Do Your Cats Bring You "Presents"?

My cats spend a lot of time outdoors, and they occasionally kill and catch birds, mice, and other vermin. Then, they bring what they've killed and lay it at my doorstep! I find this horrifying. It's almost as if they want me to be proud of what they did

Anyone else have cats that do this?

 

I did have one tabby that did this but she did it for her kittens. When her kittens are big enough to run around, she would go hunting outside and bring back something for them to play with. Sometimes, it's a bird. Often, it's a field mouse. She doesn't bring her presents back dead either. She would just maim them so that they cannot run away very fast. That's her way of introducing her kittens to the art of hunting.

 

Yes most of my cats over the years have done this and as horrid as it to us you should never scold them for it. It is natural behaviour and they are bringing it back to you for a reason.

 

Nope! My cats have always hidden them instead. So instead of it being brought to me to show off, I randomly discover it under a chair or something when I'm cleaning, lol.

Or, they'll play with it instead of just killing it, so I know they have something and to be on a lookout of where they might leave it.

 

Ugh, yes! We live in the country and my cat catches mice all the time. She brings them up to the patio door to play with them before eating them in front of us. She once brought a rabbit head up and ate that too (as my 2 year old said "awww look, a bunny!).... I'm glad she has fun, but yuck!

 

Yeah, my cat will bring mice to the door. This actually is there way of giving you a present though. So just say thank you and clean it up later. They're just trying to say they love you and appreciate you with a little gift in the only way that they can give a gift.

 

That reminds me of the "lovely" experience I had just before Christmas when rearranging the living room - I found that one of the cats had hidden one of my presents under the sofa - a mouse head!!!

 

All my cats seem to have also hinted to me in the past for treats to be given to them. They would meow and look up at the cat food or treats. They have pushed a spool of thread my way at times, which to me is like they think they are playing with me, and giving me a prsent at the same time.

 

That's very cute and a much nicer present than a dead rodent! My cats have occasionally brought me a dirty sock from the laundry basket lol

 

I think they are trying to initiate some kind of barter trade. Like how about exchanging this spool of thread for some of those yummies up there.

 

ROTFL. Really, yuck, but soooooo funny
My cat's just catch flies or moths and they used to eat them. But recently, especially the younger one, instead of eating them they try to play with them (try to play with a half-dead fly...) and then leave them on the floor in my room! That's disgusting, really.
My older one brings me a toy bird. But I'm not sure if it is like it was her kitten or a real bird.

 

Haha!! Aww.. I have an indoor cat but she does kill the occasional roach (it's Texas.. they are everywhere ) She doesn't bring them to me, thank goodness.. though one time I saw her chewing on something so I went to take it out of her mouth in case it was something toxic, and it turns out it was a HUGE roach. I screamed and threw it across the room.. she ran to it and started chomping away again lol.

I used to have a cat named Snuggles that would get my makeup brush from my bedroom (one of those big blush brushes) and walk around the house with it in her mouth meowing until someone paid attention to her. It was the cutest thing in the world.

 

I once had a black cat named Kashi and she would always leave me birds on my front porch. I thought it was cute, but then she stopped once she got older. It was cute, but totally turned guests off when they would just come to my house and a little present was at my door. lol My new cats don't kill anything. Well, one of them does chase down flies so he is quite useful.

 

Does it jump all over after this fly without noticing anything around? My younger doesn't see there are book, papers or something and just slides on it and pulls it down all the time. I'm afraid not that she'll hurt herself one day, but that she'll ruin something valuable to me

 

Absolutely! And we have had some things broken in the past because of it (or ruined otherwise, like spelling water across papers). We keep all our valuables put up where they can't get to them at all, even intentionally, for this reason, hehe.

 

How do you think this cat is going to handle this fly?

 

That is NOR normal I don't believe it's a real photo, my cats are crazy when they have a fly somewhere around. Let alone on one's nose.. Nice try, but it's a fake

 

Quite possibly. So what do you think is fake? The fly? Or the cat?

 

LOL - I don't think Victor was trying anything - he was simply playing around by asking what would a cat do if the photo was real!

That was a good pic, btw. I have seen plenty of photoshopped pics of cats and they are so hilarious! Maybe we should have a thread on that - I would love to share some. My boyfriend's mother is an animal lover and she loves the pics whenever I show them to her.

Back to the topic - yes, all my cats have brought "presents" to us - mostly birds and mice. One of the cats loved twigs, so yeah, I had those too

 

Yep, my cat Dolores brought me the occasional ginormous Florida palmetto bug. Aren't we lucky to have such generous and thoughtful cats?