House cats - killers?

[ecstaticsub]

Our cats have always been indoor/outdoor cats. During the day the tended to stay in our yard or porch sleeping and sunning themselves. If they went out at night then they would be all over the neighborhood. We never had a complaint.

About twice a year our little super huntress would disappear for 3 days. Maybe it was a little hunting expedition? Though she never brought anything home. She would sleep almost non-stop for 3-4 days after she would return.

 

[JMohegan]

Our cats have always been indoor/outdoor cats. During the day the tended to stay in our yard or porch sleeping and sunning themselves. If they went out at night then they would be all over the neighborhood. We never had a complaint.

About twice a year our little super huntress would disappear for 3 days. Maybe it was a little hunting expedition? Though she never brought anything home. She would sleep almost non-stop for 3-4 days after she would return.

Suppose a neighbor comes to you and politely says: "Unfortunately, your cat has been pooping, digging, and hunting wildlife in my yard. Please make sure that doesn't happen again."

How would you respond?

 

[Keroin]

Cat behaviour is both learned and innate and there are domestic cats who will stalk, pounce on, and scratch people with no provocation. This can be trained out of them but, as is often the way with pet cats, most owners lack the patience and skill. Luckily, this kind of behaviour is rare.

But aggressive behaviour in cats can also be indications of other problems. Long haired cats can develop mats that we cannot see but tug, painfully on their skin, making them "cranky". Significant changes in a household, such as a new baby or new pet, can also trigger aggression. Probably the biggest cause, though, is that we inadvertently teach cats to be aggressive as kittens, through play. One of the worst things you can do is encourage a kitten to chase you as this reinforces the idea that you are prey.

Keeping water guns handy, all over the house, is a good way to instantly discourage bad or aggressive behaviour in kittens. It's really important not to speak when you squirt them, though, as they will then associate the punishment with the sound of your voice and only refrain from the action when you are present.

I tell most people - particularly children - to leave cats alone if they don't know them. Mind you, I don't follow this rule but I've also dealt with thousands of cats and I'm pretty dead on with reading their body language. (You can learn to "speak" to your cat with your body.)

Feral cats, BTW, from a veterinary perspective, are domestic cats that have been born in the wild and have no interaction with humans. They can be domesticated, in some cases, but there will always be some fundamental differences between a cat born feral and a cat born as a domestic house pet.

Did you know that cats make a certain "meow" sound only with humans? They don't use that specific sound anywhere else.

 

[graceanne]

Did you know that cats make a certain "meow" sound only with humans? They don't use that specific sound anywhere else.

I've noticed that cats have different noises for each mood and want, so this doesn't surprise me.

The stray we're taking care of will 'mrow' when she's hungry and give a very distinct 'meow' when she wants out.

My old cat, Tiara, would say 'out' when she wanted out.

 

[Keroin]

I've noticed that cats have different noises for each mood and want, so this doesn't surprise me.

The stray we're taking care of will 'mrow' when she's hungry and give a very distinct 'meow' when she wants out.

My old cat, Tiara, would say 'out' when she wanted out.

Cats have about twenty different meow sounds and another ten types of vocalizations and there are several variations within all of those sounds. They're very chatty.

It's been interesting to watch the semi-feral cat who lives on the property learn to communicate, verbally, with me. She hardly made any noises to me when I first arrived, she now has quite a large vocabulary.

 

[ecstaticsub]

Suppose a neighbor comes to you and politely says: "Unfortunately, your cat has been pooping, digging, and hunting wildlife in my yard. Please make sure that doesn't happen again."

How would you respond?

If a neighbor was so annoyed with our that they would complain we would most likely only let it out during the day while we could watch it or make other adjustments. Though all of our cats lived to be 18 or 19 years old and we never had any complaints.

We did however complain to a neighbor about their cat when we lived in our last house. At the time we only had one cat left who was quite elderly. She liked to sleep in the sun near the back door inside the house. It was a sunroom door so it was all windows. His younger cat would come up to the window and hiss and scratch at the door terrorizing our cat. Our neighbor didn't do anything about it. We put pepper flakes around the outside of the door and that helped for a while.

 

[Netzach]

Cats have about twenty different meow sounds and another ten types of vocalizations and there are several variations within all of those sounds. They're very chatty.

