Ridecamp: Re: [RC] OT - RATS and Jack Russells

> If your cats don't hunt, it's because their mothers
> didn't teach them to hunt... NOT because you feed them
> too much.  Cats that are fed well and know how to hunt
> will hunt for the pure joy of it.  Cats that know how
> to hunt, but are not fed enough (or at all) have to
> hunt out of desperation and are not as good at it as
> those that hunt for fun.

A lot of it has to be their own predilection for hunting, as well.  The
BEST hunting cat we ever had, bar none, was neither hungry nor taught to
hunt as a youngster.  She was orphaned as a kitten, and was taken in by my
childhood piano teacher, who raised purebred Siamese--this stray orphan
calico kitty was raised alongside the purebred cats, on Pablum and cream,
and living on silk pillows on this woman's sofas.  She was given to me
when she was about 6 months old, and even though we were on a ranch, she
became a part-time house kitty, because of her gentile upbringing.  She
refused to eat mice, packrats, or pine squirrels, but she brought them in
by the dozens, and meowed until they were inspected by one of us, and then
she daintily left them on the patio for whichever other cats cared to eat
them, and came in for her cat food.  She WOULD eat rabbits--and she caught
several, many of which were larger than she was.  (No, she couldn't eat
the whole thing...  <g>)  On one occasion, I watched her stalk a rooster
pheasant, and come away with a couple of his tail feathers.  We had a
couple of kittens from another female, who happily waited on the patio and
scarfed up whatever she left for them--we called them the Welfare Kitties.
 She lived to a fairly ripe old age, and hunted voraciously for several
years, yet she was never taught by a mama cat...

Heidi



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