Rats 'n Cats.....

[1happybooker]

I have solved the mystery of Pansy's hurt tail. (The end, about 1/2", had all the skin off it & turned black & finally fell off).

Now Poppy's has done the same thing. After watching the cats at the cage while the rats play around I noticed that AN AWFUL LOT of the time the ratties' tails hung outside the cage bars. The cats must have bit the tips off.  

Doesn't seem to have bothered the rats any -- the rest of the tails are fine -- just missing those little whippy-thin ends.

HOWEVER, my brother (who welds) is finishing me up a cage stand tomorrow. So the cage won't be within reach of the cats anymore.  

I know the cats will be disappointed. They like to sit & dream of ratties under glass......

[Shimmer]

How awful!   I'm glad you're getting the stand though...

lol, I'm so happy to not have that problem! My cats are terrified of the rats...They rarely come into my room ever since I got my rats. Such wimps...

[Maggie's Mom]

You know, one of my rats had that happen, and I think it was in fact a blood clot.  No esonible explaination...it just happend.  My cat doesn't care about rats...but she thinks gerbils are tasty...nummers!

[Grace Jr]

My cat is a big lazy boy, he actually lets the rats sit on him without complaint.  Well, aside from the dirty looks he gives me...    My girls are in their own room, so I don't have to worry about cats getting at them.  Here's hoping he doesn't learn how to open doors and let them run around the house for Gram's cat to get!  

[Spiralgirl]

My old kitties were quite terrified of my ratties....a inquisitive paw or two got nipped and they decided the leave them alone.  Since they have passed on I've gotten a new kitten who views my ratties as her personal play toy.  Her fav game is tag...wacking at the ratties as they climb on the cage bars trying to nip her paws...so far she's to quick for them!

[Ali]

Aw, sorry to hear about the girls' poor tails! I'm forever tucking tails back inside the cage out of reach of the cats!

My cats soon lost interest in my old does - once the girls learned that the cats couldn't get them they stopped being scared and started trying to attack the cats through the bars.

My poor new rat-boys though will tolerate the cat-boys in the room but freak out if they start hanging around the cage. I keep planning to let the cats get on with it and 'force' the rat-boys to get used to it like the girls did in the hope that they'll eventually realise that the cats can't get them. But everytime I see a scaredy rat face poking out of a box I can't do it, and have to shoo the cat-boys away!!

[em]

I had a nightmare at Xmas trying to keep my uncle's cat away from the rat cage. We tried keeping the rats in a room with the door shut, but the cat can open doors! Every time I walked past that room the cat was sitting right up against the cage eyeing those tasty-looking bundles of fluff and, I'm sure, trying to work out how to open the cage door.

Poor Josephine and Daphne had never seen a cat before and eagerly ran to the edge of the cage to say "hello, new friend!". I nearly had a heart attack.

Luckily my parents' cat is terrified of them. I lifted him up to the rat cage to have a look. He studied them intently for all of two seconds, then gave an outraged yowl and tried to escape down my back. I've still got the scars  

[Ratty Corner]

We have enough problems trying to keep our neighbour's cat away from our ratties. She sits on the outside window ledge watching them, with her eyes dilated. We can't leave the back door open because she's straight in, and she even got stuck half way in through the kitchen window the other day. It's getting to be a right pain!
Annette

[Anmllvr731]

There's no way our cats could get to the rats or parts of them, with the cage they're in but we put the huge cage on top of my dresser anyway cause it would totaly stress the ratties out just to have a cat walk by they're cage.
I'm glad you're getting a stand soon and will eliminate the problem. Hope they're tails are ok.