If it could, would your cat eat you?

[KurtNYC]

If you were smaller or your cat bigger, would it just pounce on you when you came home and well...do what larger cats (cougars, lions, jaguars) do? Or is the instinct of a house cat fundamentally different from its wild cousins.

I have seen house cats do many things -- they love to hunt, they love to stalk and catch things. A British study found:

The Mammal Society conducted a survey of animals brought home by domestic cats. During a five-month period in 1997, 964 cats killed more than 14,000 animals. The mean number of catches or kills per cat was 16.7, and birds were 24% of the prey. The mean kill rates for belled cats was 19 and for no-bells 15. In other words, cats wearing bells killed more. Only 162 rats were killed by the cats, making them very poor ratters

Don't get me wrong--I like cats. But part of that like is their wildness and they are carnivores after all. But I see that look in their eyes every once in a while and I wonder.

Edit to add italics

[alarimer]

1. Well they don't always eat what they catch

Mine will chase bugs but I don't think he's successfully ever caught any. My cats have never been allowed outside so their contact with wildlife is limited. I think he'd eat me if he got hungry enough; he sure likes to pounce!

[Orsino]

2. I suspect that I am happier not knowing. n/t

[miss_american_pie]

3. Don't have a cat

I'm certain my toddler would. ;)

[crispini]

4. Oh, gosh, yes.

If my cats were bigger, I'd be toast, especially the young and playful one. He wouldn't MEAN to hurt me, I don't think, he'd just playfully hop on me one day and rip my guts out. Then, of course, I'd have been de-gutted, so may as well munch, right? :shrug: ok, this is a gross topic! :rofl:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I think so. One of them constantly tastes me.

Mmmmmmm. Human.

[azmouse]

6. I think I'd be in real danger if I had a cat!!

[KurtNYC]

23. LOL - Love it!

[SteppingRazor]

7. Absolutely.

If your cat were big enough to kill you, it would be a tiger or a lion -- and yes, it would kill you and eat you.


On the other hand, we already have gigantic dogs as house pets -- Great Danes, St. Bernards, etc. -- and they're not known for devouring their owners.

Just another way it which cats are soulless monsters and dogs are man's best friend :evilgrin:

(can you tell whether I'm a cat or dog person?)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. The premise here is whether a gigantic domestic cat would eat

its "owner," not whether a lion or tiger would. In other words, are cats domesticated enough to not eat people, even if they could? If your gigantic dogs were a pack of wolves, they'd eat you, too, because then they'd be wild animals, like lions and tigers.

Cats are domestic animals, sort of. But how domestic are they? They've been domesticated for only about 5,000 years vs. 12,000 for dogs. So at what point does the people-eating inclination go away? For now, I'm glad my cats weigh only about 12 lbs.

[SteppingRazor]

9. Perhaps I should've been more specific

I meant that the cat would be the size of a lion or tiger, and that no cat of such size has been shown to not eat people on any consistent basis. so there's no reason to think that Mr. Fluffy wouldn't chew your face off.

Unless you had a pack of large dogs that could protect you from the vicious giant house cat, of course :P

[crispini]

10. But, see, two of mine don't hunt, and they're not all that playful.

So I think even if they were that big, those two particular cats would be pretty unlikely to eat me.

The third, though, DOES hunt, and he's MEGA playful, and I have no doubt were he instantly turned turned into a 200 pound giant housecat, he would totally thwack me, just because he already thwacks me and bites me on a regular basis, but he's too small for it to do much damage.

Can I at least trim their nails before we wave the magic wand over them and gigantify them? I'd probably survive a BIT longer that way. :D

[LynneSin]

11. I swear Evita is plotting how to take me down

I've woken up in the middle of the night with looking at me with that evil glare she gets. The cat has murdered two songbirds, a bat and a mouse and oh, she's totally indoor cat.

[MonkeyFunk]

12. If they could work a can opener

I'd be toast.

