Bunny and kitty

[ElliottsMum]

Around Christmas of this last year, I was given a young kitten who has since joined my household. It has definitely been an adjustment for my mini rex Elliott and myself. The thoughts of getting Elliott a friend started several months ago. But I had not made up my mind on getting him a bunny friend or a kitty friend. Then we received the kitten. My problem is that the kitten, Charlie, is very rough on Elliott. I just got him fixed in hopes that it will calm him down. I am even thinking about applying rubber caps on his nails to lessen the chances of hurting Elliott. The reason I am writing this post is because I cannot tell if Elliott enjoys playing and having his friend(even with the roughness) or if it is more of a safety hazard for Elliott. He seems to be much happier since we received him. He snuggles with me and runs around more than he used to. But Charlie’s roughness makes me so nervous. Even though it would be good to have each others company, I don’t feel comfortable leaving them together when I am at work. Elliott is such a sweet boy and a lover but makes snorting noises at Charlie constantly, which I have never heard him make before we had the kitten. He also lunges at the cat and tries to protect me. I know its hard to tell without seeing how the cat and Elliott interact, but I was hoping someone might have some insight.I am going to try to include a short video of the two of them together. Elliott is my first love and sadly, I will not keep Charlie if ultimately they are not a good match for each other.

Any thoughts are appreciated! Thank you

http://tinypic.com/r/2cnxslu/8

[Frodo Baggins]

Hi!

How old is your kitten? He seems young? Just watching that vid I can tell you that Charlie is playing. There is nothing aggressive about his behavior. Howver he is being a kitten and that is very normal rough housing behavior. You definilty want to keep his nails short. You can teach him to bite that hard if and when he plays. Advice would be play with charlie a lot give him mental stimulation and not to let him think it is okay to rough house and Bite any person or elliot. It is a natural cat behavior (its why many recommend getting 2 kittens at once) that can get worse if no limits are set. I personally use a small spray bottle with water to get my cats to stop unwanted behaviors.

I have two kittens out of a litter of four that my rabbit helped raise. My rabbit will not tolerate rough play. So my cats have each other ant the dogs to rough house with. They have learned that while they can rough house with Frodo, not to bite to hard. Frodo corrects that behavior. I never had to really worry about the four of them hurting my bunny but I did teach limits when frodo couldn’t. But by 4 months it stopped being an issue..

[MoxieMeadows]

Your kitten is playing it’s normal behavior, although kittens can be rough.

I *personally* do not agree with nail caps. I looked into getting them for my own cat. I read that they prevent the nails from retracting completely, and can be aggravating, sometimes even causing pain. Especially with a kitten’s small paw. All companies state that they allow the cat to retract it’s claws whenever it wants, but (especially if you don’t know how to properly put them on the cat) it still adds extra bulk onto the nail that isn’t supposed to be there, so can prevent the nail from retracting properly. A lot of people agree with nail caps, but I’m not sure I do. If it was a decision between declawing and nail caps, I’d definitely say nail caps though. Just my opinion.

I love his coloration by the way, he’s truly gorgeous.

[BrunosMama]

We have 4 cats along with bunnies. The only cat that harasses the bunnies is the youngest, Jojo. He is about a year and a half old and we have had him since he was tiny. The bunnies that do not want to play quickly let him know by nipping and chasing him off. But we do have a couple who love to play. He mostly just like to sit on them or wrap his paws around them and lick them lol. They don’t seem afraid. They just bounce away if he gets too rough. We don’t worry about them alone, but kept a close eye on them when he was little.

As far as claw control, without wanting to start a debate, I am pro-declawing. At least of front claws, if the cat is strictly indoors. This has eased worries of injuries between cats and buns, among other things.

I would say keep an eye on him that he doeant get carried away for now.

[Hazel]

I wouldn’t leave them alone together at all. Charlie is being a kitten, he wants to play and rough house. Rabbits don’t play like cats do, they don’t even speak the same language, so I don’t think they should be allowed to interact unless you’re there to supervise. We have a cat, she’s very rough and tough, it took her a while to understand what is acceptable around the bunny and what’s not. Although that still doesn’t mean she always feels like behaving the way she’s supposed to. I would never leave them alone together. Even when I’m there, she sometimes slips up and gets too rough, which I immediately correct. She gets a stern talking to and banished from the bunny room for a while. I second what Frodo Baggins said, play with Charlie as much as possible before letting him be with Elliott, a tired kitty is a good kitty. Don’t wait until the kitten pounces or chases, as soon as he exhibits any kind of hunting behavior like crouching or staring, correct him (a loud noise like a clap can be enough). When he snaps out of it, give him a treat.

As I said above, cats and rabbits don’t play even remotely the same way, so you want to teach your kitten that the rabbit is not a toy or playmate whatsoever. Charlie should only be allowed near Elliott as long as he can remain calm, if he starts spazzing out he needs more play time with you before getting to interact with Elliott again.

I know that it’s hard to get a kitten to be calm, but it will get easier as he matures.

[Gracie]

The video definitely looks like playing to me. (They’re super cute!)

Also, not wanting to spark a debate. I’m with BrunosMama about the declawing.

My mom’s cat and my buns got along quite well when they lived together for a little while, until the cat did the arm batting thing they do and got one of my bunnies right next to her eye. She bled really badly but healed fine. The thing is if the cat had hit her a centimeter lower, he’d have hit her eye. My dopey little girl’s overprotective bondmates flipped out and started attacking the cat, whenever he got near her or the burrow. It made the cat really sad that he lost his new friends and didn’t understand why. He’d walk around crying. If you’re against declawing, I’d definitely look into the caps.

[HoldenCaufield]

i don’t know to me that looks like the bunny is afraid, his ears are alert and he seems kind of upset, i actually turned the video off because i really didn’t like watching that.

maybe I’m being sensitive, but to me it looked scary :/

[Jessie1990]

I have two cats that live with my bunny Moogle. I found that using the caps on the claws of my cats caused the cats to be stuck to things like blankets, clothing, lose fabric on furniture. We had a nasty scare when I was at work and came home to a kitty stuck to a blanket. His paw was red from the irritation. Since then I have just kept up on trimming their nails, and teaching the kitties how to use their claws properly.

I would just trim diligently until kitten learns what is expected.

[ElliottsMum]

Kitten is about 5 months old.  Ive tried the spray bottle and he’s even been fixed but things have not improved. Actually the situation is a little worse. I keep the two separated with Elliott in my room and Charlie free reign of the house. Charlie waits by my door and as soon as he can get in to my room he chases after Elliott and jumps on top of him. I am constantly kicking the poor kitten out but it terrifies me.  My vet came by a few weeks ago to check out Elliott to make sure he did not have any hidden injuries. Though she found nothing, she seemed very concerned when I showed her the video of the two of them. She informed me that Elliott was not happy and quite scared. Because of his sweet nature, he would and will not stick up for himself. So, with her help we put caps on his nails but apparently the kind I bought had bad quality glue and they all fell off in a few days. This situation is tough. Charlie is a wonderful cat who Ive grown so attach to but seeing my Elliott scared is too difficult. Im sorry to upset you HoldenCaufield. I needed to show the forum members what I was witnessing to make sure I was not overreacting, especially because it scares me too.

[Thump]

I dont think there is any reason to ever get rid of Charlie. I think you just need to keep them separated while you are not home and keep them together only when supervised. Kitty seems really playful but I bet that will calm down as he matures. Pouncing on a bunny all day might be fun at first but eventually he will outgrow this over-energetic kitten behavior.

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