Natural History

Posted in Carnivorans | Tagged serval | 8 Comments

8 Responses

1. on September 21, 2013 at 11:33 am kittenz

   I love them. Servals, I mean.

   
   
2. on September 21, 2013 at 12:29 pm Elaine Ostrach Chaika, PhD

   Actually, dogs may eat mice, too. I had a Chow who patrolled the perimeter of our 35 acres of woodland 24/7. Often, when she came to greet me, she was still chomping on a mouse. She also feasted on shrews and the occasional hapless woodchuck the left it s burrow as she stood there. We, of course, did feed her dog food, but she liked some fresh meat sometimes–and ice cream, which was the only thing she begged for. No, we didn’t make her live outdoors to guard our place. By the time she was 4 months old, she refused to come in doors except fro an occasional security check. She set up her own perimeter and checked it night and day in all sorts of weather.

   
   
   • on September 21, 2013 at 12:34 pm retrieverman

     I’ve seen dogs catch voles and mice and eat them– lots of different breeds, too.

     
     
   • on September 21, 2013 at 5:31 pm Jennifer Robinson

     When my Mom lived in PA, her Lab’s favorite sport was getting mice under a blanket of the snow, nosing up their trails. She understood ‘cookie’ to mean mouse. The encouragement was Molly, get the cookie.

     
     
   • on September 22, 2013 at 7:52 am bearcoatpei

     The big difference is that not many dog owners buy live prey for their dogs. Years ago my old cat used to bring my first dog live mice and voles home to try to teach her to hunt. She’d plonk them down in front of the dog and try to encourage her by patting the poor victim to get it to move. I was forever rescuing the poor little things. Needless to say that my very sweet collie x golden retriever who was an angel with most animals ate the odd small rodent if one ran across her path when we were out. She was very efficient and would dispatch them instantly with far less clumsiness than that serval.

     My Tibetan Mastiff caught a vole one wet night and I didn’t even see him do it. I just saw the vole running and him put his head down. He didn’t eat it, but the poor little thing died of fright before I saw it’s tail sticking out and could rescue it. A couple of my past/present shar-pei and my chow usually preferred larger prey such as cats and rabbits. That’s one of the reasons they stay on a flexilead when out walking. I’ve had a couple who have been sweethearts who saw cats as playmates, but their history as hunting dogs is something that doesn’t take much encouragement to bring out in some individuals.

     
     
3. on September 21, 2013 at 1:00 pm an

   what is the point of feeding live mice other than to amuse the owner and shock people watching the video . its not like having live mice handed it to it out of a bag ( while telling the cat not to play with it) is “encouraging natural behaviour” my dog has caught mice on the field but its killed them quickly after a short chase, not swallowed them alive.

   
   
   • on September 21, 2013 at 4:45 pm retrieverman

     Those are fuzzies. They are usually eaten alive, if not by a serval then by some other exotic pet.

     
     
   • on September 22, 2013 at 7:02 am bearcoatpei

     A nutritionally balanced snack for your average wild predator, maybe? If she’s just going to dangle them up by the tail like that she might as well save herself the guilt and horror she seems to have and buy them frozen. A quick defrost in the microwave to get them to blood temperature and the serval likely won’t know the difference.

     
     

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