# New kittens... but we have a hamster!



## Bonnie82 (May 4, 2011)

I've kept hamsters for almost 20 years now  (on and off) and at the moment we have a lovely 5-month-old long-haired cream Syrian called Marvin. Here's a pic of our lovely boy...



This pic was taken when we were on holiday in the Peak District recently and stayed in a little country cottage. We took Marvin with us.  He got his first taste of the outdoors, which he really enjoyed!

We love our boy to bits but next Thursday we are picking up two 13-week-old kittens! Cats and rodents don't make the best companions according to popular belief so obviously we want to do our best to make sure our boy is safe when the kittens arrive.

Does anyone have any advice? We do have the option of moving Marvin into a completely separately room to which the cats won't have access, but obviously that relies on us being super-vigilant (especially when we have guests to stay) and there is the possibility that the cats will sneak into said room... so I'm not convinced that's 100% safe.

What I would prefer to do would be to get the cats used to Marvin as a member of the family and not as prey... but I don't know how easy that is to do? Here is a pic of his cage so you can get an idea of what his living arrangements are like. At the moment his cage is in the living room, which is part of the cats' main eating/sleeping area too...

So, any advice? I want to make our kittens' arrival as stress-free for Marvin as possible! Thanks in advance.


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2011)

Although I have a cat with my many rodents, I would never leave her unsupervised in the same room as any of them.
All it takes is one playful swipe at the cage and they could knock it off the shelf and potentially break it


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## niki87 (Nov 18, 2009)

Oh I have the best advice......give that bee-ee-ay-yu-tee-ful hamster to me 

No idea on kittens lol!


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## Lil Miss (Dec 11, 2010)

i would never leave a cat unsupervised in the same room as a rodent, as my cat is actually an ex feral i have a large dog crate that she goes in when no one is home as we dont have a room that is critter free (the cat wasnt a planned addition but i couldnt watch her starve  )

i would put the hamster in a room you can shut the cats out of, on a small high shelf, so the cats can not get to it if the cats did get in the room

it will always be in a cats natural instinct to chase a small rodent, especially kittens as they are just so playful 

Moggy has learnt a respect for the small fluffs from watching me handle them, but im sure if she felt hungry enough her feral instincts would kick in, or if one escaped im certain she would play with it


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

I have 4 cats and numerous rodents, although the cats should never be in the rooms where the rodents are I still make sure all the cages/tanks are cat proof, they are all fixed to the walls (cup hooks and cable ties work a treat) the tops of the cages are also fastened onto the bases by cable ties going round the whole cage. I screwed up once thinking that the cats couldnt get into the cages and my mice paid the price, they knocked a cage off a table and it broke apart, all the mice got out, one was killed and the others were luckily re caught, I will always assume that they can get into the rodent room and take precautions against that. Having said all that Syrians move slowly and arent usually scared of cats so my cats arent interested in them, the mice and gerbils are another matter though.


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## Bonnie82 (May 4, 2011)

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I think what we will do is move Marvin's cage into the back bedroom, which is going to be our only strictly cat-free room in the house. It's currently used as our ironing room / spare room.

Marvin is not a particularly sociable hamster so I don't think he'll mind being out of the main living area. He's the jitteriest hamster I've ever known in 19 years of keeping hamsters! He'll probably enjoy the peace and quiet, to be honest.

We really just need to find something for his cage to sit on. We've been looking for furniture for the spare room and can't find anything big enough to hold his cage! But will keep looking. For the time being he'll have to go on the floor I think, which isn't ideal.

We will just have to make sure we keep that bedroom door shut at all times. Luckily we have old Victorian doors with big brass knobs on them which are hard for humans to open, let alone cats.


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## metame (Sep 25, 2009)

just wanted to say he's gorgeous!


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## nhaide1 (Jun 16, 2011)

I have a cat and a hamster

I got my hamster before i got the cat and i got the cat as a kitten

I have the hamster in view at all time just in case something was to happen 

But Alfie my cat has never went for the hamster, he sits beside the cage and looks at him but never done any damage


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