It's been interesting to watch the semi-feral cat who lives on the property learn to communicate, verbally, with me. She hardly made any noises to me when I first arrived, she now has quite a large vocabulary.

Any insider insight into bird talk and why some do it and others not?

It's the funniest thing.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Any insider insight into bird talk and why some do it and others not?

It's the funniest thing.

No smartassery intended at all... I'm honestly confused, maybe because this came up in a cat-oriented thread.

"Bird talk" = birds talking, or cats "talking" to birds, or ... ?

 

[satindesire]

Any insider insight into bird talk and why some do it and others not?

It's the funniest thing.

Are you talking about the "Chatter" that some cats do when they see birds, or bugs or other various creatures that they can't reach?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66iN3vzM98U Like this?

Apparently, according to a lot of websites, cats chatter in response to not being able to get to prey when they want to hunt it.

http://www.fleascontrol.com/why-do-cats-chatter.htm

 

[Netzach]

No smartassery intended at all... I'm honestly confused, maybe because this came up in a cat-oriented thread.

"Bird talk" = birds talking, or cats "talking" to birds, or ... ?

Cats that talk to birds making what sounds like imitation of bird sounds. "Chatter" as satindesire describes.

Some do some don't. One of mine always has. She also tried to catch a distant helicopter outside the window once.

Youtube example, not my cat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLST5nbIDAs

edited, maybe that will work - a good example of the chatter phenomenon

 

[satindesire]

The link doesn't work Netz.

 

[Keroin]

Any insider insight into bird talk and why some do it and others not?

It's the funniest thing.

Several theories on this but nothing decisive. Satin mentioned one. However, I've seen cats do this outdoors, where they are able to hunt.

Another common theory is that is it is a kind of hypnosis - cat trying to hypnotize bird. Seems unlikely to me.

The theory that resonates most strongly with me is that it is the cat "setting up for the killing bite". Watch you cat's jaw next time she does it. It's a repeated biting motion. Why the sound, I have no idea.

I'll be curious to know when this behaviour is properly explained. Much of what cats do is still a mystery to scientists.

Does your non-chattering cat hunt? What are the backgrounds of your cats?

 

[JMohegan]

If a neighbor was so annoyed with our that they would complain we would most likely only let it out during the day while we could watch it or make other adjustments. Though all of our cats lived to be 18 or 19 years old and we never had any complaints.

We did however complain to a neighbor about their cat when we lived in our last house. At the time we only had one cat left who was quite elderly. She liked to sleep in the sun near the back door inside the house. It was a sunroom door so it was all windows. His younger cat would come up to the window and hiss and scratch at the door terrorizing our cat. Our neighbor didn't do anything about it. We put pepper flakes around the outside of the door and that helped for a while.

"Annoyed" isn't really the right word for it, as far as I'm concerned. It's more like fair warning.

Once I politely ask a neighbor to take responsibility for their pet, and they refuse, I consider it my right to take responsibility for that animal when it's in my yard. You can teach a cat not to trespass where it's not appreciated. It takes patience, vigilance, and a willingness to consistently and repeatedly hurt the animal when it crosses the boundaries. I use small, flat stones.

I know people who put out poison, but I don't see how you could guarantee that the cat would be the only animal to eat it.

Night raiders are the biggest problem, obviously, because they're hard to ID and the required vigilance is tedious.

 

[JMohegan]

Several theories on this but nothing decisive. Satin mentioned one. However, I've seen cats do this outdoors, where they are able to hunt.

Another common theory is that is it is a kind of hypnosis - cat trying to hypnotize bird. Seems unlikely to me.

The theory that resonates most strongly with me is that it is the cat "setting up for the killing bite". Watch you cat's jaw next time she does it. It's a repeated biting motion. Why the sound, I have no idea.

I'll be curious to know when this behaviour is properly explained. Much of what cats do is still a mystery to scientists.

Does your non-chattering cat hunt? What are the backgrounds of your cats?

In both of those videos, the animals seem to be giving the cat version of: "Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I'll get you, my pretty - and your little dog too!"

Evil, screechy, frustrated, pissed.

Whenever I've seen cats actually hunting, they're dead quiet.

