Bonding a bunny and a kitten?

[qtipthebun]

Tippy may be ending up with a little sibling in a few weeks. My partner's best friend's cat just had kittens. If Cowgirl falls in love with any of them, we're going to have yet another ball of fluff around the house.

In this case, what would be the best way to introduce Q to a kitten? Is it better that she's going to be older than the cat, or would it be easier to have a grownup cat and introduce a baby bunny?

We're planning on making her an NIC cage at Cowgirl's, and probably giving her an x-pen (although I want to enclose it, because the little puffball can jump pretty high), so I doubt she and kitty will get too much face time, but what's the best way to do this?

Thanks.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray: We keep all our animals separate and I,m highly allergic to cats so that's a bridge uncrossed.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I have two cats. Victoria is 11 and was a stray her first 3 years. She tollerates the buns well except when Gary uses her as a speed-bump. Unfortunately she's getting old and fortunately he's long gone before she stands up to hiss at him.

Andre is a 4 year old Turkish Angora. We rescued him at 6 weeks, so with the week in the shelter, he wasn't with mom very long. He thinks he's a tough man, but is honestly the biggest baby ever.

Andre LOVES his bunnies and sometimes thinks he is one too. He grooms them, sleeps with them, plays with them. He even eats hay on occasion but ends up barfing it up later. Every night and every morning Andre and Gary play tag. They run all over the room, over us, up and down the hall like lunitics. They take turns being "it" and Gary normally taunts Andre into the chase. I've never seen a hint of aggression from the cat. When he catches up with Gary he stops and turns to run the other way. It's a very good relationship.

I'm guessing since the kitten has never needed to hunt for food you will be better off. If it gets too rough with Q-tip you will need to spray with water or some other way to let it know that is not acceptable. Be careful to keep the kitten's nails trimmed short, or covered with the rubbery nubs until it learns how to play safely with bunnies. I would keep things supervised until the kitten is old enough to have learned manners and you know they are friends.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

Fraggles LOVES cats!

 

[MagPie]

Hehehe Harvey LOVES my cats too. He likes to groom them, sometimes with a little too much nipping.

Anyway, it also depends on the cat too. I brought in an adult bunny to my household that already had two adult cats. My eldest cat is pretty adaptable and didn't mind the new addition (plus he'd rather just sleep). My younger cat has problems with changes. So it took him a little longer to be gentle (and not be scared) with the rabbit who was pretty outgoing to begin with. Now however the cat realizes that the rabbit will play with him (my older cat doesn't like playing with the younger cat) and they are pretty good buddies.

I keep the cat's claws trimmed on a regular basis, because I could see them pulling those claw caps off.

 

[toyabrooke]

Our cat Naru (Devon Rex) and our English Angora Dudley get along very well. We had Naru around 5 or 6 years before we got Dudley and took to him very fast. There are still occasions when she will walk past and put her nose up at him, but because they are the same colour (both grey), Dudley I think likes to think she is his mummy! Because he has his own room now, Dudley and Naru sleep in there most of the day and spend lots of time with each other - So cute!

In regards to food, Naru and our Sheba Inu Teddy would eat veggies, hay and whatever else the rabbit was getting to feel apart of what was going on