Cats + rodents

fluffybutdeadly

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I have 3 cats, a guinea pig and a hamster and a mouse. I sometimes take the hamster or guinea pig out on a lead and if they approach a cat the cat is always terrified! Even of the hamster.
 

pushylady

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:D sounds funny! I guess your cats know they're not dinner or toys!
 

StefanZ

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Had your cats ever met wild mices? how did they behaved? Were they scared or did they hunt them?

Cat being neutral friendly with guinea pigs is common, them being fairly big. But hamsters do live a dangerous live together with cats.

Them can be pals, but more then one did got eaten...  So be careful!
 

aussie_dog

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My girls respect the Guinea Pigs as well. They were curious at first, and would jump into the cage when I had it opened (it's a huge, homemade cage, and I made sure it had a lid until I knew how the cats would behave. The lid is gone now, and the cage is even bigger). But the Pigs are curious as well, and if a cat jumps in there, those pigs hear/feel the thump and beeline straight for the cat to see what's up. Cat stops short, acts like she's getting the heebie jeebies, and jumps out.

When I bring the pigs upstairs for floortime, in a pen, Willow acts like she has prey drive. The Guinea Pigs live downstairs, and Willow's afraid of the basement, so she never gets to see the girls. When they come upstairs, it's something new to Willow each time, and she stares and stalks them the whole time. Therefore, while I'm sure they're safe around Willow, I keep an eye on them, just in case.

The Gerbils and Mice, though, are fair game. Molly's actually pretty good about them, surprisingly. I can have a mouse out and wandering around on the computer desk when Molly's sitting there, and Molly will just watch. Not in a prey-way, either, it's more of a curious way. The mouse can go right up to Molly's paws and sniff them, and Molly may dip her head down to sniff the mouse, and that's it. Mouse wanders off the check something out, Molly turns to me to squawk for some supper. Granted, if Molly and the mouse hang together for too long (like, an hour, lets say), you can see Molly starting to get a bit more interested in the mouse, and that's when I put the mouse away. As for the other two cats, they're both NOT trusty-worthy around the mice. If they see a fat thing with a long tail so much as twitch, they'll lock on and stalk it. If I'm carrying a mouse, if either Buffy or Willow spots it on my arm, they'll follow me all over the house, hoping I'll "drop" said mouse. Again, the mice and gerbils live downstairs, so Willow never bugs them, but Buffy loves to "stalk" them through the cages (I use aquariums). And Molly loves to lounge on the Gerbil cage.

Here's a shot of Willow and Buffy hoping to catch a mouse I was taking pictures of. The mouse was Waldo, a longhaired broken black-tan.



Can you find Waldo? lol
 

aussie_dog

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Just want to note (because it's bugging me), but your Guinea Pig really shouldn't be on a lead. Their bodies aren't designed for harnesses, and using one can injure it's back (same reason they shouldn't use wheels or balls)
 
 
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