# Rats and cats



## ThatOneSamm (Apr 7, 2016)

My cat is an absolute sweet heart and she practically is attached to my hip when I am home. She's my little buddy.
Today I brought home 2 rat babies and they are in my room as I have no other spare space to have their cage in the house currently.
My cat will NOT stop staring at them. I'm afraid she is stressing them out and scaring them. She keeps trying to sit next to the cage and put her paws on it when I'm not looking.
The problem here is that I cannot lock her out of my room because she sleeps on top of my stomach at night under the covers and will sit outside my door scratching it and crying for hours before I open it again.
What I'm asking for is advice to get her uninterested in them if it's possible. 
I really don't want the little babies to be frightened!


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## Fabio (Apr 30, 2014)

Well I have my own dog (who doesn't have prey drive) and my parent's dog (who has prey drive). My dog was staring at the cage when I first got the cage, but I trusted him and knew that he wouldn't hurt ANYTHING, so I VERY carefully introduced him to one of my rats. Then one by one I added more rats until they were all playing together. It has now been almost 2 years and my dog and rats are in the same room and free range together with no problems. Again, I only did this because I know for sure my doggie wouldn't hurt anything or anyone haha.

But when my parent's dog visited, he would jump and claw at the cage and when I locked him outside, he would try to get in the room with the cage. He stayed with me for 3 days and that was 3 days of constant clawing and whining to get at the rats. And every time he stays here, that happens no matter what I do. I even moved the cages to another room and the dog would go to my room first where he remembers the rats and then smell out the other room where I "hid" them... haha. So I am not sure if anything is fixable and I am sure as heck not going to even try to get them aquainted.

Personally, I think if your cat has prey drive, you could never really trust her with the rats if she seems like she wants to do more than play with them. So I guess it's a matter of you knowing your animal if she is pawing at the cage because she is interested or pawing because she wants to hunt. I seen a bunch of vids where cats "get along" with rats, but I don't want to suggest anything because I don't want anything happening to your rats, but I am just giving you my experience with my doggies.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

My rat, Pippin is the one with the prey drive. I'd be more worried about my dog getting bitten and retaliating. Shes fearless.


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## Angel_Rat (Feb 17, 2016)

If you want to stop your cat from howling and scratching at the door you could get those special double sided tape for cats so they don't scratch. You could also wear earbuds because of the howling. I defiantly wouldn't let your cat play with the rats either, and belive me, I have indoor outdoor cats and they have such a prey drive they would go after my rats in a hartbeat!


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

I'm not sure what they are called, but they make these motion-sensor compressed air sprayers.. You could sit one of those so that it is aimed near the cage and when the cat goes near, it sprays him with a poof of air... I've heard they're quite effective in getting a cat to avoid a place. Also try covering the cage when the cat is in the room...and closing the door the rest of the day so the cat doesn't have access. 

The real problem with cats and cages / animals, is that they will also try to knock over the cage or unintentionally cause it to fall over or break by sitting on it, jumping on it, etc. Never underestimate a cat's prey drive either.. they may look cute and lazy, but given the right circumstances, their instincts will kick in. 

Do you have a large closet that you can put the cage in at night? That might work. 

You cold also try the double-sided tape and the motion-sensor air bottle outside your door at night and basically use those to teach her / him that your doorway is not a good place to hang out. I know that may be a pain (not having him sleep with you and dealing with the yowling until he figures it out), but I think having him in the room with the rats while you are asleep will end badly. My cat killed one of my geckos once... I had kept them in my walk-in closet until the day I moved. I left my door open for about 10 minutes ro run a load of stuff to my new apt. and my cat knocked over both gecko terrariums, shattering glass, and ending in the death of one of the geckos and injuring the other one... He basically waited until he had the opportunity to strike. 

If you had an extrememly sturdy cage... like a single critter nation, you might be able to cover it with hardware cloth (so the cat can't get his paws in) and cover the cage at night (they make zip-up covers for them) and the cat wouldn't be able to move, knock over, or break into the cage... But given your space situation, I gather that you have a smaller cage that could be knocked over, so that wouldn't work for you probably.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

I'm not encouraging either way, but I will tell you what my experience has been.

I have 2 dogs, a German Shepherd and a Chihuahua/Terrier mix. 

I also have 14 cats that go out doors. 

All 5 of my rats play with the dogs and the cats. One of my rats actually harasses all of the dogs and cats. I introduced them slowly, really just to make sure everyone would be okay with each other. Everything has been fine. Some of my cats find the rats annoying, but they also find the dogs annoying. Most of my cats play with the rats. A couple of them are afraid of the rats. A few of them ignore them, but don't seem to mind the rats crawling on them.

As far as cats being prey animals.

Living in the country for over 20 years, and having an unofficial cat rescue, I have had many, many cats. They have all been indoor/outdoor cats. Cats typically bring 'gifts' home. Usually birds and mice. In over 20 years, I have only had one rat as a 'gift'. A very tiny rat at that. It was about the size of my thumb. And yes, I can tell the difference between a mouse and a rat. 

I don't know how common it is, but I do know that it not unusual for rats and cats to get along just fine.


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## Fraido (Oct 1, 2014)

I let my rats and cat be out together, they get along very well. Well... they ignore each other. Sometimes my heart rat will cuddle with her, but sometimes he also tries to be her dentist and she doesn't like that, so she will bite him and try to rabbit kick him. Obviously I don't LET her do that, but he knows what's gonna happen if he tries to do it so I don't feel all that bad for him. *rolls eyes* Something I found super cute, is watching Moo bite her lip and try to tug it away. He would just grab her lip and hang on. She would sit there and take it for the most part, or she'd move her head to try and avoid it. It was hilarious though, so comical. 

Before I had a new puppy in my room during the days, I would often let Moo out and he would stay out with me for days.

When I had rat babies, my cat would carry around the babies or bring them to me meowing. She was very maternal with them, and she had the most gentle grip on them. She has had kittens in the past. I always confiscated the pups when she stole them, of course. I got her a rat stuffy and she will whip it around and kick it and play with it, she'll sit there with it in her mouth and meow, and eventually bring it to me where she will drop it.


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