My she-cat used to bring live mice into our bedroom and they’d run off until I caught them. Then when my wife was dying of cancer and was bedridden she started to leave dead mice at the bedroom door. I often wonder whether in ‘normal’ times she just thought we were bad hunters and brought live mice to train us but when my wife was dying she realised my wife couldn’t hunt anymore and brought her food… Just thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes especially as Esther and Rosie are now both dead…
Cats are very intuitive. Based on your comments about your I’ll wife, your cat knew she was ill, noticed her decline, and was likely doing what you suspected, giving food to a “pack member” who could no longer hunt. I had a loving cat named Sophie. She was my lap fungus, always with me and on my lap when I was seated. Four years ago she started sniffing around my abdomen. Then she’d poke me with her nose, sniff even more, then look at me as if to say “Are you just stupid?” Then I started having discomfort where she’d been sniffing. Next time I saw my GP I told her this. She ordered an ultrasound, just in case. I had a golf ball sized mass in my abdomen! Saw a surgeon, he did more tests, and now il short three feet of bowel and the tumour that the “cat doctor” diagnosed over a year before. Cats know things! And they try their best to tell their stupid sponsors (you don’t own a cat, you sponsor it)! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
@@Momcat_maggiefelinefanHaha, reminds me of this story I heard: "one time a woman with a medical alert wiener dog sat next to me on a plane and her dog kept alerting on me and she was like “not to be weird but you should get your heart checked out” and that’s how i found out i had a mildly irregular heart beat"
The dead gift thing is also a way of them telling you to eat. My cat did it a few times when i had gone into depression and had not eaten for a day or two. But the moment i had a plate of food in my hands and he saw me eating, then he would eat the gift he bought me himself. In that way, not only did i eat, but it also brought me back out of the depressed state i was in. Much like if i was ill with a cold or a fever, he would cuddle up to me and not leave my side until i was feeling better.
That's true ! When my roomate and I were grieving our oldest cat, our newly only cat started bring pigeon and turtledove. He stopped as soon as we started to eat as much as before the grief.
Cats often not only chatter their teeth, some of them actually call birds. I had a cat who could call birds to their deaths. She would chatter and her lips would quiver when she made bird calls, and the sounds she made sounded enough like birds to fool the birds. She kind of chirped and twittered. I have a cat now who tries to call squirrels, but she doesn't do it well enough to fool them. They get pretty upset when she tries it and bark back at her. And they clearly know it's her.
When I was packing to move, Felix (he was a wonderful, wonderful cat), who was just a cat without a home at the time, who showed up in the evening for a meal, brought me a dead mouse. As an intelligent animal, he saw things were changing and wanted to let me know that he wanted to stick with me, even though he didn't live inside. Of course, he came with me and only became more wonderful with time.
My little son and I stayed with a family of friends, who have a male cat. My son shared a big chunk of salmon with the cat, which he gladly ate. A couple of hours later the cat brought a freshly killed mouse straight to my son. I belive, this time it was a gift for the fish.
I have seen a cat (male) teach a kitten to hunt. He would bring a live mouse to the kitten, chase it around for a bit, then leave the kitten to chase it. As soon as the kitten could catch and kill its own prey, 'lessons' stopped and it was left to its own devices.
I saw our older female sitting sphinx like with a young male sitting watching her from 10 feet away. We often had them coming around and this is one I recognized as being approved by her and the dog. After a minute she moved her paws and a bird that could still flutter was released. He looked at our cat and she seemed to nod to him and he started playing with it while she watched. After a bit he killed it then she got up and walked back into our house.
Ours would bring in dead mice first, then half-dead, then very live ones...and would bring them for about week, then stop. I always say that is the moment to know which kitten will be great hunter. Because some are not interested at all, some after while develop some interest...and some see it for first time and within first minute it is the 'best toy ever' and they absolutely won't let others to play with it.
Because we have highly effective barn cats, we are often asked for a hunter type kitten. So I once put a litter of kittens un the bathtub with a live mouse, to see which ones had the most potential. A couple immediately pounced, and were very excited, several showed moderate interest, and one was was like, "Ew! Get that creepy thing away from me! It touched my toes!" @@maearcher4721
That's another reason for bringing you the prey. They see you as one of them and the idea uis to teach you how to hunt. They get frustrated that you don't get the lesson
"I'm sorry to be the one who to have to tell you, but your cat thinks you're a moron." Good sir, I have been a cat owner my whole life. I am well aware.
Our boy uses to catch a mouse and then call me to come out and play. That is especially annoying in the middle of a summer night with all neighbors waking up to that call, as Noel can be pretty loud. He also tries to teach me how to properly take a pee. In a forest (we go for walks to the forest with him and his friends), he watched me taking a pee behind a tree. Then, with a visible disgust, he said something along the lines "now watch how to do that properly" and showed me you have to find a nice, flat spot, dig a hole, pee into it, and then cover it up so no one can see or smell it. He was looking at me all the time to make sure I pay attention. Most of the time, he acts like I am his older, retarded brother :)
My kitty brings me dead animals. Birds, mice, frogs, bats, once a baby bunny (💔) and when she was a kitten, earthworms! I’m always sure to thank her. I know she’s trying to take care of me. And actually, in a post apocalyptic situation, I’d probably be pretty happy to get one of those little creatures! 🤣
Growing up my parents had a big black cat older than me by 3 years. Pudge was a great hunter and brought every catch to the door. He’d meow to my Mom, and she’s praise his hunting skill, pat his head, then he’d go under the porch to dine. Then he let a very live bat loose in our kitchen. Mom didn’t go to the door without checking after that! My current feline friend is an indoor cat … I have a huge window she hunts from … we call it squirrel-a-vision! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
@@Madronaxyz So do the chipmunks and squirrels! Outdoor cats kill even when they’re not hungry. Once a predator, always a predator. My cat hunts and catches indoor vermin … flies, spiders etc. She eats her kills too! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
My cat brings in small, black baby snakes.... Let's them go, so they can slither around while my cat plays with it. I use a back scratcher to get the baby snake out of the house...
The mouse lay doggo on the rug. When it stopped moving, the cat lost interest and wandered away. Quick as a whisk the mouse vanished behind a bookcase and proceeded to munch its way through a century-old cookery book. Weeks later it met its demise when it boldly raided the cat's food bowl - right in front of the cat! Perhaps Mrs Beeton seriously palled after such a long steady diet of wood-pulp!
@@PetSpotlightUsing the logic in your video, the cat is trying to teach you to hunt for mice. So bringing you a live one means you're supposed to catch it! 😅
Day 1 of the first lockdown (remember when no-one knew how/if Covid jumped species ) our cat released a live bat in our living room. It took me 10minutes to stop screaming and the cat seemed to enjoy the chaos. This is how the zombie apocalypse will end us.
My family was playing a card game after dinner at the dining table and we did not notice one of our cats bring in a rabbit it had killed, laid the rabbit near my son’s feet and go back outside. When my son discovered the rabbit by his feet we looked around for the cat and it was outside the sliding glass door looking in at us like a serial killer watching the scene of the crime. 😀
i'd reccomend putting the dead gifts section at the start of the video if you want to increase retention. sure some people will click off after they see it, but those people would either just skip to the last part anyway, or instantly click off if they dont see it right away
It is possible that humans inadvertently taught their cats to bring in mice/rats as part of domestication. Cats are far more than fuzzy snuggle balls. They were largely domesticated as working animals. In particular for hunting rodents, likely about the time humans started farming grains and rodents became a growing nuisance. It is possible that the cats that proved their hunting prowess were rewarded. If a cat simply eats their prey in the field, nobody will ever know. Kittens, in particular like to play with live mice. And, where better to do so but on the back porch of their home. The kittens will also have gotten used to their mothers bringing rodents to them. Keep in mind, that even if humans don't hunt in the same way cats do, we do control that cornucopia of food!!!
