My sentiments exactly!
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Attacking my rats...
- Thread starter katthevamp
- Start Date
I had a Ball Python and a Red-Tailed boa (beautiful reptiles both) for many, many years before I got out of an apartment and into my own house. When I made the decision to get cats (and later, a dog) I found another owner for the snakes and let them go. It was sad, but I knew it was an incompatible situation.
I love rats but there's just no way I could keep pet rats now that I have Nikita.
Some cats have high prey drives and there's nothing you can or should really do about that.
Cats aren't social animals in the same way dogs and humans are which is one reason it can be quite hard for some people to really understand cats. Basically deep down humans and dogs know that we're better off in social groups and that we have a concept of making 'sacrifices' to be more accepted by a group so you can teach using that this is what gives us the option of negative reinforcement and 'punishment', i.e dogs and humans can put up with that and learn from it (not necessarily the best way of learning but it can work).
Cats lack that instinct pretty much completely. You can work with their behaviour and train them to an extent but using violence of any sort just doesn't work because deep down cats are pretty convinced that they'd be perfectly all right being completely alone so if you make your company too negative they'll just bail out on you and decide not to be around you or listen to you at all.
So yeah a cat being spanked or hit won't learn that what he's doing is making you unhappy so he should stop doing that to fit in with the group better. What he learns instead is that you're not nice to be around and you should be avoided.
Anyway, yeah, back to my cat, she has an insanely high prey drive and there's no way I can ever have a small furry animal or a pet bird while I have her.
Some cats have high prey drives and there's nothing you can or should really do about that.
Cats aren't social animals in the same way dogs and humans are which is one reason it can be quite hard for some people to really understand cats. Basically deep down humans and dogs know that we're better off in social groups and that we have a concept of making 'sacrifices' to be more accepted by a group so you can teach using that this is what gives us the option of negative reinforcement and 'punishment', i.e dogs and humans can put up with that and learn from it (not necessarily the best way of learning but it can work).
Cats lack that instinct pretty much completely. You can work with their behaviour and train them to an extent but using violence of any sort just doesn't work because deep down cats are pretty convinced that they'd be perfectly all right being completely alone so if you make your company too negative they'll just bail out on you and decide not to be around you or listen to you at all.
So yeah a cat being spanked or hit won't learn that what he's doing is making you unhappy so he should stop doing that to fit in with the group better. What he learns instead is that you're not nice to be around and you should be avoided.
Anyway, yeah, back to my cat, she has an insanely high prey drive and there's no way I can ever have a small furry animal or a pet bird while I have her.
This.
My cat learned real good when she climbed the cage and Cujo (properly named) bit her paw.
It is totally unfair of you to punish cats for exhibiting their natural instincts!
You are concerned about the rats being "frightened" by the cats, but what about the cats being frustrated by being unable to get at their natural prey?
I would never consider keeping animals together in such a situation--if you can't separate them, you should decide whether you want rats OR cats.
You are concerned about the rats being "frightened" by the cats, but what about the cats being frustrated by being unable to get at their natural prey?
I would never consider keeping animals together in such a situation--if you can't separate them, you should decide whether you want rats OR cats.
