Cats keep away rats?

Question

Me and my mom are real scared of rats. We used to see them in our garage quite a bit. Several years ago,we took in 3 adorable stray kittens. And I have not seen a rat or mouse at our house,since then. Does anyone else believe having cats can scare rodents away?

Answer 1

Sometimes, but it better be a pretty active cat, maybe even a kitten

Answer 2

Mice, yes. Rats, it depends. Some cats won't tackle a rat. Once a cat has discovered it can take on a rat, then it will hunt them from then on. It is largely down to the cat's confidence and experience. Mice however, rarely fail to put a cat in 'hunt mode'. My younger brother lived in a flat which had a mouse problem, none of the 'chemicals' or 'traps' worked. So he got a 12 yr old cat from a shelter and within a month, no more mice. So yes, extremely effective. Usually, females are better hunters than males, but it isn't a golden rule, more a 'one average' kind of thing. You must not starve a cat to get it to hunt. If the cat goes outside, lack of food will cause it to expand its territory and it will be away a lot. Feed it well, and it will stay closer to the house and catch more mice. This is common mistake.

Answer 3

Not all cats are good at keeping rodents away. I had one that was scared to death of them. Every time he saw one he would jump, run away, and climb up the highest point he could find just to get away from them. And then I had the best rodent killer out of all of my cat. She wasn't even a cat. She was a hybrid dog. Every time one did come into our house, she would dedicate her self to hunting them down. Even before we could hear the mouse she could. She would always sit patiently with her white & pink ears perk right up listening and watching closely. And when one ran by her; she would quickly pounce on them. Rodents were only things that she would attack.

Answer 4

Yes!!!! We have three cats who mostly stay outside. When we moved into our new house, in a period of six months I have seen them kill four rats or mice. That's just the ones that I've seen-there is probably more. Hopefully they have found somewhere else to live!!!! Unfortunately they have also killed birds too. :(

PS If a cat has brought a bird home and it is still alive, I strongly urge you to take it to a wildlife rescue and refuge. A cat's bite is poisonous to a bird.

Answer 5

Yes. They do. Decades ago when I lived in NYC, we had a rat problem. We got a cat, and all the rats left. But you have to get a brave feisty cat, not one of those weak scary ones, because rats are brave creatures.

Answer 6

Yes they do! We had an outdoor/garage cat. He disappeared one day and now we are dealing with rats in our backyard. Rats are nasty evil creatures- they squeezed in our outdoor dove cage and killed our doves. We never ever had a problem until the day our kitty left us :(

Answer 7

My Mums cat sat and let a mouse walk right past her paws and went and lay down. She is a fat lazy furball and I think all the excitement of watching the mouse tired her out!

Answer 8

yup. Cats are natural predators of rats and rodents it's in their blood.

Answer 9

when i lived at this one house; my cat would always kill any mouse or rat that came close to our house. so i think they can scare mice. i agree that cats can keep rodants away !

Answer 10

I know I do! My cat kills anything that moves that aint human! He brought a crow into the house one day it was still alive! We let it go after it hit the fan a few times! And it was dead the next morning!