Befriending a cat and a rabbit

JaneeMack

Hi,

I'm trying to make my 3.5 month-old kitten become friends with my boyfriend's rabbit.

To make a long story short, when my cat was only a baby, I brought him over to my bf's house to make them friends. The rabbit is about 1.5 years old and she is quite territorial. But she has the huge garden to herself and she hops around pretty much everywhere in the house as she pleases. The thing is, when she's out in the garden, sometimes cats come around from the neighbourhood and there were a few incidents where she got chased/possibly attacked by the cats. These cats are huge - adult ones - but not feral.

We think that this might have had a bad effect on the poor rabbit - I love the rabbit but she wouldn't give my kitten a chance. The first two days they were together, the rabbit sniffed at my kitten very close by - at whiskers lengths - and both times, she got really upset and ran away with really hard back leg pounding. And my little kitten hissed at her a couple times (you would wonder baby kittens do that!). So, during the two days, it didn't really work out and even after that, the rabbit acted a bit aloof for a few days around my bf.

Now, the family thinks we should bring the kitten over a couple times a month to make them friends before the cat gets any bigger.

I know both animals are territorial so I don't know if this is going to work. There's no other animal in my bf's house although he used to have a terrier and a giant rabbit together before (the rabbit used to boss the dog around until the day she died!).

So, anybody got any suggestion regarding befriending a rabbit and a kitten? :P

Nody

Treat it as befriending two cats; rub down your cat/rabbit several times with a towel that's left close to to their feeding station (and repeated often to ensure the smell stays); then meet them at a closed door with food for each there. After a week or two of closed door (assuming they are both eating there at the same time) open the door and put a temporary splitter (towel, cardboard etc.) instead and if that works out slowly raise it / lower it bit by bit until they are both eating while seeing the other.

JaneeMack

Nody wrote: »

Treat it as befriending two cats; rub down your cat/rabbit several times with a towel that's left close to to their feeding station (and repeated often to ensure the smell stays); then meet them at a closed door with food for each there. After a week or two of closed door (assuming they are both eating there at the same time) open the door and put a temporary splitter (towel, cardboard etc.) instead and if that works out slowly raise it / lower it bit by bit until they are both eating while seeing the other.

Thank you. But, both the kitten and the rabbit eats or shall I say graze whenever they please! My kitten only eats properly twice a day - he just plays and sips on the water and doesnt really eat until dinner time even though the food is there all the time! The rabbit is munching on the grass and all sorts of plants in the garden throughout the day and doesn't really stay in the same place for a long time unless she's taking a nap in the garden.

The rabbit also chases birds out of the garden!!

PropJoe10

JaneeMack wrote: »

Thank you. But, both the kitten and the rabbit eats or shall I say graze whenever they please! My kitten only eats properly twice a day - he just plays and sips on the water and doesnt really eat until dinner time even though the food is there all the time! The rabbit is munching on the grass and all sorts of plants in the garden throughout the day and doesn't really stay in the same place for a long time unless she's taking a nap in the garden.

The rabbit also chases birds out of the garden!!

What kind of scary ass rabbit are you trying to inflict on your poor kitten? :eek: :P

JaneeMack

PropJoe10 wrote: »

What kind of scary ass rabbit are you trying to inflict on your poor kitten? :eek: :P

Haha, mind you, I didnt think rabbits would be this territorial!

She only poops around the same place - where the bird feeders are and near certain plants. She also sits under the bird feeder and chases some birds away from the feeder (I'd say the rabbit likes the seeds from the feeders).

My kitten is no wimp either - he is usually a very loving cat but can be crazy hyper and vicious when he wants to - being the boy cat and all!!

So, no way to make these two friends?

muddypaws

Without wishing to go into your personal life too much, but why do they need to be friends, if you don't live in the same house? Are you going to be moving in there? I've never taken my cats visiting people, so not sure why, unless you are moving in there, you will doing so. If the cat is allowed outside in the garden, would you not worry that he would get over the fence, and then not be able to find his way back again, as its not his home?

JaneeMack

muddypaws wrote: »

Without wishing to go into your personal life too much, but why do they need to be friends, if you don't live in the same house? Are you going to be moving in there? I've never taken my cats visiting people, so not sure why, unless you are moving in there, you will doing so. If the cat is allowed outside in the garden, would you not worry that he would get over the fence, and then not be able to find his way back again, as its not his home?

