"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:

Was it somewhere on this newsgroup, or on some TV program, that I
learned that although the "hunting" part is instinctive, a cat must be
TAUGHT to eat its prey? (They learn to use a litterbox a lot faster
when mama's around to teach them, too.)

I learned on nature shows that all felines have a *chase* instinct:
something runs away from them, they chase it, without having to be
taught. (This seems to be true of dogs, too - maybe all predators?)

But they have to be taught how to kill prey once it's caught, and they
also have to be taught that the dead prey is food. That's why the mother
cat brings live prey to her kittens first, so she can show them how to
kill it. And then she eats it in front of them so they know it's food.

At some point in their kittenhood, both Smudge and Licky must have
been taught about hunting. Smudge certainly knows how to catch, kill
and eat prey. (Charmingly, she ate a bird right in front of my front
door last weekend - I went out the next day to find feathers and other
remains on the doormat.) I'm not quite as certain about Licky, but
when I throw something for him to chase, he's dead serious about it.
Don't know if he'd know how to follow through with the kill and the
eating, though, since the thing I throw is usually inanimate. (OK,
always. )

Roxy on the other hand does not seem to have had that education. She
chases things, but then veers off and scratches the scratching post
in excitement. She likes the fun of chasing and the general stimulation
of attention and running around, but I'm sure she really doesn't get
what it's all about. Which makes her appear a bit dim, but it might
just be that she lost her mother too young to have been taught, or
wasn't part of a feral colony where she might have learned from other
cats.

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)