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It's in their nature: cats have a hunting instinct.

This applies to pets as well as to wild purrs.

This is why it happens again and again that domesticated cats, which are allowed to roam freely, drag in a killed mouse or a dead bird.

Usually less pleasant for the owner, but what can you do about it?

Researchers at the UK University of Exeter claim to have found out.

For a study they observed 355 male cats and cats from 219 households in south-west England for twelve weeks.

During this time the diet of the cats was changed and a play time was introduced.

In a control group, the male and female cat owners did not change their attitude.

It was found that kitties who were fed a meat-based and grain-free diet and those who were often occupied with games showed a significantly lower hunting instinct.

The zoologists published their study results in the specialist magazine "Current Biology".

Around 14.8 million domestic cats live in Germany

Source: Unsplash.com/Azur Golic

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According to estimates by the Naturschutzbund Deutschland (Nabu), up to 200 million birds fall victim to cats in Germany every year.

US studies assume that house tigers worldwide kill between 6.9 and 20.7 billion small mammals such as rabbits and mice every year.

However, the observations made by the British researchers show that this behavior is heavily influenced by how we keep our pets.

By playing with cats and changing their diets, owners can reduce tomcatching without restricting their freedom. 

Professor Robbie McDonald, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, University of Exeter 

Feeding grain-free food alone meant that the cats deposited around a third fewer dead mice and birds on their doorstep.

Just five to ten minutes of play time a day with rubber mice, feathers and the like were enough to reduce the domestic cats' prey by a good quarter.

Bells work less well, but colorful collars do

Source: Unsplash.com/William Justen de Vasconcellos

Many cat owners let their animals wear collars with bells.

This is supposed to make it difficult to sneak up silently on the prey.

However, the researchers saw in their study that this was of little use.

They assume that the velvet paws have learned to hunt successfully with them too.

Some training games were also rather counterproductive - they even increased the hunting instinct.

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Cats that were asked to play balls filled with food for the study, for example, in which the treat falls out through holes when the cats toss them around, even increased their hunted prey by a third.

However, the researchers point out that this could also have simply been due to the fact that the animals were very hungry.

However, if you want your kitty to no longer proudly present bird corpses, you should choose particularly colorful and eye-catching collars.

During the study period, this alone reduced the number of dead birds by a good 42 percent.

However, the colorful collars had no effect on hunting mice or other small mammals.

This is very likely due to the fact that cats usually prey on them in the evening and birds more during the day.

Is it just the cat food?

Source: Unsplash.com/Ariana Suarez

The researchers cannot yet explain why, of all things, a grain-free diet reduces the hunting instinct of the cuddly tigers.

Co-study author Martina Cecchetti suspects in a press release from the university that the pets try to compensate for a nutritional deficiency with the additional hunting:

Some cat foods contain protein from plant sources.

It is possible that some cats lack one or more micronutrients because of this food.

Martina Cecchetti, biologist at the University of Exeter  

In the future, the researchers want to develop a plant-based cat food that contains precisely these nutrients.

Because meat production for pet food in particular places a heavy burden on the environment and climate.

In combination with regular playing times that imitate a hunt, the urge of cats to prey animals in the wild can be sustainably reduced.

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