Wow, i finally found a question that apparently nobody has asked in English on the internet!!!

So here it is, just for posterity

How can i stop my cat from killing bees?!? She's killed 3 in the past couple of days already, and is apparently some master-bee-killer cos she hasn't even got stung. But i like bees, and there aren't enough of them anymore. So i'd prefer it if she didn't kill them. Also, a little later in the year there should be a bush full of them working away, and i'm a little worried that we're going to end up with a thick carpet of bee carcasses instead of grass soon.

Any ideas?

Rush Limbaugh will become a Democrat before a cat stops hunting.

Maybe try a collar with bell on? Works for birds..

Realistically though, you can't stop a cat hunting except by keeping it indoors. It'll soon stop hunting them when/if it gets stung!

In my experience, putting a bell on a cat does absolutely nothing to hamper their hunting. In fact, I suspect it might actually make them better at it since it teaches them to move more quietly...

If you ever do work out how to stop a cat from killing, let us know (and patent the idea because it will make you rich! XD). Until then, just take comfort in the fact that there are much worse things she could be leaving on your floor.

hahah yeah that's true, it could be far worse!!! Rather bees and worms than birds and mice, for sure. I don't even mind worms cos they carry on living as long as she doesn't bring them to me while i'm asleep...

She doesn't seem to be particularly choosy about what she hunts though, she seems to enjoy hunting socks, wristbands, and small cuddly toys just as much as living things. She even hunted a pack of her own meat out of the cupboard the other day and layed it proudly at my feet .

Maybe i can teach her to hunt leaves and sticks and bring them to me or something instead.....

p.s. she does have a bell but we had to glue it up a little with bluetack cos she kept fighting her own neck. Not the cleverest cat i've ever had...

I've heard that cats bring you gifts because they're trying to teach -you- how to hunt, actually. I've known people to succeed with the technique of putting a mouse in the freezer and waiting for the next gift and then presenting the saved mouse in return. (Thereby 'proving' that you can catch your own.)

But... when cats hunt things that aren't edible, they weren't fully trained to hunt by their mothers and are off on some mix of partial training, instinct, and amusing themselves. I don't know if this trick works for a cat that is self-teaching in hunting late in life.

Of course, getting her to stop bringing gifts (on which subject you should be able to find plenty of advice) is one thing, getting her to stop -hunting- is another.

get something bigger than the bees that distracts the cat. like mice

Haha, your cat is precious.

My cat has been hunting bees and wasps lately too. I am not too fussed about him hunting them but I'm concerned that he will eat one and get stung and have a bad reaction. He will eat worms, flies and spiders and the other day attempted to eat a ladybird but recoiled in horror at the taste and had no interest in it after that. I have witnessed him try to eat a wasp but manage to shoo him away and scoop the bugger up before he could get it in his mouth. There was a half-dead one on the patio the other week and he was batting it around for about half an hour without attempting to eat it.

Sorry, I don't really have any advice, cats will be cats I think, and unless you keep her indoors all the time she will hunt. Maybe if she gets stung by a horde of angry bush-dwelling bees she will stop. XD My cat is an indoor cat but I let him in the garden because he loves it out there, personally I can't deprive him of that. I think he would get depressed if I kept him in. He never tries to jump over the walls thankfully.

By getting bees to kill your cat :lol:

Your cat leaves bees on the floor. My cats are expert squirrel hunters. I guess it's just instinct for them to kill anything small that moves

wellllll..... i heard a sort of strangled miaoyelp coming from the bushes where the bees were the other day, followed by a ball of fur running as fast as she could into the house where she stood looking like she was trying to get a horrible taste out of her mouth. My guess is that she got a little stung.

... since then, she hasn't seemed nearly so interested in bees, and watches them from a safe distance instead.

and she's not nearly stealthy enough to catch any squirrels (she has been practicing sneaking up on me, but it's not very difficult to know when shes coming). So maybe i do get off light and she'll stick to worms and leaves?? (i hope!!)

@Somecallmechris: that's interesting!!! yeah, she was a rescue cat, and i don't really know much about her background except that they rescued 20-30 animals from this place. I don't think she has ever learned how to hunt, at all. I'm pretty sure she should know that i'm quite capable of hunting packets of meat from the cupboard by now though, so maybe that strategy wouldn't work hahah

[Zgarbas]

If she can take off the bell then it's not well-fit.(wait, how old is your cat?)

Try aiming for a small bell and be sure to keep the collar well-fit. If she can bite off things off it then it might be too loose on the neck. (i usually fit it to the cat's neck+2 fingers and a tight but comfortable fit and cut off the end so he can't grab onto the it and wreck the collar). There are some fabric collars which come with readily-attached bells that are better fit to stay.

ah, it's ok, she doesn't actually take the bell or collar off or anything . She just stands on her hind legs and trys to get at it with her front paws, wiggles her head around trying to bite at it, rolls around on the floor madly kicking her back legs at it and jumping around like she's being electric shocked or something.

It's one of those auto unlock "i am microchipped" collars that do come off if she gets it stuck in anything, but she can't take it off herself. Also, those collars come with extreeemely sensitive bells, which make a noise at the slightest movement. Which is great for birds, but not so great if your cat is dumb enough to constantly try to attack her own neck and generally go crazy. Or, in fact, if you ever want a decent night's sleep again. (so i can't really blame her tbh.) So we just put bluetack inside the bell to dampen it a bit.

She's probably around 2 and a half, so if she does ever learn cat-stealth moves, i'll have to get a different type of bell for her collar. Right now her idea of stealth is walking within half a foot of something, huffing at it through her nose, and wagging her tail wildly like a little dog Only bees, worms, and inanimate objects fall for those tactics aparently...

[Zgarbas]

Ah, that sounds fancier than anything I've had for mine . Was just asking about the age in case she was a cub(case in which loose collars can be even more troublesome)