# Introducing Kitten to Rats?



## wylde99 (Jul 22, 2010)

I have decided on getting a Kitten..I can afford Itm have the time for It and love Cat's so much!

Only Issue Is my 2 Pet Rat's who are Female and nearly a year old.
The Cat will only be In my room with the Rats for the first 2-3month's while It Is a baby and ready to start going out, I'm gonna install a Cat flap on my bedroom door as I share a house and the other guy's won't want the food bowl and litter tray downstairs.

I will never leave them both out unsupervised obviously, but can anyone see an issue with an Adult Cat being In the same room as the Rats while they are In their cage?

I'm hoping that Introducing the Kitten to them won't be nearly half as bad as a full grown Cat, won't the Cat grow up seing the Rat's as kind of little Sister's?? Hopefully not Dinner lol

What Is the best way to go about this guys?


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## Kazzii-Loves-Ratties (Feb 10, 2011)

Personally i dont think its a good idea, in my opinion. I may be wrong. But i think your kitty will want to play with the rats and as she turns into a cat want to play with your rats until they are worn out. I have four cats and 29 rats and the door to the ratties room is always closed. I hope someone with more experience can help you, but our cats always bring in mice/birds so i dont think the rats and kitty will like eachother.



wylde99 said:


> I have decided on getting a Kitten..I can afford Itm have the time for It and love Cat's so much!
> 
> Only Issue Is my 2 Pet Rat's who are Female and nearly a year old.
> The Cat will only be In my room with the Rats for the first 2-3month's while It Is a baby and ready to start going out, I'm gonna install a Cat flap on my bedroom door as I share a house and the other guy's won't want the food bowl and litter tray downstairs.
> ...


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## wylde99 (Jul 22, 2010)

Kazzii-Loves-Ratties said:


> Personally i dont think its a good idea, in my opinion. I may be wrong. But i think your kitty will want to play with the rats and as she turns into a cat want to play with your rats until they are worn out. I have four cats and 29 rats and the door to the ratties room is always closed. I hope someone with more experience can help you, but our cats always bring in mice/birds so i dont think the rats and kitty will like eachother.


Ok, well thank's for your'e Input, maybe scrap having the Litter tray and food bowl In my room and only having the Kitten In My room with the Rats until she is ready to go outside.

I don't see any harm while she's a kitten.


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## owieprone (Nov 6, 2008)

try it an see.

i'd intro them with the rats in the cage first. hold kitty up to cage and see who reacts worse. if the rats scamper off or freeze then they're scared of cats.. don't let kitten near them again (preferably ever but if that's impossible, never without supervision). if they completely ignore it's presence or come to the front of the cage to see what it is.. then you might be able to befriend them, it then all depends on the cat.

if no one reacts much keep doing it once a day, then let kitten explore the outside of the cage with you there, if nothing untoward happens (be careful the rats might nip her nose or whatevers near the cage, though this is generally a good thing as it will let kitten know that going near the cage is bad so will generally keep a distance, make sure tails are in the cage etc) anyway..they will generally sniff around, might jump up for a proper look etc.. just be ready to pick up and end the session if you or the rats aren't happy.

if nothing untoward happens take one of the rats out (the one that bites is usually the best lol) and hold it up to kitten and see what the reaction is, be ready to lift ratty away, usually neck stretched sniffing is the first reaction... if ratty starts trying to get away.. don't do it anymore, ratties not happy.

if cat opens mouth (just opens it and keeps it open for a min or so).. stop doing it, she's reacting as if rat is prey and isn't safe to continue.

if nothing happens then go from there.

alot of rats are scared of cats tho so be very watchful of your rats behaviour, a frozen rat is really obvious, anyone that runs and hides again shouldn't be mixed with cats (they really are terrified, not just abit scared, and as they're in a cage they can't escape so is even worse for them).

not all cats will go for rats.. even the best hunters (who bring in no end of mice and other prey) can realise that the rodents in the cage aren't to be touched (up to a point.. don't leave them out unattended if the cat(s) can get in the same room). without seeing who reacts you won't know if there's a danger to either.

out of the 5 cats i've owned only 2 of them actively hunted the rats (or whatever rodents i had) the other 3 were happy to watch the cage from afar. 

Rats can distinguish between cats also, they know which ones are dangerous and which ones can be safely ignored (after being introduced obviously they're not clairvoyant lol). 

it is definately worth at least seeing what the reaction is.. there's nothing worse than coming home to find that one of the rats is petrified of cats and one of the cats is on top of the cage scaring the life out of it.


