Advice needed for bonding kitten with 2 house rabbits

[Lee7892]

Hi all! I’ve had 2 lionhead lops since about October time last year as babies, they are house rabbits and have their own bedroom to roam around in our house. About 2 months ago my partner and I bought a Bengal kitten who is about 4/5 months old now. I’ve tried slowly introducing them on a few occasions, however with mixed results. Of the 2 rabbits (which are larger than the kitten currently I will add), the female one is very much the brains of the operation and is quite protective of her brother, who’s a little bit more…simple…and overly friendly if anything. As the kitten is a Bengal (pebbles is her name), she is quite predatory and plays a little rough sometimes. She will chase the rabbits around if they’re out in the same room and I’m worried about stressing the bunnies out. Does anyone have some advice how I might be able to get them all to get along nicely without all the chasing around? Thanks Lee.

[Emi]

I’m not entirely sure when bonding two buns with a kitten, but when I had to bond my two buns with my friends (who is currently living at our couch) cat, I did much like with two buns being bonded. I let them sniff and interact with either through the fence of the cage. I didn’t let them have any physical contact before my buns were used to the cat being around and relaxed in her presence. After that I moved on to sitting with one of my buns (the most relaxed and friendly if them first) in my lab and letting the cat have a look at them up close but with a close eye on the cat and it’s body language. Cats often make a “chewing”-like grimace when they want to tell the animal it’s facing that It will not hurt it.. but this is a cat that is a few years old. Don’t know if kittens have evolved their body language enough in that age 🙂

[Azerane]

I’m not too sure how to progress with it, however I would not be allowing your kitten to chase the bunnies around at all. Since this is highly stimulating of a predator/prey response. If she thinks it is ok now, she will continue to do it and it becomes much more dangerous when she’s an adult. I understand Bengals are a very active cat, I would have a heavy play session with the kitten to wear her out before having an introduction session with the buns. That way she is too tired to chase and should hopefully show less interest and the sessions should hopefully be more calm.

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