[Scattergold]

Has anyone any experience with this?

My fiance and I would like to get a kitten, Ive had cats my whole life, but he has a 17 year old cockatiel, and I am sure I could train a cat to leave the bird alone while we're there, but I've learned not to trust a cat for anything when theyre alone! So we're thinking of keeping the bird in a seperate room... but then I worry the bird might get depressed and self desctructive (as birds do)...

Has anyone successfully kept cats and birds? Advice?

 

[Zalensia]

My partner use to breed budgies, one of our cats could sit in the avory with him and she wouldnt touch the birds, but he would never leave her alone with them.
Cats can be taught like you say, while you are around not to touch something they are not sposed too, but usually once you disappear with cats that all goes out the window.
From kitten as you want would certainly help, but remember that birds are very suceptable to stress, and a young mischevious kitten or even an adult cat trying to get at the bird may be enough to kill it.
I think if you were to put the cockatiel in another room make sure you buy it some new toys. But remember its better for a cockatiel to have 1 new toy once a month than a load of new toys at once. Or have you thought about another cockatiel if it is going into a seperate room? Remember if you do that you will need to get a bigger cage to give both birds some room.

Edit-
remember you should never have birds in a room where you sleep either- just incase you thought about putting the cockatiel in there (Maybe a bit noisy tho ) anyway when birds flap thier wings they kick up a lot of dust thats in the air, but also tiny particles that are on them aswell, which isnt good for human lungs, espically in the long run, especially when you considers cockatiels can live to be 30 years old!

 

[meowmix]

i'm kind of in this situation too, except that my brother has a hamster instead. i've read the post called "disaster with the hamster" and that's exactly what i think will happen if my cat found out about a hamster living in the house.

 

[kittylover]

kitties and birdies

I mysely have 2 cats and 4 birds. I had 10 birds at one time. My cats are pretty good around the birds but my birds are in very sturdy cages. In order to teach them to leave them alone i got a water bottle and put it on the misting setting and everytime they bothered them i would spray them. It is a lot better than hollering or punishing them.



Nikita

 

[drjean]

When you punish a cat by spraying or whatever, the only thing they learn is to not do the behavior WHEN YOU ARE THERE. Left alone, all bets are off. However, there are "remote" punishment systems like "sssscat" that are more effective.

I have kept cats and birds together successfully, as have many of my friends. (My budgies got a big kick out of the cats. The cats eventually lost interest.) You just have to have a sturdy cage and a little more guile than the cat (NOT easy, though!). There are clips and lock thingies that you can get to keep the bottom on the cage even with a cat swinging from it--which you will undoubtedly have at some point in time! If you want to let the bird out for a while, just lock the cat out of the room.

Congrats on having a 17-year old cockatiel!

Cheers,
Dr. Jean