 

[intothewoods]

"Annoyed" isn't really the right word for it, as far as I'm concerned. It's more like fair warning.

Once I politely ask a neighbor to take responsibility for their pet, and they refuse, I consider it my right to take responsibility for that animal when it's in my yard. You can teach a cat not to trespass where it's not appreciated. It takes patience, vigilance, and a willingness to consistently and repeatedly hurt the animal when it crosses the boundaries. I use small, flat stones.

I know people who put out poison, but I don't see how you could guarantee that the cat would be the only animal to eat it.

Night raiders are the biggest problem, obviously, because they're hard to ID and the required vigilance is tedious.

Have you tried a spray bottle with water? Or even a hose with a spray attachment if the distance is far. I think that would be more effective than stones.

 

[Homburg]

Once I politely ask a neighbor to take responsibility for their pet, and they refuse, I consider it my right to take responsibility for that animal when it's in my yard. You can teach a cat not to trespass where it's not appreciated. It takes patience, vigilance, and a willingness to consistently and repeatedly hurt the animal when it crosses the boundaries. I use small, flat stones.

I know people who put out poison, but I don't see how you could guarantee that the cat would be the only animal to eat it.

Both are illegal if they are aimed at animals owned by another person. Actual ferals can be treated somewhat differently, but pelting a housecat with stones could get you popped for cruelty to animals, and actually poisoning Fifi could get even more heat.

 

[WriterDom]

"Annoyed" isn't really the right word for it, as far as I'm concerned. It's more like fair warning.

Once I politely ask a neighbor to take responsibility for their pet, and they refuse, I consider it my right to take responsibility for that animal when it's in my yard. You can teach a cat not to trespass where it's not appreciated. It takes patience, vigilance, and a willingness to consistently and repeatedly hurt the animal when it crosses the boundaries. I use small, flat stones.

I know people who put out poison, but I don't see how you could guarantee that the cat would be the only animal to eat it.

Night raiders are the biggest problem, obviously, because they're hard to ID and the required vigilance is tedious.

Where did this deep seated hatred of cats come from? Moonshine is in my yard a lot. Doesn't bother me. You need a big dose of Walmart.

 

[Recidiva]

Cats have about twenty different meow sounds and another ten types of vocalizations and there are several variations within all of those sounds. They're very chatty.

It's been interesting to watch the semi-feral cat who lives on the property learn to communicate, verbally, with me. She hardly made any noises to me when I first arrived, she now has quite a large vocabulary.

My male kitty is the most verbal animal I've owned. He's got hugely, comically sustained meows when he's complaining, and he and I have whole vocal tone conversations.

Yesterday I SWEAR he said "Hel-lo" or the kitty tonal equivalent to my daughter when she woke up. He's settling on that as a greeting, compared to his long sustained, almost begging for attention tone he's otherwise adopted. If you open a door for him he'll vocalize a small "thank you" in kitty.

He's actively learning human talk and mimicking it to be understood himself. I have no doubt.

Two other cats show absolutely no interest in that. But he's definitely a kitty linguist.

One of my other cats though, as mentioned, couldn't make any vocal tones at all, and only managed a very, very soft "ee-ee" in a sort of croak for her lifetime. But she had no interest in human culture or what was going on unless it involved food.

My other cat is intensely sensitive to emotional content. If someone's sick or upset she will coddle them and watch over them. If someone is agitated and yelling she will jump to the highest ground (top of a chair, bookshelf, whatever's closest) and yell back at the top of her meowing voice.

 

[Recidiva]

Cats that talk to birds making what sounds like imitation of bird sounds. "Chatter" as satindesire describes.

Some do some don't. One of mine always has. She also tried to catch a distant helicopter outside the window once.

Youtube example, not my cat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLST5nbIDAs

edited, maybe that will work - a good example of the chatter phenomenon

That's funny. That sounds like the frustrated noises my cats make when they KNOW there's glass and they're pissed about it. Their tail is thrashing and I associate that with annoyance. I have hanging vertical blinds and they'll stomp back and forth making a racket just to show their displeasure with being unable to hunt.

Real hunting is dead quiet and there's no movement, even the tail's under control.

 

[Recidiva]

Our cats have always been indoor/outdoor cats. During the day the tended to stay in our yard or porch sleeping and sunning themselves. If they went out at night then they would be all over the neighborhood. We never had a complaint.