Yes! That’s a great point, I love it and thanks for adding this. Just like a lot of dog behaviors and even anatomy and brain function came about “accidentally” by conditioning them and selecting for traits as companions, your point about conditioning cats and selecting based on this behavior is completely valid and plausible. Appreciate the comment!
maybe they're just bringing their catch to THEIR home. Remember when cats play and catch whatever you throw they take it in their mouth to a safe place.
I absolutely agree that it's possible trait gained by domestication. If cat was showing off her hunting skills, the homeowner would be more likely to take care of it. To share some meal with the cat and to let it stay in warm during winter, or to ward off larger predators, to take care of it when it was sick-if they knew the cat was good hunter. Over time cat could start associate extra food and comfort with it showing off its prey to human first... It's win-win for cat...it still gets to eat the prey it caught + gets extra benefits.
My male cat will try to get me out of bed to let him outside. If meowing, getting in my face and kneading my chest doesn't get the desired result, he will climb into my bookcase and systematically 'whing' my books to the floor. It works.
yea some animals are smarter we give them credit for, i actually had a 5+ year old gold fish that would start to flap water out of his container all over the floor when i forgot to clean his habitat for a while and it was getting dirty, to tell me to clean it. he never did that when it was clean.
I had a big bundle of love named Walsh once. He was born an indoor cat, which contributed to his total lack of any stort of catting skill. He was not graceful and would land on his ass more than his feet. He always tried though. He also rolled over with a loud thud whenever I was standing around and ignoring his meows for attention. He wanted me to crouch and rub his belly whenever he demanded it. Someone once said that such behavior means a cat trusts you. Unfortunately, he once let that quirk send him for a loop. He tried to demand my attention while I was on the couch, so he jumped up right next to me, on the arm. But I was distracted by something. So he tried to roll over. But he fell in the wrong direction and I suddenly heard a thud. Next thing I know, he's stumbling back around to the front of the couch with a dazed look on his face. So weet, but not too bright. He followed me nearly everywhere in the house and, along with his sister, camped out in my room most of the time, especially when I was there. They had sibling slap fights over my lap. I mean that in the sense of who got to sit on my lap. And also literally OVER my lap. I'll miss him, health problems arose and between a vet visit and the next planned one, he passed away in the hall outside my bedroom. Waking up to find him was heartbreaking...
She’s a mean girl, snarky, opinionated, domineering, demanding, royalty and legend in her own mind. But she’s ours and we love her. Edit: I once had a cat leave me a half dead rattlesnake in my bathroom. Upon waking in the morning and needing to pee, one foot hit the threshold and the other foot landed in the bathtub which was six feet away. Didn’t know I was so flexible, but that snake was really mad.
@mr.perfectcell1887 Rattlesnakes are common on farms in North Alabama I should know, when I was growing up on my grandpa's farm he had tons of them also in Louisiana and Mississippi why you think they are just in Australia 😮
I had the biggest grasshopper I ever seen trapped inside my mothers house last summer, I dont know how it got in or what it was doing, but it was huge, and even after I was sure I beat it to death with a shoe my cat was scared to come near it. And sure enough after 10 minutes it started moving again. Cats have this weird sense for when somethings almost dead.
Cats definitely leave prey animals as gifts. They do it for each other as well as humans. I had a black and white female cat that hated the other cats in the area, who were all tabby cats. She would hiss whenever she saw one. After a few years a new black and white tom cat showed up in the garden. It was the first black and white cat she'd seen since she was a kitten. When she saw him, instead of hissing, she meowed at him. It was so sweet and out of character for her. A few days later there was a dead mouse right in the middle of the back garden and my mum asked me to get rid of it. Later that day, the black and white tom cat showed up again, sitting at the bottom of the garden. He was waiting for our cat to come along and find the gift he'd brought her 100%.
i'll never forget my cat sabertooth "saber for short lol" she had kittens and i would bring them into the house sometimes to play with them and she could get alittle break, i would have the door open but the screen door closed so i could see when she was ready to take back over and she decided to come back with a bird in her mouth the bird was still alive but she basically had the bird to where it couldn't fly and was trying to get me to open the door so she could come in the house with the bird.... i told her lol that wasn't happening and when all of her kittens showed up by the screen door she proceeded to kill that bird in front of them and then eat it leaving just the head behind..... after that i came home from school to see a dead squirrel with it's head missing and one of the kittens eating in that area and saber runs up to me and i tell her to get back cause i didn't want squirrel blood on me lol
My sister's cat used to chatter with the washing machine. Newer machines make clicking noises before filling water. It was like the cat was talking with a machine.
Regarding cats and boxes - researchers drew corners on the floor - not even an entire square, just the corners - and found that cats will sit inside the imaginary square
My father said to the cat - then about six months old - 'Puss you never bring home a dead mouse. Do bring home a mouse' and four hours later there she was with a dead mouse.
If my cat Kevin wants outside, he'll purposefully do things that he specifically knows that he's not supposed to do or places he's not supposed to go. And then he'll look at me as if to say "Hey, look, I'm doing the thing I'm not supposed to. You should punish me by letting me out".
My cat doesn't care at all for boxes. She doesn't bring gifts. She doesn't chatter. But she will lick orange peels and drink out of the sink if I left dish water in there... Oh, and she never tries to make me feed her, but if I stay up late she will try to show me the way to bed.
@ 3:18 my tom cat doesn't just knead his soft fleece blanket. Let's just say that after he nursed it I gave it to him. Don't wanna touch that one again. 😶 lol
Chattering- Some cat behaviorists believe cats chatter to mimic they're prey. Ive seen cats that will try to mimic different bird and squirrel calls and their patterns. (Ex. If a bird makes 2 quick chirps, a longer tweet, and 3 quick chirps. The cat will try mimic the pattern) Other member of the cat family, including tigers, will also mimic prey.
As a kid, I was convinced one of our best mousers simply wanted the mouse cleaned and skewered for the grill. Sure enough, she hopped up in the table, purred through the process, and dined on the lightly chared mouse. Before that experiment, shed look at us in disgust and shove the mouse at us until we tossed it, then she'd lecture us in meows. My Dad loved that cat, he swore she learned the grill thing from watching him.
My mom's cats would catch moles in the yard and bring my mom the livers of the moles. You had to be careful when stepping out the back door because they would leave their gifts in the steps.
One of our cats did that, except they'd only half kill the moles and we had to put the poor guys out of their misery. I loved that cat, but you ever see a cat break an animal's back and play with it? Not pleasant to watch. In the cat's defense, some of the moles probably did break in, we lived right at floor level with no basement. Under the crawlspace, we had a buncha critters. Moles, a skunk, groundhog and a turtle. That last one isn't a joke, we had a turtle, my brother wanted it. But it kept escaping its tank and it just vanished one day. Then winter hit and we figured it got lost and died, we were pretty sad. Then come spring and it was just there, chilling in the grass. Unfortunately, it did the same thing again and we never found it. I wonder if it survived any longer.
Dogs will bring gifts to owners, too... My father, long time ago, had two dogs and a cat that would hunt woodchucks together. The cat would flush out woodchucks from the tunnels. The dogs would make the kill and they brought it to the garage to show dad! They were quite proud of themselves, I'm sure...
My one cat taught my other cat to lick plastic. Now explain to me why the one cat carries tennis balls around at night and yowls while doing it, but stops when she notices we're watching
I remember when I was a kid I got a terrible case of the flu and was bedridden for several days. A cat my sister had brought me the biggest hairiest rat I’ve ever seen.