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## wylde99 (Jul 22, 2010)

owieprone said:


> try it an see.
> 
> i'd intro them with the rats in the cage first. hold kitty up to cage and see who reacts worse. if the rats scamper off or freeze then they're scared of cats.. don't let kitten near them again (preferably ever but if that's impossible, never without supervision). if they completely ignore it's presence or come to the front of the cage to see what it is.. then you might be able to befriend them, it then all depends on the cat.
> 
> ...


Thank u that was a good read and a good help!
My housemate has a Cat, and the Rats don't like him 1 bit, I remember leaving my door open a little bit, the Cat was on the top of the Stairs looking at the Ratsm the Rats froze for a few minuit's then went In a tube and didn't come out again for 3 hour's!

But surely a Kitten is a different cup of tea? I think the Rats smelt the Cats adrenaline but a Kitten won't have the same motive's.


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## owieprone (Nov 6, 2008)

no scaredy-rats will see/smell any of them as a threat .. remember they are essentially a food item to many animals and some of them have far stronger inbuilt fears than others.

if any of them freeze when you show them the kitten, it means they'll freeze or run away/hide every time, so best to keep kitty away as much as possible.

think of it like you in a shark cage and lots of great whites around you.. the cage might be safe as houses but you still panic every time one gets too close.. the only difference is you are able to escape out of the water onto the boat.. (you may need a bigger boat).. the rats can't, they're trapped in their cage with a cat outside.. it's not pleasant.

you'll probably find that they may only react once they get within a certain distance of the cage, or that the scaredy-rat will only react to a certain cat (the one it knows will definately attempt to eat them).


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## wylde99 (Jul 22, 2010)

owieprone said:


> no scaredy-rats will see/smell any of them as a threat .. remember they are essentially a food item to many animals and some of them have far stronger inbuilt fears than others.
> 
> if any of them freeze when you show them the kitten, it means they'll freeze or run away/hide every time, so best to keep kitty away as much as possible.
> 
> ...


So Is It basically a gamble wether they will be scared of Kitten or not?


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## Petitepuppet (May 30, 2009)

We dont let the cats in the same from as the rats unless they are in their cage. The cats dont bother going over to the cage anymore as the rats do grab everything that gets to close.


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## Snippet (Apr 14, 2011)

I'd say it's fine to let the cat in the room with the rats securely shut in their cage, but I'd never EVER let the cat mingle with the rats when they're out the cage. It only takes a moment on instinct on the cat's part to have a seriously injured or dead rat.


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## wylde99 (Jul 22, 2010)

So the 1 big quastion I have guy's Is will my Rats be scared of a Female Kitten the same as they are scared of my housemates Adult Male Cat?

Surely Its not the same?


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## Snippet (Apr 14, 2011)

wylde99 said:


> So the 1 big quastion I have guy's Is will my Rats be scared of a Female Kitten the same as they are scared of my housemates Adult Male Cat?
> 
> Surely Its not the same?


Yes, they probably will be as your kitten still smells like a cat.


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## Guest (May 27, 2011)

I have a cat here with my many rodents BUT she is NOT allowed in the animal room full stop, she is fine with small fluffs that are in cages but I would never trust her if I wasn't there so she isn't allowed in there.

As said before most cats will leave rats alone as they are a bit too big to "handle" safely but this doesn't mean they won't give it a try and IMO a kitten will be worse than an adult as they want to play with everything and all it will take is a swipe at the cage for things to go wrong


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## owieprone (Nov 6, 2008)

as the others have said, and i'm sure i did too but...

a kitten is still a cat the rats won't care how old it is.

and like the rat babies is extremely boisterous and doesn't know its own strength yet.. so be careful when intro-ing but definately worth seeing if any of them have a problem with the other.


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## Kate Bowen (Jun 20, 2019)

Probably fine as long as they are closely supervised, but I wouldn't ever leave them alone unsupervised even in a cage. What a cat might think is a fun game could frighten little ratties to death! 

I'd like to know how it went I producing them though. I've just got a kitten and would like to introduce him to my rats?
My older cat, not an option, she thinks they are prey.


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## Engel98 (Oct 7, 2018)

I would say bad idea...during the summer I watched some cats playing 'ping pong' with a rat in the middle of the road.

That being said, when I had rats (and a patterdale terrier) my rats would torment the dog and when he died, they started on the puppy...saying that my rats were huge so they could easily get away with it lol


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Zombie thread.:Locktopic


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