do any of you feed your cats live mice?

[cwjalex]

i don't know why i was thinking about this today but it occurred to me that it probably would be perfectly healthy for them.  plenty of pet owners feed their pet raw meat and many people feed their snakes live mice so why not cats?  in the wild cat's natural diet is probably composed of small rodents. 

on a separate note one of the clearest memories i have from when i was a little kid was standing outside watching one of my cat's completely destroy this rabbit.  the rabbit was still running away with half its guts hanging out. the rabbit was eventually caught and eaten.  i guess it really left an impression if i so clearly remember it 25 years later.

[ryankmfdm]

 The problem with this is that cats like to play with their food.

[cwjalex]

yeah i thought of that.  i think it's probably more trouble than it's worth.  you would have to worry about diseases as well...and the possibility that it would escape and create a breeding ground in your walls or something. it was just something i was wondering.

[outin]

From the cat's point of view this would be a quite reasonable scenario. Not only a perfect diet, but would keep them entertained and give them exercise.

I used to breed fancy mice. A few of them fed themselves to the cats.

But one would need to breed a lot of mice to keep the cats happy. Lets see...A mouse can have as many as 20 pinkies, but those are very small and the whole bunch would only feed one cat for a day or two. It takes a few months for them to grow to full size.

One can actually buy frozen mice (normally fed to snakes). But I am pretty sure most cats would not eat them unless starving, the mice would need to be fresh and preferably living.

Disease is not much of a problem but parasites might be. Mice frequently have worms and lice. You would need to start with a clean stock.

Then there are local laws. It's actually not legal to feed live animals to pets where I come from.

[j_menz]

The odd (temporarily) live cat tries to eat my fish. Not wise. So sometimes they get some fun, exercise and second hand catnip. Seems to cheer them up.