topic Re: Secret Life Of The Cat in Community Spirit

Secret Life Of The Cat

***super_nova*** — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:04:36 GMT

Last night I watched interesting program about domestic cats and their behaviour, if you missed it well worse looking up on line

" In The Secret Life of The Cat, a team of leading scientists stake out a community of cats to explore what our feline companions get up to in their personal time.

In a groundbreaking experiment, fifty cat residents from Shamley Green, a quaint village in Surrey, UK, are tagged with GPS trackers and collar cams for 24 hours.

Collar cam gives a somewhat edgier, unseen insight into a gypsy life on the streets and alleyways, patrolling territories, scaling fences and scavenging for food."

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

bluecat*dancing — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:09:12 GMT

I saw most of it. It made me laugh when it was discovered that cats were going inside other people's houses.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

idlewhile — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:10:28 GMT

I gave up after all the time spent on discussing the collars.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

purple_haize — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:14:02 GMT

I watched it all, found it very interesting. I have often wondered what cats get up to, now I know.

Liked all the cats that lived together.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

cat_mioux — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:03:03 GMT

Of course I loved it!

My cats are indoor/cat enclosure cats only but I laugh when people tell me their cats never leave their backyard. Funny!

The family with the multi cat household are doing very well to have that many cats and not have a problem with them. It must be a relaxed household. I know a woman with 6 cats, all gingers, and they all live in an apartment and never go outside yet they are all healthy and well adjusted.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

bright.ton42 — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:11:29 GMT

@idlewhile wrote:
I gave up after all the time spent on discussing the collars.

Yes I found that a bit tedious too. And I did love it but there were lots of scientists involved and hi-tech equipment and I

wondered who paid for it all as what I got out of it is what most cat owners know about cats ---- they will pinch

food from neighbours, they will do anything for food, they guard their own territory, they kill wildlife (though not as much as

one would think), including other things, and they are fascinating, and did I mention that they will do anything for food. .

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

bluecat*dancing — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:14:32 GMT

Cats don't need to be outdoors. I have one who doesn't leave the backyard only because she is either too stupid or too fat to climb the fence. Another cat was assumed that he wouldn't jump the fence etc because of his failing eyesight but managed to find his way around to the front door. Another would pick fights with any of thecats that were in her backyard. Another cat of mine turned escaping into an art form but now that I have set up a temporary enclosure, she has pretty lost interest in the great outdoors as have the others. lol.

I was surprised that so many cats were allowed outside overnight.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

icyfroth — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:18:17 GMT

Yes I watched it partly. There's nothing else much on at the moment.

I was amazed at how much wildlife they kill, considering they get fed at home and sneak into other places and eat other cat's food!

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

***super_nova*** — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:16:33 GMT

@icyfroth wrote:
Yes I watched it partly. There's nothing else much on at the moment.

I was amazed at how much wildlife they kill, considering they get fed at home and sneak into other places and eat other cat's food!

Why would you be amazed that 50 cats allowed to roam free 24/7 managed to kill 20 animals in a week, mostly mice? That is only 0.4 of animal per week per cat, or about one animal about every 2 weeks. The anti cat lobby claims that cats kill at least 3 a day, and that people do not know what they kill because cats roam far away and do not bring their prey home. This documentary shown that with exception of one they mostly stay pretty close to home.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

aps1080 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 05:18:33 GMT

Estimate in Aus is millions of birds and animals a week get killed by cats.

It would be a lot.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

***super_nova*** — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 05:58:42 GMT

Yes, well if those estimates are based that every Australian cat kills 3 animals a day, then I am sure there are way out. My cat is 12 now and all what she kills are baby rats, usually in the spring. This spring we so far had 3. In the past she also used to kill adult rats but she is getting bit lazy, and she never got a bird. And as she spends most of the day on the sofa or sitting on the window, i doubt she does kill other animals that i do not know about. of-course, she is not allowed out at night. My previous cats were kept within my property = a large cat proof garden, and their hunting "achievements" were even less. The only rats they caught were baby pet rats that escaped from next doors. They did stalked the doves, but as the doves can fly they never caught one. Those cats were burmillas.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

aps1080 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 07:00:15 GMT

You sound sounds like the complete opposite to the millions of cats that live in te bush.

They catch and kill natives day in, day out.

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

***super_nova*** — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:01:15 GMT

Well, feral cats that depend on hunting for survival, yes they probably kill several little critters a day, if they did not they would not live very long. 🙂 But even on a farm the cat is more likely to get mice and rats and even rabbits than birds. And as rats also damage native animals. Cats have been here for a long time; recent genetic test show that some of the feral cats came here from Asia long time ago.

But well fed city cats do not, at least in my experience and as supported by this documentary, do not make as damage as some would like us to believe. 🙂

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

***super_nova*** — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:26:15 GMT

I think I better go and have some rest Or at least read what I have written ooops

Re: Secret Life Of The Cat

bright.ton42 — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 08:53:43 GMT

I thought they said the kill they showed on the documentary was divided among 20 cats for the week, and they were surprised how few they had killed?

edited to make sense