On the "gift"bringing, our grey cat loves to catch bugs and bring them to surprise you in bed. Usually in the dark and the prize is still very much alive. Or she'll handle it until it's broken and doesn't try to get away anymore, then she'll bring it with an expectant chirp and look of "make this work again, I'm not done playing". She's gotten really good at catching palmetto bugs, doesn't like red hornets, and will just eat house flies. Just look back at the you to make sure you're watching the glomp! Fly grabbed, and before you can clear your chair dashes while choking it down as fast as possible. As soon as you get her, plaintive chirp and struggle of "you're hurting me!" Right until the wiggling for shoulder and neck scratches bring about the kneading. She really does like to be held and loved on. The 'hurting me' is just part of the game.
Cats most definately do not ALWAYS land on their feet. I had a friend who hadn't heard of that. Another friend offered to demonstrate that phenomena to the first friend, using my first friends cat. The cat landed on it's head, ran off and never returned. On the same trip the first friend had a rottweiler puppy. He was also puppysitting another rottweiler pup from the same litter. We went to the river (summer in Northeest NSW - very hot) and put both dogs in to cool down. One dog swam like a champ, the other sank like a stone and if anyone is familiar with Australian rivers in this area they know there's zero visibility in the water, just brown water. We were lucky and found the puppy, but it taught the three of us a good lesson. When swimming with dogs keep a leed on them. Ohhh and never throw a cat in the air...
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry - poor kitty! Great story. I once saw someone (fully clothed) toss a puppy in the swimming hole expecting it to just start swimming. They had to wade into the river in their clothes to fish the poor guy off the bottom. Make no assumptions I suppose!
Give cat every day bowls of food... cat believes we can't hunt... X-D No, mycat really brought me one, to show how great she is! When I cuddled and pet her for that, she was so proud! You saw it on her eyes, like:" Daddy is Proud of me!" X-D
My cat used to wake me up to make sure I was paying attention to the crunching and the slurping going on next to the bed. Honestly I minded that less than my current baby who starts licking plastic at 5 every morning. 😅
Recently because of a mice/rat infestation at home. They found our non-perishable food storage, ripped some bags and were feeding out of it. Out female kitty helped us to hunt most of them during 10 days nightmare, traps did the rest of the job. However, with the last 3 in particular, thanks god they were mice. She brought them, one at the time, in the middle of the night while we were sleeping, a "live" present to our bed. My wife freaked out when she felt a mice in her feet/legs, and I had to hunt the animal at that time and my wife was traumatized. Until today she can't sleep with lights off. With last one my micer female hunter, she came running from kitchen with something in her mouth, jumped into my bed and I asked her politely to just drop it in my hand, instead of dropping off at my bed, which surprisingly she did and then I crushed it bare hand, disinfected my hands and dispose of the rodent at 2am.
my "not my cat" will show me what she's holding in her mouth, but based on her body language, she's neither sharing it nor teaching me how to catch my own.
It's possible the dead mouse thing is as you say, but I think otherwise. I am of the opinion that cats, and their owners, have a deeper, intuitive connection. And what we think our cat is doing may well be the truth. As I understand it the mouse head is the best part, and in order to express gratitude and love for her owner our cats just want to share with us something special. Just as you have, you must be part pet. 😅 New sub.
There's a little more to the chattering too I believe its also related to some cats ability to actually imitate some bird calls. Here's a good video of an owner getting her cat imitating various bird calls on video: ua-cam.com/users/shorts0ulu7XVtnpw?feature=share
My cat would wait until I had finished with a client, and then when I had freshened up, he would take me out for a walk. He would also leave 'presents' in my bed, under the covers. I assume just in case I got hungry during the night
Purring is also very often a "please don't" in adult cats. A comfortable cat will often purr as you approach if it thinks you might want to sit where it is or just generally do something to shift it from it spot. Same can apply to the tail shake.
Interesting theory about the mouse gifts. Another theory is they want to bring their catch indoors so other animals can’t take it from them. And yup, we’ve got mice brought in by the cat & let loose in the house. 😤
My Cleo does the licking of plastic. I've had a few cats over the years and never had a one who did that before. I had thought it was just something weird this one did.
I have a theory why cats lay on something you are reading, or do other things to stop you reading. Cat's have no way to figure out what you are doing, why are you staring at something that isn't moving and has nothing at all interesting about it. Cats observe you all the time, and they want to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. This allows the cat to predict your future behavior. This is something that is very important to cats. But when you read, the cat can't work out what you are doing, and this bothers them on a very deep level.
That’s a fascinating theory! It must look pretty strange to them. I wonder what they think about our fingers typing on a keyboard for hours in a day. Then again - cats are pretty good at staring blankly into space too. Maybe they are learning it from us 😂
I've always despised this argument, for the simple reason that we literally provide food to our cats several times a day. What would make the cat think we're incompetent at hunting? We're so good at hunting, we even save the tastiest food for ourselves. Cats bring in small animals for two reasons: 1) To provide, to show that they're contributing and should continue to be fed. 2) Because it's a safe place to be a horrible, sadistic bastard to it.
A cat isn’t thinking to itself “wow I bet this will really hurt, haha!” - no, that’s a human thing. The cat is thinking, “oh it moved again, pounce!”- and I use the word “thought” loosely, because that pounce is largely an instinct-driven physical reaction. To be clear, humans are incredible- capable of great good and great evil. The big difference is that we are INTELLIGENT enough to recognize ourselves in other creatures and imagine how life could be in their place, thereby enjoying (or loathing, etc) the experience of simply watching someone *else* experience something. Cats, dogs, etc…they don’t have enough intelligence to create the worlds within worlds we do. The offshoot of that is we have both saints…and sadists among us. Not so with the animal kingdom. This is the opinion of someone who has owned many cats and dogs, and been “gifted” animals as well as taking away still-living animals from cats, and dogs. I’ve dealt with squirrels, snakes, possums, various birds, many rabbits, armadillos, porcupines, coyotes, etc…we just have to try our best to be kind, I think, and when we see our pet tormenting some small creature, take it away, for goodness sake. We know it’s suffering, even if the cat doesn’t get that.
I think cats can show us that they are grateful, I mean, not all of them despise us. There was a small cat living in my neighborhood and I often came to visit her and feed her because she was alone. But when I was bringing food, she didn't immediately ate it, no, she first came closer to me and asked for hugs before eating. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suppose it was her way to thank me.
Well my cats must think really highly of me and my family because one brings live ones into the house, and the other leaves nothing but a stain and some fur.
Cats can survive falls off skyscrapers. And another study shows over many stories high they get less injured. They know how to deploy body to slow fall speed and get prepared for impact their terminal speed down low enough to sometimes not get injured at all. Lower falls they cannot prepare as well. And even. Low falls mentioned here they often don’t injure themselves. They would not be doing that could be injured activity so much if it was common injury result. But they can get injured as described so you can chose to protect. Or feel the feeling of freedom worth the risk. This same as letting outside knowing being injured or killed by cars might occur.
I returned home late one night to find a stray cat begging for food on my porch. I put a small bowl of my cat's food out for her and within moments, about a dozen other cats appeared out of the shadows and proceeded to have a "cat party" on my porch. Not all of them even touched the food, some just played with other cats. About 15 minutes later, when the food was gone, they dispersed. The next morning I found a dead squirrel on my porch, which I presume was a "thank you" gift for the food and party. Funny thing is, I see cats and squirrels outside together all the time, and the cats don't typically go for the squirrels, probably because they are just too big. So the "gift" had this implication of, "We put in extra effort on this one for you."
Once upon a time, our cat brought in a dead mouse. On my mothers birthday, with 20 people in the living room, and she dropped it right in the middle of the carpet. You tell me that wasnt a birthday present.
