It has been the practice of intending pet owners to ask certain questions before bringing home their favorite pets. You will hear things like: Can I raise my pet rabbit with other animals? Or more specifically: can you have a pet rabbit and cat? These and many more are common questions folks like to get clarifications on before making any further commitments.
Owning pets can be a blissful experience. It comes with its great moments but also may have the occasional downsides. Nonetheless, we have as humans continued to embrace this age-long tradition of cohabiting with animals in our domestic spaces. And asking these kinds of questions goes a long way to making our experiences more pleasurable.
In this article, we will try to understand the dos and don’ts of cohabiting rabbits with cats in the same domestic space. Is it a safe practice? We discuss this topic under the following headers:
- Do rabbits and cats get along as pets?
- Would a cat kill a rabbit?
- How do you introduce a cat to a rabbit?
- Will my cat eat my bunny?
Read along to learn more about raising cats and rabbits together in the same environment.
Do Rabbits And Cats Get Along As Pets?
Instead of asking “can you have a pet bunny and cat,” you can ask if a rabbit and a cat get along as pets. This is because the two are, more or less, dependent on each other. Before we answer this question, it may be best to make certain key distinctions between cats and rabbits. Rabbits are wild animals by nature. They are not primarily designed for habitation in domestic environments. It is humans who alter this natural order by bringing wild rabbits home and domesticating them.
Cats on the other hand are not entirely wild by nature. Sure, they might have wild relatives (speak of lions, tigers, leopards) but their particular species is not adapted for life in the wild. When you observe this key distinction between a cat and a rabbit, you can see how they are fundamentally different, to begin with.
Having this understanding will help you view them more at a primal level when deciding whether to raise them together. Now, with this major distinction out of the way, let us explore the similarities between these two animals.
Although cats and rabbits have differences in their ancestral make-ups, they both share some commonalities. Cats and rabbits are both very social animals in that they enjoy a lot of play, exercise, and grooming time. Secondly, both animals are very protective of their spaces and you may have a hard time earning their trust.
Cats particularly will move around the house for days, curiously inspecting every inch to their satisfaction before they become comfortable in that environment. Rabbits may not be as inquisitive as cats but will still require some time to get adjusted to a new environment before they relate freely with their owners.
Even with these shared similarities, cats and rabbits are not instinctively friendly with each other. However, both animals still play together. It is not strange to stumble on a cat and rabbit grooming each other on a cool afternoon.
But have at the back of your mind that cats are obligate carnivores, meaning their meals come mainly from large protein sources (meat, fish, and milk). This naturally makes them more aggressive than rabbits that are quite reserved, fragile, and more sensitive.
This does not mean that your pet rabbit will shy away from being confrontational with a kitten if need be, but it’s always good to be on the watch when these two are living together in your house so things don’t get out of hand.
Would A Cat Kill A Rabbit?
For most people asking “can you have a pet bunny and cat,” what they want to know is if a cat can kill a rabbit. Indeed, cats eat animals. Cats’ meals consist primarily of huge protein sources such as meat, fish, and milk. But you can find specially formulated and packaged cat food in most animal pet stores around. Most pet owners opt for these types of food since they are stress-free, well balanced, rich in the right nutrients, and properly rationed.
Even though cats live in mostly domesticated environments, they still possess some primal hunting instincts. You may find pet cats out in the garden hunting for some rodents, birds, and other small animals. However, they do not always do this for consumption, but just to exercise their primal killing skills.
So would a cat kill a rabbit? Well, the answer is YES. Cats can kill a rabbit for the same reasons mentioned above although some people may argue that they do so for many other reasons. This particular practice has baffled many pet owners for years that they seek answers.
For clarity, we will explore some reasons cats attack and kill rabbits. Highlighted below are a few of them:
- The species of the cat contributes to cats attacking rabbits.
- Cats possess hunting instincts they need to exercise.
- Cats enjoy the thrill of chasing down rabbits even if they don’t harm them.
- A feral cat caring for little kittens may need plenty of meat to produce enough milk.
These are just a handful of reasons that can make a cat attack and kill a rabbit. Cats are also in the habit of bringing to their owners a dead rabbit they killed. This act remains an enigma to many researchers while trying to understand cat instincts.
There is the theory that cats do that to show off their hunting skills to their handlers. Most of the time, the cat may have taken a few chunks of the dead rabbit as a way of declaring victory.
Another theory is that cats do this as a way of seeking approval from their owners as being useful members of the household. Some researchers have even postulated that cats bring home dead rabbits as a meal for their adopted home. It may appear ridiculous but it is one theory upheld by some animal behavioral psychologists.
How Do You Introduce A Cat To A Rabbit?
Let’s say you’ve found the answer to the question, “can you have a pet bunny and cat?” And you’ve decided to keep a pet rabbit and a cat. Now, how can you introduce your cat to your rabbit?
Cats and rabbits may not exactly make the best of companions. Whatever the case, you can teach them to leave together in harmony with little to no altercations. The mere fact that they are both social animals should help along the way in making them get acquainted a lot better.
Keep in mind though, that to achieve relative success in trying to bring a cat and rabbit together, you will have to exercise some patience. This process takes a lot of time (upwards of two weeks) and considerable effort, and a few hiccups along the way can force you to give altogether.
Interestingly, bringing a rabbit and a cat together can be a very adventurous experience. You will learn new things about each animal’s trait which in turn helps you understand your pets better.
Now, before you start the process, you must have a few things in place to include a conducive space where each animal can feel comfortable. Now that you have out of the way, here are a few steps to introduce a cat to a rabbit:
- Before you begin the introduction, also make sure both animals have a haven where they can retreat if one feels threatened by the other.
- A small box made of cardboard would do fine for each animal.
- Bring both of them to the neutral environment where you make the introduction. This can be a small room inside the house.
- To ensure safety, the introduction can be done via a cage. Place the rabbit inside the cage preferably, and watch how your kitty reacts to his (rabbit’s) presence.
- The reason for this is, first meetings can turn out to be aggressive with lots of bites and scratches.
- Observe their behaviors every day for about one to weeks and never leave them unsupervised.
- Your cat and rabbit should get acquainted within this period, two weeks tops.
As a safety precaution, always keep your cat’s claws trimmed so they don’t injure your rabbits either intentionally or not. Cats tend to get aggressive even when they play.
Will My Cat Eat My Bunny?
Cats tend to exercise their primal hunting instincts from time to time even while they live in domestic environments. If you already own a pet kitty, you may have noticed it snooping around the house, sometimes in the garden area or the nearby bushes. If you stick around for long enough, you will observe that your cat has got its eyes on something.
At the end of the day, there is a high chance that your pet kitty will turn up with a kill. Cats are in the habit of hunting down and killing lizards, birds, and small rodents like rats. Rabbits are also not left out of the menu. Sometimes they may eat their kill whereas on other occasions they may abandon it, having chopped up a few chunks from the carcass.
In the event of the latter, such a killing was just to flex its primal killing instincts. Cats eat their kills only when they feel hungry. Your pet cat who still nurses little kittens may need that extra protein to produce enough milk for its ones. This will cause it to ingest whatever it kills out in the bushes.
So will your cat eat your bunny? The answer is YES. But they don’t always do this. Cats are known to mostly kill rabbits without eating them. This is because rabbits are not healthy for a cat’s gut. They can contract a deadly bacteria called Tularemia which can pose serious health complications for them.
In summary, a cat would most likely kill a rabbit without ingesting it. And can you have a pet bunny and cat? YES, definitely!