Woo hoo! this is the first thread i’ve ever started…
that having been said: i plan on getting a kitten in the near future, and have several questions
I also own a hamster, which I don’t plan on getting rid of when I get the kitten - what’s the best way to train the kitten to stay away from the hamster?
when I move out of my apartment, I also plan on getting a dog - this won’t be for several years - is there any way I can get my cat used to having other larger animals around without owning one myself? since i live in the city, i don’t know anybody who has a dog that i could expose it to
From all I’ve heard, you usually can’t train a cat to stay away from potential prey animals, even if the cat appears to have no interest in the hamster while you’re present.
The hamster lives in a 30 gallon glass aquarium with a heavy duty screen top. The cats often like to sleep up there or do very impressive vulture impersonations from atop the screen. We’ve found the glass tank keeps the shavings in and the kitties out very well. We’ve had three hamsters in 6 years and none of them met their doom by kitty. (Now that we have children though all bets are off!)
We had two cats from our apartment days when we brought home the dog. In our case the dog was a puppy that was smaller than the cats. They taught the dog that she’s really a cat and all is pretty good with that. The dog and cats groom eachother and sometimes the dog will hump a kitty for good measure but there hasn’t been a lot of strife. Since the dog grew up with the cats her chasing is minimal and playful and the cats are used to her too.
In this house I think the animals are all numb to new arrivals. They didn’t even flinch when we brought the first child home.
Depending on what you plan to get for a dog… a puppy can be trained to deal with cats fine. If you get an older dog you may want to arrange to see how he does with cats before trying to take him home. As for the cats… they can jump and a carefully placed claw in the nose usually gets their point across too. I know there are people who can train cats but I think our cats just trained the dog… worked easier for us.
I had a hamster when I was a kid. The hamster persuaded the new kitten NOT to get too close by biting the kittens nose REALLY hard every time it was stuck through the bars. Said kitten learned real quick to avoid the hamster.