My cat Irma does believe I am her rather low quality servant. She yowls at me when -she thinks it's time to go to bed -she wants me to wake up -shake her dish to remove the circle of starvation -switch the water in one of her multiple water dishes or cups -as she brings her feather stick to me from up or downstairs -is generally in the mood to talk but not actually interact
The real reasons are actually different. Sometimes, one of my able-bodied cats brings a dead rodent to another able-bodied cat, and sits back and watches them eat it. Sometimes, they will bring them to me, but only to show - because they want to eat them themselves, and will quickly snatch it up if it looks like I'm going to pick it up (because I always get rid of them, as I don't want them ingesting parasites). The reason a cat would give/show you a catch is for the same very wide variety of reasons you might GIVE somebody anything.
Well, this research must be new then. A while ago the knowledge was that cats have not been bread much, only for around 100 years and mainly for looks. Genetic comparisons showed they are more or less the same as their feral ancestors in Africa. Btw, my cat was incredibly bad at hunting and called me in a very sad and loud tone to help her, every time she messed up. Every time I thought she was in extreme danger or pain, because of the sound she made.
3:05 fun fact that the kind of behavior that prove domestication on the biscuit part i remember my ex-gf cat did make biscuit on my shoes after i return from a visit with her to her parrent, was adorable x3
when cats chatter as many probably mentioned before me, they do it to mimic the animal they are hunting to lure them closer, kinda like how an alligator snapping turtle will use it's tongue to mimic a worm to trick a fish into swimming into snapping range and it snaps it up, it's just yet another way a cat secures a successful hunt. After all, why stalk it's prey when it can trick it into coming within pouncing range?
My beautiful Siamese bought me a red belly black snake one night, I was asleep on the lounge . Shure did wake up and sober up quick. The snake started coiling on my ankle, it was trying to escape the cat! It had punctures all over. I grabbed the snake by the throat and it coiled on my arm loosely. It was exhausted but free of our cat. Then out to some far away bushland for release. It likely didn't last long, ants get them in the end. Mark, Queensland Australia.
kitty likes to bring birds in and let them fly around house. she also brings in other things she likes. A particular leaf or a stick or something shinny.
If cats do not bring dead animals as a gift, then why did my cats were bringing me mice only on my birthday. At any other day they just catch their prey and play with it, but in my birthday they bring a dead mouse to my porch at the morning and wait until I go outside.
About the chattering, this theory is wrong. It's a way of them literally preparing for the killer bite that usually kills prey in one fell swoop. That's from an animal behaviorist.
All's I can say is, if I was stuck in a cat's natural environment and had to rely on catching birds and mice to survive ... I'd be dead in a week. You know I'd be pounding on that cell phone trying to get Pizza Hut on the line ...
No, that sound they make with their teeth is very deliberate, they r trying to sound like their prey to lure them in. I have better luck calling squirrels toward me by doing that same noise if I’m in neighborhoods with few cats. So at my mom’s for instance it was something that never worked as a kid but after our cats n pretty much every other cat on the street either passed away too or r all indoor cats n now it works again to call over squirrels n occasionally birds (but the birds seem to know alrdy if I have food n ignore me if I don’t but also don’t come when I do until I start calling them or toss it on the ground)
i was raised by a little calico. i was the elder of two brothers. our cat would bring mice up onto my dads chest while we grew up. when he was away for work, the cat would jump up on my chest with the mice. strange behavior.
Pay attention to your cat and you will learn something. Cats actually will try to teach you tricks or games they want you to play with them. I've had cats who want a certain response to certain calls given in a specific place in the house. Just like a human trying to train another animal, they may return to the starting point and try again until you do the thing they were hoping for. It could be as simple as opening or closing a door or following them to their food bowl. I think cats are probably astonished at how inept we can be at communication with them, and how bad our manners are compared to theirs! 😹
I heard an interesting theory as to why cats bring their owners animals. Cats descend from an African variant, and these felines lived in large colonies. As the colony was their family, food was brought back to feed everyone. So cat's bringing us dead mice, etc. is a reflection of their prosocial behavior.
Cats moms teach kittens with LIVE prey, not dead prey. I know, Ive had generations of full cats. My cats were taught by Mom cat. Mom cat would bring live baby mice and injured birds to teach kittens both how to hunt, and - what is food. In my experience females hunt more frequently than Toms. We would rarely get "gifts" and when there was stuff on the porch it was guts, sometimes a head, or just a tail. More often than not, they would eat their entire prey*
well, my "boss" does not bring me gifts, he tells me when he wants to eat, tells me when he wants to check what i am eating and either decides he wants it too or most often thanks for sharing even if he does not likes weird things i eat, tells me to open doors for him, or shows when he wants a masage. i not his master, i am his doorman, chef , private doctor, hunting partner, body guard and last but not least a friend. also there i a dog with us, i am also not his master, he is lowly member of the pack , i am second in command of the pack, i am his senior and superior in a pack, i am he who hunts and brings prey for pack, i am one who he can turn to for help or comfort but also one who keeps order between ranks , above me is only alpha and alpha is grumpy most of times
How do Manx cats swirl around in the air to right themselves as they don't have tails? I ponder this one every time I look at my own Dumpling who got a tail injury in a fight a couple of years ago. Only the first 6 or 7 inches of his tail is functional and the end just flops. He seems to be okay jumping up, down, over and climbing the tree to get in the cat door---which makes me think of Manx . . . and around again the story.
My she-cat used to bring live mice into our bedroom and they’d run off until I caught them. Then when my wife was dying of cancer and was bedridden she started to leave dead mice at the bedroom door. I often wonder whether in ‘normal’ times she just thought we were bad hunters and brought live mice to train us but when my wife was dying she realised my wife couldn’t hunt anymore and brought her food…
Just thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes especially as Esther and Rosie are now both dead…
Aww that's really sweet. Your kitty was trying to take care of her ❤ I think cats are very loving.
Cats are very intuitive. Based on your comments about your I’ll wife, your cat knew she was ill, noticed her decline, and was likely doing what you suspected, giving food to a “pack member” who could no longer hunt. I had a loving cat named Sophie. She was my lap fungus, always with me and on my lap when I was seated. Four years ago she started sniffing around my abdomen. Then she’d poke me with her nose, sniff even more, then look at me as if to say “Are you just stupid?” Then I started having discomfort where she’d been sniffing. Next time I saw my GP I told her this. She ordered an ultrasound, just in case. I had a golf ball sized mass in my abdomen! Saw a surgeon, he did more tests, and now il short three feet of bowel and the tumour that the “cat doctor” diagnosed over a year before. Cats know things! And they try their best to tell their stupid sponsors (you don’t own a cat, you sponsor it)! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
@@Momcat_maggiefelinefanHaha, reminds me of this story I heard:
"one time a woman with a medical alert wiener dog sat next to me on a plane and her dog kept alerting on me and she was like “not to be weird but you should get your heart checked out” and that’s how i found out i had a mildly irregular heart beat"
Animals can sense a lot of things we can't. It's honestly pretty impressive.
You can't do this to me at 7am... I still have to work and now I'm not mentally prepared...
Proof that the Earth is not flat: If it were, cats would have knocked everything off of the edge by now
This comment deserves all the likes. Perfect 👍
Science in Animals is indeed a wonderful thing, this is golden.
SCIENCE! 😄
And then SNL would have put on a recurring sketch: "Cats in Space," starring felines who jumped off to retrieve fallen food.
The dead gift thing is also a way of them telling you to eat. My cat did it a few times when i had gone into depression and had not eaten for a day or two.
But the moment i had a plate of food in my hands and he saw me eating, then he would eat the gift he bought me himself.
In that way, not only did i eat, but it also brought me back out of the depressed state i was in.
Much like if i was ill with a cold or a fever, he would cuddle up to me and not leave my side until i was feeling better.
That's true ! When my roomate and I were grieving our oldest cat, our newly only cat started bring pigeon and turtledove. He stopped as soon as we started to eat as much as before the grief.
