During the summer my cat likes to go outside on her harness. She sometimes finds mice and is actually quite good at chasing them and catching them even though she is in the harness the whole time and I walk behind her (quite noisily compared to her) as she sneaks closer to the mouse. So my question is: Is it dangerous for a cat to eat the mouse if she is used to eating canned food? Can she get diseases from it easily? She would really like to eat the mice but i haven't let her.
Posts: 99 | Location: Chipmunk land | Registered: 04-04-03
Personally, I would not allow my cats to eat mice - they can pick up various diseases from these mice including parasites (worms and such). In addition - if anyone happened to put out any kind of poison to get rid of these mice, your cat would be, by default, ingesting this poison as well.
Since you bring the cat out on a leash/harness, you have control over whether or not it eats the mice, so I would not allow it - just to be safe.
Ditto to what Lydia says. Besides, you cat is not a wild animal, is well fed, and has no need to eat mice! I can understand the thrill of the chase...but actually consuming a rodent is not the wisest thing for your cat to do.
Posts: 9192 | Location: Atlanta, GA, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I let my cat go outside without the harness at my grandma's house because she lives on a farm. The cat probably chases mice and birds there and eats them. She hasn't gotten sick yet. So could I let her eat the mice here in the city aswell since she's used to it???
Posts: 99 | Location: Chipmunk land | Registered: 04-04-03
I will stick to my original advice...city mice have a higher liklihood of having been subjected to rat poisoning...so unless you would like for your cat to be ingesting the rat poison by default. I WOULD NOT allow her to eat them.
Even if the mice didn't have rat poison in them, they still carry disease and worms, your cat may not have been sick YET, but I wouldn't let my cat eat mice!
I am amazed that you cat can catch anything leashed at all. Since he is, I wouldn't let him eat his kills. You are risking intestinal parasites by doing so. I have had quite a few indoor/outdoor cats that did eat their kills. They were all very healthy. Throw in some worm medicine though!
