Once they have successfully caught their prey, they may indulge in some extra play such as pouncing on the poor critters repeatedly, all in the name of perfection.Īlso Read: 7 Tailless Cat Breeds That Make Perfect Companions 3. This is especially true of indoor cats and those who do not have much opportunity to play or hunt.Ĭats love to mimic hunting behavior through play: pouncing, chasing, grabbing, and biting. Practice makes perfect, and most cats will take any opportunity to sharpen their hunting skills. This is natural predatory behavior seen in many species, including large cats-the big cousins of our house cats. If the small animal or bird is tired, they are less likely to cause injury to the cat via teeth, beak, or claws when they go to finally kill it. In the wild, cats play with their prey before administering the last fatal bite through the spinal cord in a deliberate attempt to tire the prey animal out. There are several reasons why your cat may be playing around with their prey. It’s one thing to rely on hunting behaviors to survive, but toying with the catch before eating it (or worse, not even eating it at all!) seems a bit, well … mean! So, are our feline friends naturally cruel, or is there another reason for this common cat behavior? Why Do Cats Play With Their Prey?Ĭats aren’t being mean when they play with their prey, they’re just exercising their instincts. Most adult cats will show some form of predatory behavior if they see small animals or even cat toys that resemble small critters. However, those natural instincts are still very strong, causing our cats to still have a strong desire to hunt prey, even if they do not need to do so nutritionally. Pet cats today rely instead upon their doting cat owners to provide food, either kibble or wet food. As with most cat behavior, kittens learn skills like this from the mother cat, alongside their littermates. Those cats who failed at adequate hunting behavior would starve. They had strong survival instincts, meaning that their natural instinct led them to display good hunting skills around prey animals. These cats, similar to the feral cats still around today, did not have the luxury of cat food provided for them by their loving owners. The domestic cats we know and share our homes with today are descended from wild cats. Though cats are domesticated they still retain their wild instincts.
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