Cats and Birds

I am thinking about getting a kitten and I have some concerns about it. I have a pet parakeet who is 2 yrs old, I am wondering how safe he is if I get a cat. Can I train the cat to leave my bird alone or is that impossible?

If anyone has been in a similiar situation or just has any info on this please let me know!

Thanks!
Amy

LoL, I'm in the reverse sitution (see thread "Any Luck with Cats and Birds?" as I have a cat and want to get a parakeet! Maybe there's some points in there that might help you, or maybe some of the knowledgable people that answered my questions can answer yours.

Best of luck, and welcome to the board.


-Jenn

There are a few suggestions I'll give to
you from my experiance.

I once had a huge parrot that bit everyone except
me.I told myself I would keep him because
I really loved him. My husband knew I really wanted
a kitten so, on valentines day he brought me this
adorible white fluffy kitten.
I told him the bird would freak out. I soon
learned the kitten seemed to love watching the bird
and when the kitten walked into the room the parrot
would say "here kitty" and then whistle. I decided
to see how the kitten would react if i took him out.
The kitten soon found a new best friend as the bird
did the same. The kitten seemed to think he was
a kitten because he always gave him baths!

The point to my story is, if you get a kitten...
they might love each other or they might
hate each other. If they dont seem to like each other
E-mail me if you would like and i'll give you
some suggestions

Very nice story. I think that parrots are extremely intelligent and actually do communicate with other species, not just their own. I suppose there are a lot of folks who would say it is dumb to think that, but I've seen some pretty surprising conversations that don't appear to be tricks. And what a pal he's made, huh?

Do you think it could work reversed? An adult cat with a baby parrot? Not that I would ever test the big guy, just wondering.

LindaLouise

I'm thinking of buying a cat as i have loved cats since i was little but i have a sun conure (parrot) which is medium in size..not one of the big parrots. So because of this i am very worried that the cat's intincts might kick in and it will decide to kill my parrot one day. what do you think about this? And if you have had experience with this please tell me about it.

I for one, wouldn't put a bird and an adult cat together ever, specially not unsupervised (this is meaning playing out of the cage, as I know you see on Animal Planets Funniest Animals). I feel this can just be too dangerous.

I have owned 2 keets and a bunch of cats at the same time. I currently have one keet and 3 cats. All 3 of my cats would love to kill, if not eat this bird had they the chance. Yet I had another cat, who was basically a barn cat she's the one I will refer to as "The tamest feral I've ever met" lol. My first keet and this kitten formed a type of "friendship" through the bars of the cage. This cat never tried the hurt the bird as the others do, when the cat would jump next to the cage, the bird would come over to that side and try to sit next to the cat, and would talk to the cat. Mind you this was after the cat allowed the bird to bit paws and noses until the bird felt the cat wasn't an enemy any longer.

My best advice to you, is to just keep the bird out of reach as much as you can. Either keep the bird and it's cage in a room behind a closed door, which the cat will never have access to. A lot of people say that birds get too stressed out from the co existance of birds living with other animals and that they will die or fall very ill. While I wont flat out deny this, I can say I have never seen this, my birds and my clients birds who live with other animals are very happy and healthy animals, whom have actually gotten used to the presence of the cats/dogs/people, etc.

If you don't have a room, susupend the bird from the ceiling, away from any furniture where a cat could jump to the cage. Bird love sun shine, so try to hang the bird in a room with a window, but just mind any excessively cold drafts from the window or excessive sunlight.

It's possible there is cats out there who have been successfully trained to not bother the bird, but I can tell you my gang is not one of them! While it's not their all day target, they do try to get to the bird now and then.

Amy, "Pops" can help you- he is really cool

Pop's

I had a parakeet (Benny) for 13 years and as soon as he was old enough, Fitz was trying to get him. I even put Benny on his own shelf high above the entertainment center. One day I came home and Benny, cage and all, had been thrown from the shelf onto the floor. The cage top was open and no Benny. I freaked out and put Fitz in the bedroom and went looking for what I thought would be a bloody headless body. 5 minutes later, I found him behind the litterbox with little poops back and forth along the edge (apparently he'd been there a while). He was perfectly fine but missing a couple of long tail feathers. The only thing I could think was that Fitz grabbed his tail and Benny must have spun around and bit him good on the nose and Fitz decided it wasn't fun anymore. Benny was no "spring chicken" at the time either, he was 12, had a broken toe that had healed wrong and a broken wing that had healed wrong, not to even mention the fact that his wings were clipped. I guess my point is that this crotchety old parakeet, who stayed the size of a baby his whole life, managed just fine against a 9 month old cat with all his claws. However, after this incident, I tied Benny's cage to the shelf and moved it to a wall where Fitz couldn't reach him, just to be on the safe side.

Hello,
I have 2 canaries and one bird crazy kitty. Joules always chatters to the birds out the window. I had the birds when Joules was a kitten, and I put them up high enough where she couldn't jump to. My mom took the birds for about a year because she liked them so much. She adopted a full grown kitty from the humane society, but the kitty would not learn to leave the birds alone at all and she had to keep them in separate rooms. It was a big hassle to do this, so she gave the birds back to me. Joules could not stop licking her chops at them when I brought them home. I put them in a high place again, but being a little more grown-up, she was able to jump on top of the cage (she did do this a few times when I wasn't looking)! For the first week or two I had to keep the door closed to the birds and watch her carefully when the door was open. Every time she stared up at the birds with big saucer eyes and crouched and licked her chops I scolded her and that was usually enough to chase her from the room or hide in a corner. I let her know that the birdies were not toys or food. I got her a BUNCH of toys and even toys that looked like birds and mice and went "tweet-tweet" and I would encourage her to play with them instead of staring up at the birds, and it definately distracted her, and I think she was smart enough to get the idea that I wanted her to play with the toys and not the birds. Now she doesn't bother them at all. She doesn't ever give them that hunter look, but she does like to just sprawl on my bed and watch them lazily. I don't have to keep an eye on her anymore and I don't need to close the door all the time either. If I'm going to be gone all day I usually close the door though just in case.
-Kelli and Joules