13 Jun 2009, Posted by christie in Uncategorized, 3 Comments

How to have a kitten plus another pet

Image by fazen

We’ve all seen the cute pictures of animals who are unlikely friends, like a kitten with a dog or a mouse. How do you have two pets who might usually consider each other predator and prey? I’ve always been afraid to try mixing species just in case something goes terribly wrong, but in The Complete Illustrated Guide to Cat Care & Behavior, Dr. Bruce Fogle states that the key is the age of the pets. “Critical timing. The permanent fear a cat has of other species, for example a fox or dog, and the instinct to prey on small species such as a mouse or rat, does not develop until after the kitten is seven weeks old. Studies show that when six-week-old kittens are raised with rats they consistently refuse to prey upon that breed of rat later on in life. But if the first meeting is delayed beyond seven weeks, the relationship turns into one of hunter and hunted.”