[LynneSin]

14. Opposable thumbs are the only reason cats have not taken over the world

If they had them we'd be in deep shit

[ashling]

13. My cat is too smart. She knows

that she would never be able to drink water out of the sink again if I wasn't there to turn it on.

However, she might toy with me.

[Brewman_Jax]

15. Probably

what's the line--for god so loved the world, he did not give cats opposable thumbs. :P

:rofl:

[Der Blaue Engel]

16. My cat lies awake nights thinking up ways to kill me

He thinks he's a real badass that has intimidated me into providing him with food. (Which, incidentally, he always smugly acts as though he's just killed.) He does this ridiculous side-jump and arch routine every time I enter the kitchen, puffing up his tail to look "big."

I always tell him, "Oooh, I'm so scared. You're so large and predatory." And then I call him "Archie McPhee" for arching so ridiculously.

So, yeah, he wants my ass dead. Thank goddess he doesn't have thumbs.

[kay1864]

17. Yes they will, according to The Straight Dope....

Straight Dope Staff Report: Will cats eat their owners after the latter die?

a forensic pathologist related the following story: "...In my experience, a dog may go for several days before finally resorting to eating the owner's body. A cat, on the other hand, will only wait a day or two. Just goes to show you which is more loyal. So, the next time you're falling asleep on the couch with the football game on, take a look at your cat. He's not watching you because he's enamored of you; he's checking to see if your chest is still moving." Oh, those wacky pathologists.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdepradation.html

[pokerfan]

24. Of course dogs are more loyal

They are evolved in a completely different social structure. Dogs are pack animals and follow whoever is the pack leader. Cats live with us in more of a symbiotic relationship. I believe that both feel genuine affection towards their owners but only dogs see us as "owners."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. We are not our cats' owners. We are their staff.

[pokerfan]

27. Exactly

Dogs believe that they are human. Cats believe that they are God.

[conscious evolution]

28. And humans treated them as gods

in ancient Egypt.
They haven't forgotten.:scared:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. He already does

He keeps trying to eat my toes.

[SoyCat]

19. No, but I do fear that one zealously loving head butt just might knock me silly!

[Patiod]

20. I'll let her answer from "my cat hates you.com"

http://www.mycathatesyou.com/cats/search/little/1412

[Rob H.]

21. You know that thing they do when they knead you?

That isn't them being cute--they're tenderizing you for later! :P

I love it when my parents' cats do that to me, btw. It's completely adorable.

[qwlauren35]

22. No, I don't think so.

My cats could probably take out my dogs. And wild cats can and do take down animals larger than they are. However, by and large, wild cats don't take out other predators. Just herbivores. For example, you rarely hear of cats taking out dog variants (foxes, wolves).

Since cats don't tend to eat their own, even if they don't like them, I think they have some sense of family, and I am family.

I would add that one of my "cats" pretty much raised both of my dogs from puppies, and dotes on them like a mother hen at times.

However, I must say that if I had "large" cats, I'd seriously be straining my budget to feed them.

[anti-everything]

26. House cats are

the only feline that kills for fun. They have somewhere around 1,000 natural enemies.

[BarenakedLady]

29. Oh sure...

Now that I'm sleeping down here with the cats you bring this up...

...did I just hear a hiss? :scared:

[some guy]

30. one would

or at least eat until she had her fill, or I got gamey, whichever came first. :)

She frequently wakes me when she is hungry by getting a bit of me in her mouth, biting down fairly hard, and doing the head shake thing. I'm sure if I didn't wake up, she would keep at it until she had ripped a piece free...

:hi:

[prole_for_peace]

31. if i were take too deep of a nap abbie would probably start nibbling.

it would be 10 minutes and he would be all like "well i guess she is dead. don't want to waste her"

[Kutjara]

32. There's usually a story or two in the regional press...

...around Christmastime about some poor old lady who dies alone and is then eaten by her cats. It seems to me that it's only a small step from not moving around very much to being dead, so it wouldn't surprise me if lazy people's cats occasionally ate them.