On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 09:02:09 -0400, "Mermaid" wrote:

About 2 months ago I rescued a stray cat that came to my house. She is very
loving and sweet but we need to keep her outside because we have a bird. And
another reason is she is an avid hunter for which I would not like to see my
bird a meal.. In the last 2 days she has caught and eaten 2 chipmunks. I
tried to put a breakaway collar on her with a bell for which only stayed
maybe 30 minutes on her. Yesterday we found the collar. How can I curtail
her instincts. One good thing. The squirrels have not come around since she
moved in. Seems like the birds are too fast for her. Guess she would be a
good mouser too. Just hate to see the chipmunks get it and know that it
might not be good for her to eat them and other wild things. She gets food
in the morning and evening. Its not like she is starving.

Anyone with opinions and ideas?

Cage the bird and keep the cat inside. Keeping dry food available
24/7 might help a bit.

I have eleven cats, and of those the only ones that don't hunt are the
ones that were kept inside during their youth and for years more. Two
of them are dedicated hunters who disappear for days at a time on
hunting expeditions; three spend much of their prime waking time
patrolling the yard for whatever they can find, but don't treat
hunting as an essential part of their lifestyle, most of the rest
attack anything that crosses their paths, but seldom actively search
for prey. One of the two that don't hunt tries to catch moths if they
come within reach.

The bottom line is that cats are semidomesticated predators: the
instinct to hunt has not been suppressed by breeding - in fact, many
cats are kept precisely *because* they hunt small vermin, and for most
of their history of living with people, that was almost the only
reason.


T.E.D. - e-mail must contain "T.E.D." or my .sig in the body)