(Sorry in advance for the really long rambly reply!)

I have two (mostly) free roam bunnies and got a kitten back in early November, so I have some experience/opinions to offer! I say “mostly” free roam because our bunnies do sleep in a cage at night, and we also put them in the cage if we’re going to be out of the house for more than a quick errand. We’ve always done this (long before the kitten) just because they’re super destructive bunnies and they would totally destroy the entire house if I weren’t there to intervene!

We got our kitten when he was 12 weeks old. He (Sasha) was actually quite small (under 2 lbs) which I think was really helpful for the bunnies – they’re only 3 lbs but they had a size advantage on him for the first month or so! He was very curious about them from the start but also a bit intimidated – if a bunny ever hopped towards him, he would run away I think the best thing was that our bunnies were very chill about it all – they showed practically no interest in Sasha, and didn’t run away or even flinch if he approached them. Even our super timid bunny acted really confident in front of him, and even acted a little territorial (following the cat onto the couch, etc). Eventually Sasha stopped being scared of the bunnies, but I think he’s kept his impression that they are Not Prey. He’s still an energetic/playful kitten so he often tries to get them to play with him, but they look much more like equal playmates than predator-prey.

Despite all this, I still don’t entirely trust Sasha around the bunnies. Things like bunnies scrabbling on the hard floor or binkies randomly trigger his instinct to chase, and I’m just thankful the bunnies keep their cool and don’t freak out when it happens. Sasha has never shown any signs of aggression (playing with claws out, etc) but I can imagine it happening if he got too excited. That’s why I always like to be nearby, so I can separate them immediately if things look like they’re escalating. Also, if a bunny did somehow get hurt, I want to be there when it happens so I can deal with it right away.

One suggestion: if you do get a cat, have him wear a collar with a bell. It’s annoying to listen to, but the bunnies always know where he is. If he’s in a crazy mood, the bell is constantly ringing while he runs around and the bunnies usually choose to lay low for a bit.

I think it was actually really beneficial for our bunnies to be used to spending time in the cage and comfortable in it. It makes me think a little of crate training in dogs – a crate shouldn’t be a punishment, but a safe and familiar space. The bunnies actually spend a lot of time sleeping in the cage even when the door is open (even before the cat), maybe because it’s the only place that’s 100% theirs and they just feel comfortable in there. The reason I’m going on and on about the cage is because now that we have Sasha, the bunnies really use the cage as their home base. If Sasha is being particularly crazy or irritating then they just retreat back to their cage and wait for him to calm down.

With regards to your situation, my advice is to have a backup plan. If for whatever reason the kitten and Muffin don’t get along, what will you do? It sounds like when you get your new house you can keep Muffin in a separate room if necessary, which is a good option. If you got the kitten sooner, would you be willing to do something like I do (keep Muffin in his hutch when you leave the apartment/when you’re sleeping), or do you think that would be too hard on Muffin? Hopefully that would just be a short term thing while they learned to get along, but there’s always the possibility that it’ll need to be permanent, and you need to be ok with that before you get a kitten.

If it were me, I would probably wait until you moved to get the kitten just for peace of mind – it really is helpful to have an extra room where you can put the cat if he’s being bad. But I don’t think your current situation is an impossible one – I’m sure you could make it work if you really wanted to!

As far as age of the kitten, probably the younger the better. A young kitten is still learning what’s normal; an older kitten might have a harder time accepting that bunnies are friends and not toys. Then again, all kittens/young cats have a TON of energy, so it might be worth considering getting an older cat! I’m sure there are cats out there that have lost their prey drive and just want to sleep in the sun all day

Let me know if there are any specific questions I can answer for you! I could tell you about how we introduced our kitten/bunnies, but this post is already suuuuper long and probably TMI