Question about rodent pets and our kitty friends.

Who here has mice, rats, hamsters and other small prey-like minis? What
precautions do you recommend taking. Can a cat learn to accept them as
fellow pets or will kitties always have to be in another closed off area
if we want to have the mini out for a visit?

Kristy
getting a mousie once its born and old enough. Already have the cage

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:34:56 GMT, dopekitty
yodeled:

Who here has mice, rats, hamsters and other small prey-like minis?

You mean hors-d'oeuvres?




Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

dopekitty had some very interesting things to
say about Question about rodent pets and our kitty friends.:

Who here has mice, rats, hamsters and other small prey-like minis? What
precautions do you recommend taking. Can a cat learn to accept them as
fellow pets or will kitties always have to be in another closed off area
if we want to have the mini out for a visit?
Kristy
getting a mousie once its born and old enough. Already have the cage

Well, my little piece of prey has feathers :-), but she and Felix
co-exist amicably. Felix is middle-aged and lazy, which helps when
Ava's buzzing him. :-)

--
"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be
doing just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding.
:-)" - the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL

I once considered adopting African spiny-mice, and decided to house
them atop the one piece of furniture that Nox cannot reach, and not to
let them out when she was in the room. However, then I ended up
spending the money I'd saved for their cage and supplies on poor
Smokey when we took him in. Now, with four cats, and an apartment, I
don't think it's fair to put the cats all in the same bedroom so
rodents can come out, so...no rodents for us.

--Fil

I owned a hamster for a while and then Imp and Mischief came into my
life.

We have a door that separates the living room from the bedroom, so at
night the door would be shut so they couldn't get out an 'investigate'

There were times when Fuzzy would run on his wheel at night and
suddenly there were two cats just staring. I would squirt them with
the water bottle if they so much as put their paws up to get a better
look.

Mischief only jumped on the table a few times, mainly just to get a
better look and ponder, "How do you get this thing open?"

Bear in mind, small rodents tend to be little harry houdinis so they
like to escape.

I remember one time i saw Mischief staring intently at the cage(I had
one with all the tubes and stuff), and suddenly I noticed that Fuzzy
was trying to squeeze out through a tiny hole between two connecting
tubes!

I caught him in time and fixed it, but I wouldn't doubt that Mischief
was probably saying, "Come on, you can do it! Push Push!!(licking
lips)

It all depends on the cat. Imp would get interested every now and
then, but doesn't try anything.

I do also have two parakeets who live in a cage hanging from the
ceiling, but the cat's can's get to them

Kristi

"Mischief" wrote in message
ups.com...


It all depends on the cat. Imp would get interested every now and
then, but doesn't try anything.


Indeed, rodents do not last long in this house. I know this as fact from the
number caught in the garden and brought inside... My three view rodents as
fast food snacks!

Cheers, helen s

On 23 Apr 2005 11:35:47 -0700, "Mischief"
wrote:

Bear in mind, small rodents tend to be little harry houdinis so they
like to escape.

Maybe even Hairy Houdinis. grin

I've got to share my story-

I have a little cat named Boomer who is probably 12 years old and has never
weighed more than 4 or 5 pounds. She's the friendliest cat I've got -
everyone who leaves my house leaves with Boomer-fuzz on them, like it or
not. She ain't the sharpest crayon in the box, but then she doesn't need to
be.

Many years ago, against my wishes my daughter came home toting a hamster in
a small cage. Well, even if it IS a rat, it had to have a nice house so we
went out and got the Habitrail with the tunnels and little nest boxes and
all that. The hamster (Millie) spent every waking minute escaping. One
night I was wakened from a dead sleep by the hamster squeaking and came out
into the hall to find Millie had gotten out of her cage and squeezed under
the door to the room, and run right into Boomer. Boomer was watching with
interest while Millie tried to jump up the door (why, when she had just
successfully come UNDER it?) but Boomer didn't make an aggressive move.
Another time Boomer was accidentally shut up in the room with Millie when
she escaped the Habitrail, and Millie ran into my husband's snow boot and
chewed the wool liner up. Boomer could have gotten her if she wanted, but
she was happy just to watch Millie's antics.

Millie's luck ran out one night when she escaped and ran into Tuffy, who
knew just what to do with a rodent. Imagine my horror when he sauntered
into the room carrying Millie! DD knew just how to play it and we rushed
out and bought another hamster that night. He was also an escape artist but
so mean that you couldn't handle him. I finally pawned him off on the 4th
grade teacher...

Now (2 hamsters later) we have 4 inside cats, 2 parakeets and a lovebird. I
NEVER let the cats out when the birds are free. Even Boomer chatters when
she sees the birdies. You can have cats and prey species, but you have to
be vigilant all the time.

Cindy

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:34:56 GMT, dopekitty
wrote:

Who here has mice, rats, hamsters and other small prey-like minis? What
precautions do you recommend taking. Can a cat learn to accept them as
fellow pets or will kitties always have to be in another closed off area
if we want to have the mini out for a visit?

Kristy
getting a mousie once its born and old enough. Already have the cage

Well, I already had birds (cockatiels) before Little Bit decided to
make this her home. I've always made sure that the birds are caged
whenever the cats aren't locked in anther room (usually lock the cats
in the bedroom for a while on Sunday and let the birds out). Course it
depends on the cat as to whether or not your mouse will be safe during
sypervised visits outside the cage.
--
Steve Touchstone,
faithful servant of Sammy and Little Bit

[remove Junk for email]
Home Page: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/index.html
Cat Pix: http://www.sirinet.net/~stouchst/animals.html

"dopekitty" wrote in message
news:Anjae.1110400$6l.992097@pd7tw2no

Who here has mice, rats, hamsters and other small prey-like minis? What
precautions do you recommend taking. Can a cat learn to accept them as
fellow pets or will kitties always have to be in another closed off area
if we want to have the mini out for a visit?///

I had two pet rats for a while, and it became very stressful for
everyone involved. HRFL Tiger spend his whole time sitting on top of the
cage telling them how they were called "lunch" and "dinner", and how he
was going to find exotic ways to kill them. Unfortunately, because I had
a tiny, weeny house and they had to live in the kitchen, I had no way of
seperating them.

Eventually, I had to rehome the rats, as the cats were convinced they
were interactive toys.

However, having said that, when i was a kid, we had lots of hamsters etc
with cats and it always seemed to work OK if we kept them in a seperate
room from the cats.

Helen M


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