I watched one of our cats eat a small rabbit he'd caught. He ate everything but the tail and the large intestine. It was amazing watching a whole back leg, bone in, disappear down his throat.
Not really, as said do not have it declawed if you let it out at all. Actually it needs it claws to catch mice, scratch your arms, climb curtains and tear up anything it thinks is fun to sharpen it's claws on. Keep a squirt bottle of water close by, won't teach it anything but will tell it to stop whatever it's doing at the time. We have two females with two completely different personalities. Evil Abby and Scared Gracie.
Abby isn't afraid of anything any size, once brought us an almost full grown rabbit and watched her stalk a Canadian goose. Probably good for her the goose decided to leave. Wife almost freaked when she brought a live bird in the house and let it go, that was fun. She can be loving as heck when she wants something just don't try to pet her anyplace but her head, see claws above. On the other hand Gracie just lays around and eats, when we have a visitor she hides back in the bed room. Both are great mousers...
but Abby is allot more entertaining.
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Depends on the cat, really. Just like people, some are home-bodies, some like to travel. If he/she will be strictly indoor, you can have the front claws removed(for furnitures sake) and theyre still very effective killers.
If you like to be needed, get a rat-dog (Westie, Chihuahua, Jack Russell, etc..) and enjoy. If you hate clingy, a cat is your animal. Get the BIG litterbox, sprinkle a little baking soda in before the litter, & dump 1-2 times per week, need dependent. We have 2, and it's about $18/month to "maintain" with a 13# bag of Iams hairball control food, and plain clay litter.
For cat litter you might also try the "Feline Pine" brand from Petsmart. It's actually just white pine sawdust. It gets tracked around some, but is a lot easier to clean up than clay based litter. A small rug in front of the litter box will cut down on the tracking of any kind of kitty litter.
The stalking comment about Abby up above reminded me of something. One of the funniest tings I've seen a cat do was a young male, about 5 months old, spotted a deer at the back of our place about 100 yards away. He flattened himself out and started creeping that way intending to get himself some venison for dinner. I wish I could have gotten a video of that. He was a very ambitious little cat.
The stalking comment about Abby up above reminded me of something. One of the funniest tings I've seen a cat do was a young male, about 5 months old, spotted a deer at the back of our place about 100 yards away. He flattened himself out and started creeping that way intending to get himself some venison for dinner. I wish I could have gotten a video of that. He was a very ambitious little cat.
This is basically what we do too. My kids are responsible for their feeding / water and the wife takes care of the litterbox. I was a bit worried about not sifting the box and what effect that might have, but using lots of cheap litter and changing it twice a week seems to be the ticket and the lowest mess and cost option. Trash runs twice a week for me and so she just changes it the night before and all is well, even with two felines.
I am curious about the anti hairball food. We're usings Friskies I think (blue package) and giving them a taste of anit hairball paste every other day and that seems to have helped but they still eject the entire contents of their stomach every once and a while. No hairballs, just compelete and total catfood hurl.
Yum, catfood hurl!!!
My cat only does that when i feed her tuna. She likes it, but I don't htink it agrees with her.
I also brush her like every other day, so she never really gets hairballs.
We had 2 cats that seemed to live forever, probably close to 20 years, never had them de-clawed cause the wife said it would hurt them, They probably done 10,000.00 worth of damage before they finally died, used my Brownning Medalist box for a scratch pad (thought it was safe hid in the closet behind some clothes) The male sprayed on my .458 mag that I left out one night, really caustic stuff. Destroyed a leather couch and chair/ottoman. Destroyed their replacements. They also got the drapes in the living room etc. etc. etc. We have been cat free for about 5 years now and I love it.
I bought some live traps for the mice, they seem to catch a lot more mice that the spring type and it keeps the wife off my back cause you can have your choice, kill em or take them to the country and turn them loose.
I bought some live traps for the mice, they seem to catch a lot more mice that the spring type and it keeps the wife off my back cause you can have your choice, kill em or take them to the country and turn them loose.
I think the scent of the cat keeps mice at bay. We've always had a cat and never had mice in the house. Bruce the Moose (our cat) has loads of fun rooting out spiders, crickets, and whatever else gets in the house. He'll also climb sheet rock to get to a moth if it's landed on a wall.
Okay, so how about cats & dogs? We have a weenie dog. Unless, the cat attacks the dog, I don't see this as being a problem. But I also have a 8 month old Doberman puppy; an expensive ~80lb puppy. This relationship may worry me a little.
And how in the heck does a cat catch a bird? Really? Birds fly. It's hard enough for me to think of a cat catching a mouse. Those little bastards are FAST when I see them run across a baseboard into a closet. I couldn't even throw the remote at one let alone expect one of my pets to fly off the couch and catch it in a dead run. And I can't even get within 15 feet of a bird, and BTW.... they FLY!!!! If a little house cat can catch a bird... that can FLY... the bird deserves to die.
And how in the heck does a cat catch a bird? Really? Birds fly. It's hard enough for me to think of a cat catching a mouse. Those little bastards are FAST when I see them run across a baseboard into a closet. I couldn't even throw the remote at one let alone expect one of my pets to fly off the couch and catch it in a dead run. And I can't even get within 15 feet of a bird, and BTW.... they FLY!!!! If a little house cat can catch a bird... that can FLY... the bird deserves to die.
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