(Warning: Nature) Why do cats torment their prey prior to dining on them?

[georgie_leech]

Your cat likely regards you as the worst hunter ever. I mean, she brought home a weakened mouse for you to practice on, and even tires it out for you and shows you how to do it, and you let it get away?

[Fri]

Your cat likely regards you as the worst hunter ever. I mean, she brought home a weakened mouse for you to practice on, and even tires it out for you and shows you how to do it, and you let it get away?

Sounds about right

[Lemmy]

I'm pretty sure the "cats bring you prey because think you're a clumsy, incapable hunter" thing is BS.

[Fri]

And I'm pretty sure we were joking around ;)

[BannedInSchool]

One of my cats would bring live mice, birds, and insects into the house and repeatedly mrow as soon as she was inside, so I am going with the intent to bring me things. Now if the intent was for them to be live I can't really say.

[Darth V]

Cat's aren't animals. They're actually vegetables. They grow from pussy willows.

I need to cross-post this in the vegetarian thread...

I think a better question about domesticated cats is why do they always insist on showing you their butthole.

Spoiler: For inspiration?

Show

[Lemmy]

And I'm pretty sure we were joking around ;)

Then I failed my Sense Motive check... But in my defense, I've seen many people defend that theory quite seriously.

[Giggling Ghast]

Oh Lord, the theories about why cats do the things they do change with the day of the week. They're only slightly less mercurial than diet fads.

[WarKitty]

We'll never tell. Keep on guessing!

[factotum]

We'll never tell. Keep on guessing!

It's your method of offering tribute to the blood god Khorne, lest he become angry and destroy you?

[The_Snark]

coincidentally, just last night my cat (weirdly, the bigger and usually more behaved one) just brought home a small rat. She just bring it with her mouth like someone would bring a kitten. It's worse than "playing with prey," because the cat don't seem to be managing to hurt it at all. It brings the small rat inside, but just then release it and chase it around, batting it with paw, but without seemingly hurting it at all. The cat's bringing the rat inside with attempt, because the door was at that time closed! She have to jump through the window with the rat on its mouth (I mostly left the front window open as makeshift cat-door when I want to let the cat in and out on themselves).

Not wanting to live with a small rat for that night, I opened the door and guided (to be proper, swept) the rat out.

One of my cats does that pretty frequently; her favorite toys are birds, but sometimes she'll turn up with a mouse or a dragonfly. As far as I can tell, she's just doing this for fun, I'm not sure she's even made the connection between "stuff I hunt" and "food". (Food is brownish and comes from the kitchen, everyone knows that.) Unfortunately, she's not very good at being careful, so they often do end up hurt or killed if we don't interfere in time, but she seems more disappointed than anything else when they stop moving.

(This happens less often since we put a bell on her collar, but it hasn't completely stopped her.)

[StarvingGamer]

I don't think it has anything to do with dining. Cats are playful hunters so they like to play murder things because it's fun to them, not because they want to eat it. My cats murder a ton of bugs and never eat them, just leave them often sans legs lying around the house.