What eats cats? What does a cat eat?
It’s a shocking thought to most of us that any predator might eat someone’s pet cat—or any domestic feline. But cats do get eaten quite frequently when they are allowed to roam in the outdoors. Wild dogs such as foxes and coyotes view cats as an easy meal, since they’re usually not as wary or as quick as most wild prey animals. And in parts of North America, a large member of the weasel family called the fisher, or fisher cat, not only eats cats, but is a good climber and can chase them right into the tops of trees.
Eagles, owls, and other birds of prey will also take cats, as will crocodilians and other large reptilian predators that live in warm climates. In some parts of the world, there are constrictors and other serpents large enough to eat a cat.
Parasites such as fleas and ticks also enjoy feeding off of outdoor cats.
And while domestic dogs don’t usually eat cats, they do kill them quite often.
So, it’s a dangerous world out there for domestic cats, because while cats are predators, they are not apex predators.
But there is another important reason to keep cats indoors. Cats eat rodents and birds—which would be fine if they truly were wild animals. But because there are so many cats in the outdoors, each year they kill hundreds of millions of wild birds in almost every country where they live. In fact, many bird species are becoming increasing rare at least partly because cats kill so many of them.
Keeping cats indoors protects the cats and wildlife alike!
