Spot found a new place to nap

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Awesome Kristin

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
64
Location
Las Vegas
Spot, our cat, absolutely LOVES fleece. I didn't even think about this as a possibility when I started using a blanket to make Charlie feel safe until I get a tube for him to sleep in.

She doesn't even care about Charlie at all. She just wants some warm fleece to lay on.

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This must be common with cats. I've got two of my four cats that love to lay on top of the chinnie cages. My cats just like the bird's-eye view. Nothing soft on top of the cages for mine to lay on.
 
Very cute but a cat shouldn't be that close to your chin's living area. Cats can carry pasteurella which is deadly in chins and it only takes a small swipe from the cat to infect Charlie.
 
i agree with tati. other pets and chins are not a good mix together, and too many diseases/parasites, etc have the potential to be transferred to your chin. and kitty could inflict some serious damage if he decided to get a bit nasty. best to keep kitty away from the cages altogether and consider putting Charlie in a room the cat cannot access.
 
All my pets are always in the same room as me as I go about my day. I appreciate your concern but I know my animals, and I know Spot just wants to lay there. If I hear anything going on or her moving weird on the cage, she's just a few feet away from where I am.
 
some of the various health related issues can easily be transferred by Spot 'just laying there'. many things are airborne and it isn't worth the risk.

also, chins are rodents. cats have a tendency to 'play with' and eat rodents.
 
Be careful guys there was already a big discussion about animals and chins playing together, and I believe that thread was closed. Don't want anyone getting in trouble with the Mods.
 
Just because you know your animals doesn't mean an accident couldnt happen. The bar spacing on your cage is definately wide enough for your cat to get a paw in and catch a nose or an eye.
 
she's been sleeping up there for a couple hours now and as soon as she's done she'll jump down and go do her cat thing. She really has no interest in Charlie.

My dog having a collar on could possibly maybe have a tiny chance of having an accident involving the collar. Something can go wrong with anything, some people take every single precaution and live in a bubble. Others accept it.

Honestly I am like 99.99% certain Spot won't have anything to do with something happening to Charlie.

I want to be around my chinchillas all day. The added bonus of that is I am able to watch them and make sure they're ok almost all day long.
 
Bottom line, Kristen, you are taking a risk allowing a predator (cat) to sit on top of a prey animal cage ......
It takes a fraction of a second for a cat to strike out at a chinchilla & then the damage is done.
 
Ok Lets say an accident will NEVER happen because you are 99.99% sure it wont. I just wonder what kind of stress Charlie(a prey) is experiencing from Spot(a predator) watching him all the time like that. Im sure Charlie can tell he is there and is stressing from Spot being there.

Also, some birth control is 99.99% effective. And I know PLENTLY of people who got pregnant off of that 99.99% guarantee. Just sayin' :)
 
Christina, don't self-police. If a mod or admin needs to warn people on this thread, we are perfectly capable of doing it without your help.

Kristin - You go on and on in chat about how much you know about chins, then ask the most basic of questions. Do you know everything or don't you? You are being told, repeatedly, not to allow a cat who craps and pees in a pan, then runs it's paws through it repeatedly to make sure it's got a good spot to dump as well as cover it up again, who also could be carrying diseases just by being a cat, near your chin and all you can do is argue about how you know for sure nothing will happen.

NO animal is completely tame, I don't care what animal it is. I don't know why people insist on arguing this point. Any dog can bite. Any cat can decide to hunt. A horse that is "bomb proof" and "child safe" can kick, buck, and bite just like a wild bronc under the right circumstances. That cat could swing, scratch or grab your chin before you got your butt out of a chair. I've seen cats hunt, I know how fast they are. I would never, ever knowingly allow my cat to sit like that on my chin's cage then sit and tell people how much I know about chins. Your chin is prey, your cat is a predator. That alone should make you smart enough to keep them far away from each other.
 
I've never "gone on and on about how much I know about chinchillas". I'm pretty sure no matter how much anyone knows they're always learning so I wouldn't even claim to be an expert, I'm not even close and I've never tried to imply that. It's gone from from giving advice to attacking my character and intelligence. I don't want to get banned or anything so I'm just going to quit posting in this thread.
 
I have three cats in my house and I wouldn't trust two of them. However I have an old senior cat that loves the chins and helps me do rounds in the chin room.
In WB's younger days I would NOT have trusted him. But he likes his job helping me feed and water everyone. I think its because he gets loved on when he's helping me.
I have one chin named Little Dude and the two will hang around the kitchen during play time together and no problems. But most of the time its just the chin by himself unless WB is on the other side wanting in. Playtime for the other chins are in the playpen.

Having said that..........I am in the kitchen during playtime and gates are put up so the other two cats cannot enter. They would kill the chin.
I think it depends on the animal. My grandparents had a dog that loved to play with our rabbit. That was a sight to behold. We would be outside sitting in lawn chairs and the rabbit runs by with the dog chasing it. Then later the dog runs by with the rabbit chasing him. They never hurt each other. Nature can be twisted and not everyone can be right..........
 
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What everyone seems to be ignoring is the fact that, regardless of whether or not your cat was motionless and senile and didn't have the ability to harm the chinchilla, the cat still carries a bacteria that can be passed to the chin via saliva that is deadly. How many different posts have we had about pasturella that everyone seems to want to ignore?
 
You can only give advice to a person and hope they take it on board. Their are polite ways to advise people before it starts to seem a little rude.

It was a cute picture and the chinchilla doesnt look stressed, the cat is most likely more scared and will most likely find another comfy place to sleep.

Have you put yourself in Kristin's shoes and looked at all these comments and seen how its gone from advice to sort of ganging up ??
 
You can only give advice to a person and hope they take it on board. Their are polite ways to advise people before it starts to seem a little rude.

It was a cute picture and the chinchilla doesnt look stressed, the cat is most likely more scared and will most likely find another comfy place to sleep.

Have you put yourself in Kristin's shoes and looked at all these comments and seen how its gone from advice to sort of ganging up ??

I think it went from advice to ganging up when she chose to ignore the GOOD and CORRECT advice that was given. It is a PROVEN FACT that cats can carry diseases and that should not be pushed aside just because the cat is friendly. I let my dog walk through the chin room with me if he pleases. However, my cages are well off the ground and if he ever got near a cage he would be banned from coming down. If you just "like" having the cat near the chinchilla, then that's selfish and if you can't do anything about it then you shouldn't own a chin.

Edited for grammar and spelling.
 
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