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Are your bunnies friends with your cats??

Gemmapookie

Wise Old Thumper
I'm hoping to be moving into my first home very soon. It has lots of space and a hoooooge garden for the bunnies :D :D
I'm just wondering what everyones thoughts are on us getting a new addition to the family in the form of a kitten?? I love cats, desperately want one in my life again when I have the space and a fab garden but am abit worried about how my buns would react.
My buns are free range house buns and I intend for it to stay that way in the new place, aswell as frequent garden time in the summer of course. So obviously I need the buns and the kitty to live in harmony :love: I'm hoping that if I got a cat from a kitten it would grow up with the buns so not be aggressive to them. Im actually more worried about the buns being aggressive, although neither of them are.
Whats everyones experience with this?
xxx
 
I think it depends on the bunny and the cat. I have 6 buns and two cats and they are fine - Evie was scared of the cats at first but is ok with them now. When the buns are free range in the garden the buns will chase the cats and when they were indoors A and E had Sandy cat cornered in the kitchen a few times to investigate him which he wasnt sure about
 
My cats aren't allowed in my bedroom if the rabbits out.
I don't trust them at all!
Two of them have been obsessive hunters and one of them is so messed up in the head that I won't ever trust her near any of my pets even if she doesn't hunt.

I'd love a soft cat that I could have with Charlie!
 
My cats and bunnys are like sisters. The cats are the older sisters and the buns are the little ones. The buns follow the cats around and the cats are generally disgusted by the buns :lol:

Sometimes the buns can have a sniff and the cats have even licked the buns but the buns always get too excited which makes the cats run off pretty quick.

The cats have occasionally batted (no claws) the buns but usually they derserve it. Lilly has lunged at mine a couple of times and niped their bums or she even latched on to Phoebe cats face one time :roll:

In general they have an uneasy truce because my cats do as they're told and if I say no they stop. At the same time the cats are protective of the buns and my piggies if they're in the garden. They "patrol" the garden and sit up high on "lookout" for other cats. When the buns are in other cats can come in the garden they don't mind but if they're out playing then no cats are alowed. They chashed one just the other day for sitting staring at my piggies. So I guess they do like them.
 
i have three cats, bubble and squeak are cautious of the bun, squeak runs away but shes a wuss :p bubble is happy to sit on my bed while seb runs around like a blue arsed fly but if he comes to close she'll bat him (no claws) and mable just looks at him and walks off. I'd only leave bubblewith sebastian while he's out but even then only for a couple of mins at the most.
 
i took on two 7 week old kittys who were small for their age and not used to hunting with mum.....and mum wasnt a great hunter i believe.

bertie had been with us for over a month and he came from a home where hed had a dog as his best friend and five cats..one of which was his closest pal and who he defended when another cat got int heir garden and beat it up:shock:

bif was initally terrified of the kittens and after a fortnight i let the boy go as he was being too feisty with bif....and kept the girl kitty..within a few days i had the boy one back..and relaised what the problem was..hed been trying to suckle from bif not attack her:oops::lol:

she even taught him to raise his tail to wee..he was taught a lot of tings by mummy bif and daddy bertie:lol:

they have grown up thinking they have rabbbits for parents..when willow came along she was their "baby" sister. and she was a holy terror to match them with their nortiness.

salem keeps close to bertie when its cold and since bertie had his pasturalla and unbonded from bif....hes slept alongside him etc.

zuzu plays with her brother and the cats......the buns usually grunt at her if shes too rough or wont take no for an answer.
my cats only catch bugs..the gardens netted in and to be honest i basically kept the cats in till the garden had been kitty proofed..best part of a year. and they are inseperable from the buns, when salem had to stay in vets for 3 days and nights..his siter and the buns were going nuts because he wasnt here.

today we spent about half an hour outside with ebrtie then we left him to relax in the garden with the cats..they never left him.
when they started to get cold and wanted to come in..they came in and got me to get bertie in:lol:

our old cats were 7 and 6 when i got our first housebun..and it was a very special set up..but with kittys its been more of the buns are a aprent deal.

if you have one bun and a cat or two.....you will end up with a cabbit...cat who thinks its a rabbit or a rabbit who thinks its a cat:lol::lol:

if you can confine them to the house until theyre used to each other it helps....i even put the buns and two weeny kitties in the huge carrier on wheels and treated it like a bonding session!! worked!

our gardens netted off to try and keep our idiot cats in and hopefully deter other cats getting in.

today zuz was eating a dandelion flower cos bertie had eaten one...it was soo funny to see.

maybe all my cats and buns have just been odd!!
 
