Hunting habits

[jtbo]

I have had opportunity to watch feral cat mother hunting different kind of prey and there is something that I don't understand.

This feral female just walks to spot jumps and walks away with mole or mouse, she does not listen much, does not run, it is like picking apple to basket at supermarket, then she carries prey to kittens (well used to).

Once she took blackbird, just walked along minding her own business, spotted blackbird and in one fluid motion transformed walking into leap and grabbed blackbird, then walked on happily like nothing would of happen.

Now I have seen tame cats hunt mice and they do all kind of rituals first, also when hunting birds tame cats spend lot of time preparing the jump, also killing pray takes quite some time, it is not like what I have seen with this feral, it is one bite, holding that bite some time and then carrying prey away.

Is it because tame cat has had no need to practise skills of hunting or is it that feral needs to conserve her strenght and make kill in most energy conserving way, why there is such large difference in behaviour?

 

[yayi]

Probably your feral is so familiar with her territory that hunting is like supermarket shopping. Easy picking.

Experience and sharp senses may have a lot to do with it too.
I believe that hunting skills/methods are learned when they are kittens. My senior, calico, Joji, in her younger days was like your feral. I'd seen her strolling along and next thing I know, she had a mouse/bird/bug in her mouth. If she had kittens, they would probably been as skillful in hunting as their mom.

My orphans were taught hunting by their "foster" dad (a good mouser named Wawa). Wawa passed away before the little ones turned 2 so they are not as good as their teacher. And they go through the motions of tame cats you described.

 

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by yayi

Probably your feral is so familiar with her territory that hunting is like supermarket shopping. Easy picking.

Experience and sharp senses may have a lot to do with it too.
I believe that hunting skills/methods are learned when they are kittens. My senior, calico, Joji, in her younger days was like your feral. I'd seen her strolling along and next thing I know, she had a mouse/bird/bug in her mouth. If she had kittens, they would probably been as skillful in hunting as their mom.

My orphans were taught hunting by their "foster" dad (a good mouser named Wawa). Wawa passed away before the little ones turned 2 so they are not as good as their teacher. And they go through the motions of tame cats you described.

So her mother is/was probably great hunter too, I took her kittens to indoor cats just recently, those two are quite good hunters too, but they tend to play with their pray, also sometimes they do do those motions tame cats do, but not always.

Having 3 of these means I could have also a snake, cats hunt so much they don't eat it all, they put them to stash, I keep finding piles of moles and mouses from warehouse, this is countryside so we have more than enough of those kind of critters around.

Owls can't hunt in this location as there are too much trees around + several powerlines over yard, so cats are not causing lot of impact to owl population when hunting at warehouse and nearby of it.

I'm wondering how much impact of harsh life without human servant might affect to their hunting methods? Would that be required for cat to get good hunter or would it be enough if cat would have preference for taste of mouse over taste of cat food?
If cat has no need to hunt I doubt cat will ever come very good at it as some cats are hunting as a play and loosing prey is probably not big deal for them when compared to those cat that are living off by hunting.

However even worst cat hunter is lot better than I am, tried to get one mouse for 3 weeks and never got it, eventually cats got enough courage to come indoors and I found mouse stash under my floor mat, they are quite incredible as hunters

 

[yayi]

Originally Posted by JTbo

However even worst cat hunter is lot better than I am, tried to get one mouse for 3 weeks and never got it, eventually cats got enough courage to come indoors and I found mouse stash under my floor mat, they are quite incredible as hunters

I live in the city. A friend of mine who never owned a cat, was given an adult Persian. The kitty is allowed outside, but prefers to stay indoors. My friend discovered that her house had mice after the cat adapted within one week. Her new feline pet, gave her daily gifts of newly killed mice (no blood, must have died of shock).

Pedigreed or not, the cat is the ultimate hunter.

 

[planetx]

my cats are tame as could be - but they hunt exactly the way you've described. I saw one take a bird like that, he was walking along completely relaxed and then took a quick hop to the side and caught it. It looked unplanned, but maybe the best hunters just make it look that way.

 

[jtbo]

Originally Posted by planetx

my cats are tame as could be - but they hunt exactly the way you've described. I saw one take a bird like that, he was walking along completely relaxed and then took a quick hop to the side and caught it. It looked unplanned, but maybe the best hunters just make it look that way.

That is interesting, it is quite puzzling what makes them do it with all the rituals and what makes them just grab the pray.

I have learned that cats are fully able to hop rather easily to any direction without turning their body, sure they can leap only forward and upwards, but I have seen them hopping backwards, sideways, even doing backflip to make tables turned in a chase, some things they tend to keep secret from eye, but camera shows that all

Indeed they are ultimate hunters and they hide that too rather well at times when someone is around, mine are always pretending to be surprised that I'm 2 meters from them, like they would not have noticed I'm coming their way

 

[forensic]

Of our three tame cats (all of whom were strays in the past, but not feral) two hunt with all the motions and one hunts like your feral. He's the one that has actually caught mice and found a bat (though he was pretty confused by that and didn't appear willing to actually kill it.)

My guess would be that not changing what they're doing (just strolling along) wouldn't 'ping' a prey's radar as much as a bunch of motions would. Though it probably depends on how used the prey is to seeing cats.