how to bond my rabbit and cat?

[ivybunny]

I don’t know if you can do this but I want my cat to bond with my rabbit (be friends) but my rabbit once saw my rabbit and watched her ivy freaked and jumped out of her cage she was in it at the time I quickly got the cat out and tried to comfort ivy… she is fine now but is there any way they can be friends so this doesn’t happen again and if so how?

[Ohbunny]

I know buns can bond with other animals, but I think a lot of it comes down to the individual animals. My buns keeps trying to bond with my lazy dog. My dog tolerates him, but isn’t as snuggly towards him. Our cat spends day time outside while our Buns is out because he stalks buns. He hasn’t pounced and I don’t know if he would, but the instinct is there and I don’t want to test it. Rabbits are related to rodents and rodents are a cat’s prey. I’ve seen a rabbit die from a cat scratch that tore through delicate rabbit skin. I know that some buns have bonded with cats and maybe someone else can give you better information , but I would keep them separated for the time being.

[brow9930]

We also have a cat and rabbit, and they are like “frenemies” – they tolerate each other but the cat’s instincts are to pounce and she likes to bonk the rabbit on it’s head…the cat is declawed and I don’t think the cat is trying to harm the rabbit but is essentially trying to play tag with it but to the rabbit I’m sure it’s not fun. At the same time the rabbit is curious about the cat and will lay on the floor near the cat with his back turned so I don’t think he sees him as a threat. We don’t leave them alone together to be safe though. We had high hopes that the two would be best friends but I don’t think that will happen for us.

[Liv]

I think it is deffinetly possible. Magic, one of my original rescue rabbits, and my cat Leo both bonded. We rescued Magic when she was older, maybe 7 (I say older because she had be outside all her life) and leo was maybe 6. The did not get loads of free time, and never unsupervised, but they did grow fond of each other. I would have Magic on my lap and leo would curl up with us, or sometimes they would even go as far as to lick and groom each other. I never purposely pushed for this though. In these types of relationships I don’t think you can force it and I really think it depends on the temperament of both animals. You could attempt to introduce them slowly through a screen door, but you must be ready to separate them and keep in mind that you that they may never work well together. 

~Liv

[ivybunny]

Thank you all so much

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