cats, kittens and chinchillas

[katt]

i would like to hear from people who own cats/kittens and chinchillas together and their experiences- did you already have a cat/kitten then got chins or other way round, did they accept each other or do you always keep them seperated, did you teach them to leave each other alone etc.
i currently have chins, but a friend is asking me to take on her kitten for a while as she cant keep them at this time, i really would want to say yes but i dont want to be risking my chins lives as obvi chins are prey animals and cats are hunters by nature! thanks for any replies.

 

[Jenn]

I have the world's two laziest cats, and had them before my chin. I used to have a hamster, who got loose on 3 separate occasions and the cats found him first and never harmed him. My cats are actually afraid of my chin and her spontaneous and quick movements. But most cats find chinchillas prey, and should never be trusted around them. There are so many stories, here alone, of cats that managed to get ahold of chinchillas in a split second. Anything from wounds to deaths have occured. I think it is possible to own both animals, they just have to be kept separated.

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

I have the official 3rd laziest cat, a cross eyed Siamese Manx. She does come into the chin room, but only if I'm in there, other wise the door is kept shut. We have had the occasional chinchilla get out, and we found it right away. Miss Lazy just sat there staring at it. If it was smaller though, like the 5 feeder mice that got out for my daughters snake, they would be fair game! So always best to keep separated, as you just never know!

 

[Siany]

My cats are curious about the chinnies and will sit by their cage, i always watch the cats though to make sure their not too curious and try putting paws in the cage, but if the chinnies are out the cats run away scared. I know this because one day i let the chinnies out and i didnt see the cat hiding behind the chair, the cat ran to the door trying to get out and the chinnies were chasing her lol. The cats tend to leave the chinnies alone now but when the chinnies are out i always look behind the chair first and i always keep the door shut

 

[mercynursie]

I have 2 dogs and 3 cats in our home with 6 chinnies and now 3 guinea pigs.I replaced the solid door to the computer/chin/guinea pig room with a screen door.The cats will sit in front of the cages and watch but they do actually try to reach in and grab some hay! No worry though,all three are front declawed.I know people look down on it, but I made the choice many years ago and have never regretted it.My cats are never ever allowed outside though and they have a bird feeder and windows to look out of.Our hyperactive kitty Tinka used to take a nap on top of our old guinea pig cage.Of course one day her tail slipped down into the cage and Ziggy(RIP) bit the crap out of it! With the chins,if the cats are annoying them(they can only come in if I am in the room)all it takes is to show them the can of air computer cleaning stuff and they are out of there! That little ole can has one great big hissing cat in it!LOL

 

[obcsed]

My cat and ferrets are not allowed in the chin room. I can't trust my cat around them. I have no doubt he would really do some damage in a blink of an eye if he got a chance. The ferrets wouldn't be so bad but the chins really get stressed if they are around them. I would rather be safe than sorry.

 

[bchins]

I have 3 cats along with my 150 chinchillas. My chinchillas came after the cat. (Our 1st cat just passed a yr ago, she was 18yrs old RIP, then we adopted 3 cats from the humane society). Our first cat (Chloe) wasn't even interested in the chinchillas, but when the chinchillas get play time ou tof their cage, then the cat got locked up in a different room.

But our 3 new cats (Romeo, Buddy, and Alex) are curious about the chinchillas to some extent. Alex is a fat and lazy cat, so he could careless, as all he cares about is his food and sleeping. But Romeo and Buddy are always trying to get to the highest point, and so that means they are always on top of my chinchilla cages. They used to stick their paws through the FN type cages I had and they tried to "play" with my chinchillas, and the chinchillas would just go to a different area of the cage and ignore them. I got rid of all but one FN type cagedue to that, and all my other cages have the 1" x 1/2" wire spacing, so the cats can't dangle the paws in the cages (plus, they aren't declawed, so I had to take that more seriously). I would kind of discipline them too if they were trying to get the chinchillas.

Also, when the chinchillas get out by accident sometimes, my little bichon, "C.C." is the first one to be the "chinchilla herder" She doesn't hurt them at all, and the cats surprisingly don't either.

 

[kiltbunny]

I just lost my chin Izzy due to an accident with one of my 3 cats. I almost lost Tifa to them as well. The cats are NOT allowed near the chins because they show too much interest. The chins have their own bedroom which remains closed to the cats at all times. I refuse to declaw my cats, but I almost think it should be required. Just in case.

