How to move a kitty into bunny's apartment?

[qtipthebun]

So the girlfriend has a mean, evil kitty who we left with her mom when we moved. We figured he already new the house, sometimes wanted to be an outdoors cat, and her mom might need some company. Also, Q-tip has been known to beat the fluff out of him.

Well, her old/not in great health mother tripped over the cat last night and fell. We're talking about bringing him up here. We live in a one bedroom place, but it's a decent size, and Q won't go in the bathroom or kitchen because she hates the floor. So there would be a place to keep his litterbox away from hers.

However, what stops him from just hopping into her litterbox? I mean, it's a box, he's a cat...he's proven pretty intrigued by it before. I don't want him using her litter box.

Also, how would we go about introducing them? He's scared of his own shadow around anything that's not a human (he's mean to people). He's terrified of Qtip. Intrigued, but the second she bounces, he FREAKS out. He's only met her through the bars of an NIC cage, and usually she's chasing his tail trying to bite him (see her blog for accounts of how she beats up the cat).

But this is her house, her terrain. How would it work bringing in a cat? What if he decided not to play nice? I can close her between the huge walk in closet and bedroom when we're not home, like I always do, and could leave the cat between the bathroom, living room, and kitchen, but he likes to sleep on the bed and so does she. So what about when we're home?

Has anyone tried to bring a cat into the house with a bunny? How did they react? He'll be 2 in February, and is neutered. He's usually just a lazy flop, but...

 

[whitelop]

I don't know how to answer your questions exactly, because I don't know your cat or rabbit. But I do have 3 cats, a dog and a rabbit who peacefully share a house. We had Foo before we had the cats, she got used to the dogs when we lived in a one bedroom, so she basically didn't care. Then we got one cat as a rescue and then the other two from my mom. Those two cats were already old and didn't care about other animals. But the rescue is a bit younger and she is a little more playful, so we had to teach her to not hurt the rabbit. She learned well.
Well, with Ellie, she was raised from 6 weeks with the cats so she's used to them. BUT we did take the dog away a few weeks into her being here. So she had to get used to the dog again, that was different. She would freak out completely, she thumped for weeks. She finally got used to him after a few weeks, she gets scared still but does okay.
I think that since you have an open floor plan type deal with Q just being out all the time, that could be a little difficult with getting them used to each other. Since neither one of them can really go into another room. Does Q have any sort of cage? That might be better, or if you try to gate Q in the bedroom? I'm not sure exactly how your apartment is set it. Our one bedroom was a living room and a separate bedroom, so we could have used a gate.
I didn't really answer anything. But I wanted to say that having them leaving peacefully CAN happen. Cats and rabbits get along a lot of the time, but you have to keep in mind that cats carry nasty germs under their claws and in their mouths. And have been known to cause ugly infections and even death in rabbits. You would REALLY have to trust your cat to leave them together unattended. Even still, I have to check on my rabbit with one of my cats because sometimes the cat gets crazy.

As for the litter box, you can't really keep the cat out of it. But you have to clean the poop out immediately. I don't have a little box for the cats in my house, because they barely used it anyway. But my one cat will use the rabbits litter box and I have to make sure that Ellie doesn't get into the box with the cat poop. I change it immediately. Its just one of those things, with cats and open litter boxes. It sucks though, because my cat always poops when I put fresh hay in the box and I have to throw it all out! They just know what feels nice on the cat feet.

I probably didn't help very much.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I'm going through rabbit and cat bonding at the moment. I, like you, have a cat that was scared of the rabbit. My cat is 18 and very docile and accepting though so I knew there was a good chance they could get along at some point. But, my rabbit is also very outgoing and friendly and hasn't done anything to the cat except sniff her and follow her around a lot. I know that for my situation the thing that's been working on having them get along is I started giving them treats together while they were in the same room and I also take turns brushing them in the same vicinity. It's teaching them that when they are in the same room together, good things happen. I also use a lot of positive words and tone to my voice when they are close to each other and getting along.

I watch them like a hawk though because you never know what either them could do. For instance the other night, a sound or something scared Sophie and she thumped her foot and started acting all crazy and it totally wigged out my cat. She knew Sophie was acting weird and it looked like she was getting mad at Sophie. I immediately removed my cat from the room so that I could wrangle up Sophie and get her back in her condo. It's a very good example of how careful you have to be because even if things are seemingly going well there can also be major setbacks.

Another important thing to consider is what sort of energy are you putting out when they're in the same area? If you're afraid something bad is going to happen, it probably will because they will feed off of that energy.

They probably need boundaries set in the beginning where they know that one can't go into the others space. In the beginning, Sophie only had her condo and half of the living room carpet to run on. I had an area sectioned off for her and I didn't allow my cat to go on it and I didn't allow Sophie to jump into my cat's bed. After awhile I increased Sophie's access. Now she has the entire livingroom and I also have a carpet runner going into the kitchen for her.

It's been a process for the last 5 months and things are still improving. Not sure if you can take anything helpful from that or not.

Good luck

 

[qtipthebun]

Sophie's human, that was pretty helpful (and Morgan, you said exactly what I DIDN'T wanna hear about the litter boxes!!!!) actually. Q's problem will be that she's used to having the entire house at her command (I say entire house...it's a 650 square foot apartment)...blocking her off from places because of Gizmo would make her resent him.

I'm totally against de-clawing, but if claws can hurt the bun, do you think a de-clawing is fair? The bunny is here first. She's our child, haha! We wouldn't want to do anything that would hurt or upset her.

I'm not certain if and when we're moving the cat (could be in a month, could be in a year), but since we're starting to talk about it...figured I'd see how others were doing it. I think the cat really wants a friend. He's fat and lazy and although he's not far from a kitten, nobody really plays with him because my partner's mom can't really. He makes his own amusement, or he sleeps. I think he'd really do well with a friend. Q on the other hand....that would be something to steal attention from her!!

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

You should not consider declawing a cat because it's very painful and cruel for them. Most vets don't do it anymore. You should however consider getting the cats nails fitted with rubber claw covers. They are inexpensive and they stay on until you have to clip the cats nails, then you just reapply them. They prevent the cat from scratching. Even with that done you still have to worry about biting. I also suggest playing with the cat, getting their hunter instincts out of them. If the cat is played with it won't have as much of an urge to attack the rabbit or see it as prey. They can probably coexist but you're going to have your work cut out for you. Patience and a watchful eye will be the key in my opinion.

 

[middlemuse]

Declawing can also make cats more aggressive and likely to bite, since you've removed their main defense and method of interacting with the world. I don't think it would help make the bunny safer, basically.


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[blwinteler]

I brought my bunnies into my cat's home. Chachi is a scaredy-cat. Our cockatiel scares her. So, she avoids the bunnies when they are out. Bugsy has tried to investigate her. She ran away. When I am on my computer again, I should post the video I took off her initial reaction to them. It is funny.
The bird, on the other hand, had a problem. Bugsy actually attacked him twice. I only saw the second attack; my son was here for the first. Now they aren't out of their cage at the same time anymore.
Anyway, they may just avoid each other, but don't count on it. You never know who will get aggressive, so keep an eye on them.

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