do i have to teach my cat to catch mice or will she just do it?

Question

before i got her i had a lot of mice all the time, then when she got there she was only 9 weeks old and tiny, but i never saw another mouse, or dropping. Now she is like 5 months old she has never brought me one, and when we are there i never see any, but sometimes we will spens a few days at my boyfriends(me and the cat) and i come home to droppings. so if there is a mouse still there will she get it?

Answer 1

Sounds like she is already a mouser..She has the instinct and will probably help you with your mouse problem. Good Luck

Answer 2

Cats will usually stalk anything that moves (horizontally more than vertically) so a mouse is prime attraction. However, she may have to practice actually catching it (it does take skill) and then killing it (another skill many well-fed cats never acquire). Many house cats will play with a live mouse, get it all wet with saliva and maybe even maim it but they don't always kill the mouse (and the mouse gets away to die in the walls or under the house or some other obscure place if it's hurt fatally). My male cat has a hard time catching insects when they get inside the house (he isn't fast enough and his aim is way off, I think his vision isn't very good) but he will kill any that he can get ahold of, which often means stealing it away from the female cat. My female is an ace at catching stuff, she's fast and accurate, but she never kills them, will play with the thing until it either crawls away, the male cat takes it away from her, or she loses interest in it and leaves it there on the floor where I have to deal with it before it crawls away. A lot of what a cat knows is learned and they do have to practice to get it all right.

Answer 3

you CANT teach a cat to do anything BUT you CAN encourage it. most cats are born with some natural instinct to hunt and if your cat has that instinct she will hunt on her own. you can stimulate her with games with strings and lazer pointers and such.now with the disaperence of both mouse and droppings when your home it could be that your cat is killing them or she is keeping them away with just her presence, that would explain them coming back when your not home for a few days at a time.If there is a mouse she should get it.

Answer 4

To first answer your question, you definitely do not have to teach your cat how to catch mice, hunting has to do with primal instincts. You can't teach this, because she already knows how to. As far as your cat actually hunting mice though, it all depends on what kind of activities entertain your cat. Most house cats only hunt to entertain themselves, because all food necessities are provided to them by their owners as well as small toys and such for play. If your cat prefers to play with store bought toys than that is what it will do, if it likes hunting mice, then don't worry. You should stop seeing the droppings in time, because cats hardly ever change a hobby once they have started one, that has to do with instincts as well. I know all of this because I have had cats for as long as I can remember and plus I watch far to much Discovery Channel.
Hope it helps!

Answer 5

Cats generally only bring mice as offerings if they are upset about something you are doing.

Mice are less likely to enter the house now that there is a cat and the cat will almost certainly chase mice even if it doesn't kill them.

And it is possible that the cat is killing the mice when you are sleeping. Look for tufts of fur in her litter box.

Answer 6

If she's a mouser, she'll get it. If isn't, I doubt there's much you can do to teach her - maybe bring out her hunting instinct by dangling string in front of her and getting her all whipped up!

If droppings appear while you've been away, it's possible the presence of your cat is scaring the mice away anyway.

Chalice

Answer 7

Of course, she'll catch mice. It's a cats natural instinct to catch critters.

However, she really shouldn't be eating mice, or other rodents, as they can be rife with all sorts of diseases and parasites.

If there are droppings in your house, you need to get rid of them, but not using the cat. Mice are the root cause of many infectious diseases that can kill humans.

Answer 8

I always heard that they chased mice by instinct but there mothers taught them to kill them. Some cats are too sweet to kill things on purpose. You would think their natural hunting instincts would take car of that but my cats never killed mice. There less mice around anyway because they had been chased by the cat.

Answer 9

Get her to play with the end of a piece of string, instinct tells her that's a mouse tail, it should awaken her instinct.