Two questsions about big cats?

First question. Do the bigger cats (Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Jaguars) include smaller, even domestic cats as part of their diet? For example, if for some reason a domestic housecat was put into a Lions habitat, what would happen? Would they ignore each other? Would the Lion kill the smaller cat for territorial reasons, but not eat it?





Second Question: Is it possible to completely domesticate a bigger cat? Has it been done before?

Two questsions about big cats?
Question one:





Yes larger cats do include smaller and domestic cats as part of their diet. It does not happen often, but it does occur. Where you can probably find the most examples is with lions and cheetahs. They are actually having a rather large problem in Africa with lions hunting cheetah cubs as part of their diet. The cubs have no chance because they cannot climb trees and their parents do not have the ability to defend them. To most cats, food is food... does not matter what it is. Male lions will also kill all the cubs from the last alpha to be able to push his blood line through, a few of those are eaten as well. With domestics, there is not much meat there... but like I said, food is food.





Second question: No to both and thank god. It is possible to raise a big cat in a domestic setting and they might take on some domestic traits, but they are NEVER domesticated. For example take zoos, big cats have been in captivity and around man for generations... yet still no domestication. In fact, given the chance they would kill the person that takes care of them on a daily basis.
Reply:BIg cats do and will kill their smaller relatives. In North America cougars will sometimes prey on bobcats and domestic cats. Lions, leopards, and cheetahs will kill smaller cats mainly because of competition, though leopards will prey on them as well. And the jaguar have been known to prey on smaller cats such as ocelots and margays.





There has never been a domestication of a big cat. Though the cheetah is the easiest to train and tame, it can never be domesticated.
Reply:I think the smaller cat is also very, very fast and chasing the small cat down would be a tremendous waste of energy for such a small meal. The larger cat might save its energy to take down something larger so it has a more solid meal for its efforts. The large cats are fast out of the gate and reach their top speeds very quickly so the initial distance of the small cat will also play a role in the larger cats decision-making.





Lion-tamers in the circus have seemed to have a nice job on the lions and tigers with them in the ring but they will never be completely trustworthy, they are still very powerful, very dangerous, and sometimes unpredictable animals.
Reply:Sure a large wild cat would kill and eat your house cat. Just because its a fellow feline doesn't make it immune to the food chain. Wild cats kill each other too. Also, with the possible exception of the cheetah (they were used like hunting dogs by the ancient Egyptians), wild cats are not domesticable. They can be trained, but are never truly tame. Many an exotic pet owner has learned this the hard way. To truly domesticate an animal takes generations of selective breeding. The dog itself did not happen in a day. An animal as powerful and fierce as a lion or tiger would probably be near impossible to breed into an overgrown house cat.
Reply:First: I guess a large cat would try to hunt a smaller (domestic) cat if there was nothing else available. But they are not part of their everyday diet. Also small cats can climb as good as, over even better than, big cats so a domestic cat finding itself pursued by a tiger would just climb a tree and sit on the smaller branches where the heavier animal can't follow.


Generally big cats prefer ground-based prey such as hoofed animals.





Second, I don't think so. But then I also think that it is impossible to completely domesticate your normal house cat - we just don't regard them as dangerous because they are small and can't really hurt us. If they were bigger, they could hurt us a lot while only playing.


Recall Roy (of Siegfried and Roy fame) who was almost killed by a tiger that was born and raised in captivity and clearly accepted those two as his peers. But the moment Roy laid flat, the tiger thought 'food!' and that was that. The problem is not the cat's wishing to harm us or not, it is that they are so bloody huge and strong. They playfully knock us over with their front paw and we have to go to an ER with a set of broken ribs.
Reply:Of all the large cats the lion would be most easily domesicated since they are the only social animal among the large cats. I believe if you were to take lions and breed the most submissive ones over 20 or 30 generations you could end up with a domesticated lion.
Reply:I don't know about the first question. For the second question, there are many types of lions and large cats kept as pets. The animals kept as pets quickly learn behaviors that get rewarded and behaviors that result in punishment - this degree of domestication is common. However, most large cats have not been domesticated for many generations, so the wild instincts are still present. This is what makes these types of animals dangerous as pets. Its very common for wild animals to voice and settle disputes by fighting. Two lions in the same pride can fight each other without causing any serious injury. If a lion did the same thing to a human, the human might get ripped to shreds, then the blood could easily trigger a predator response. People who have kept large cats as pets occasionally are killed or mauled.
Reply:related to your first question: i think that if the big cat is hungry he would eat the smaller one immediately due to its size and due to the fact that the lion( for ex) does not recognize it as dangerous for it. An animal born in the wild (especially felines) can never be domesticated, because they have formed instincts and i think they can attack when you fear less.

tooth decay