Cats and hamsters

Claire_Bear

princess_loki wrote: »

when i was little we had two cats, a hamster and a bird :rotfl::rotfl:

never had any problems - youngest cat sometimes sat and looked at them both but no problems.

when i was older i had a hamster and a cat. the cat was terrified of the hamster as hamster used to run into the cat when in her ball thingy. once the ball broke open and hammy still charged at cat - cat ran away! from then onwards i always used a little bit of sellotape on the ball.

cat was always locked out of front room at night but one time i got a little drunk and forgot. cat pulled cage off unit and hamster was found in the morning in the electric cupboard - scared but ok.

however, think about the nature of your cat - if it is an avid hunter i would not recommend getting the two together - both of the cats i had with other pets were docile and a may i say it a little dim :rotfl:

The only hunting she does is standing around my feet when I'm in the kitchen in case I drop anything However, when she plays with her toy mousey she does seem to realise it's meant to be prey - she'll hold it in her mouth and shake it but she won't do this with any other toys.

What I was picturing is something like the right-hand side of this picture: http://www.chinchillanation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dsc_02941.jpg that way the units are 'contained' with no tubes sticking out as I know that they come apart easily if knocked and if they get chewed through it's an easy way for a hamster to escape. There would be a tube or a ladder connecting each platform. Although it would be possible to make something similar with glass tanks as long as they had lids which were strong enough to support the weight of the ones above them.

On the other hand, I might just get a goldfish :rotfl:

kindofagilr

Just get the Hamster a cage like Curious George posted, then every night lock the cat out the sitting room for like half an hour and let the hamster loose in a playpen;.

Curious_George_2

picklepick wrote: »

Plastic cages arent very suitable for either as they gnaw through plastic within hours

Henry has been in the cage i posted above for the entire time we have had him (over 18 months now) and there isnt a bite mark on it,
mostly because there is nowhere for him to get started,

bouncydog1

No experience of hamsters because we have had cats most of our lives. However, many years ago one of our cats realised that the next door neighbour had a budgie and made it it's life ambition to get in next door to see the budgie.

Result: the neighbour left a window open one day and returned to find the cat had managed to knock the cage off of the hanging stand onto the floor and was engrossed with a paw through the bars trying to get hold of the poor budgie.

I would never ever trust a cat to be left alone with either a bird or a hamster/gerbil etc because they are natural predators and just because they don't seem bothered by the other inhabitant doesn't mean that the cat won't make an attempt at playing with it!

tomatoplant

Many years ago, my cat stuck his nose into the hamster's cage. He was promptly bitten, scarred for years and refused to acknowledge the hamster's existence.

little_evo

We had two cats and a hamster and our hamster lived to the ripe ole age of 3 before passing. I had one cat who used to lay on top of the cage during the day to sun hersealf and Fluffy the hamster put a stop to that by sneaking up underneath her and giving her a nibble and the other did manage to knock Fluffy's cage off into the floor one night, and it was a big cage. We all cried thinking he was dead from the shock but as soon as we picked him up he started moving and it never happened again.

To be fair, both of our cats never seemed to have that hunter instinct however having Fluffy or the Fluffinator as my son used to call him certainly made them think twice about him.