Cats often not only chatter their teeth, some of them actually call birds. I had a cat who could call birds to their deaths. She would chatter and her lips would quiver when she made bird calls, and the sounds she made sounded enough like birds to fool the birds. She kind of chirped and twittered. I have a cat now who tries to call squirrels, but she doesn't do it well enough to fool them. They get pretty upset when she tries it and bark back at her. And they clearly know it's her.
That first cat spent some time on the streets huh
Ah, this possibly explains these "saddened" cries my cat makes while playing with its victims. Or maybe it's trying to notify me about a catch.
When I was packing to move, Felix (he was a wonderful, wonderful cat), who was just a cat without a home at the time, who showed up in the evening for a meal, brought me a dead mouse. As an intelligent animal, he saw things were changing and wanted to let me know that he wanted to stick with me, even though he didn't live inside. Of course, he came with me and only became more wonderful with time.
I now have the cartoon theme sound in my head.
My little son and I stayed with a family of friends, who have a male cat. My son shared a big chunk of salmon with the cat, which he gladly ate. A couple of hours later the cat brought a freshly killed mouse straight to my son. I belive, this time it was a gift for the fish.
free market capitalism
Oaths were spoken and a bond was forged!
@@HandsOfSweed Best reply ever!
I have seen a cat (male) teach a kitten to hunt. He would bring a live mouse to the kitten, chase it around for a bit, then leave the kitten to chase it. As soon as the kitten could catch and kill its own prey, 'lessons' stopped and it was left to its own devices.
I saw our older female sitting sphinx like with a young male sitting watching her from 10 feet away. We often had them coming around and this is one I recognized as being approved by her and the dog. After a minute she moved her paws and a bird that could still flutter was released. He looked at our cat and she seemed to nod to him and he started playing with it while she watched. After a bit he killed it then she got up and walked back into our house.
Ours would bring in dead mice first, then half-dead, then very live ones...and would bring them for about week, then stop.
I always say that is the moment to know which kitten will be great hunter. Because some are not interested at all, some after while develop some interest...and some see it for first time and within first minute it is the 'best toy ever' and they absolutely won't let others to play with it.
Because we have highly effective barn cats, we are often asked for a hunter type kitten. So I once put a litter of kittens un the bathtub with a live mouse, to see which ones had the most potential. A couple immediately pounced, and were very excited, several showed moderate interest, and one was was like, "Ew! Get that creepy thing away from me! It touched my toes!" @@maearcher4721
That's another reason for bringing you the prey. They see you as one of them and the idea uis to teach you how to hunt. They get frustrated that you don't get the lesson
"I'm sorry to be the one who to have to tell you, but your cat thinks you're a moron."
Good sir, I have been a cat owner my whole life. I am well aware.
Well said! 😂
Our boy uses to catch a mouse and then call me to come out and play. That is especially annoying in the middle of a summer night with all neighbors waking up to that call, as Noel can be pretty loud. He also tries to teach me how to properly take a pee. In a forest (we go for walks to the forest with him and his friends), he watched me taking a pee behind a tree. Then, with a visible disgust, he said something along the lines "now watch how to do that properly" and showed me you have to find a nice, flat spot, dig a hole, pee into it, and then cover it up so no one can see or smell it. He was looking at me all the time to make sure I pay attention.
Most of the time, he acts like I am his older, retarded brother :)
My kitty brings me dead animals. Birds, mice, frogs, bats, once a baby bunny (💔) and when she was a kitten, earthworms! I’m always sure to thank her. I know she’s trying to take care of me. And actually, in a post apocalyptic situation, I’d probably be pretty happy to get one of those little creatures! 🤣
Growing up my parents had a big black cat older than me by 3 years. Pudge was a great hunter and brought every catch to the door. He’d meow to my Mom, and she’s praise his hunting skill, pat his head, then he’d go under the porch to dine. Then he let a very live bat loose in our kitchen. Mom didn’t go to the door without checking after that! My current feline friend is an indoor cat … I have a huge window she hunts from … we call it squirrel-a-vision! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
The birds thank you for having an indoor cat.
@@Madronaxyz So do the chipmunks and squirrels! Outdoor cats kill even when they’re not hungry. Once a predator, always a predator. My cat hunts and catches indoor vermin … flies, spiders etc. She eats her kills too! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
I don't mind "gifts" of dead animals; it's the live animals, usually mice, who then escape and hide inside the house which really annoys me.
Haha! I think that’s called “job security” 😉
My cat brings in small, black baby snakes.... Let's them go, so they can slither around while my cat plays with it. I use a back scratcher to get the baby snake out of the house...
The mouse lay doggo on the rug. When it stopped moving, the cat lost interest and wandered away. Quick as a whisk the mouse vanished behind a bookcase and proceeded to munch its way through a century-old cookery book. Weeks later it met its demise when it boldly raided the cat's food bowl - right in front of the cat! Perhaps Mrs Beeton seriously palled after such a long steady diet of wood-pulp!
@@PetSpotlightUsing the logic in your video, the cat is trying to teach you to hunt for mice. So bringing you a live one means you're supposed to catch it! 😅
Day 1 of the first lockdown (remember when no-one knew how/if Covid jumped species ) our cat released a live bat in our living room. It took me 10minutes to stop screaming and the cat seemed to enjoy the chaos. This is how the zombie apocalypse will end us.
My family was playing a card game after dinner at the dining table and we did not notice one of our cats bring in a rabbit it had killed, laid the rabbit near my son’s feet and go back outside. When my son discovered the rabbit by his feet we looked around for the cat and it was outside the sliding glass door looking in at us like a serial killer watching the scene of the crime. 😀
i'd reccomend putting the dead gifts section at the start of the video if you want to increase retention. sure some people will click off after they see it, but those people would either just skip to the last part anyway, or instantly click off if they dont see it right away
Truth
Thanks for the tip! We appreciate hearing the feedback 😆
Park the header topic in the middle. Most folks will wait that long, and they'll appreciate you aren't trying to string them along.
Speak for yourself is fine but not everyone reads the last chapter because they just have to know. Immediately!
The "😆" in the reply comment says all I have to know about the creator.
It is possible that humans inadvertently taught their cats to bring in mice/rats as part of domestication.
Cats are far more than fuzzy snuggle balls. They were largely domesticated as working animals. In particular for hunting rodents, likely about the time humans started farming grains and rodents became a growing nuisance.
It is possible that the cats that proved their hunting prowess were rewarded.
If a cat simply eats their prey in the field, nobody will ever know.
Kittens, in particular like to play with live mice. And, where better to do so but on the back porch of their home. The kittens will also have gotten used to their mothers bringing rodents to them.
Keep in mind, that even if humans don't hunt in the same way cats do, we do control that cornucopia of food!!!
Yes! That’s a great point, I love it and thanks for adding this. Just like a lot of dog behaviors and even anatomy and brain function came about “accidentally” by conditioning them and selecting for traits as companions, your point about conditioning cats and selecting based on this behavior is completely valid and plausible. Appreciate the comment!
maybe they're just bringing their catch to THEIR home. Remember when cats play and catch whatever you throw they take it in their mouth to a safe place.
I absolutely agree that it's possible trait gained by domestication. If cat was showing off her hunting skills, the homeowner would be more likely to take care of it. To share some meal with the cat and to let it stay in warm during winter, or to ward off larger predators, to take care of it when it was sick-if they knew the cat was good hunter.
Over time cat could start associate extra food and comfort with it showing off its prey to human first...
It's win-win for cat...it still gets to eat the prey it caught + gets extra benefits.
