My father feels quite protective of the herbivore and aviarian wildlife on his property, so when he found that the duck family created a nest and laid some eggs, he built a fence around it to protect it (with the opening facing to the lake).
However, shortly afterwards, he heard the mother duck screaming her head off, and he found that all of the eggs had been broken and my grandmother’s cat was leaving the scene. He had to be talked out of shooting the cat.
I find it hard to believe that cats would have any reason to break eggs. Do they eat eggs? Isn’t that what mongoose, rats, shrews, oppossums, etc. do?
My grandmother isn’t around, so this cat has been without his lifelong owner. He’s very, very lonely as a result… he’s got a strange attachment to Dad and follows him around outdoors but Dad just doesn’t like cats and doesn’t return any affection. The duck stayed in her nest as he built the fence, so could it have been a strange jealousy issue here also?
Cats like to bat at things.
I left a carton of chicken eggs on the kitchen counter once.
After I left the room, the cat jumped up on the counter, prised open the carton, pawed the eggs out one by one, and batted them onto the floor. He stopped at 6 eggs, when the odd sound of eggs hitting the floor brought me back into the kitchen.
My cat loves eating raw (or cooked) eggs. I would imagine that a cat that has discovered what lies within those ovular objects, and has worked out a way of delivering the contents, would be enthusiastic about opening them up. Cats are protein fiends, and eggs are laden with protein.
Good idea, but from Dad’s description it sounded as if the eggs were broken while still in the nest. I’m emailing him to make sure and I’ll post on how they were broken. Could it be possible that cats like to break eggs to eat bird embryos (as gruesome as it sounds)?
I had two caged birds(don’t know what type), one male and one female. The female had several eggs over her lifetime. She would always break them with her beak and push them away from the nest.
I don’t know if this behaviour is common in birds, but it might be possible that the duck broke the eggs.