Old rabbit. New Kitten.

[systems]

 Hey guys, I’m new here. I signed up seeking some advice. Basically what happened was that my girlfriend got me a new kitten as an early birthday present. She’s really sweet, intelligent, and has a lot of personality. The problem is that she keeps trying to rough house with my girlfriend’s Holland Lop. The bunn is seeing this behavior as aggressive which is making her act agressive towards the kitten which, in turn, is making the kitten act out of real aggression. Another huge problem that we’re having is keeping the kitten out of the bunn’s cage and litter. We had just gotten the rabbit’s potty habits under control when we introduced the kitten. Frankly we’re both getting a little stressed out trying to keep all of this under control. We signed up hoping that the Binky Bunny community might be able to help us find a solution. 

 

Thanks in advance,

Systems 

[MoveDiagonally]

Welcome to BB! I’m sorry you’re having some troubles with your new kitten and rabbit.

How old is your bunny and are they spayed/neutered? What kind of cage do you have? Is there a way to close up the cage to the cat can’t get to it? Or is it open so the bunny can come out and play? Are they kept in the same area? Etc… I think a bit more info about your set up might help people give you some possible solutions.

It is important that you are very watchful when they are together. A cat scratch on a bunny could abscess pretty easily (cats have lots of bacteria in their claws).

[BinkyBunny]

Sorry about the lack of responses. Kittens can definitely be tricky, especially with their sharp nails, they can easily scratch a bunny (be careful with the eyes) and bunnies can get abscesses from that scratch. So I know people in the past have made sure to put soft paws on the nails or do something to make them less sharp. There are definite cat and bunny owners here that hopefully will pop in and give advice. I’m not sure how to prevent the cat from using the bunny’s litter. Cat owners, how do you do this??

I also remember reading about going through a certain type of introduction process – short supervised visits, but keeping them separate for the at least the first week or so until they slowly get used to each other.

Here are some older threads regarding similar questions that may be helpful (don’t respond directly to the old threads though)
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/116894/Default.aspx
https://binkybunny.com/Default.aspx?tabid=54&aft=6511
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/124795/Default.aspx

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