Ooooooh I so hope my buns would accept a kitty. It would obviously have to be a kitten so that they wouldnt see it as too much of a threat, and so that the kitty grew up with the buns. Just afraid I'm gonna get one, get attached and then have to give him up if it doesnt work out with the buns :? i have a feeling theyd be ok though, neither of my buns are aggressive, I'd just have to be very selective about the kitten I brought home.
I like the bonding tip purplebumble, might give that a go :D Sooooo excited now, cant wait! xxx
 
what is it they put in cat food? i cannot for the life of me understand why people want their dogs or cats to be 'friends' with their rabbits. it's like wanting a pet mouse to be friends with your python. yes, lots of people might get away with it, but what about the ones who found bunny ended up in bits? we've had reports here. or don't we believe them? maybe they were trolls.
 
what is it they put in cat food? i cannot for the life of me understand why people want their dogs or cats to be 'friends' with their rabbits. it's like wanting a pet mouse to be friends with your python. yes, lots of people might get away with it, but what about the ones who found bunny ended up in bits? we've had reports here. or don't we believe them. maybe they were trolls.

I think responsible owners know their animals very well and make sensible decisions when it comes to their welfare. Noone in their right mind should leave a bun alone with a cat they didnt trust. Some cats are natural hunters and these are the ones you couldnt trust with your other pets. But alot of cats, especially ones bought up with other animals from kitten age, view the animals as part of their family and wouldnt harm them. I know lots of great interspecies friendships, indeed my old cat Sooty was good friends with my guinea pig Oscar.
Thanks for your opinion, and no I dont think there a "trolls" posting lies to us on the forum. But you'll probably find more good stories than bad.
 
I have two elderly cats and four house rabbits. Neither of my cats has been raised with bunnies and, to my knowledge, neither of them is a hunter. (They were both elderly when I adopted them and this may be the reason for their lack of interest in hunting.:?) Generally, the cats and the rabbits ignore each other. Sometimes, very rarely, the top bunny charges the cats and they run away from him.:) I never leave the cats and bunnies together unsupervised.

However, I have read that bouncy kittens and rabbits don't mix. I don't know if this holds true, as I never had a kitten.:)
 
I think it depends on the bunnies & the cats involved :)

We have 3 cats - Thomas is about 16 years old, Phoebe about 8 & Mia about 18 months.

Noah is completely freerange & sleeps with the cats as you can see below :roll: :love: I completely trust them all with Noah & most of the larger buns :)

DSCF4249.jpg


Noah is that chilled he's not bothered in the slightest by the cats & he's as big as them! The cats aren't bothered by him either.

As purplebumble says - maybe they become Cabbits ;) :lol: I do seriously think Noah thinks he's a cat!! He can also be found hunting out meat flavoured cat food whenever his pellet bowl is empty!! :shock:

Although there are some of the buns I won't let free range without me supervising them - such as Polly or Tiny Tim - they're that diddy, I wouldn't trust Mia with them :?
 
Biscuit and Max are friends with our cat with wobbly legs, she used to come in to the conservatory when I cleaned them out and sit with them. Piglet has certain cats she lets in my room and when she's had enough of them she chases them out :lol:
 
My cats adore the bunnies (maybe exception of Blue), we have one elderly cat and three young ones and they get on fine.
Never had any problems at all.
The cats just get fed up with Blue and jump up onto the worktops hje can't get too, never tried to bite them or play with them roughly.
 
My cats adore the bunnies (maybe exception of Blue), we have one elderly cat and three young ones and they get on fine.
Never had any problems at all.
The cats just get fed up with Blue and jump up onto the worktops hje can't get too, never tried to bite them or play with them roughly.

Thats good to know Rachel. I'd be very worried about my buns at first, when really its probably the kitten i should be concerned about :lol:
 
My cats tolerate the rabbits, but they are actually quite intimidated by them. The rabbits don't seem to understand personal space and just keep getting closer. If the cats go one step back, the rabbits go 2 or 3 steps closer.

When the kittys first started going out they were supervised with the bunnies (who free range). I was concerned about the cats pouncing on the buns or trying to play with them. It was the other way around unfortunately and one of the rabbits has taken a serious dislike to one cat and if he sees her he will chase her out of the garden, he has always known cats and is fine with every other cat. She will now stay on the fence if he's out bless her!!
 
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