Cats and Rabbits

I'm getting ready to adopt my first kitten, and I already have a 1 year old, 2lb Netherland Dwarf rabbit named Toby. I've heard a lot of positive experiences when it comes to introducing a new cat to a resident bunny, and that cats are usually one of the more successful pets you can friend to a rabbit.

Does anyone here have any experience (positive or negative) with rabbits and cats together? I'd like to get a young kitten since my bunny is very small and pretty timid, so that way the cat isn't any bigger than Toby and doesn't intimidate him too much. I'm hoping even that the lack in size difference will toughen Toby up enough to the challenge where he'll assert his territory a bit with the kitten, which I've heard many rabbits do in the beginning and helps establish the boundries with the new cat.

Any opinions? What were some good methods others have used to smooth the cat-rabbit introduction?

Yeah, I'm hoping that in getting a kitten it'll be small enough to not seem immediately like a threat to Toby and won't see Toby as a meal in return. I doubt Toby would ever charge any animal, he's pretty passive and nervous.

For the first while after I bring the kitten home, it'll probably stay in his safe area downstairs and I'll start introducing blankets from one another with their scents to each other. The bunny has his own room that he stays in, blocked off by a baby gate so I'll introduce the kitten to him very slowly on separate sides of the gate -- when they seem pretty cool with one another on opposite sides, I'll try bringing the kitten inside the bunny room.

I'm really not sure how Toby will react to the kitten to be honest. He's pretty timid towards people he doesn't know, though I know the woman I originally bought him from a year ago owned cats and there was a picture of him on the couch with one of them so I'm hoping he'll be okay with them.

Pictures of Toby:

This was the picture on his kijiji ad where I bought him from. He seemed to have gotten along with this cat, though I'm not sure how impressed the cat was, lol.


This is him a bit older after I got him. He's about 1 1/2 years old now and just over 2 and a half pounds. So still a very tiny bun!


I'll try to remember to upload some more recent pictures of him in one of the other forums here, I have a bunch that haven't been put anywhere online yet to access. I love him to bits, he's my little boy~ *Hearts*

The youngest kittens our shelter puts up for adoption are over 2 months old, usually a bit older so that's no problem.

My rabbit is an adult. He's completely full grown, but 2 1/2 pounds is as big as most Netherland Dwarfs get. It's just their regular full grown size.

For the first week I only let Iroh and Toby see each other from opposites of the gate to the bunny room. Surprisingly enough, my timid little bunny came right up to the gate to check out the new kitten. He'd sniff around and then Iroh would do something silly like go and dart his paw through the gate and the bunny would jump back. Nothing aggressive though on either part.

I waited until I'd taken Iroh to the vet to make sure he was healthy (and get a claw trim) and then the second week I actually let them meet face to face in Toby's room, and low and behold it actually went like I hoped it would -- when the kitten got too close, Toby let out an angry little grunt and charged him. After a couple times of being charged by the territorial bun, Iroh got a bit more hesitant and kept his distance while he explored the bunny room.

The crazy thing is that while Toby angrily chases Iroh around, you'd think the kitten would want nothing to do with the bunny room -- and yet it gets to the point where I'm constantly trying to keep Iroh OUT of the room when I go in. I keep the door closed but when ever I go in Iroh is right there behind me trying to leap over the gate. o_O I've put some double-sided tape on the top of the gate to try to deter him from climbing it, but it hasn't worked very well.

I've been trying to do daily supervised interaction between them, but nothing is really improving. I was hoping that once Toby got his little territorial jollies out the first few times he'd calm down, but every time the cat comes in he starts up again. And all the while, Iroh seems to be getting bolder -- instead of running away when Toby charges at him now, he's pawing back at him and I'm worried that Toby's going to end up getting cut from a kitty swipe. (I think part of the trouble is that the only time I can do these interactions is in the evening, and that also seems to be the time when Iroh is at his most rambunctious playful mode.)

Not really sure what to do at this point. If they can't get a long then I'd at least like to have it so the cat doesn't both even checking out the rabbit but he's obsessed with that room. I'd like to get back to normally leaving Toby's door open (I feel bad that he can't see us walking around the house anymore) but not if it means he's going to have to keep defending his turf from the cat.