I mean, in all the Tom & Jerry cartoons, the cat ALWAYS chase a rat, and is ALWAYS chased by dogs. Not to mention tweety birds.
Well, I have dogs, cats, birds and hamsters (the later two in cages, of course), and they don’t spend all day trying to eat each other. In fact, they go along quite well.
Damn unability to edit messages. Well, let’s go ahead:
The fact is, IRL, I NEVER saw a dog chasing a cat. NEVER. And my cats never tried to eat my canaries either. In fact, one of my cats actually LIKES to hear the birdies singing.
My dog chases my cats sometimes…and then the cat will chase the dog right back. Then the cats chase each other.
They’re just playing.
Dogs do “seriously” chase and occasionally kill cats, however, in most cases this is done by the more aggressive breeds chasing unfamilar cats that they feel are in “their territory”.
Cats stalk and kill birds in the yard all day long. You’ve never seen this? Even indoor cats love to stalk and kill mice.
Your animal social dynamic might be different as the animals are acclimated to each other. With respect to your cats if you feed them regularly they will probably not see the birds as prey items.
I would venture to guess, however, that if one of your cats was hungry enough and was given access to the bird or hamsters that instinct would take over.
Some, possibly most dogs will chase anything that will run from them. Cars, people, cats, smaller dogs . . . I don’t think there’s usually any malice in it, because usually, unless a well-fed dog is ticked off for some reason, it will release what it catches, hoping it will run off again, and resume the game. Dogs just like to chase. It’s loads of doggy fun.
Cats, on the other hand, are instinctual hunters, and barely domesticated. If it can catch and kill a mouse, the cat’s very happy. Even a well-fed cat will kill a mouse or other small cretaure if it gets a chance. Same with birds, only they’re usually harder to catch. Cats usually ignore indoor birds in cages, simply because they’re hard to get to, especially if the cage is on a pole. Kitty paws usually can’t get through the tiny gaps in the bars, either, and outside birds are usually too quick to be caught.
Anything that runs away from a dog triggers a “chase” instinct. Whether or not the dog harms the prey depends on how hungry the dog is.
I have seen dogs chase cats, and cats chase dogs. It depends on how tough the dog thinks he is, and how tough the cat thinks he is.
My biggest gripe about cartoon animals is the coyote/roadrunner cartoons. Roadrunners don’t eat birdseed. They are predators. They eat rodents, lizards, and snakes.
Exactly-dogs and cats in a household will chase each other.
When we brought home both of our cats as babies, Lassie was all over them…when they cried, she came running, if they stumbled, she was there. Sort of a mother hen thing that’s very endearing.
Now they all get along great. I’ve seen Misty give Lassie a bath.
You are totally right; the predatory behavior in both dogs and cats is 5 percent instinct and 95 percent learned. When Ms. A caught a mouse live in a wastebasket, I put it in the bathtub and put the cat in with it. This cat (Pet Store acquired) had no clue what to do with the mouse and just watched it intently. Perhaps if he had been allowed to spend more time with his mother, she could have taught him that “you are supposed to pounce on these things and bite them”.
All cats I have ever owned have been obsessed with hunting birds and mice. They sit at the window, drool and quiver at every bird. They spend every ouside moment hunting small creatures. My sister once found her cat hanging from her birds cage. Even if they are not hungry, cats instnctively hunt. My new kitten went in the garage the other day and within 5 minutes had caught a baby mouse. My former cat would catch bats and eat all of them except the wings, and I think the liver, I would also often find rabbit legs in the garden.
My dog doesn’t really chase our cat. We had a cat before and they would chase each other playfully. The neighbors dogs chase the cat just like in the cartoons. The minute the other dogs chase the cat my dog will act vicious towards our cat even though they’re usually buddies. Definitely a pack instinct there. My dog will chase other cats, but she knows to be afraid of them if she gets too close.
I have a really large backyard, with trees and lots of green areas. There are lots of small, furry animals (squirrels, etc) and birds roaming free. My cats couldn’t care less.
My cousins have a cat that loves to be petted, recognizes his name and comes when you call him. It’s the most doglike cat I’ve ever seen.
Some animals are weird like that. Maybe your pets are just freaks of nature Uniball.
