Feeding critters to cats

Good morning!

We recently adopted two kittens to serve as barn cats on our property. They’re just over 3 months and not really hunting yet. We keep them in a shed at night and if we’re gone for hours, otherwise they’re tumbling around and exploring the garage and perimeter of the house. We feed them primarily cooked ground whole chicken, cooked fish scraps, deer liver and a little commercial cat food.

We have a vole problem and so I was using snap traps in the garden. Id give the kittens each a couple voles a day that way but once they couldnt keep up with the traps, i started composting the excess. I would have liked tobsave the voles to feed a few days later but wasnt sure how.

Yesterday, our dog discovered a rabbit nest and crunched 5 babies. The kittens each got one and are fat and happy now. But I would hate to waste the other 3! As of now, I put them in a container in the fridge (within minutes of them being killed) and plan to feed them to the kittens this evening and tomorrow.

Is this safe? My only real concern is that their body cavity is crushed so I’m not sure if they will spoil in the fridge over the next day or two. Thought about gutting them first but I decided not to.

Any advice or opinions are appreciated!

I would freeze them and take them as needed out of the freezer in the morning for that night's food.

Trace Oswald wrote:I would freeze them and take them as needed out of the freezer in the morning for that night's food.

I'd agree 100% with this. Any time I feel the need to feed critters to our dogs (or on rare occasions, chickens), and have excess, it goes into the freezer, in portions. Then, in most cases, I can simply give it to them frozen, and they'll enjoy the extra gnawing time. I've found this particularly beneficial with deer legs, organ meats, etc.

I chop the bigger rodents first (whole with fur and organs) and then put to the bottom of my solar fridge.
If the pieces get frozen, I can defrost them piece at a time and feed to cats.

I am guessing that if you want barn cats then your hope is that they will be hunters and cut down on the rodents for you. If that's the case, I know it sounds rather cruel, but it might be beneficial, if possible, to give them baby rabbits or other such critters alive. It helps stimulate and hone their instinct to hunt. Also, while certainly not letting them go hungry a bit of hunger isn't a bad thing. Happy fat cats will still kill things but mostly just for recreation, they might even bring them to you as little gifts.

Carla Burke wrote:

Trace Oswald wrote:I would freeze them and take them as needed out of the freezer in the morning for that night's food.

I'd agree 100% with this. Any time I feel the need to feed critters to our dogs (or on rare occasions, chickens), and have excess, it goes into the freezer, in portions. Then, in most cases, I can simply give it to them frozen, and they'll enjoy the extra gnawing time. I've found this particularly beneficial with deer legs, organ meats, etc.

Here i was thinking that since cats are used to killing prey and eating it warm that something cold might be a turn off for them. But I can see how the extra gnawing could be stimulating for them. And in warm weather, maybe a pleasant treat!

I'm not sure, but I think for cats, it would have to be thawed and allowed to warm.  I can see dogs loving frozen rodents.

Don't cook the chicken you feed the kittens. Feed them raw, and thawed frozen carcasses you have. Cats in the wild only eat what they have killed, so freshness is essential for cats. That's why they have the reputation of being fussy eaters. they know the food isn't fresh. Raw fed cats are much healthier, don't have a worm problem, OR a flea problem, don't get sick anything like as much as commercial fed cats. Raw meat and bones is the natural food for cats and keeps their immune system strong.

I don't know about other cats since my cat is our first cat.

Our cat likes the thrill of the hunt.

I would have no idea if I gave her a dead animal, if she would eat it, or just look at me like I am stupid.

I suspect the latter.

I know I had to discard several of her kills as the thrill was gone.

Maybe she would eat something that resembled human food though I don't know as she turns her nose up  when I tried giving her canned cat food.

Madeleine Innocent wrote:Don't cook the chicken you feed the kittens. Feed them raw, and thawed frozen carcasses you have. Cats in the wild only eat what they have killed, so freshness is essential for cats. That's why they have the reputation of being fussy eaters. they know the food isn't fresh. Raw fed cats are much healthier, don't have a worm problem, OR a flea problem, don't get sick anything like as much as commercial fed cats. Raw meat and bones is the natural food for cats and keeps their immune system strong.

The family we adopted them from basically said the same thing. But the first ones we adopted got very sick after eating raw chicken and squirrel, one had to get euthanized and the other never wanted raw chicken again. He got mashed by a log truck this spring and we have two of his sisters now, but I haven’t fed them any raw chicken yet.

Anne Miller wrote:I don't know about other cats since my cat is our first cat.

Our cat likes the thrill of the hunt.

I would have no idea if I gave her a dead animal, if she would eat it, or just look at me like I am stupid.

I suspect the latter.

I know I had to discard several of her kills as the thrill was gone.

Maybe she would eat something that resembled human food though I don't know as she turns her nose up  when I tried giving her canned cat food.

