Lucy and Pickle

[spoh]

Back in December I posted on " let your hair down" about my daughter getting a kitten ( Pickle) and was asking advice about introducing her to our 10 year old cat. My daughters bedroom is above our garage at the end of our house, it took over a month for Pickle to get brave enough to venture into the rest of the house so introducing her to Belle (big cat) wasn't an issue because they never crossed paths. Well now they have met Belle hates Pickle with a passion, she wants nothing to do with her and screams and hisses whenever Pickle is anywhere near.

So I decided to try introducting Pickle to Lucy (Bun) because she so wants a friend. They seem to really like each other, the first couple of times Lucy would turn on Pickle with that angery " don't touch that" or " don't even try it" look but the last couple of days there hasn't even been any of that. Lucy will allow Pickle into her cage, even while she is eating. She will allow her to play with her toys. They will do laps around the couch which I watch carefully because I know that kittens play differently that buns do and I don't want Lucy to get hurt. The other night both of them were in the living room, Lucy was all stretched out relaxing and Pickle wanted to play so she kept doing the "sideways run with her hair and tail up" towards Lucy, she did it over and over again but Lucy just layed there looking at her like she was nuts. Pickle finally gave up and looked for entertainment elsewhere.

Is there ever a time when you can totally relax and just the two be together without watching them every minute? How will I know when this time is if ever? How do I tell if Lucy is ready for Pickle to leave the room? I usually just let them play for 1/2 hour or so and then take Pickle but then sometimes Lucy will come to the gate and look out like " hey, where did she go?"

I tried to post some pictures but photobucket wouldn't let me resize them for some reason.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks a bunch,

Joy

 

[spoh]

Can somebody maybe resize these for me, I assume they are going to be huge.

Thanks

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I don't know for sure. I just know that they are SO cute together!!!

 

[spoh]

Bo B Bunny, Why can't I see your reply?

Joy

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

Sorry I don't have any advice but I wanted to say...How CUTE! They look precious together. :biggrin2:

 

[Evey]

Hello,

I have four cats and four bunnies in the same house, and I don't have any trouble with them interacting. Then again, all of my cats are de-clawed all over so that would be my main worry w/ your kitten and the bunny alone together.

Also, my bunnies aren't free roam so when they're out, I'm always watching them. I guess I don't have any good advice except that it's always a good idea to supervise their interactions because you never know what could happen.

-Kathy

 

[spoh]

Evey wrote:

Hello,

I have four cats and four bunnies in the same house, and I don't have any trouble with them interacting. Then again, all of my cats are de-clawed all over so that would be my main worry w/ your kitten and the bunny alone together.

Also, my bunnies aren't free roam so when they're out, I'm always watching them. I guess I don't have any good advice except that it's always a good idea to supervise their interactions because you never know what could happen.

-Kathy

Thanks everybody we think they are pretty cute too.


Declawing is something that we are going to have to think about. In fact my daughterjust brought that to my attention the other day. Pickle is too cute, she will go right up to Lucy's gate and ask to go in, she really would like to be friends with the big cat but she is just so set in her ways and not open to change :grumpy:so I don't see that happening, she might grow to accept Pickle but I don't see a budding friendship.

Joy

 

[MsBinky]

I have a kitten with 5 bunnies and they all get along. I have not had my kitten declawed but I trim them or at least check them every time before letting the buns out.

I must say that they are never unsupervised - even if there has never been any aggression, even if Houdina (the kitten) has always done nothing other than love the buns... It's simple... Everyone has their off days and someday it might be that one isn't feeling so well and gets annoyed with the other. I just don't want anyone getting hurt. It's particularly important that the cat never bites the rabbit as it can be very dangerous.

With that said, I think you know by their body language when they are comfy. Do they follow each other around, play, snuggle, etc.? If there is no aggression, in particular no grunting, ears back, nipping from bunny, then it should be safe to say that they are "comfy" with each other. You definitely don't want your bunny stressed. It doesn't sound like yours are having any issues, but I do warn against letting your guard down. You just never know

 

[EdieRabbitsMom]

I have four cats and one bun and her pen does not have a cover. The cats hop in and out, mostly to eat hay, but they are scared to death of my bun and don't bother her. Not even the 6 month old kitten. He does try to play with her, but gives up after a while of being ignored by her.

I let her out of the penin the evenings, so she is free to roam around our bottom floor. The cats could care less and she could care less about them. Of course, Edie is a big bun....she weighs 10 lbs, which is more than 3 or the 4 cats, so maybe that is why they are scared. :?