Cat eats mice

Question
Hello Annie,

Titi is our neighbor's cat.  But, she likes to hang out around our home because she doesn't get along with the new dog our neighbor got.  We love her a lot but recently we found dead mice bodies in our garden, and my sister actually saw Titi eating a mice.  We understand from our neighbor that Titi doesn't go home to eat because she's afraid of the new dog.  Is this why she starts hunting and eating the mice?  It's really disturbing to see pieces of dead animals.  If we feed her cat food, would she stop the hunting?  Please advise and thank you in advance for your help.   -Katie

Answer
Hi Katie,

I'm sorry to hear that Titi seems to be unhappy.  I'm afraid though that feeding her is the worst thing you can possibly do.  If you do this, she might well decide to try and move in with you as she will have no incentive to go home anymore, and your neighbour would have a right to be very upset if she thought you were stealing her pet.  Your neighbour needs to work on the relationship between Titi and the dog to help them get along and make Titi feel safer at home, and there is plenty she can do to make this happen.  I have answered a few questions recently from people wanting to introduce new dogs to cats, so there is plenty of advice on this site that your neighbour might want to look at.

Cats don't hunt because they're hungry - if Titi wasn't being fed, you'd see her losing weight and ripping bin bags open, as there simply isn't enough meat on mice to feed a cat properly!  Cats tend to hunt out of habit and for fun, and usually rip the prey apart and leave it lying around rather than eating it, as you've seen.  One of my cats eats like a horse and still catches at least one mouse a day - there's no way she's hungry!  Of course it's distressing to see dead mice and I can understand why you're so worried, but remember that this is nature and the downside of owning cats is that they hunt.

It's great that you care so much about Titi but ultimately this is your neighbour's problem to solve and I don't see a problem with Titi's welfare from what you describe, so it would be best to leave your neighbour to sort things out and get Titi happy again.  Cats are very fickle creatures and will often leave home to live with someone else who starts feeding them, and this is devastating for their owners - I would never advise anyone to feed someone else's cat unless they genuinely believe it is stray, abused or starving.  If you would like a cat of your own to look after, it would be much fairer to contact a local rescue organisation and adopt one that really needs a home, rather than enticing someone else's pet.

Hope this helps.
Take care
Annie