We are not moving in together but it happens to be that we spend a lot of time together during the weekend which sometimes leads me to leave my cat alone for a day or with a roommate who doesn't really care for him. I do check him once a day or else we go stay at mine but it would be nice to bring him over to his place for the whole weekend. That's why we are trying to make them get along with each other.

I suppose they don't have to be friends but maybe they can stay in the sitting room or in the kitchen together without us getting worried?

What we did before was to leave the bunny in the garden and keep the cat in the house but with the winter coming, the bunny's now spending more time in the kitchen in the evening.

ShaShaBear

It can be done, our old rabbit Benji and cat Tigger were the best of friends once we got them used to each other!

My dad had a towel in Tiggers bed and moved it to the hutch before we washed it. We were lucky in that Tigger took to Benji really well, and he had no experience with cats, so he learned pretty quick she meant no harm.

We actually have a rather unfortunate picture at home of Benji trying to make sweet, sweet love to Tigger
He also used to make this odd barking noise and chase all the other cats out of the garden!

Lamina

This might be of some use to you:

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-11/cats-and-rabbits.html

I've always had rabbits and cat together and had no issues. Chances are they won't become best buddies though, but tolerate/ignore each other once they've gotten used to eachother. I wouldn't ever be leaving the two of them together unsupervised though just in case.

Ambersky

That is just a lovely link Lamina, I love the little video of the rabbit rolling against the cat.

roweeeeena

It's possible! I moved in to a house with my adult cat, and there was already an adult rabbit there. They need to be constantly supervised. Luckily, my cat just seemed to 'know' that the rabbit was the humans 'friend' and did not attack it. It did chase it, but it kept its claws in and never actually attacked it, when it easily could have. If he ever caught up with the rabbit he would just stop chasing it. Likewise, the rabbit would definitely come up to the cat when it was resting, and provoke it to chase him! It was definitely a game between them! Apart from that, they just lived alongside each other. The cat used to sleep in the rabbits hutch cuddled up in the hay, but not when the rabbit was in it!

I think I was just lucky that these two animals decided to tolerate each other, it wouldn't be the case with every cat and rabbit, especially grown up animals. It may be easier in that the cat is a kitten, so I'd say you're right in that if you are going to try, you may as well do so when the cat is young.

However, if you are not planning on moving in with your boyfriend, I personally think you should accept that your routine will have to accommodate the needs of the animal, rather than the animal fitting to yours. Cats are not like dogs, and the vast majority of cats would not like to be moved around from house to house so frequently, back and forth. Cats are very territorial and like routine and stability, going to a different house for a few nights, every week or couple of weeks, would definitely stress the majority of cats out, especially when they are grown up and no longer kittens.

Maybe you could stay one day at yours, and one day at your boyfriends on the weekends, leaving both animals at home. Then your cat with only be with your room mate alone for 24 hours, with enough food and water, the cat would be absolutely fine, especially once it is no longer a kitten, it would just sleep for most of that time!

Good luck whatever you decide to do :-)

JaneeMack

roweeeeena wrote: »

It's possible! I moved in to a house with my adult cat, and there was already an adult rabbit there. They need to be constantly supervised. Luckily, my cat just seemed to 'know' that the rabbit was the humans 'friend' and did not attack it. It did chase it, but it kept its claws in and never actually attacked it, when it easily could have. If he ever caught up with the rabbit he would just stop chasing it. Likewise, the rabbit would definitely come up to the cat when it was resting, and provoke it to chase him! It was definitely a game between them! Apart from that, they just lived alongside each other. The cat used to sleep in the rabbits hutch cuddled up in the hay, but not when the rabbit was in it!

I think I was just lucky that these two animals decided to tolerate each other, it wouldn't be the case with every cat and rabbit, especially grown up animals. It may be easier in that the cat is a kitten, so I'd say you're right in that if you are going to try, you may as well do so when the cat is young.

However, if you are not planning on moving in with your boyfriend, I personally think you should accept that your routine will have to accommodate the needs of the animal, rather than the animal fitting to yours. Cats are not like dogs, and the vast majority of cats would not like to be moved around from house to house so frequently, back and forth. Cats are very territorial and like routine and stability, going to a different house for a few nights, every week or couple of weeks, would definitely stress the majority of cats out, especially when they are grown up and no longer kittens.

Maybe you could stay one day at yours, and one day at your boyfriends on the weekends, leaving both animals at home. Then your cat with only be with your room mate alone for 24 hours, with enough food and water, the cat would be absolutely fine, especially once it is no longer a kitten, it would just sleep for most of that time!

Good luck whatever you decide to do :-)

Thanks so much + what an amazing photo!!