Please help and share your ideas/experience! It is hard to keep my cat inside, he is literally begging to let him go. But he is a real hunter… Rabbits, birds, chipmunks - he eats them all. I hate this. He eats well at home, but hunter's instinct prevails. I put 2 ring bells on him, not sure it helps, but at least other animals can be warned somehow.
Any suggestions are appreciated, even obvious ones.
Somewhat related: Is it possible for a cat to run down a wild rabbit and kill it?
My cat also went through a stage (of about 5 years) where she caught and killed everything in our garden and brought it home. The only thing that worked was to tire her out by playing games with toys and a laser pointer during the evening before bed. Then she was too tired to go out and her passion for hunting was also satisfied with the toys. It was hard work (because if I didn't do it she'd be out hunting again) but it was better than waking up in the dead of night to pick up tiny carcases. So, I advise purchasing some toys (the ones with the feather on the end of a string/stick work the best from experience, or a laser pointer) and exercise your cat every day to tire him out.
I'd like to add a bit about what's been discussed in the comments; there is really not a lot you can do other than tire the cat out. If you put a bell on him, he will probably do exactly the same as my old cat: make a wonderful sound when he's wandering around, but the moment it's time to hunt, lock down his chin on the bell and make his approach. The only difference it made is you could hear it jingle every time he hit his prey.
Also, the other answer about yelling at the cat is the worst possible choice; the cat is bring you the food because it loves you a lot and wants to help take care of you, yelling at it for doing this will definitely offend your cat and it certainly won't understand why. The only difference it will make is the cat will bury its excessive prey instead of bringing it to you; well, and it will also think you're an a**hole.
When you catch your cat with a animal in its mouth yell at them and take away what the animal they caught this has worked for me with 2 cats after chased and yelled at them for it they stopped.
