# Cats and Rats



## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Along with my six rattie babies, I have two female rescue cats, Sake (a Burmese) and Howl (a Ragdoll/Turkish mix). Both the girls were declawed before I got them, which might be why they don't seem to have any kind of hunting instinct, but I got a lot of warnings from people about the cats and rats interacting when I first rescued the kitties. However, they've turned out to be best buds. The cats are a little bit afraid of the rats, but the ratties love the cats and during free range time they sometimes coax the cats into cuddling. Do any other cat and rat owners have this experience? Or did I just end up with two weird cats?


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

My cat is Not declawed (She is spayed, and is a tabby) and she absolutely loves the rats. they are her babies. Though she is scaring our new rat babies (Bentley, Liam, and Niko) cause they aren't used to cats.

She'll lay around and watch them, even guards them in the bathtub when they are in there (very rarely, typically if they need an olive oil bath).

Since we've gotten the new DCN she's been putting her paws Into the cage, which always results in her being bitten, typically by Bentley or Storm. She also tried to climb the cage once, but it didn't work out too well, she got bit by all the rats.

Though they have never cuddled, my rats Chase my cat. This is a video from our old apartment, when Storm was young, having a stare down with my cat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej9TUB4-yLs

Typically they don't last that long. Here is one of Charles, he loved my cat. (Ok, watching it again, I think he tried to bite her, or groom her, I can't tell) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vK-161RLpY

And Soda chasing our cat, well, playing with her (he might have also been teasing her) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7nZCfDwYS4

I have a video of the first time she really met them outside the cage, and Einstein tried to go carpet skiing on her tail. Oh, also ignore my dirty room and bad video quality. My room is now Much cleaner, and we moved.

Oh, also our cat was born, well "wild". her mom was a stray cat my friend tamed, so I'm sure she was taught how to hunt. But Streaker has never hunted anything. actually she caught a bird one day and just sat there with it for 2 hours occasionally grooming it, then let it go. After that the bird was really confused. So far she has never gone after our rats.


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## CapnKennedy (Sep 30, 2012)

I have two ragdolls, neither of them are declawed (we had to sign a contract saying we wouldn't declaw them) and they're both horrified of the rats. The rats love them though. It's cute watching the rats free range when the cats are sleeping on my bed and then they freak out because the rats are loose. You would think it's the other way around.


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## Eleanor Lamb (Oct 22, 2012)

I don't have cats but I have a Shiba Inu, who likes to play with my rats, though the rats would prefer to be left alone. lol


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## Jenzie (Dec 26, 2012)

I got a kitten pretty recently and he wants to play with the rats soooo badly. He's always sticking his paw into their cage and trying to interact with them when I take them out. I can tell he just wants to play, but of course I'm always really careful since playing often goes with biting when it comes to cats. My younger rat was pretty scared of him the first two days, but my older rat was fine with him from the beginning. I always take the rats with me when I go to visit my family for a few days, and the family cats on the other hand are TERRIFIED of the rats. They hiss, back away, struggle as hard as they can if someone's holding them, and bolt out the door if it's open. I think it all depends on the cats' personalities... but I don't think that cats chasing down and eating pet rats is as common as people think it might be.


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## Muttlycrew (Dec 21, 2012)

I personally have one cat, who is an aid hunter. Her name is Ava.
She would love to eat the rats up, unless I'm holding them. When I'm holding them she is totally fine with them and doesn't try to get them at all. I wouldn't leave them unattended though.... 
My family has 3 other cats and they all hunt (except old lady Delilah, my moms fat old black cat that only has 4 teeth) she kind of does her own thing... 


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## kelii (Dec 18, 2012)

Before our cat passed away she was terrified of the rats.


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

My cats pay no attention whatsoever to my rats, but one of my cats would constantly harass my pet mouse when I had him...maybe mice just look more appetizing? Lol!


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## Rattii (Dec 8, 2012)

I don't think I could ever let my cat be out in the open with my two rats. He hunts very often, from catching little voles to rabbits and massive rats (not like pet rats!) But he also recently one which looked similar size to my rats which made me worry about if he caught them. Well actually, my mum is more worried about my rats being hurt, or even killed, by our kitty. He's sometimes sneaked into my room whilst they rats are out, when I had only left the door open for a moment. But because he's seen them in the cage before, the first thing he does is sneaks under the bed to watch them from there. They tend to be on the top of the bed.

For some reason, if I introduced my cat and my rats together in the open, I think that it would be okay. I could imagine he would just sniff them, unless of course they made a massive dash for it which might make him chase after them (most likely.) But if it froze or just moved more slower, the rattie should be safe.

I was letting my rats play around on the sofa because my cat was out. But someone let him in and he came through to the room. I quickly picked them up, but he didn't seem that bothered. I think it's because all he wanted was his food - as in food he didn't have to work for, because he's lazy except when he hunts for fun.


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## TheGirls2012 (Jan 8, 2013)

I have two cats than pay no attention whatsoever to my rats. They were scared of my two boys, actually. My two girl ratties are very interested in my cats, though.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Rat on cat cuddling! Had to share. 

View attachment 12298
View attachment 12299


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

haha, I love your cat's look "Please get this terrible example of a creature off of me!"


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Haha, I know! She always looks so traumatized when they climb onto her, but she lets them stay there as long as they please! Our other cat will get up and run away, but Sake just sits there with this, "How much longer must I endure this?" look on her face.


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