Live Crickets For Cat?

[matai88]

This may seem like an odd question but does anyone buy live crickets for their cat to play with?

Without wanting to sound cruel to the crickets I've often thought when seeing them for sale as reptile food in the pet store how much my indoor cat would love chasing them. He LOVES any insects and will go crazy when one gets in the house. I've thought about buying some crickets and letting one or two go a day before I head off to work for my cat to chase/play with whilst I'm gone.

Is this odd/cruel?

 

[Blakeney Green]

It does seem cruel to me, to be honest, and there are also some practical issues.

Cats can get worms from crickets.

Do bug-eating cats bite off more than they can chew? - Dr. Marty Becker

If your cat doesn't manage to catch it, you now have loose crickets in your house.

Maybe try some interactive toys rather than encouraging your cat to torture a living creature? Cats will kill the occasional bug in the house, that's just nature, but I don't agree with the owner trying to set up the kills deliberately.

 

[basschick]

we have little wind-up toys for our cat as well as a battery operated one that looks and moves like a bug. even at almost 20, he gets a kick out of his electric bug toy

 

[matai88]

Hmm I've tried almost every interactive toy at my local pet store, most of them are so lots that they scare him, or he loses interest in them after 10 minutes. I've set up puzzle toys with treats and other toys inside but he mostly ignores these after the first day. Other toys require a human to control which is fine when I'm home but not so helpful when I'm out.

Can anyone recommend any interactive toys that are good for when you aren't around? I don't want to have to spend much because I've already spent hundreds on toys he doesn't even like or use anymore (honestly I'll pull one out that he liked the first time he used it and he'll just look at me like "really human, I worked that one out weeks ago, next!")!

 

[Hellenww]

Homemade Puzzles - Food Puzzles for Cats

 

[duncanmac]

It does seem cruel to me, to be honest, and there are also some practical issues.

Cats can get worms from crickets.

Do bug-eating cats bite off more than they can chew? - Dr. Marty Becker

If your cat doesn't manage to catch it, you now have loose crickets in your house.

Maybe try some interactive toys rather than encouraging your cat to torture a living creature? Cats will kill the occasional bug in the house, that's just nature, but I don't agree with the owner trying to set up the kills deliberately.

The crickets they sell for reptiles are pretty "clean" from what I understand - reptiles can have a lot of issues.

We would naturally get a lot of crickets in our house for the past couple of summers before we got our boys. Now they catch 99% of them - all we have to do is clean up a stray leg here and there.

 

[mekkababble]

TBH I don't worry much about cruelty towards bugs (short of small children gleefully torturing them), but that's another issue entirely.

I let my cats 'take care' of ants and they just love it. If it goes on too long, I'll deal the killing blow.

Think about this: if the cats don't catch the cricket and it hops away, do you really want to listen to the chirping until you find it?

 

[KarenKat]

We have puzzle feeders for when we are out, and sometimes we fill one of those kong animals with catnip. That gets Olive crazy for a bit.

 

[rubysmama]

When I'm at the pet store, I always feel sorry for the crickets in the aquariums with the lizards. So I, personally, wouldn't be comfortable bringing them home for a cat to play with.

And, as Blakeney Green mentioned, if the cat didn't catch them, you'd have crickets loose in your house.

Plus, there's the possibility of your cat knocking things over and damaging things in your house, or injuring himself, in his attempts to catch them.

 

[aradasky]

I have often thought about bringing crickets home for my four. They are indoor cats and it would be fun watching them hunt. They go after spiders, flies and everything else that get in. I read somewhere that a cat owner brings home a feeder mouse (for snakes) to chase in the bathtub once in a while. I could not do that, but crickets I could do. Maybe only about four at a time? And I would not mind a cricket Making noise in the house, however, they do chew on bedding, curtains, furniture and plants.....

 

[Clairecat2021]

This may seem like an odd question but does anyone buy live crickets for their cat to play with?

Without wanting to sound cruel to the crickets I've often thought when seeing them for sale as reptile food in the pet store how much my indoor cat would love chasing them. He LOVES any insects and will go crazy when one gets in the house. I've thought about buying some crickets and letting one or two go a day before I head off to work for my cat to chase/play with whilst I'm gone.

Is this odd/cruel?

I have often thought about bringing crickets home for my four. They are indoor cats and it would be fun watching them hunt. They go after spiders, flies and everything else that get in. I read somewhere that a cat owner brings home a feeder mouse (for snakes) to chase in the bathtub once in a while. I could not do that, but crickets I could do. Maybe only about four at a time? And I would not mind a cricket Making noise in the house, however, they do chew on bedding, curtains, furniture and plants.....

Eye was thinking this same thing I’m thinking eye have come to a conclusion it’s appropriate in an outside setting. Perhaps in catio if there’s not a safe outside space for the cats.

 

[Caspers Human]

I read somewhere that a cat owner brings home a feeder mouse (for snakes) to chase in the bathtub once in a while.

I did that, once, for my first cat, "K.C." and he got worms from it.

While it was fun for him to hunt it, I realized it was a mistake but only after I had to pay another vet bill to get my cat "cleaned out."

Crickets, I might do but I would still have concerns that something like that might happen again.

 

[game misconduct]

graycie goes crazy for them now and then i will give her one while i am feeding my tarantulas captive bred crickets are parasite free far as i know/assume they arent wild or exposed to any of the same stuff wild ones are nematodes etc.that aside any insect that enters my apartment gets eaten/killed by her from flies ,spiders down to the roaches crawling out from the drain pipes straight from the sewers she is healthy as can be according to the most recent blood work she had done. i worry more about her eating flies she just chews the crickets and roaches up only to leave a soggy mess

 

[IndyJones]

I wouldn't buy them unless you have another animal such as a lizard. If they get loose in your house (and they will!) They are very annoying and hard to get rid of. Sometimes wild ones get in my house and it's a week of nothing but *creak creak creak creak* all night long.