Does My Cat's Bat Catching Affect Their Diet?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the impact of a cat's bat-catching behavior on its diet, exploring various anecdotes and opinions about bats, cats, and related wildlife management issues. Participants share personal experiences and observations, touching on legal and ethical considerations regarding animal treatment and interactions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes their cat, Bun, catching bats and notes the varying edibility of different parts of the bat, suggesting that the wings are tasty while the breast is not.
  • Another participant highlights legal protections for bats in the UK, implying that such laws complicate the handling of bats found in homes.
  • A different participant questions the enforcement of wildlife protection laws in the US, suggesting that there are cultural differences in how such laws are perceived and followed.
  • One participant shares concerns about stray cats in Oregon, discussing the legal implications of abandoning cats and the challenges of managing feral populations.
  • Another participant expresses a positive view of bats, noting their role in controlling insect populations and suggesting the idea of installing a bat box to encourage their presence.
  • A participant recounts a personal experience with a pet bat that was injured by a cat, raising questions about the care and dietary needs of bats.
  • One participant mentions the high insect consumption rates of bats, emphasizing their ecological importance.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a mix of personal anecdotes and opinions, with no clear consensus on the implications of a cat's bat-catching behavior or the legal and ethical considerations surrounding wildlife interactions. Multiple competing views remain on the treatment of stray cats and the management of bat populations.

Contextual Notes

Some discussions reference local laws regarding animal protection and management, which may vary significantly by region. There are also unresolved assumptions about the dietary needs of bats and the implications of feeding them human food.

Ivan Seeking
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Lucky me; our sweet little kitty, Bun, catches bats. Then she brings them in the office. With the first one, she brought it in and let it go. I opened the door, but after an hour of trying to work with the bat flying around my head, I finally had to bat the bat. The next day I found another little wingless carcass in the office. Apparently the wings are quite tasty, but it seems that breast of bat isn't very good.

They have nasty looking little teeth though...
 
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Omg, you batted a bat, in the uk the things are protected by law, so if you have bats in the belfry your stuck with them.
 
Bats are protected by law? Is Adam West your PM or something?
edit: In the US it's customary to kill animals protected by law and tell nobody that you did it. It's a lot less hassle than having feds demand you protect them or simply leave your property (refer to that one episode of Penn and Teller Bull****).
 
Here, in Oregon, it is illegal to dump cats in the woods; in fact, it may even be a felony... I know the penalty can be severe. We live along a creek that comes down from hills, and our place is one of the first places to stop when following the creek. So, people go into the hills and illegally dump their cats which then find their way to our place. Unless I want to risk going to jail or paying a stiff fine, we either have to adopt them, find them homes, watch them starve to death, or take them to the pound and pay thirty bucks. We've adopted two, with a third who just comes in late at night to eat, another who we think got sick and died, and we had to take one to the pound. He was really big - perhaps 18 pounds or more, with huge feet and claws - wild, aggressive, and dangerous to the other cats.
 
Ivan Seeking said:
Here, in Oregon, it is illegal to dump cats in the woods; in fact, it may even be a felony... I know the penalty can be severe. We live along a creek that comes down from hills, and our place is one of the first places to stop when following the creek. So, people go into the hills and illegally dump their cats which then find their way to our place. Unless I want to risk going to jail or paying a stiff fine, we either have to adopt them, find them homes, watch them starve to death, or take them to the pound and pay thirty bucks. We've adopted two, with a third who just comes in late at night to eat, another who we think got sick and died, and we had to take one to the pound. He was really big - perhaps 18 pounds or more, with huge feet and claws - wild, aggressive, and dangerous to the other cats.

Poor puddy tats, i have a cat that some times comes to my door and miaows but as soon as i open the door it scarpers, one time it did come in, ran upstaires looked around then left, i can not get within ten feet of it, i
often wonder if it used to live here.
 
All I know is that Bats spread Rabies.
 
I like having bats around. They do a good job eating bugs. There's a light over our lab window that attracts all the bugs at night, and since it's an old building and the window doesn't seal well, they all crawl in. I think the best solution would be a bat box on the building outside the window...but some administrator would probably find a way to get me in trouble for housing animals on campus without an approved protocol if I did that. :rolleyes:

We have a mess load of stray cats on the farm. People see a farm and just assume the people there want to adopt cats. At least now we got some live traps and a vet willing to spay or neuter them as they are caught (or as one friend enjoyed sharing after taking her kitten to a vet..."My cat was spayed AND neutered!" She wound up with a hermaphrodite with both an ovary and a testis...pretty cool.)
 
:smile: I can't say as I've ever encountered a he/she cat. That would be quite a conversation piece.
I like bats. Had a pet one once, that couldn't fly because the cat brought it home. I guess that it had internal injuries as well, because it died after a couple of days. (Or maybe the food that I gave it wasn't suitable, but I think that they're somewhat omnivorous.)
The bug thing is amazing. A 6-oz bat can eat something like 10 oz of insects in one night. Their metabolism is so fast that they're always hungry.
 

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