Cat bringing gifts, for the baby?

[tanya]

My cat has been acting very strangely for a couple o weeks, it's like he knows the baby will be here soon, he follows me round all the time an if I'm in te house alone he won't leave my side till someone else gets home, when he goes out the first thin he does when he comes in is run up to find me and comes and sits on my knee with his head on my tummy, so I then tell him that I'm still ok and the baby didn't come while he was peeing! Lol
The last week he has started bringing gifts home, hes never been a prolific hunter and has only brought home dead mice which he obviously found already dead, but he has started bringing in birds in various states of mortality he has a cat flap so has constant access to the outside as he refuses to go in the litter tray and prefers to go outside so shutting him in isn't an option.
Do you think these 'gifts' are for the baby as he seems to sense that it's coming? Do you think he will stop when the baby actually arrives or will bring more?

 

[RaspberryK]

My cat goes through phases of bringing things home, we've only had one this week but she was bringing at least one creature a day a few months back. It could have been to do with being pregnant or it could have been because it was spring and lots of animals about (it was her first spring of being an outdoor cat). A lot of the birds she brought home were babies who had probably fallen out of the nest or ones which were just learning to fly.
There's nothing you can do really, it's just their nature and I am not shutting my cat in or out so it's just something I have to deal with.
x

 

[tanya]

It just strikes me as odd that this has come so suddenly and now when baby is due in a couple of days and the cats been acting weird around me.

 

[DarlingMe]

My dog has become increasingly more needy too. He is usually pretty independent and will cuddle with me at night /evening but now through the day he is checking on me. He is a small dog and the stairs are little hard for him but he has been coming upstairs when I am in the nursery, coming to bed with me, and generally just a little more loving. He lays with his head and front paws sprawled across my belly. I think that animals definately sense something. Maybe not a baby specifically, but they know we are acting different!

 

[doggy121]

i'm pritty intrigued by this phenominom and am going to observe my three dogs behavour to see if they sensed anything by acting odd when i go in to labour, when i'm upset over something they tend to hovver around me till i pull myself together... it'll be interesting to see what happens!

 

[Kess]

A book I was reading on cats just the other day said that our best guess as to why cats bring home prey is that they think we're really rubbish hunters and so they're making sure we have plenty to eat. Sweet really. Apparently in feral colonies those that can hunt better bring food home for others. Perhaps your cat knows something's up (you're vulnerable at the moment) and is trying, in his own way, to make sure you don't starve! Poor birds, though.

 

[mons75]

Amazing! xx

 

[SnapDragon]

My little boy cat (sadly no longer with us) started bringing me a vole a day early in this pregnancy, he never used to share anything he caught before, just ate it .
My older cat has seen it all before so she doesn't hunt for me this time, but she does seem to like to stay close by.
With my DD they both seem to constantly jockey for position to sit on my lap and curl up rount the bump. I was certain DD was going to come out purring.

Who say's cats are totally selfish

 

[kiasuten]

lol I wish my cat brought me gifts like yours. My one just meows and whines until I pick him up or let him sit on me.... and after a while, he gets really jumpy and ends up attacking one of my limbs. :/

Supposedly, they can tell that we're carrying a baby, and they will get more antsy as the due date approaches. I've had someone tell me that my cats are going to compete with the baby for attention/affection, to the point where they will try to smother the baby. I don't believe that, but I do think they'll be itching for some of my attention post-labor.

 

[Hellymay83]

I have 2 cats that won't leve me alone since becoming pregnant, zorro brings a mouse back every night and drops them at my feet, mainly dead but last night it was alive, my dh panicked and hit it (the mouse) wih his iPad ha ha!! My other cat knows when I'm in bed, we lock them in the kitchen at night as the cat flap is in the kitchen door, if he comes in and the door is shut he goes back outside jumps on the car and meows at the bedroom window until I get up and let him in! Little buggers, hy have both only started this behaviour since I got pregnant x

 

[Amygdala]

I've been getting presents lately too. I think he only ever brought in two creatures in all the time he's been with us but in the last week I've had two birds and this morning a live mouse. :-/ I shood him out of the house because I want him to know that his gifts aren't welcome inside but I feel so bad for that! It's so nice of him to try to look after me! But with a baby around we really can't have things bleeding on the floor...