I had the cats first and the then chins.

 

[Laurie]

To answer your question are you risking your chins lives the answer is yes. Quite honestly any predator introduced into the home of chinchillas means you are risking your chinchillas life.

If you are a responsible owner and keep your predator animals away from your chinchilla then an injury should not occur.

If you are responsible owner and don't do a playtime where a predator animal could get at your chinchilla then an injury should not occur.

It really doesn't matter if you have a dog, cat, ferret, bird that is docile or lazy--if you are a responsible owner and keep your other animals away from your chinchilla and you don't allow your chinchilla to leave your site during playtime then an injury from another animal cannot harm your chinchilla.

Can they coexist in a household--yes they can--but only you can prevent something from happening by being diligent and always keeping an eye on your chinchilla and knowing they are safely away from your predator animals.

 

[GorillaJTA]

And don't forget to wash your hands between species... an innocuous bacteria in cats might be deadly to your chin.

 

[caiti]

I've had two pretty polar experiences. The first one, I got my chin then my roommate got a kitten. That did not end well (read: cat attack) but Chloe is fine now.

When I moved home a couple months ago, I moved into a house that already had our cat in it, and she's been with us for at least a decade. So she's older, and since she's epileptic she's on sedatives and is pretty lazy and fat. My cat now has gone into my room maybe once or twice since I've been here but I generally keep the door closed. She's never gone into my room when I wasn't in it and she doesn't seem interested in Chloe at all. I can't really change clothes or shower every time I go into my room, but I wash my hands after I pet the cat (I do this whether I'm going back into my room or not--I'm allergic to cats).

If you are going to bring in a predatory animal, my suggestion would be make sure you have insanely secure barriers between the rooms the animals are in. I can testify that even one weakness in it can have devastating consequences. I don't know how you would teach a cat to leave a chin alone without having them in the same place to begin with (which, especially with kittens, would be risky), I'd think it's better to just keep them out of contact however you can.

 

[dayofhope]

I have 3 cats along with my 150 chinchillas. My chinchillas came after the cat. (Our 1st cat just passed a yr ago, she was 18yrs old RIP,

:O that's the first time I've heard of a cat dying older than mine was - mine was 16 when she passed. I still miss her, but RIP to both.


--Maybe you could take the kitten and kinda show her the chin to see what she does before you fully take her? Like test her to see if she'll even pay attention to your chin. Of course, don't get her too close and have a good hold on her, but maybe just show her the chin? I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or not... but maybe? haha

 

[bchins]

I have 3 cats along with my 150 chinchillas. My chinchillas came after the cat. (Our 1st cat just passed a yr ago, she was 18yrs old RIP,

:O that's the first time I've heard of a cat dying older than mine was - mine was 16 when she passed. I still miss her, but RIP to both.


--Maybe you could take the kitten and kinda show her the chin to see what she does before you fully take her? Like test her to see if she'll even pay attention to your chin. Of course, don't get her too close and have a good hold on her, but maybe just show her the chin? I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or not... but maybe? haha

Yes, I still miss Chloe very much! She had been with me ever since I was a baby, so seeing her pass was the end to a chapter in life RIP

Yeah, that would be a good idea "testing" it before fully committing. Also, couldn't the cat be locked up in a certain room where the chinchilla isn't or the opposite way around?

 

[Dewdrop]

I keep my cat separated. The cat we had first, though she was living with my parents when we first got the chins. So we didn't have to worry about it. The chins are in the basement now, which we keep closed to keep the kids out, so. Keeping the cat out isn't an issue..

 

[Chin_Parent]

Our cat's really sweet and gentle. She's never shown any predatory characteristics towards the chins or the rats, in fact, she's scared of them. Chinchy and her have an interesting relationship. He's partly territorial, partly a horndog, but whenever she gets near the cage, he starts to run all over his cage in a show of aggression. She also gets antsy from time to time and runs all over the apartment really fast for no reason, and Chinchy will copy her and run all over his cage. She took the aggression to heart and has avoided being too close to their cages. Funnily enough, she never attacks rodents, but loves attacking bugs. She's a weirdo.

