I have a maybe somewhat stupid quesiton: how quicklky can a cat eat a mouse?

I was working from home today, when the cat came in with a mouse

I grabbed the cat to throw it out together with the mouse, it fell from her mouth, and I noticed it's very dead

at that moment I heard being pinged on Skype by colleagues, went to answer

and about 2 minutes later, there was no mouse

not even pieces of it, or blood, or other traces

can a cat really eat a full mouse, skull and all, in under 2 minutes, and so cleanly that I don't see traces?

Or should I assume that she slid it somewhere, or maybe I misidentified its death, and now I have a live mouse in my flat?

@Stephie it can be bought for cats, mine wears one. Well, maybe "almost" - I think it doesn't zap the cat, it has a function to inform me when she leaves an area, and a separate function (to be triggered by me) to vibrate, which the owner could combine. I never used any of the two.

@rumtscho fast, but possible - although mine always leaves some specific blob of the intestines, cleanly dissected. I never bothered to id what exactly...

I would carefully search nevertheless. Just in case.

@Stephie I am also more accustomed to cats leaving out intestines, but mine seems to eat them, and dislike the head

I have several times discovered the "bust" of a mouse - looks like one of those composer busts out of alabaster popular in music schools. Just the head and the shoulders.

@rumtscho I don't think it is common for a cat to eat a whole mouse in 2 minutes, but I think it's not impossible. It's just that all the cats I've ever cared for were always taking their sweet time while eating; I could imagine a volume-of-a-mouse worth of wet food or organ meats I had given them, and they would start with at least a few minutes of passionate gravy licking - only then would they start to slowly, reluctantly almost, take actual food bites.

@rumtscho But I've never witnessed them eating actual prey animals. But bringing dead prey into the house could be a sign that's it was meant to be a "gift" for you rather than a meal for the cat, the cat probably had its meal elsewhere and I would consider the possibility of this mouse being hidden somewhere.

@rumtscho 2:23... m.youtube.com/watch?v=G-TKo4kIiAQ

And it doesn’t seem particularly hectic.

No bloody traces either.

@lila Ours likes to bring his snacks home now and then. At least we have established an “eat outside” rule. He has never brought us “gifts”. My theory: All family members feed him, in no particular pattern. So obviously all of us are accomplished hunters and don’t need training material. >.<

The neighbors have a new kitten and he’s a huge fan of our tom. He will follow him whenever he can. Pounce on him, try to mimic whatever the big one does... You should have seen the astonishment when our cat brought a huge mouse, as so often.

@lila Just saw this. I close voted.

@anongoodnurse OK thanks for information ^.^

Now I'm really sad.

@anongoodnurse I'll be on codidact in a few months. I plan to propose a pets site on there. This network is just not what it used to be.

I've really enjoyed knowing you also.