Georgie, trained to not hunt.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHide and seek sounds impressive, right?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It sounds astonishing because it is. We don\u2019t have to look far as the experts (in zoos) have been doing this for years. It must be pointed out that zoos (to our knowledge) do not use live animals as prey. They use treats and sometimes toys. We visited one zoo that hid apples every morning for its elephant population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHow to stop my cat killing animals? – try this method<\/h2>\n\n\n\nChoose your prey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To stop your cat hunting, you need the right prey. Your prey comes in the form of the perfect treat. The kind of treat that makes your cat sit up and take notice the moment your hand hits the package. For this game, the treat must be individual pieces. It is vital to get the treat just right as it will become the target. Your cat must love it, or the game is destined to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start simple<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Training is required as your cat can\u2019t be expected to understand what you are doing at first. A helpful tip is to ensure kitty is hungry. You might want to play the game before breakfast or dinner or the time of day when your cat is at her hungriest. This will help her instincts to kick into action and make for a much more willing participant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Set your cat up to succeed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cat\u2019s don\u2019t like to fail. If it is too hard or she doesn\u2019t understand, she is likely to refuse to participate. Start easy and work your way up to an actual (scavenger-like) hunt. You will know when it becomes easy because she will have the treats eaten before you have finished hiding them. That is your first indication that the concept is well understood, and it\u2019s time to ramp up the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be your cat’s cheerleader<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cats love attention. In the beginning, you will want to watch and give encouraging words every time they find a treat. If kitty gets frustrated or distracted, you can help them find a treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hide the food wisely<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Start indoors in a single room. Think of easy places such as on a chair or even on the floor in the corner of the room. Once the game is understood, slowly increase the difficulty. You can introduce additional rooms, then concepts such as inside a box or on a bookshelf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your cat has access to the outdoors, this will be your next progression. An indoor\/outdoor game can take you minutes to hide the treats, but take kitty all day to hunt them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the difficulty of the game progresses, you can add places such as planter boxes and other nooks and crannies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consistency is critical, so on days you can\u2019t play hide and seek (we all have them), offer a puzzle feeder or cat puzzle toy as an alternative. You get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bottom line is this, hide and seek works for any cat that is food-oriented enough to love treats, is a hunter, and loves games. This does not mean kitty will never hunt again (wouldn\u2019t that be nice), but if it cuts the hunting down, it\u2019s a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHow to stop your cat killing animals? Take it slow.<\/h2>\n\n\n\nCut your cat some slack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cats are natural predators, so punishing your cat for hunting does not work. Cats have retained their hunting skills and are less (then other animals) dependent on humans as their source of food. If you were to release a cat into the wild, it would be unlikely to die of starvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might still recieve presents<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Should your cat brings you its prey, and the victim is still alive, assess for injuries. If injured, take the animal to the vet. Otherwise, contain the cat while you release the animal to an area where it will be safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The best part? Cats are genetically wired to hunt. We can use it to our advantage. Faking a hunt and making a game out of it is a great solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One more thing…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
By leaving a dead mouse at your feet, your cat is exercising its natural role as a mother\/father and teacher. You represent her surrogate family, and it is her way of showing her love. And, she knows that left to your own devices you would never have been able to catch that mouse on your own. So, cut her some slack by acknowledging her highly evolved survival instinct by turning the hunt into a game that both of you will enjoy. Mice, birds, and other wildlife of the world will thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cats are natural hunters, and they can be killers. Some techniques can help stop their urge to hunt. Check out our blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkaboutcat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}