If you have one or more cats at home, you have probably witnessed a scene in which the feline stands in front of a window, chattering its teeth and launching itself over and over again trying to catch a fly that walks through the glass. If the hunting sequence is successful, the cat is likely to not only kill the fly, but ingest it entirely.
But, Why does my cat eat flies? This hunting and eating behavior that we have just described may seem strange to us, Since our cat is well fed, it does not need to hunt to eat and, furthermore, we do not associate flies as prey for these felines. But the truth is that this is completely normal behavior. We explain it to you in this article on our site.
Why do cats catch and eat flies?
Cats are predatory animals that carry in their nature the hunting instinct to feed themselves. Their ancestors lived on prey such as rodents and, to a lesser extent, birds, reptiles, and even insects. That is why it should not surprise us that our domestic cats, although well fed, retain the instinct to stalk, chase and catch flies and any other insect that enters the home, just as if they have access to the outside they will hunt rodents and other small animals that cross your path. They do it instinctively, without necessarily being hungry. In fact, the urge to hunt is independent of the sensation of hunger
If we are lucky, we will be able to see in the first row a whole hunter deploying his techniques to get hold of his prey. For example, the chattering of the teeth that we have mentioned and that some cats do when they are in front of a potential prey. It is believed that it is an anticipatory and special bite with which the cat tries to kill the prey as quickly as possible to prevent it from escaping or hurting it. With the specific movement of the jaw, it manages to sever the dorsal spine, which immediately paralyzes the prey.
We can also see that the cat moves its head from side to side. What he does is calculate the distance to the prey so as not to miss when he launches for it. We must be careful with bee and wasp stings, but, in principle, we do not have to prevent it from catching flies.
Why do cats play with flies before killing them?
Many times the cat does not jump on the fly, it kills it and eats it. Rather he punches her just hard enough to stun her, not kill her, and he has a good time throwing her back and forth across the floor and catching and releasing her. It is not a particularly pleasant scene for the keepers, but the truth is that it is a behavior as normal as when the hunt is over in a matter of seconds.
This behavior is explained as a cat's desire to prolong a hunting activity that it no longer performs as frequently as its wild ancestors. A domestic cat in an apartment will have few opportunities to test its hunting skills. Hence he makes the most of the opportunity. On the other hand, cats seem to have a predisposition to play these games with prey, not just flies, before killing them. It is believed that it is related to the stage in which the females bring live prey to the nest where their kittens wait to teach them how to kill them
There is one last explanation that refers to the prey itself, which used to be rats. Some large ones could seriously hurt the cat that brought its face close to them. So they tried to avoid those attacks by stunning the rat first, giving it a succession of blows to stun it before approaching its face to deliver the deadly bite.
Is it good for cats to eat flies?
As we have seen, it is not uncommon for our cat to hunt and eat a fly. The ingestion of an insect, due to its small size, in general will not be beneficial or detrimental to the cat. Although it may contain pathogens, they should not be present in such large numbers as to be a problem for a he althy cat. Nor will it unbalance your diet.
Even so, to prevent it, it is recommended to deworm your cat as often as the veterinarian recommends. Therefore, we could say that eating a fly from time to time is neither good nor bad for him and, of course, as we have explained, he does not because I'm hungry.
My cat ate a fly with insecticide
Yes, there could be a problem if the fly was sprayed with an insecticide that could be toxic to cats. Therefore, if you have used any product to kill flies, do not take risks and do not allow your cat to eat them. Divert his attention by offering him another activity he's interested in.
If he has already eaten it, watch him for any adverse reaction. In this case contact the vet As a preventive measure, do not use products in your home that may be toxic to your cat. Always read the label to avoid scares.