My male cat will try to get me out of bed to let him outside. If meowing, getting in my face and kneading my chest doesn't get the desired result, he will climb into my bookcase and systematically 'whing' my books to the floor. It works.
yea some animals are smarter we give them credit for, i actually had a 5+ year old gold fish that would start to flap water out of his container all over the floor when i forgot to clean his habitat for a while and it was getting dirty, to tell me to clean it. he never did that when it was clean.
I had a big bundle of love named Walsh once. He was born an indoor cat, which contributed to his total lack of any stort of catting skill. He was not graceful and would land on his ass more than his feet. He always tried though. He also rolled over with a loud thud whenever I was standing around and ignoring his meows for attention. He wanted me to crouch and rub his belly whenever he demanded it. Someone once said that such behavior means a cat trusts you. Unfortunately, he once let that quirk send him for a loop. He tried to demand my attention while I was on the couch, so he jumped up right next to me, on the arm. But I was distracted by something. So he tried to roll over. But he fell in the wrong direction and I suddenly heard a thud. Next thing I know, he's stumbling back around to the front of the couch with a dazed look on his face. So weet, but not too bright. He followed me nearly everywhere in the house and, along with his sister, camped out in my room most of the time, especially when I was there. They had sibling slap fights over my lap. I mean that in the sense of who got to sit on my lap. And also literally OVER my lap. I'll miss him, health problems arose and between a vet visit and the next planned one, he passed away in the hall outside my bedroom. Waking up to find him was heartbreaking...
At least your clumsy kitty got a lot of love from you. RIP Walsh.
@@dtrtuscay826 Thank you for your kindness.
She’s a mean girl, snarky, opinionated, domineering, demanding, royalty and legend in her own mind. But she’s ours and we love her. Edit: I once had a cat leave me a half dead rattlesnake in my bathroom. Upon waking in the morning and needing to pee, one foot hit the threshold and the other foot landed in the bathtub which was six feet away. Didn’t know I was so flexible, but that snake was really mad.
A cat half killed a rattlesnake and left it for you to finish off? Where do you live? Australia?
@mr.perfectcell1887 Rattlesnakes are common on farms in North Alabama I should know, when I was growing up on my grandpa's farm he had tons of them also in Louisiana and Mississippi why you think they are just in Australia 😮
@@vondaberryman4477 it's just the meme.
@@mr.perfectcell1887 oh ok sorry 😊
I had the biggest grasshopper I ever seen trapped inside my mothers house last summer, I dont know how it got in or what it was doing, but it was huge, and even after I was sure I beat it to death with a shoe my cat was scared to come near it. And sure enough after 10 minutes it started moving again. Cats have this weird sense for when somethings almost dead.
Cats definitely leave prey animals as gifts. They do it for each other as well as humans.
I had a black and white female cat that hated the other cats in the area, who were all tabby cats. She would hiss whenever she saw one. After a few years a new black and white tom cat showed up in the garden. It was the first black and white cat she'd seen since she was a kitten. When she saw him, instead of hissing, she meowed at him. It was so sweet and out of character for her.
A few days later there was a dead mouse right in the middle of the back garden and my mum asked me to get rid of it. Later that day, the black and white tom cat showed up again, sitting at the bottom of the garden. He was waiting for our cat to come along and find the gift he'd brought her 100%.
yoo your cat was racist. nice.
i'll never forget my cat sabertooth "saber for short lol" she had kittens and i would bring them into the house sometimes to play with them and she could get alittle break, i would have the door open but the screen door closed so i could see when she was ready to take back over and she decided to come back with a bird in her mouth the bird was still alive but she basically had the bird to where it couldn't fly and was trying to get me to open the door so she could come in the house with the bird.... i told her lol that wasn't happening and when all of her kittens showed up by the screen door she proceeded to kill that bird in front of them and then eat it leaving just the head behind..... after that i came home from school to see a dead squirrel with it's head missing and one of the kittens eating in that area and saber runs up to me and i tell her to get back cause i didn't want squirrel blood on me lol
My sister's cat used to chatter with the washing machine. Newer machines make clicking noises before filling water. It was like the cat was talking with a machine.
He was hedging his bets for the rise of the machines!😆
Regarding cats and boxes - researchers drew corners on the floor - not even an entire square, just the corners - and found that cats will sit inside the imaginary square
My father said to the cat - then about six months old - 'Puss you never bring home a dead mouse. Do bring home a mouse' and four hours later there she was with a dead mouse.
The cats aren't giving you gifts works until they bring you a leaf, a flower or in my cats case her favourite toy when I was crying.
If my cat Kevin wants outside, he'll purposefully do things that he specifically knows that he's not supposed to do or places he's not supposed to go. And then he'll look at me as if to say "Hey, look, I'm doing the thing I'm not supposed to. You should punish me by letting me out".
My cat doesn't care at all for boxes. She doesn't bring gifts. She doesn't chatter. But she will lick orange peels and drink out of the sink if I left dish water in there... Oh, and she never tries to make me feed her, but if I stay up late she will try to show me the way to bed.
@ 3:18 my tom cat doesn't just knead his soft fleece blanket. Let's just say that after he nursed it I gave it to him. Don't wanna touch that one again. 😶 lol
Chattering-
Some cat behaviorists believe cats chatter to mimic they're prey. Ive seen cats that will try to mimic different bird and squirrel calls and their patterns. (Ex. If a bird makes 2 quick chirps, a longer tweet, and 3 quick chirps. The cat will try mimic the pattern)
Other member of the cat family, including tigers, will also mimic prey.
I can imagine some prehistoric tiger mimicking human speech.
As a kid, I was convinced one of our best mousers simply wanted the mouse cleaned and skewered for the grill. Sure enough, she hopped up in the table, purred through the process, and dined on the lightly chared mouse. Before that experiment, shed look at us in disgust and shove the mouse at us until we tossed it, then she'd lecture us in meows. My Dad loved that cat, he swore she learned the grill thing from watching him.
My mom's cats would catch moles in the yard and bring my mom the livers of the moles. You had to be careful when stepping out the back door because they would leave their gifts in the steps.
One of our cats did that, except they'd only half kill the moles and we had to put the poor guys out of their misery. I loved that cat, but you ever see a cat break an animal's back and play with it? Not pleasant to watch. In the cat's defense, some of the moles probably did break in, we lived right at floor level with no basement. Under the crawlspace, we had a buncha critters. Moles, a skunk, groundhog and a turtle. That last one isn't a joke, we had a turtle, my brother wanted it. But it kept escaping its tank and it just vanished one day. Then winter hit and we figured it got lost and died, we were pretty sad. Then come spring and it was just there, chilling in the grass. Unfortunately, it did the same thing again and we never found it. I wonder if it survived any longer.
Dogs will bring gifts to owners, too... My father, long time ago, had two dogs and a cat that would hunt woodchucks together. The cat would flush out woodchucks from the tunnels. The dogs would make the kill and they brought it to the garage to show dad! They were quite proud of themselves, I'm sure...
My one cat taught my other cat to lick plastic. Now explain to me why the one cat carries tennis balls around at night and yowls while doing it, but stops when she notices we're watching
I remember when I was a kid I got a terrible case of the flu and was bedridden for several days. A cat my sister had brought me the biggest hairiest rat I’ve ever seen.
On the "gift"bringing, our grey cat loves to catch bugs and bring them to surprise you in bed. Usually in the dark and the prize is still very much alive.
Or she'll handle it until it's broken and doesn't try to get away anymore, then she'll bring it with an expectant chirp and look of "make this work again, I'm not done playing". She's gotten really good at catching palmetto bugs, doesn't like red hornets, and will just eat house flies. Just look back at the you to make sure you're watching the glomp! Fly grabbed, and before you can clear your chair dashes while choking it down as fast as possible. As soon as you get her, plaintive chirp and struggle of "you're hurting me!" Right until the wiggling for shoulder and neck scratches bring about the kneading. She really does like to be held and loved on. The 'hurting me' is just part of the game.
