North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/5/2005 5:05:54 PM US Eastern Standard Time, organic101@linkny.com writes: (In black ink here) 
> A good hunter will hunt even if well fed. This has not been my experience. A well fed cat mostly lays around and sleeps. My experience is they don't hunt for the fun of it but if a rodent jumps out in front of a well cat he will catch it, but will not roam the orchard just for fun. My A poor hunter will not hunt well even if hungry. Their hunting skills are natural but may vary from one breed to another and the drive to hunt increases with the desire to eat. Please don't get a cat in order to keep it half starved. As a boy on our farm we kept a cat(s) and fed it (them) all the milk they wanted, nothing else. The main mama cat was very healthy, produced two litters annually and always about 5 kittens. If number of litters and size is an indicator of health that cat was very healthy and hunted for all her protein, supplemented by milk. My experience has always been to keep them slightly hungry. City cousins are always dumping cats here and they will survive well without anyone feeding them. Produce kittens too. If there is a good supply of rodents in the orchard they will not be half starved!  



> I doubt the color of the cat has much to do with it. This statement I agree with 100%, as long as one doesn't feed one colored cat more than another.  :-)
 

    Needless to say I agree with the statement Thomas made. < PS: Do not feed the cat too much.  You want a hungry hunter, not fat [sleepy] cat. >

Jerry Lehman