Cat wants to play with bunny

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 3sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 5 months ago by njbunny.

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- 11/19/2013 at 12:36 AM
  njbunny
  Participant
  99 posts
  My cat has really warmed up to Spot in 1.5 weeks. When spot is in his pen my cat will just hang out outside occasionally. When Spot is free roaming then my cat follows him around and lays by him. The problem is when my cat is in a really playful mood he gets to be a bit too much. When Spot is hoping around checking things out my cat will chase after him and almost jump over him trying to get him to play. I am worried that he may land on him and cause Spot harm. My cat is a year old and 10 pounds. Spot is 6 pounds. I am happy that they get along, just don’t want Spot to get hurt. Spot will go up to him when he is laying in the room.
- 11/19/2013 at 9:03 AM
  MoveDiagonally
  Participant
  2361 posts
  I wouldn’t let a cat play with a rabbit. Cats play by pretending to hunt and kill. If you ever watch two cats play with each other they bite, scratch, and tumble around as part of it. This doesn’t usually hurt the other kitty but rabbits have very thin, fragile skin and delicate bones. They are also prone to abscessing when scratched/bitten and cats carry a lot of bacteria in their mouths and claws. On top of that, rabbits are prey animals and being hunted is stressful for them and not fun. They just have very different ideas on what play is.
  
  You could try re-directing your cat by playing with her when she gets really excited. After they have “hunted and killed” (played) they are usually a lot more relaxed. Or if it gets too bad you could temporary move her to another room.
- 11/19/2013 at 10:03 AM
  Hazel
  Participant
  2587 posts
  We have a Siamese, she’s very high strung. She loves Oscar and anytime he’s out she wants to be in the middle of it. I let her, as long as she behaves. He will chase her and she will run, which is fine, but as soon as she looks like she wants to turn it around I step in. Even if she’s just laying down and watching him, as soon as she turns on that hunting stare I make sure to snap her out of it. She has of course ended up running at him/trying to chase him, but she never actually tries to engage him in a scuffle. If she chases, he normally just stops running, then chases her in turn. I wouldn’t allow them any contact at all if I didn’t know that she won’t go beyond the “running at him” part, or if I felt like he was scared of her in the least. They are of course never together unsupervised.
  
  I’ve also found treats and clicker training to be highly effective in teaching her appropriate behavior around Oscar. I treat her for any calm interactions, especially ignoring him. I also have her do the tricks we’ve taught her while he’s running around the room, which gets her used to focusing on something else while he’s around.
  
  I agree with MD, if it’s hard for your cat to learn not to look at him as a toy or to be calm around him, letting them have contact might not be a good idea.
- 11/19/2013 at 1:27 PM
  njbunny
  Participant
  99 posts
  Thanks for the responses! He is very gentle with him and has not tried to tackle him or anything. I think it is more just running after him when he hops away and when Spot stops short the cat will jump over top of him to avoid a collision. The cat only gets this way at night so during that time I will just play with him with a toy until he tires a bit (he would prefer that anyway!). Otherwise he just likes to lay by Spot which I think is really cute. He loves napping in his pen when Spot is out roaming around. Thanks!!!
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