I know there's some controversy over whether to let cats live outdoors half the time. All I know is my cat & I used to live in a converted Greyhound in the woods. We'd go on hikes together in the fresh air. He used to catch & eat shrew moles, mice, rats, birds... & was a very happy fellow indeed! Since then, he's gone to live with my parents, who feed him food out of a can & keep him as an indoors-only kitty. He's inactive & overweight now. It's really sad, but my parents have money & I don't: nothing I can do about it. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that will y'all. Cats are the #1 carnivore on the planet. And they love to chase & catch & play with their prey/food. And it's always raw when they do!

What other animal plays with its food the way domestic cats do?

That's one reason I don't want to live with cats - I had them years ago, but really didn't enjoy the way they would torment and kill baby birds, then having to hear the mama bird cry for days afterward and having the whole neighbourhood angry at my cat!

I knew a woman, now deceased, who used to be able to convince a cat to drop its prey, but she took her secret with her, I think.


So I like cats, but am not really a cat person and don't want to live with them anymore.

It's fascinating to think about what and where they come from and what they would be like if they hadnt been domesticated 2 or 3 thousand years ago.

Aww poor cat. Can you at least convince your parents to feed a high quality canned food? Or maybe raw if it's ground? Those ground raw mixes are even cheaper than canned and pretty easy to find.





aquadecoco Wrote:
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> What other animal plays with its food the way
> domestic cats do?

A lot of dogs do. I've had dogs "play" with baby birds and "accidentally" kill it..Then eat it.

My mother has a hound and the stupid dog can smell a rodent from the other side of the yard. Just picks it up, plays with it and then once it stops moving she'll eat it. I got her to drop a tiny, tiny little mouse the other day. The poor thing stood there stiff with his heart pounding but not bleeding from anywhere. I got the mouse to run into something and dumped her somewhere safe and she still just stood there traumatized, afraid to move. She eventually took off once she realized it was safe.


It's...disgusting.


I feed raw though.. Sometimes I buy whole prey that was at least humanely euthanized and they still play with it even though it's already dead.