Bunnies and cats

[OverthinkingBun]

Hi, I see so many of you have super-cute multiple pet households (in the photo threads), so I thought maybe someone could help.  It’s not an immediate problem or anything, but it’s on my mind, I guess.  I have a rabbit and my girlfriend has a cat.  We hope to move in together someday.  Which means the rabbit and cat would probably have to cohabitate too.  We are both worried that the cat would hurt my rabbit, Polly Oliver.  She is a 3 pound dwarf mix, who runs around a lot.  The cat is a largish, adult male cat.  He is getting to be kind of lazy, and doesn’t go outside or hunt anymore.  I don’t believe he was ever a big hunter.  He bites me sometimes, which I think is from jealousy, and he doesn’t get along with other cats.

According to some reading I’ve done, including brochures I was given when I first adopted my rabbit, a house rabbit book, and a book about multiple pet households, rabbits and cats can be best friends, but I am still afraid of how wrong it could go, especially since neither the cat nor the rabbit will be picked out as a friend for the other.  Does anyone have good advice?  How can we know whether this is safe or possible in advance?  

[Cocoa]

Is your bunny in a cage or do you let it run loose in your house? I have two bunnies who are normally outside but come inside when it rains or is too cold or too hot. They stay in a large dog crate when they have to come inside. I also have a cat who is pretty lazy. My bunnies don’t seem to care when she wanders around the house. Sometimes they will sniff each other through the bars on the cage. My bunnies are fine with walking on a leash so sometimes I walk them around the house if I cant go outside, if the cat sees them she ignores them. My bunnies were babies when I got them so they have known her since they were 8 weeks old. This is my experience with them. I hope this helps.

[diggityd77]

I have three cats plus our bunny. They have all gotten along well with the bunny. The cats just check the bunny out from a safe distance, watch him, then go on their way. Just this weekend the cats got super interested in the bunny’s home-base (food/water/litter/bed area) more than they have before – Oreo just ran over to them, in an alert but “hey, those are my digs” kind of way. The cats just ran away – they chew the random pieces of hay they find, occasionally. I do keep an eye on our one cat b/c I don’t 100% trust her but nothing has happened. I think the cats know that the family room is Oreo’s domain for the most part and the cats have the rest of the house.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Introduce them slowly under supervision but unless your cat is semi-feral or an avid hunter I don’t think you’ll have a problem. My bunny, Sterling whom I recently lost, and my cat were great friends. They would lay together and just hang out looking out the window. I’ve had many different cats and bunny combinations over the years, including 5 cats and 1 bunny once and I never had a problem with the cats trying to hurt the bunny. My biggest problem was my 3 lb Mini-Rex chasing the cats out of “his” living room and trying to bite their tails when they were on “his” couch.

[OverthinkingBun]

Thanks for the feedback!  My bunny lives in the house, and putting her outside is not an option.  It’s just so hard to picture Polly Oliver being safe around a bitey cat, considering the size difference.  She’s easily frightened, and I’m afraid she would act like prey rather than a friend.  Were you never scared, when you were introducing them?  

(PS, LPT, I’m really sorry to hear about Sterling.  He seemed like such a great rabbit!)

[LittlePuffyTail]

I was at first, my first bunny being so small (the Mini Rex who later terrorized the cats as a baby) but when I saw how the cats really had no interest in him whatsoever, I was reassured.

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