help me please

i just got a pet bunny and our kitten bacardi keeps chasing him around and smacking and bitting on the bunny coke. what should i do ? i'm not sure if bacardi is trying to hurt coke or not but i'm also not sure if it's safe. someone please help me

Please keep the two animals separate. They are two different species, one prey, one predator. They can get along, but it takes time, patience and proper introduction. Put your bunny in a large indoor cage for now and don't let it out unless the cat is confined in another room.

Do you have a cage for the bunny? A cat could very well hurt the bunny, I would keep the bunny in a cage and let them get to know each other through the cage first that way the bunny won't be hurt.

Originally Posted by hissy

Please keep the two animals separate. They are two different species, one prey, one predator. They can get along, but it takes time, patience and proper introduction. Put your bunny in a large indoor cage for now and don't let it out unless the cat is confined in another room.

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Thank you for your help we have a cage for the bunny and when we do let him out we are right next to him and the cat. When the cat starts getting playfull or rough with the bunny we spray him with a water bottle. Will this help? do u have any tips to help us introduce them to each other? Confused bunny owener

Again, keep them separated. Keep the bunny in one room and don't let the cat in there.It is natural for the cat to attack the bunny but until the bunny becomes a rabbit, the bunny is at great risk of getting munched. It might look cute to see them play together, but I doubt they are playing. If you don't want to lose your bunny then keep it away from your cat and only let the cat see it while the bunny is in the cage. Put away the squirt bottle, it is simply a mean thing to do to squirt a cat with water.

I talked to a woman at Petsmart once who had brought her rabbit in to go shopping with her. While crooning over the bunny with a fellow shelter volunteer, the lady told us that she had another bunny, two cats and a Golden Retriever at home, and that they all roamed together freely with no problems. She said it was just luck to get all these pets who had no problems with one another. I'm going to assume that some cats just don't have a hunter's instinct the way others do.

You might want to try talking to a vet who can give you pointers on things you can try. Advice on the 'net may not all be good, but maybe try a rabbit forum for advice from other cat-bunny owners?

I'd definately keep an eye on them if you let them roam freely together. Bunnies can pack quite a kick that could actually hurt your cat pretty severely. It will probably take a while for them to get used to each other. The bunny is going to view the cat as a predator. Eventually a lot of cats and rabbits get alone well, they'll actually play games at being the hunter and the hunted. They will groom and cuddle. Bunnies have even been known to pounce on sleeping cats and to play other tricks on them. If the bunny is freaked out by the cat try to put the cage up higher, maybe level with your waist. The rabbit will feel more secure this way. Also, never let the cat go into the rabbit cage. Rabbits are very terratorial and need their own private space, intrusion in this space causes them to act up or just be freaked out all the time. It will probably take a while, but rabbits and cats can be friends- but supervised friends only.

check out this website for helpful advice- http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-11/c...d-rabbits.html

We adopted a rabbit from this organization, but she actually kept attacking and mounting our cat- no joke! We had to take her back to her foster home because she was miserable with us. My fiancee has had rabbits his entire life.

Two experiences with cats and rabbits:

One of my best friends found a baby rabbit at the side of the road and took it home. It has its own indoor/outdoor cage and in the summer they let it out to roam the yard under supervision. They also have farm cats (and keep neutering them but more keep getting dropped off around their place) and one of the kittens became good friends with the bunny. When the bunny became a rabbit, however, they had real problems because the rabbit would chase the young cat and try to mount it and now all of the cats stay away from the rabbit. They have since neutered the rabbit but the cats won't come near.

Second, when I was in college, I boarded with a woman who had 4 cats and a rabbit taht all roamed around loose together. This was a full grown large rabbit. One weekend when I came back from visiting home, I found rabbit fur all around my room - one of the cats had chased the rabbit, then caught it and before anyone could stop it, had killed the rabbit although the rabbit got in a few good swipes with its hind legs and the cat was also injured. Keep the rabbit and the cat separate. As Hissy mentioned, the cat is a predator and the rabbit is prey.

Kathryn