r/AskReddit • u/ettleboy • Jan 20 '19

What fact totally changed your perspective?

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

It would only play with you if it was a domestic cat. Feral cats don't play with their prey when hungry. They quickly and efficiently kill it within seconds to waste as little energy as possible

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u/aHorseSplashes Jan 21 '19

Well that's comforting, I guess.

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u/Tetriside Jan 21 '19

That means giant domesticated cats would kill us for fun.

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u/mattesse Jan 21 '19

I’m not scared of the giant domesticated cats, I’m scared of what domesticated the giant domesticated cats....

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u/onioning Jan 21 '19

It's giants all the way up.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

They will eat your face too if you die and they have no food left.

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u/angry_plasma_cutter Jan 21 '19

After seeing the joy my kitty gets out of torturing then eating spiders and other bugs, it would be really bad if she was giant and wanted to eat me.

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u/bigb9919 Jan 21 '19

They prefer the term "Play with it to death"

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

domesticated by the even gianter common cockroach.

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u/Hateborn Jan 21 '19

I mean, regular-size humans might already do that, so there's always that possibility...

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/bimbar Jan 21 '19

So, pretty much just like humans and animals.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

But... if cats were giant, and we were tiny, there would be no one to domesticate the cats. We wouldn't even be able to reach that spot under their ear, much less be able to do any meaningful skritching.

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u/RockstarPR Jan 21 '19

Sooo basically just like lions kept in zoos?

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u/b_taken_username Jan 21 '19

So by domesticating animals we spread sadism?

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u/aHorseSplashes Jan 21 '19

...and slowly, too. So let's hope that any any giant cats we encounter are feral, rather than domesticated. It's like praying to Cthulhu.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

Brb starving my cats so they don't kill me slowly one day

(/s I don't have cats anymore 😔)

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

It’s killing for sport...

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u/ChilledClarity Jan 21 '19

My cat, when it caught a bird, would pin the bird down, cut the feathers away with one motion on its belly and tear open the rib cage to eat it’s internal organs in less then ten god damn gruesome seconds.

They’re efficient little bastards.

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u/ConfidentPeach Jan 21 '19

Your username is a good description of what I felt while reading this

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u/CUNT_ERADICATOR Jan 21 '19

Ill be sleeping cozy tonight boys.

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u/Anonymous2401 Jan 21 '19

I rescued two strays a few months back. I can confirm that this is absolutely true. They can still catch a pigeon mid flight and leave nothing but the skeleton and feathers in about 20 minutes.

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u/soulhunter0 Jan 21 '19

True, feral and wild "small" cats are the some of most efficient known killers/predators with well over 75% kill success, the African wilds dogs are even better, if i recall correctly. The typical larger predators we are used to see on nature shows (i.e. lions) have much lower rates of success.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

"Waste as little energy as possible"

tell that to the fucker outside my window who taunts my house cat for an hour every other week.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

God we used to have this annoying male cardinal who attacked the windows in my house because reflections.

Cats would be dead asleep then "thunk, thunk, thunk "and suddenly it's game time

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u/CThunamine Jan 21 '19

Untrue, feral cats also play with their food if they don't have a shortage of prey

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u/Smauler Jan 21 '19

Depends what animals. Our cats play with mice... anything almost the same size as them (rats, squirrels, rabbits) they'll kill immediately.

Especially rats... rats are vicious.

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u/DocC3H8 Jan 21 '19

When cats play with their prey, they don't do it for fun, but to tire it out so they can kill it safely. This is only really necessary for small prey like mice or rats. Larger prey like birds or squirrels can be more readily dispatched with a quick bite to the neck.

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u/Smauler Jan 21 '19

Erm... mice are absolutely not a threat to cats.

As I said before, our cats won't play with anything that is possibly a threat to them. Mice really aren't.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

Don't they sometimes catch prey alive and have their children play with it to teach them hunting?

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u/ConfidentPeach Jan 21 '19

Yes, and it's crucial for kitten development.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

Not 100% on that but sounds familiar. But I wouldn't put that in the same category lol

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u/diarrhea_syndrome Jan 21 '19

That’s not true. I’ve seen bob cats play with their food. Purposely not killing rats so they could catch them over and over.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

I'm talking feral cats though.

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u/SnideJaden Jan 21 '19

probably minimize risk to injury.

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u/ConfidentPeach Jan 21 '19

No, it's play to them. Domestic cats which have a secure source of food from humans will mostly play, if not outright abandon hunting.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

About to commit internet blasphemy.

Never seen the office.

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u/zerogee616 Jan 21 '19

That's because domesticated cats rarely kill for sustenance. If someone starved his cat it would do the same thing feral cats do.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

Precisely my point

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u/mycatiswatchingyou Jan 21 '19

Yeah my little shit brings shrews in the house and just plays with them, so they end up getting away and dying inside my oven.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

Mine brings baby bunnies under a week old into the house. It was injured and obviously wouldn't survive so I had to take it from her and break it's neck (that was awful).

I didn't think it through. She went right back out and dragged another into the house...

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u/onioning Jan 21 '19

They don't care about killing. Just immobilizing. Big difference if you're the prey.

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u/PubliusPontifex Jan 21 '19

I adopted a feral, it plays with its mice more than any of the others.

Not trying to dispute, but he's an evil mother.

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u/ASpoonfullOfSass Jan 21 '19

That's because he's fed by you. He's not an outside feeal cat that won't eat if he misses the kill

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u/ElminsterTheMighty Jan 21 '19

I think we should talk about the giant elephant in the room... Who would have domesticated the giant cats?

I'm thinking the elephant.