Housing Rabbit & Cat in Same Room

Hello!

I go today to pick up my new bundle of joy but things didn't go quite as planned and his hutch still isn't built. Long story short, people we asked to build it keep avoiding calls and won't show up when asked so hutch is still a pile of wood and wire. Mr. Bun will need to be housed indoors until we get something figured out but this also presents a problem all in itself.

The cage I have is very small (I was not prepared for this outcome, we tried for three weeks to get his hutch built without success and were assured it'd happen Monday but it didn't and I have been very, very busy as it is sowing time for a lot of my and my father's produce) but he'll have lots of turn out time in my room and also taken outside so he won't be so cramped up all the time. As luck would have it, I ordered his litterbox at the time I ordered all his other necessities - I almost didn't get the litterbox just yet - and they'll all be here today so that's handled! I also have wee pads spread on the remaining part of his cage, I intend to put them in the litterbox on the bottom so he'll hopefully make the connection if he doesn't already. So I am hoping that the cage will be okay until we figure something out; if it becomes more permanent, I'll find some way to make better furnishings for him. For now, this is all we can do at the moment!

However, that's not the only problem; I do have a cat that I've had for 3 years now and he has separation anxiety, pretty much. He doesn't like leaving my side and this means he must stay where I am - my room. What I am worried about is him bothering the rabbit. My nieces have a rabbit outside on ground-level and he didn't seem the least bit interested in it but I'm afraid with this one being in "his territory", he might be more aggressive. As a preventive measure, I clipped all his claws so he can't hurt the rabbit by reaching in and I won't be letting the rabbit out while Milo (the cat) is in the room. What worries me is when I sleep - Milo HAS to be in the room when I sleep, that's his biggest thing. He will cry, cry, cry and scratch at the door if he's left out and I don't want to upset his usual routine for the rabbit's sake, I want to find a way that he is unhampered as much as possible and bunny gets all the space he needs, too, and is safe. I'm just scared he might try to pull Little Bit through the holes in the cage.

I attached a few pictures of the cage, bear in mind its just blanket and wee pad for now but it has been sanitized and it'll have all his furnishings soon, they just haven't arrived. Please excuse the mess in the backgrounds/cup top that fell on the floor, I've been cleaning a lot so things are a little messy while I reorganize!

Is there anything else I can do to assure the two will cohabitate peacefully (or mostly peacefully) in the shared space?

Thank you in advance for all ideas!

What kind of bun???? If I were you I would try and put the cage in a corner and wrap a blanket around the top and sides so then it makes a cave where the bun can retreat to and the cat can't reach him.

I got an 8 week old Holland Lop. He is home now but we have him outside until I get everything ready for him inside, which will be in a few hours. He's in his cage, though. It appears that he will be staying indoors permanently so soon I will be looking into NIC setups for him. I didn't expect him to get the OK to move inside permanently but everyone in the family fell in LOVE with him. He is super laid back and just wants to be held; in fact, he tries to scramble back into your arms when you let him low enough to go back onto the ground. So needless to say, he will be a permanent indoor resident.

I will try the blanket thing! That's a wonderful idea!

That's awesome! You can always try to work a bond between the cat and the bun if the cats disposition is right! But that's awesome, I have an indoor bun and it's wonderful!

My Milo is very laidback as well and he is very loving though timid. He does seem interested in Tinker (the rabbit) but he's not too terribly preoccupied with him. He stayed around the cage for a while inspecting and tried to paw in a few times (I patted his paw so he'd stop, I let him inspect and watch but I do not let him reach paws in) but right now, Tinker is in his cage resting and Milo is on my desk on his mound of blankets sleeping. So I don't think it'll take too much to get them used to one another's presence at least. I hope I am doing everything right, this is my first housebun and I honestly am new to all this!

This is my little Tinker:



He's fine once you have him in your arms but he is still a little timid about being picked up, which I expected. Trying to give him some time to "cool down" now and relax so he can get used to his surroundings. He has definitely had a full day but he has been eating tons of hay and pellets and drinking water, so I think he's at least not stressed! He made fast friends with our dogs (he boops noses with them, which makes our dogs wag their tails, lol!) and he's pretty fearless.

