Cats have been known to kill mice even a long time ago, when both cats and humans discovered that they could eat better when their food did not contain mice. Also, in some cartoons like “Tom and Jerry”, cats and mice continue their role as hunters and prey, respectively. Although your cat may slap a toy mouse on the carpet to please him, don’t be easily fooled, as a cat’s instincts make him crave the real thing.
Mice are certainly not the only food source for feral cats. A feral cat is not that difficult to please, so it can also go for birds, rabbits, and other rodents. However, it is easy for a cat to catch mice. Their very small size prevents them from counterattacking (which makes the expression “fight like a cornered rat” a reality) and they cannot escape like flying birds. Therefore, cats are known to love to chase mice.
Hunting is a cat’s survival instinct. Compared to other animals such as dogs, a cat’s body does not produce enough taurine. Taurine is necessary to produce more protein. Animals cannot live long without this vital amino acid, so cats must include it in their diet to compensate for a taurine deficiency. Meat is the only food source that provides adequate amounts of taurine for a cat to survive; this makes a cat an “obligatory carnivore,” according to biologists. Keep in mind that while dogs can live on a vegetarian diet, this is not the case for cats. They have to kill to live. Or else, let the humans help them, which is the same.
Cats are born to hunt. From 4 to 6 weeks of age, kittens begin to stalk and pounce on your food bowl. Later, his mother’s quivering tail is turned into a surrogate mouse. His mother carefully monitors his hunting skills to hone them further. The kittens observe and imitate what their mother and siblings do, and the mother will search for live prey so they can practice. For this reason, feral and feral cats often bite the necks of their prey to kill them immediately. However, kittens that failed to learn such a skill “play” with their prey in their growing years, but fail to make a clean kill. A few more reasons for the “game” are explained below. A mother cat personally trains her kittens, and this is one of the reasons why an older cat who brings home live prey shows below average hunting skills.
However, learning only improves a normal part of a kitten’s instincts. Experiments show that even when kittens did not receive stimulation, or did not play in their first weeks after birth, they turned out to be good hunters when they became adults, meaning that cats have some instinctive and perhaps genetically encoded hunting skills. . Generally, they continue to learn their hunting skills as they get older, whether that is stalking passersby, attacking their feet, or trapping a live toy or mouse inside or outside the house.
Unfortunately, it is a mistake to think that cats actively hunt when they are hungry. Most farmers found that cats that are full are even better at controlling pests. Cats love to hunt.