All cats are capable of hunting, but some are not adept at completing the job with the killing coup de grace, the nape bite. A skilled feline hunter will dispatch its prey with one clean bite to the back of the neck, breaking the animal's neck and severing the spinal cord. Many domestic cats, however, are incapable of correctly inflicting the nape bite, probably due to a lack of practice in kittenhood. Often the result is a protracted, messy or even unsuccessful kill. In the wild, however, the victim almost always becomes a quick meal. The nape bite is used to dispatch small prey; larger victims are asphyxiated by a powerful clamping bite on the throat. Domestic cats, which have never had to catch their own dinner and are regularly fed by caring owners, sometimes manage to finish off a mouse or bird that happens to cross their path.
Even though hunger is not the motivation, the hunting instinct is strong enough to surface and the prey, either dead, mauled, stunned or alive and kicking, may be deposited at the feet of a usually unappreciative owner.