 

[kimbt622]

I have a girl cat who's almost 1 year old and 6 boy chins. The chins came first, although I do have another cat that's my mom's but she never even comes out often enough to see my chins. Anyway, Buffy (the almost 1 year old) is my cat and she spends most of her time in my bedroom where my chins also are. When we first got her she was only a couple months old and we were nervous for her to even see the chins. At first, she got very excited when seeing them run and even started jumping on top of their cage to be high up. However, we stopped that VERY soon because although my bedroom door is never open when I'm not home, if I was asleep and she slept with me she would sometimes try to jump up there and I didn't trust her. To stop her, we would spray with water to scare her off. She no longer jumps on top of the cage. Sometimes, if myself or my boyfriend are IN the room, she'll sit nearby and just watch them which I'm fine with as long as she doesn't make any moves. (she does try to grab their hay though!)

Anyway, now that she's been here for almost 10 months, she knows her place. My oldest chin Liv won't let her near any of them and starts kacking when he sees her nearby, which is funny! She's petrified of him actually. So now when we have playtime she will sometimes sit on my bed behind the chin's playgate and watch, but won't move further than that. I will never leave her unattended if she's in the room with them or leave my door open if i'm not home STILL, because she can do anything in a split second.

 

[Chin_Pig]

i have 3 cats & 3 dogs. the dogs watch 'chinTV' a lots but thats all they do. i have one cat who thinks hes a chin, he tries to eat hay..... but my cats dont really mess with them.. they do like watching kits. my oldest cat (i adopted him off the streets) brought me a baby chin that had gotten out..... it was dead. but when the chins are safely in their cages the cats dont bother them. actually all 3 cats would jump in the guinea pig cage and just 'hang with the guinea pigs and neither bothered each other.

the cats really are only interested in the kits.

 

[Amphy64]

I have two Siamese cats, and then got a chin. I know my two well enough to know that he's too big for them to be interested in (this will not be true of all cats), but they're still not allowed in the same room (I have to be careful about this since my male cat can open doors, so it needs to be locked) even when he's in his cage. They saw him in his carrier when I brought him home, and looked deeply puzzled 'What is it?' and then totally disinterested and unimpressed 'Sigh, is there any point to these weird things you bring home?', but that's the closest they've been to him. I might be confident they wouldn't touch him, but I'm not going to risk being wrong, and animals are not 100% predictable. I don't trust Siamese ingenuity either - my female cat worked out how to open my Russian hamster's cage (not easy) and got her out, luckily we realised quickly and the hamster was unharmed. Most cats also naturally carry pasturella, which is harmless to them but dangerous to chins, and it simply isn't worth the risk. There's also the possibility that a chinchilla, a prey animal, will be stressed by the presence of a predator, though obviously it depends on the chin. It's not fair to a chin who is stressed by it to have predators around them, though.

Cats vary in how much of a hunter they are, and what prey animals they're interested by (my Mario isn't fussed much by rodents but fascinated by birds, but luckily can't catch them, my Tosca is unfortunately an efficient mouser), but kittens are generally curious about and want to 'play' with everything (and don't keep claws in even if they're not actively hunting), so I really wouldn't want a kitten around a chin. You can still take the kitten, just keep them separate.

 

[addictedtochins]

I have 2 big chin cages in the living room, and 4 cats and 5 kittens who have free roam inside and outside. I don't have any problems. Mikey the cat we have had him for 4 years and had various chin escapes in that time. He is the only one that looks like he would enjoy a chinny sandwich but is torn because he wants to be a good boy. I don't have very many escapes, maybe one a year but it is usually a cat that tips me off. I see them watching very intently, sure enough it is always an escapee.

 

[3CsMommy]

I have 2 formerly feral cats living with me (one is a foster). Unfortunately I also live in an efficiency, so the only way to truly segregate cats from chins would be to keep one or the other in the bathroom at all times. Since the bathroom is about the size of a queen sized mattress and entirely windowless, that would be cruel. So, there's a spray bottle of water at my bedside; cats get within 8" of the cage and get squirted. I'm also trying to rig a http://www.amazon.com/Innotek-SSSCA...A95G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309918260&sr=8-1 type device that uses compressed air to reinforce the "no" when I'm not around. (I'm sick of spending $30 for refills!) Thankfully both girls are pretty lazy during the day when I'm not around, and now, it seems there are always flies to chase.

As concerned as I am about the chins picking up giardia etc. from the cats, I'm equally worried about Crash declawing them toe by toe. The danger goes two ways. But, that said, training is possible if you figure out how to do it with the cat in question, and the safest possible way to keep the two in the same house is a "no cat in the chin room" rule. There are work-arounds if that's not an option, but I feel it's the ideal solution.