Cats most definately do not ALWAYS land on their feet. I had a friend who hadn't heard of that. Another friend offered to demonstrate that phenomena to the first friend, using my first friends cat. The cat landed on it's head, ran off and never returned.
On the same trip the first friend had a rottweiler puppy. He was also puppysitting another rottweiler pup from the same litter. We went to the river (summer in Northeest NSW - very hot) and put both dogs in to cool down. One dog swam like a champ, the other sank like a stone and if anyone is familiar with Australian rivers in this area they know there's zero visibility in the water, just brown water. We were lucky and found the puppy, but it taught the three of us a good lesson. When swimming with dogs keep a leed on them. Ohhh and never throw a cat in the air...
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry - poor kitty! Great story.
I once saw someone (fully clothed) toss a puppy in the swimming hole expecting it to just start swimming. They had to wade into the river in their clothes to fish the poor guy off the bottom. Make no assumptions I suppose!
Give cat every day bowls of food... cat believes we can't hunt... X-D
No, mycat really brought me one, to show how great she is! When I cuddled and pet her for that, she was so proud! You saw it on her eyes, like:" Daddy is Proud of me!" X-D
My cat used to wake me up to make sure I was paying attention to the crunching and the slurping going on next to the bed. Honestly I minded that less than my current baby who starts licking plastic at 5 every morning. 😅
Recently because of a mice/rat infestation at home. They found our non-perishable food storage, ripped some bags and were feeding out of it. Out female kitty helped us to hunt most of them during 10 days nightmare, traps did the rest of the job. However, with the last 3 in particular, thanks god they were mice. She brought them, one at the time, in the middle of the night while we were sleeping, a "live" present to our bed. My wife freaked out when she felt a mice in her feet/legs, and I had to hunt the animal at that time and my wife was traumatized. Until today she can't sleep with lights off. With last one my micer female hunter, she came running from kitchen with something in her mouth, jumped into my bed and I asked her politely to just drop it in my hand, instead of dropping off at my bed, which surprisingly she did and then I crushed it bare hand, disinfected my hands and dispose of the rodent at 2am.
my "not my cat" will show me what she's holding in her mouth, but based on her body language, she's neither sharing it nor teaching me how to catch my own.
It's possible the dead mouse thing is as you say, but I think otherwise. I am of the opinion that cats, and their owners, have a deeper, intuitive connection. And what we think our cat is doing may well be the truth. As I understand it the mouse head is the best part, and in order to express gratitude and love for her owner our cats just want to share with us something special. Just as you have, you must be part pet. 😅 New sub.
There's a little more to the chattering too I believe its also related to some cats ability to actually imitate some bird calls. Here's a good video of an owner getting her cat imitating various bird calls on video: ua-cam.com/users/shorts0ulu7XVtnpw?feature=share
The person who claims that cats like confined spaces has clearly never tried to get a cat into a cat carrier.
Haha, that’s tough to argue. Probably with most things with cats it’s safest to add “on their own terms” to the end of it 😂
ah but thats different. you are making him go in a box!
I get presents always after having given my cats a treat... it's definitely a 'return the favour' from mine.
My cat would wait until I had finished with a client, and then when I had freshened up, he would take me out for a walk. He would also leave 'presents' in my bed, under the covers. I assume just in case I got hungry during the night
Purring is also very often a "please don't" in adult cats. A comfortable cat will often purr as you approach if it thinks you might want to sit where it is or just generally do something to shift it from it spot. Same can apply to the tail shake.
Yeah, emphasising that it is happy with the things as they are.
Interesting theory about the mouse gifts. Another theory is they want to bring their catch indoors so other animals can’t take it from them. And yup, we’ve got mice brought in by the cat & let loose in the house. 😤
My Cleo does the licking of plastic. I've had a few cats over the years and never had a one who did that before. I had thought it was just something weird this one did.
@00:43 using dog pawprints to illustrate a video about cats! LOL!
My cat brings me dead critters as "trade".
He knows I appreciate it, and usually earns him a snack.
He's sleeping on my feet while I type this...
I have a theory why cats lay on something you are reading, or do other things to stop you reading.
Cat's have no way to figure out what you are doing, why are you staring at something that isn't moving and has nothing at all interesting about it.
Cats observe you all the time, and they want to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. This allows the cat to predict your future behavior.
This is something that is very important to cats. But when you read, the cat can't work out what you are doing, and this bothers them on a very deep level.
That’s a fascinating theory! It must look pretty strange to them. I wonder what they think about our fingers typing on a keyboard for hours in a day. Then again - cats are pretty good at staring blankly into space too. Maybe they are learning it from us 😂
I've always despised this argument, for the simple reason that we literally provide food to our cats several times a day. What would make the cat think we're incompetent at hunting? We're so good at hunting, we even save the tastiest food for ourselves.
Cats bring in small animals for two reasons:
1) To provide, to show that they're contributing and should continue to be fed.
2) Because it's a safe place to be a horrible, sadistic bastard to it.
A cat isn’t thinking to itself “wow I bet this will really hurt, haha!” - no, that’s a human thing. The cat is thinking, “oh it moved again, pounce!”- and I use the word “thought” loosely, because that pounce is largely an instinct-driven physical reaction.
To be clear, humans are incredible- capable of great good and great evil. The big difference is that we are INTELLIGENT enough to recognize ourselves in other creatures and imagine how life could be in their place, thereby enjoying (or loathing, etc) the experience of simply watching someone *else* experience something. Cats, dogs, etc…they don’t have enough intelligence to create the worlds within worlds we do.
The offshoot of that is we have both saints…and sadists among us. Not so with the animal kingdom.
This is the opinion of someone who has owned many cats and dogs, and been “gifted” animals as well as taking away still-living animals from cats, and dogs. I’ve dealt with squirrels, snakes, possums, various birds, many rabbits, armadillos, porcupines, coyotes, etc…we just have to try our best to be kind, I think, and when we see our pet tormenting some small creature, take it away, for goodness sake. We know it’s suffering, even if the cat doesn’t get that.
Our cat would bring us half dead mice until we caught a few and gave them to the dogs. Now she just leaves them in the dog bowl.
Your Cat: "It seems I've misjudged you. The dogs need our help more."
well, to be fair, the cats have probably never seen their people catch & eat a mouse... so....
I think cats can show us that they are grateful, I mean, not all of them despise us. There was a small cat living in my neighborhood and I often came to visit her and feed her because she was alone. But when I was bringing food, she didn't immediately ate it, no, she first came closer to me and asked for hugs before eating. Maybe I'm wrong, but I suppose it was her way to thank me.
why can't my cat go to the supermarked and buy food?
nooo... he brings living creaturs from the garden >.
The cat just wants you to join them in their hunt.
Well my cats must think really highly of me and my family because one brings live ones into the house, and the other leaves nothing but a stain and some fur.
Cats can survive falls off skyscrapers. And another study shows over many stories high they get less injured. They know how to deploy body to slow fall speed and get prepared for impact their terminal speed down low enough to sometimes not get injured at all.
Lower falls they cannot prepare as well.
And even. Low falls mentioned here they often don’t injure themselves. They would not be doing that could be injured activity so much if it was common injury result.
But they can get injured as described so you can chose to protect. Or feel the feeling of freedom worth the risk. This same as letting outside knowing being injured or killed by cars might occur.
I returned home late one night to find a stray cat begging for food on my porch. I put a small bowl of my cat's food out for her and within moments, about a dozen other cats appeared out of the shadows and proceeded to have a "cat party" on my porch. Not all of them even touched the food, some just played with other cats. About 15 minutes later, when the food was gone, they dispersed. The next morning I found a dead squirrel on my porch, which I presume was a "thank you" gift for the food and party. Funny thing is, I see cats and squirrels outside together all the time, and the cats don't typically go for the squirrels, probably because they are just too big. So the "gift" had this implication of, "We put in extra effort on this one for you."
