My two cats are discovering that we now have a pet rat in the household.
So far, one of the cats got nipped when she decided to poke her paw at the rat. No broken skin or anything, but it shocked her enough that she quickly left and found a high perch to observe the rat. But now the memory has faded, and she's interested in the rat again.
The other cat is also interested, and has the worse habit of laying down by the rat.
The rat, by the way, tends not to like other furred creatures. He's bit another cat a few times, and I've seen him sneak up on another cat just to bite her tail.
At this point, with the rat's territorial nature regarding other furred creatures, and the cats' curiosity, I can't see how the two species are going to mix without someone getting nipped.
So far, I've kept the rat in his cage (a large ferret cage), except for a few supervised explorations with me in the room, and some unsupervised explorations with the cats locked out of the room. But sooner or later the cats and the rat will mix. And I think someone's going to get nipped.
So far, one of the cats got nipped when she decided to poke her paw at the rat. No broken skin or anything, but it shocked her enough that she quickly left and found a high perch to observe the rat. But now the memory has faded, and she's interested in the rat again.
The other cat is also interested, and has the worse habit of laying down by the rat.
The rat, by the way, tends not to like other furred creatures. He's bit another cat a few times, and I've seen him sneak up on another cat just to bite her tail.
At this point, with the rat's territorial nature regarding other furred creatures, and the cats' curiosity, I can't see how the two species are going to mix without someone getting nipped.
So far, I've kept the rat in his cage (a large ferret cage), except for a few supervised explorations with me in the room, and some unsupervised explorations with the cats locked out of the room. But sooner or later the cats and the rat will mix. And I think someone's going to get nipped.