I have fed ours dead squirrels, dead voles and dead baby rabbits and they eat them all. They fling them around and play with it for a while first but it always gets eaten. I haven’t found anything dead laying around that they killed but wouldn’t eat. I also give them a little bit of canned cat food and dry cat food regularly, and they eat all of that too! The dry stuff is definitely their least favorite but they still eat it sooner or later.

Brody said, "I have fed ours dead squirrels, dead voles and dead baby rabbits and they eat them all.

That might be the difference between a cat born in the wild outdoors or one born with a family that took in the mother or that could be just the difference in "cat personalities".

As I said, mine would just look at me like I am stupid ... that happens a lot. Cat personality ...

Anne Miller wrote:

Brody said, "I have fed ours dead squirrels, dead voles and dead baby rabbits and they eat them all.

That might be the difference between a cat born in the wild outdoors or one born with a family that took in the mother or that could be just the difference in "cat personalities".

As I said, mine would just look at me like I am stupid ... that happens a lot. Cat personality ...

These ones were born with a family and were taken care of by their mother. They lived outside most of the time but slept indoors with the family for the first few months. Mom fed them rodents from an early age.

Funny story: a year ago when we had the brothers of these 2 kittens, I live trapped a grey squirrel. I thought it would be great cat food, but the kittens were young and the squirrel fully grown. So, I asked a cat group on Facebook what they thought about me releasing the squirrel in a shed with the 2 cats inside. Responses ranged from “dont do it, there will be a mess” to “a full grown squirrel could injure the kittens”. Fair enough. So, then I asked if I should just kill it and give it to them dead. Responses ranged from “you’re just evil and like to kill animals” to “why would a cat want a dead squirrel”. I thought either I’m crazy or these people are crazy so lets find out. So, I let our dog kill the squirrel (win for the dog) and brought the squirrel to the cats. It was honestly like bringing a gazelle to caged lions! They didn’t hesitate for a moment. The snatched that thing and went to work immediately. 2 hours later and all that was left was the tail and femurs.

I returned to the Facebook post to inform them and needless to say, nobody was too happy with me. 😆 But me, the dog and the cats all felt fulfilled!

I think it helps to give small kittens chopped rodents first. When cat mother is bringing some prey it already has some blood, cuts, guts exposed so her children are interested in consuming it.
My cats got used to the taste of ground squirrels and gophers and now no chopping is needed and they happily devour them. I have realized recently that this year I have seen only two ground squirrels on my land. Before I was seeing ten per day. it looks that my two cats exterminated them all or most. I was usually seeing one gopher per day poking its head from the burrow and none this year.
So it's a complete win: healthy and happy cats and natural rodent control.

Cristobal Cristo wrote:I think it helps to give small kittens chopped rodents first. When cat mother is bringing some prey it already has some blood, cuts, guts exposed so her children are interested in consuming it.
My cats got used to the taste of ground squirrels and gophers and now no chopping is needed and they happily devour them. I have realized recently that this year I have seen only two ground squirrels on my land. Before I was seeing ten per day. it looks that my two cats exterminated them all or most. I was usually seeing one gopher per day poking its head from the burrow and none this year.
So it's a complete win: healthy and happy cats and natural rodent control.

I noticed that right away when we brought these 2 home. I gave them each a vole and they were definitely interested but seemed to not know how to get started. So I ripped them open a little and that was all the help they needed. Then our dog found baby rabbits and crunched them up. Same thing. I gave the cats each one and they didnt know what to do until I opened them up a little. Now they’ve gotten the hang of it and dont need any encouragement

Brody Ekberg wrote:

Madeleine Innocent wrote:Don't cook the chicken you feed the kittens. Feed them raw, and thawed frozen carcasses you have. Cats in the wild only eat what they have killed, so freshness is essential for cats. That's why they have the reputation of being fussy eaters. they know the food isn't fresh. Raw fed cats are much healthier, don't have a worm problem, OR a flea problem, don't get sick anything like as much as commercial fed cats. Raw meat and bones is the natural food for cats and keeps their immune system strong.

The family we adopted them from basically said the same thing. But the first ones we adopted got very sick after eating raw chicken and squirrel, one had to get euthanized and the other never wanted raw chicken again. He got mashed by a log truck this spring and we have two of his sisters now, but I haven’t fed them any raw chicken yet.

Good quality raw meat couldn't kill a cat. But it can make them de-tox., which can look alarming and vets have no idea. But it normally only lasts a short time.

Madeleine Innocent wrote:

Good quality raw meat couldn't kill a cat. But it can make them de-tox., which can look alarming and vets have no idea. But it normally only lasts a short time.

Detox parasites or what? And from my understanding, salmonella is always a risk with raw chicken but that it would be rare for it to make a cat sick/die.