About twice a year our little super huntress would disappear for 3 days. Maybe it was a little hunting expedition? Though she never brought anything home. She would sleep almost non-stop for 3-4 days after she would return.

I have sympathy with cats wanting to be outdoors and I grew up in areas where that was possible. But I was really surprised on getting my first cat in Florida and taking her to the vet that it's a massive risk here and the vet recommended for her safety, keeping her strictly indoors. Ringworm, hearworm, a virus that causes kitty leukemia are all dangers down here so I've grudgingly kept them all inside.

Feral cats do well in Florida, but there's a lot of injury and mange in animals over time I see outdoors. And sadly after the hurricane, there were no ferals to speak of for years.

 

[Netzach]

Several theories on this but nothing decisive. Satin mentioned one. However, I've seen cats do this outdoors, where they are able to hunt.

Another common theory is that is it is a kind of hypnosis - cat trying to hypnotize bird. Seems unlikely to me.

The theory that resonates most strongly with me is that it is the cat "setting up for the killing bite". Watch you cat's jaw next time she does it. It's a repeated biting motion. Why the sound, I have no idea.

I'll be curious to know when this behaviour is properly explained. Much of what cats do is still a mystery to scientists.

Does your non-chattering cat hunt? What are the backgrounds of your cats?

I got the chatterer about age 3 from a friend, and the non-chatterer from the shelter at about 10mos-one, grown but not filled out.

The non-chatterer and the chatterer both hunt things that come in. The non-chatterer is better at it and more into it, every bug is a toy.

The chatterer was someone else's and indoor very rarely outdoor. She relates better to other cats than people and is the total "catty cat." It's possible about the jaw thing, like biting plus imaginary win.

The non-chatterer does the following with toys - stomps them with a back foot and does the "killing shake" that dogs do.

I've never seen other cats do that one.

 

[Netzach]

"Annoyed" isn't really the right word for it, as far as I'm concerned. It's more like fair warning.

Once I politely ask a neighbor to take responsibility for their pet, and they refuse, I consider it my right to take responsibility for that animal when it's in my yard. You can teach a cat not to trespass where it's not appreciated. It takes patience, vigilance, and a willingness to consistently and repeatedly hurt the animal when it crosses the boundaries. I use small, flat stones.

I know people who put out poison, but I don't see how you could guarantee that the cat would be the only animal to eat it.

Night raiders are the biggest problem, obviously, because they're hard to ID and the required vigilance is tedious.

Can I please throw a brick at the rotties when the neighbor lets them shit in my yard?
Or is that kind of fucking psycho?

 

[Netzach]

In both of those videos, the animals seem to be giving the cat version of: "Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I'll get you, my pretty - and your little dog too!"

Evil, screechy, frustrated, pissed.

Whenever I've seen cats actually hunting, they're dead quiet.

You have a very warped view of the world and some issues, lol.

The vids I linked to are a very lazy and beloved Japanese house kitty. She's "watching cat TV" I think is the phrase. She's kind of like the guy on the end of the bar going "damn, hand it off" to himself at the screen. Not the guy shooting his TV.

She's not able to kill anything, her owner is a very conscientious indoor owner who keeps her inside, and her main activity seems to be looking out the window, sleeping, and playing late night fetch with Q tips.

These animals are expressing interest. They're not "pissed" because their ears are not back, their hackles are not up, their backs are not arched. If you've watched any movie or read a cartoon that's "pissed" cat body language.

 

[Netzach]

Where did this deep seated hatred of cats come from? Moonshine is in my yard a lot. Doesn't bother me. You need a big dose of Walmart.

I'm unsure if it's cats or plain yard psychosis.

I have a feeling if the Weimariner down the street got out and loped into the yard JMo would laugh it off the second time and bring it in for treaties while the neighbors were on the way to pick it up. But it's possible the rocks would come out too. I assume small children get the "get off my damn YARD you KIDS!"

I'd like to throw rocks at children, but I manage to resist the urge. Impulse control does a body good.

 

[intothewoods]

I'd like to throw rocks at children, but I manage to resist the urge. Impulse control does a body good.

I dunno, they throw back!