fantastic health, in a very safe neighborhood, and very loved.How can I stop my cat from bringing mice into my home and eating them?
Yes i can understand your concern bringing mice home is not a ';Gift'; we appreciate at all and worry about worms and things that they can catch,





have you tried the CatBib it is attached to the cats collar and works by distracting your cats coordination so they fail to catch them,it wont spoil your cats daily fun such as going out or climbing fence ect,





i would give you a link but there are so many websites selling them so if you Google CatBib in to your computer many sights will come up,and since we have had one for our cat we don't get any more mice as gifts!





but at 13 your cat is used to having fun hunting so he would miss it.How can I stop my cat from bringing mice into my home and eating them?
Truth is, you can't stop a cat from doing what is natural (killing things).


No matter how much you feed it, cats hunt because it gives them pleasure, not just because they are hungry.


Ultimately, the only way to stop him from bringing home mice is to keep him inside.


Your neighbours will thank you for not letting him ***p in their garden beds.
Usually, unfortunately, these little presents they bring in are gifts to show their love.


They want you to love them as much as they do!


Every time they bring them in, you pick up the cat and its.. gift.. and put them both outside.


Even a slight smack/tap on its head or lower back (NOT hard, but different from a pat) will tell it that its not acceptable.





They also know voice tones, so if you speak in a harsh/stern tone they will hear the difference from the soft/lovey tones you might usually use and realize that this is a bad thing.


Sooner or later, if you do this EVERY time, it should learn its not supposed to do this. Hope I helped!
Unfortunately for you, he may be feeling your love and bringing the mice as ';gifts.'; I have never heard of someone successfully preventing their cat from bringing in their, um, ';prizes,'; so I'll be interested to see if anyone else has an idea.
If you have a kitty door, you may have to close it off and let him in and out manually. They are still pretty sneaky. Sometimes they will carry their head really low so you cannot see what they have. That is gross. We usually have dead birds, mice, or rabbits on our front porch from our killer.
by keeping the cat inside
I have two outdoor cats and also live in a very cat friendly community. I don't have to feed my cats for about half the year. They eat quite well on what they catch and I have neighbours that are allergic to cats that bribe mine to hunt in their gardens. Their primary prey is prairie gophers which they are very good at disposing of.





The two of them used to bring their prizes home for me to check out but nowadays they eat the whole thing and do not 'share'. The reason for this is because I started to remove any prey from them the instant that they brought it home. After a while they stopped because they were losing too much of their food to me. The still take their kills to one neighbours house because she trades them treats for dead mice.





I should add for the naysayers that my cats do not defecate in the gardens that they hunt in. There is a vacant lot across from my house that they poop in. Cats will rarely poop in their hunting territory because it advertises their presence to their prey.

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