I'm still pretty nervous about how sleeping will go tonight... I'm a little apprehensive of leaving them in the same room; I might bring in some spare 1/4 in gauge hardware cloth I've got in the shed and put it across the front so Milo can't disturb him. If anyone has ideas about how to secure the front at night, I'd be really grateful!

I'd also like to hear others' stories about getting cats and buns acclimated to one another. My little Tinker is tiny, so I'm really worried for him around the cat!

Very cute, having not had a indoor house rabbit and cats, I can't comment too much on that however if you do have issue you could buy some clear perspex or similar to attach to the sides of the cage. For the moment, I would be adding a hidey box, cardboard box or pre-made plastic/wooden one from a pet store, just in case he gets scared and will help him feel more secure and will provide a solid barrier between bunny and cat if needed.

cat should be fine with the rabbit. And you can give rabbit a hidey hole to get away from the cat.

Thank you guys! His cage is pretty small and I have it covered with blankets so its a little like a cave. During the night, I put 1/2 gauge hardware cloth around the open end of his cage so my cat could see him, but could not reach in, and it worked very well! Over the night, my cat pretty much ignored him, checked in on him every once in a while but never tried to pry his way into his cage.

This morning, after I swept around the cage (Mr. Bun likes to throw his hay all about), I let Milo come up to the cage and they exchanged sniffs. Milo walked away really fast after this, I don't think he was expecting Mr. Bun to be so confrontational about their meeting, haha. Neither side was aggressive and now the cage is entirely uncovered and my cat isn't bothering him at all. I will probably leave it uncovered during the day and only cover at night until I know with 100% certainty that Milo isn't going to bother him. But it seems to be so far, so good. Mr. Bun is even using his litterbox! There's lots of poops outside it but all the pee is in his litterbox and honestly, that's all I care about lol! Poops are easy to clean up, pee not so much. xD

I'll find a small cardboard box for him, I can probably fit it somewhere! He isn't going to be spending much time in his cage hopefully, he gets free run of my room today with kitty outside the room for a few hours at least. Once everyone is content with eachother, I hope I will be able to let Mr. Bun out all day long Right now I am looking for alternate ways to house him; because my space is so small, I'm thinking of getting an entertainment center and hollowing out the middle and then putting the rabbit's stuff there so he can have a bigger space during his lock-up hours and it won't take much out of my room's space plus I still have somewhere to put my TV.

How is it going between the bun and your cat?????

Things are going pretty well! They frequently boop noses through the cage and my cat is pretty okay with my rabbit being in the room. He does get a little stalky/triggered when I let my rabbit out so, for the safety of Snickers, I remove my cat when its playtime. I can sleep through the night with only a blanket loosely draped over the cage (more for my piece of mind than anything, Milo tries to pat at him and I'm afraid either Snickers will nip him or he might accidentally scratch Snickers though I haven't seen him actually unsheath his claws when he prods at him & his nails are clipped but better safe than sorry!).

It has been cute a few times, Snickers would be at one end of the cage and Milo would come to that side and rub his entire body against it like he does my legs or when he's being cheeky as I babytalk him/when I greet him, haha. I'm sure he was just "marking" the cage since that's why they thread legs but it was cute if you don't get all technical about it lol!

The first few days, Milo was very interested and stalky about Snickers and would sit hunched at the cage, watching. I poked him if he got too intent, I don't want Snickers feeling like he's being hunted (though honestly Snickers didn't seem bothered at all and would poke his nose out to investigate). Overall neither side seems afraid of one another and I think they'd probably be okay if I had both out at the same time but I am far too nervous for that step yet. I think Milo is overall just curious about him and after he sees what he is, he'd probably just go about his business as usual. I'm going to wait until the month after Snickers is fixed to formally "introduce" them as I don't want them to get used to one another now then hormones kick in and perhaps ruins any chance of them getting along in the future.

One thing I have noticed is that Milo is pulling hay out of Snickers's cage and eating it LOL. I think Milo thinks he is part rabbit!

That's wonderful to hear! You might want to wait more like 6-8 weeks after the neuter for hormones to subside but otherwise that sounds fantastic!!!! Very glad for the three of you!!!

Thank you very much! I'm pretty happy with how things are going and thank you for the recommendation about duration after neuter I think eventually, the two of them will at least tolerate one another, if not be buddies. Regardless, Milo will have to deal with him cause little man already follows me around when I'm walking and runs/binkies/popcorns around my feet, haha.