Outdoor animals have a different psyche than your in home animals.I’ve seen cats run up into a bush and catch birds. One of our female cats will catch and kill barn rats half its size. Our old dog killed a kitten playing with it. He would play tossing it up in the air until the kitten couldn’t stand it anymore. He then tried to play with another one until we stopped him. He has his own cat now. They sleep together.The old dog,Nipper ,used to chase rabbits until he got too old to run. I’ve seen him tree coons possums and even groundhogs. I’ve seen people stay in their cars in our driveway because he was there.
Sorry I got called away before I could finish my comments.
Nipper isn’t a vicious dog he is just reacting to his environment.
Kind of like people who have never been hunting do not understand the mindset of the hunter.
Animals are the same way. Why should they expent the energy when you feed them every day.
It All Depends in our house the cats will bring in the mice still alive and play with them for a little while and then get bored and move on to something else more… worthy of there time since cats are like that and then the dogs kill the mice after it has been let go by the cats as for birds we had a pet bird who was pretty mean to everyone except my sister and if the cat or dogs got to close to him the bird would bite the cat or dog on the nose or paw or even sometimes he would try for the tail but it all depends on the personality of the animal as for dogs chasing cats over here it’s the same the cats and dogs chase each other all in good fun so it depends all on circumstance
We had a female german shepherd who would chase and kill cats, did it on many occasions. Her mate would chase cats, but never catch them, I think he just did it for fun. He was probably one of the gentlest dogs I have ever known - he would catch mice in our house and carry them in his mouth to the back door and whine to be let out. He would then gently set them down on the ground. I find this very weird, we certainly didn’t train him to do that. The only thing I ever knew him to kill was a rat, and he tore it up pretty bad.
Before I was born my parents had a cat that was nursed and raised by a dog since it was a kitten. The cat moved like a dog and made weird yipping noises instead of meowing.
Once my parents were raising some ducklings for their pond in a chickenwire enclosure outside. One of the neighborhood cats would lay down next to the wire and all the ducklings would come cuddle up against it. The cat would even lick them through the wire. I was pretty sure if we ever put the cat in there with them she would have babied them, though I never risked finding out.
Slightly O/T:
Years ago, a co-worker of my Mom’s invited us over one day for a pool party. She owned a big rottweiller tied up in a post in the yard. Fierce-looking, but calm enough when properly fed. Anyway this dog would go NUTS whenever the neighbor’s cat would come through the wooden fence. One minute, he’d be minding his own business gnawing on a chew toy; in the next, he’d be running after the cat at top speed, barking and growling with meat on his mind.
Here’s the funny part. The cat would never run. He would strut right past the dog, tail up in the air, teasingly out of reach of the rotweiller’s teeth on some invisible path, while the dog’s chainlink and collar kept him back. The ONLY other place I’ve ever seen anything like it was in Tom & Jerry cartoons, and I laughed my behind off. When I commented to my Mom’s friend, she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that cat run. I don’t know why Muffy bothers barking anymore.”
That’s what I remember about that day: the fearless cat and the rotweiller named “Muffy”.
As a rule, most dogs do chase cats. There seems to be some sort of natural antipathy there. But dogs and cats that live in the same house usually come to terms with each other fairly quickly and reasonably well.
My german shepherd had cubs, and we kept one of them. We had mated the mother with a champion sleigh-dog, who was a big buff dog. The little cub we kept grew to be even bigger than her father. Biggest german shepherd I ever saw in fact. The funny thing is that we had a cat in the house, who was best friends with the cub’s mother. The cub grew up a little confused. In appearance she was a mighty red-haired dog that looked like a bear (and had jaws almost as large), but her behaviour was often that of a little animal that could comfortably hop on your lap to be stroked. She used to crush us when she came looking for affection. And she almost never chased cats, but loved to run after piegons…
It depends on their upbringing. A dog unfamiliar with cats will chase them mainly on territorial issues, not on a hunter/prey basis. (They’re counterparts in the wild certainly have a reverse relationship. Most wild felines are larger than wild canines.)
My then-married sister once brought her new puppy, a shepherd-mix, to our parents’ house. The puppy, Apollo, playfully started chasing our cat, Synbad. He was not amused. For most of the visit, Synbad was able to keep away from Apollo. Finally, Apollo trapped Synbad under our fishtank stand. The cat swatted his nose, and Apollo ran away wimpering.
After Apollo grew up, whenever my sister came over with him and he saw Synbad, he’d run, even though he now outweighed Synbad by 70 pounds. :D:D
Stupid dog.