Herd your cats here

[clean]

Do you have cicadas in your area?  They are supposed to be tasty.

[OneMoreYear]

Ricochet is a master of bug hunting; we are pretty sure that most of her calories come from bugs.  Hey, she's an obligate carnivore, right?  None of that carbohydrate-filled cat food for her! (Just kidding, we feed our cats the only food that Ricochet will agree to eat, in which the 2nd ingredient is rice and the 3rd is corn.  We tried to switch to a grain-free food and she kept trying to bury it).
I think I posted previously about walking down the stairs to our basement to find Ricochet post successful bug-hunt, in which she looked up at me with a bug leg dangling out of the side of her mouth. I backed away up the stairs and checked the laundry later.
Ricochet is of the "waste-not, want-not" school of bug-eating.  There are no leftovers.

[0susanna]

Both of my cats are vigilant bug hunters, enjoying the pursuit of wasps (I don't know how they get in), small cockroaches, and an occasional fly. The only remains I've ever seen are random legs, easy to sweep up.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Maestro ate a bug!

He wouldn't let us get close enough to see exactly what kind of bug it was.

There was...crunching. After every couple of chomps he would spit it out to look at the state of it. He ate it in pieces, leaving no remains.

On the one hand, free pest control! On the other, ewwwwww...

Free pest control is always great! Youngest Evil cat eats roaches, flies, moths and anything else that she can find. She almost ate a cicada!

[smallcleanrat]

Has anyone ever had a cat get sick from eating the wrong bug?

[Volhiker78]

Our 3 year old tuxedo, Booboo, is a dedicated bug hunter both indoors and outdoors.  She captures and eventually kills the bugs but doesn't eat them.  She does eat lizards, but not the heads - just the lower 2/3's of a lizard's body.  I guess the head doesn't taste as good?   

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Our 3 year old tuxedo, Booboo, is a dedicated bug hunter both indoors and outdoors.  She captures and eventually kills the bugs but doesn't eat them.  She does eat lizards, but not the heads - just the lower 2/3's of a lizard's body.  I guess the head doesn't taste as good?

Trophies?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Has anyone ever had a cat get sick from eating the wrong bug?

Nope. Have not. *fingers crossed* If you're concerned, then you could research and see if there's anything to worry about in your area.

[OneMoreYear]

Has anyone ever had a cat get sick from eating the wrong bug?

Not as far as I know. I think there are some bugs that are dangerous to cats (e.g., poisonous spiders, scorpions, large centipedes), but so far none of mine appear to have tangled with anything they shouldn't.

[the_geneticist]

Our 3 year old tuxedo, Booboo, is a dedicated bug hunter both indoors and outdoors.  She captures and eventually kills the bugs but doesn't eat them.  She does eat lizards, but not the heads - just the lower 2/3's of a lizard's body.  I guess the head doesn't taste as good?

I love the name Booboo!  It was one of many nicknames for my childhood cat (actual name Rasckel). 
Maybe they are offerings to show her hunting prowess and that she loves you? "I caught you a mighty foe!  You can eat it"

[Puget]

 

Our 3 year old tuxedo, Booboo, is a dedicated bug hunter both indoors and outdoors.  She captures and eventually kills the bugs but doesn't eat them.  She does eat lizards, but not the heads - just the lower 2/3's of a lizard's body.  I guess the head doesn't taste as good?

I love the name Booboo!  It was one of many nicknames for my childhood cat (actual name Rasckel). 
Maybe they are offerings to show her hunting prowess and that she loves you? "I caught you a mighty foe!  You can eat it"

My late great childhood cat, who was indoor/outdoor and a great hunter, used to leave a dead critter outside each bedroom door many nights. She clearly thought we were incompetent kittens who never had learned to hunt for ourselves, so she persisted in feeding us, unmoved by the fact her gifts were always ungratefully thrown outside in the morning.

[Volhiker78]

Our 3 year old tuxedo, Booboo, is a dedicated bug hunter both indoors and outdoors.  She captures and eventually kills the bugs but doesn't eat them.  She does eat lizards, but not the heads - just the lower 2/3's of a lizard's body.  I guess the head doesn't taste as good?

I love the name Booboo!  It was one of many nicknames for my childhood cat (actual name Rasckel). 
Maybe they are offerings to show her hunting prowess and that she loves you? "I caught you a mighty foe!  You can eat it"

The first time Booboo left the head, we just assumed she played too hard with the critter.  The second time, she made a big deal to chomp the rest of the lizard into fine pieces before swallowing.  Like all cats we've had, she is extremely proud when she's caught something so maybe the head is to remind everyone!

[mamselle]

My godsister's sleek black kitty named Quasar used to do that. They lived right opposite a fenced-in reservoir, and I'm afraid the baby bunny population took a hit when Quasar was in nurturing mode.

M.

[OneMoreYear]

One of my childhood cats left snakes for my mother on the porch after he'd sneak outside to prowl. She was not appreciative.

Our current two do not leave us any bug/lizard trophies, but do leave any mice they catch for us in obvious places for us to find. The last time they caught one, they left it by their food bowls. We were not sure if the message was that they were saving it for later of if they wanted it noted that they were contributing to the food supply.

[Morden]

A few years ago, a random cat started snoozing on our deck. Periodically, he/she would leave dead mice at the door. I think it was a form of rent.