Answer: Like all member of the cat family (felidae), the domestic cat has a natural and strongly developed hunting instinct. This hunting, or predatory, behavior still presets in animals which are receiving adequate regular males, although having stalked and caught their prey there is not the same incentive to either to kill or eat it. Cats which are kept to control rodents used to be fed only minimally to encourage their hunting, and these cats when hungry would usually consume their prey entirely. However, good’ mousers’ are often more efficient if they are feed regularly; they lack of the need to kill appears to reduce anxiety and increase efficiency.
Cats are best adopted by nature to the catching of small rodents, but in urban areas these may be very few and then the cats resorts to hunting small birds. In fact, they will often attack anything not larger then themselves, such as fish, snakes, frog and toads, squirrels (as soon as they are on the ground) and, in rural areas, young rabbits. They will also prey on insects such as flies and grasshoppers. Cats hunt on their own and there is no good evidence of co-operative hunting. If the hunting instinct disturbs you, I’m afraid you shouldn’t keep a cat.