9 minute video and only 1 minute is relevant to the title topic.
7:48 The actual video starts
You're welcome.
Once upon a time, our cat brought in a dead mouse. On my mothers birthday, with 20 people in the living room, and she dropped it right in the middle of the carpet. You tell me that wasnt a birthday present.
Somehow my cat (Arabian Mau) is absolutely indifferent towards boxes 🤷♀️
Siamese cats are the most talkative. I have a half siamese cat and he talks so much. Wonder how much a full siamese talks compared to him 😆
My mom had a siamese and she has told me she used to have full conversations with him. She would talk to him and he would always reply
My cat Irma does believe I am her rather low quality servant. She yowls at me when
-she thinks it's time to go to bed
-she wants me to wake up
-shake her dish to remove the circle of starvation
-switch the water in one of her multiple water dishes or cups
-as she brings her feather stick to me from up or downstairs
-is generally in the mood to talk but not actually interact
The real reasons are actually different. Sometimes, one of my able-bodied cats brings a dead rodent to another able-bodied cat, and sits back and watches them eat it. Sometimes, they will bring them to me, but only to show - because they want to eat them themselves, and will quickly snatch it up if it looks like I'm going to pick it up (because I always get rid of them, as I don't want them ingesting parasites). The reason a cat would give/show you a catch is for the same very wide variety of reasons you might GIVE somebody anything.
None of my cats have knocked anything down on purpose that I know of and im so glad lol
My kitty is strictly indoors, so she doesn't have mice to chase. Every day she brings me houseflies. Usually they're still alive, but stunned.
Well, this research must be new then. A while ago the knowledge was that cats have not been bread much, only for around 100 years and mainly for looks. Genetic comparisons showed they are more or less the same as their feral ancestors in Africa.
Btw, my cat was incredibly bad at hunting and called me in a very sad and loud tone to help her, every time she messed up. Every time I thought she was in extreme danger or pain, because of the sound she made.
3:05 fun fact that the kind of behavior that prove domestication
on the biscuit part i remember my ex-gf cat did make biscuit on my shoes after i return from a visit with her to her parrent, was adorable x3
when cats chatter as many probably mentioned before me, they do it to mimic the animal they are hunting to lure them closer, kinda like how an alligator snapping turtle will use it's tongue to mimic a worm to trick a fish into swimming into snapping range and it snaps it up, it's just yet another way a cat secures a successful hunt. After all, why stalk it's prey when it can trick it into coming within pouncing range?
Me: Feeds my cat every single day of its life.
My cat: Clearly this idiot does not know how to hunt.
Not sure, maybe they are just sharing food with those who they love and care.
My cat has never done that, I'm so proud of myself!
Anyone who owns cats know they think we are morons
My beautiful Siamese bought me a red belly black snake one night, I was asleep on the lounge . Shure did wake up and sober up quick. The snake started coiling on my ankle, it was trying to escape the cat! It had punctures all over. I grabbed the snake by the throat and it coiled on my arm loosely. It was exhausted but free of our cat. Then out to some far away bushland for release. It likely didn't last long, ants get them in the end. Mark, Queensland Australia.
My cat brings in leaves, so the joke is on him.
Oh, I have three cats and I KNOW they think I’m as dumb as soup. 😂😂😂
kitty likes to bring birds in and let them fly around house. she also brings in other things she likes. A particular leaf or a stick or something shinny.
we keep our house clean but that doesn't stop them from leaving toy mice in the bed lol
Once my husband was in a hurry to get out the door, put a foot into his best dress shoes, then shook out a half-eaten mouse from his shoe! Yikes😮
I had to glue my new lamps to my end tables.
dead mice is just cat trying to pander for more treats, and it works.
If cats do not bring dead animals as a gift, then why did my cats were bringing me mice only on my birthday.
At any other day they just catch their prey and play with it, but in my birthday they bring a dead mouse to my porch at the morning and wait until I go outside.
My mom always suspected it's cause the cat thinks your to stupid to take care of yourself.
About the chattering, this theory is wrong. It's a way of them literally preparing for the killer bite that usually kills prey in one fell swoop. That's from an animal behaviorist.
"It is not a gift" then the video explains that cats give it to you AS A GIFT because you are bad at hunting...
cats open their mouths to get more scents--forgot to mention that part
All's I can say is, if I was stuck in a cat's natural environment and had to rely on catching birds and mice to survive ... I'd be dead in a week.
You know I'd be pounding on that cell phone trying to get Pizza Hut on the line ...
No, that sound they make with their teeth is very deliberate, they r trying to sound like their prey to lure them in. I have better luck calling squirrels toward me by doing that same noise if I’m in neighborhoods with few cats. So at my mom’s for instance it was something that never worked as a kid but after our cats n pretty much every other cat on the street either passed away too or r all indoor cats n now it works again to call over squirrels n occasionally birds (but the birds seem to know alrdy if I have food n ignore me if I don’t but also don’t come when I do until I start calling them or toss it on the ground)
i was raised by a little calico. i was the elder of two brothers. our cat would bring mice up onto my dads chest while we grew up. when he was away for work, the cat would jump up on my chest with the mice. strange behavior.
Pay attention to your cat and you will learn something. Cats actually will try to teach you tricks or games they want you to play with them. I've had cats who want a certain response to certain calls given in a specific place in the house. Just like a human trying to train another animal, they may return to the starting point and try again until you do the thing they were hoping for. It could be as simple as opening or closing a door or following them to their food bowl. I think cats are probably astonished at how inept we can be at communication with them, and how bad our manners are compared to theirs! 😹
I heard an interesting theory as to why cats bring their owners animals. Cats descend from an African variant, and these felines lived in large colonies. As the colony was their family, food was brought back to feed everyone. So cat's bringing us dead mice, etc. is a reflection of their prosocial behavior.
Cats moms teach kittens with LIVE prey, not dead prey. I know, Ive had generations of full cats. My cats were taught by Mom cat. Mom cat would bring live baby mice and injured birds to teach kittens both how to hunt, and - what is food. In my experience females hunt more frequently than Toms. We would rarely get "gifts" and when there was stuff on the porch it was guts, sometimes a head, or just a tail. More often than not, they would eat their entire prey*
well, my "boss" does not bring me gifts, he tells me when he wants to eat, tells me when he wants to check what i am eating and either decides he wants it too or most often thanks for sharing even if he does not likes weird things i eat, tells me to open doors for him, or shows when he wants a masage.
i not his master, i am his doorman, chef , private doctor, hunting partner, body guard and last but not least a friend.
also there i a dog with us, i am also not his master, he is lowly member of the pack , i am second in command of the pack, i am his senior and superior in a pack, i am he who hunts and brings prey for pack, i am one who he can turn to for help or comfort but also one who keeps order between ranks , above me is only alpha and alpha is grumpy most of times
We are terrible at catching mice, no mistake. Clearly, our mothers didn't love us enough to teach us how to hunt properly.
You are not very good yet at catching pizza. So I got you a pizza. Seems like a gift to me. Even if they are trying to teach you something.
My mother has another problem with our can. He brings home ALIVE mice.
Its funny that cats think we cant hunt when their entire food supply is dependent on us.
How do Manx cats swirl around in the air to right themselves as they don't have tails? I ponder this one every time I look at my own Dumpling who got a tail injury in a fight a couple of years ago. Only the first 6 or 7 inches of his tail is functional and the end just flops. He seems to be okay jumping up, down, over and climbing the tree to get in the cat door---which makes me think of Manx . . . and around again the story.
My dad had a cat that once put a bird in his mouth when he was asleep to try and feed him