My cat keeps bringing me dead mice
 

I recently moved to a new townhouse. Since moving in, I have finally had a chance to let my cat (featured in my avatar) outside. She is truly ecstatic about getting to go outside and will take every opportunity to hunt. Unfortunately she's really good at it as in scary movie good. Every time I let her out, she returns with dead mice. Even if I let her out for a half an hour she brings home a kill. Well I am split on the matter. On the one hand, I don't like all this killing and death even if they are mice. On the other hand she is probably keeping the population of mice down for my neighbors and me. We've had mice get in the house before. Should I try to curve her hunting or just let her be the cat?

Cats are natural predators. Let her be. She is just bring you a gift.

I know. It's very sad for the little mice. Poor little Souls.

I am looking after someone's cat too, and she is a hunter. I am forever giving tiny mice decent burials and blessings for their journey into the afterlife.

My own feeling is, there is little you can do to control that except keep her constantly inside. And that is unfair to a cat who loves/needs to be outside. A cat has a wild streak and isn't actually meant to be kept bottled up in a living room for the rest of its life....well that's how I feel anyway. I am from UK where a totally "indoor cat" is almost unknown unless it is terminally ill.
I have seen the natural and happy life the cat I'm looking after has, and she craves being outside especially in decent weather. She has always lived like that. She would be extremely unhappy and neurotic locked up all day.

They are naturally hunters. That is their skill. We can't really project our values onto them.

The mice actually do have a chance. The ones that get killed haven't grasped their chance. I have heard mice noisily announcing their presence with squeaks.....
That is a dead giveaway.

Buzzards prey on them, as do Foxes and Sparrowhawks. It's not only cats.

But if she eats them, then do make sure she gets a multi-wormer as recommended. My dog used to get worms if she ate a mouse.

Its totally normal behaviour. ......my big old orange Tom brings home some dead critter everyday. ....mouse...rat ...bird.....something!

Sometimes he'll drop them on the porch and make sure that I see it as if to say......See! I'm helping out here too!

Then after I go in he'll lay down and happily crunch there heads and nibble there toes....

If its just mice be glad because he's just doing his job! And seriously. ...rodents reproduce sooo fast all the preying cats in the neighborhood can't hardly keep them under control. ...

I understand. It is sad to see another animal die. It's the circle of life, though. You can't stop her because it is her natural instinct. Cats still retain their wild instincts to hunt. They are not like dogs, who lost their wild instincts over years of domestication.

That's what cats do, better dead mice than dad birds.

Thank you everyone for the extremely helpful responses. I am very surprised to see so many people who understand and respect cat's natural instinct rather then make them to be villains. I think I'll let her continue doing what she does, and since mice do breed in large numbers, maybe it's not so bad.

I have two huntresses. One has stopped hunting and bringing in presents, the other still brings in kills. For this little cat I've bought some homemade cloth collars (on Etsy) and sewn on tiny bells to alert her prey.

The bells are so very small they don't tinkle (rather, they thunk if I shake them next to my ear) but it's enough to alert most of the birds and mice and the bells don't irritate her with the constant tinkling. I have two such collars and change them occasionally to repair the bells and wash them.

I searched high and low for several months online for a cat collar with bells on them (mine have ten 10 bells surrounding the collar) and only found collars with one dangly bell which, in my opinion, can get caught on something and trap the cat.

Great idea, Deb! Yes, cats are natural hunters. My mother's cat used to bring her "gifts" of dead mice (and a live mole on one occasion), but he is now quite elderly and hasn't done it for many years. Of course, it is upsetting for animal lovers when so many birds and other creatures get killed, even when a cat is very well fed. But that is a cat's nature.

Deb's answer above seems to be the best that one can do to give birds, mice and other small animals a fair chance! I have a soft spot for field mice. They are sweet creatures. So anything which avoids them suffering a painful death has my vote.

yrs go we had a rodentt pron we did my cat lucy i had it tim wud kill thm she did wud awayss leve thm wear i sat she did 1mousees veryy r prengentt it wz eyeess rid oenn but deed coz lucy brokee its nec she did morninn we got u saw her torshin a ooorr mosyess thwonin it in airr wish wz a bit hontinngg it wz still drott it lkft it wear i sit amont tims my o poooorr dad it tim had get rud of thm