Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    
    	We have four cats and a bird....a cockatiel.  We have no
    	problems unless Coco (the bird) decides he wants to fly
    	of Cary's shoulder.  Even then the cats don't touch him.
    	They just look at him.
    
    	We have him up high enough so that they can't get to the cage.
    	And everyone is hunky-dorie!  =)
    
    	JJ
    

    On a Nature (or somesuch) program, it said that cats that grow up not 
    being taught that birds or mice, etc. are prey never realize that
    they are and so don't molest them.  (Switch to picture of pet mouse nursing
    along with a bunch of kittens).  So my guess is that a kitten is
    your safest bet.  Of course, this type of upbringing means the kitten 
    would be really helpless in the wild if it ever got lost.
    

    I HAVE A SPA ROOM WITH 3 BIRD CAGES (6 BIRDS TOTAL) AND A CHINCHILLA
    IN A CAGE ON THE FLOOR.  MY 3 FUR FACES ARE ALLOWED IN THE ROOM
    UNSUPERVISED AND HAVE NEVER BOTHERED ANY OF THE CAGED PETS.  IN
    FACT, THE BIRDS DON'T EVEN GET EXCITED WHEN THE CATS ARE ROAMING
    THE ROOM!  I ALSO HAVE DOGS THAT ARE ALLOWED IN THE ROOM AND
    AGAIN, THEY ALL GET ALONG FINE.
    
    --KITTY

    I know of folks who have parrots and cats living in the same household
    with no problems.  The cats seem to respect the size of the birds (as
    well as their large, strong beaks) so they all get along fine. :-)
    

    When I was a teenager at home, our cat, Sandy, was notorious in the
    neighborhood for bringing home sparrows, bluejays, and an occasional
    pigeon, even though she was wearing a collar with a LARGE bell on it. 
    We always talked about Sandy grabbing the bell with one paw while
    pouncing on the unsuspecting bird.
    
    At the same time, I raised parakeets.  In my bedroom lived the first
    parakeet who hatched out - Peewee.  He had complete freedom of the
    whole house to fly around in, and at night he would fly up to my
    bedroom and I'd close the door of his cage.  Sandy knew that Peewee was
    off limits to her, even though I'm sure she salivated at the thought of
    catching him.  She never dared even look hungrily at him, or the humans
    in the family would scold her.  This had to be constantly reinforced,
    as well as not leaving the outside doors open and checking where Peewee
    was before we opened outside doors.  Peewee would fly all over the
    house and perch on windows, and always joined us for suppertime when
    the whole family was present.  
    
    When I married, I left Peewee at home, since that was his home, and I
    don't think my mother would have let me take him, anyway.  To make a
    long story short, and also to prove a point, I came to visit for a
    weekend once with my family, dog, and cat, who was not used to having a
    bird flying freely in the house.  Peewee swooped down too close to my
    cat, who instinctively jumped up and grabbed him in his mouth and ran
    under the couch with Peewee.  When we were able to retrieve poor Peewee
    from the cat, he seemed to be unhurt, but he never recovered.  He died
    during the night.  We had called the vet, and he seemed to think that
    the stress of being caught by a cat caused his demise, since he was
    over 11 years old.  The vet also said that Peewee would never have
    lived that long had he been confined to a cage all his life, so even
    though he was caught by a cat who was unused to living with a
    free-flying bird, Peewee's life would have been much shorter if he had
    been in a cage all his life.  
    
    Peewee was the only free flyer in the house - all the breeding stock
    were in large walk-in aviaries in the cellar, and Sandy used to love to
    sit down there and watch them, her tail twitching all the time. 
    Sometimes we'd here a bang, the birds would flutter and squawk a bit,
    and then Sandy would come up the cellar stairs looking very
    disgruntled.  We were sure that there were times when she couldn't
    control her frustrations and banged against the wire cages.  But she
    never tried anything like that with Peewee.  God love him!
    
    If my husband didn't have so many allergies, I'd still have a parakeet,
    but it's all I can do to keep a balance of one cat, one dog, and a
    husband who wheezes, sneezes, and blows his nose constantly.

    I have cats, a LARGE dog and two caged finch. All the cats were
    adopted as adults. At first they were intrigued by the birds but
    I guess they get bored after a while - maybe a week or so- because 
    the birds don't fly around. 
    
    I've had the same pair of finch for almost seven years now.

    I too have three cats and one bird.  The cats were taught that my
    cockatiel was off limits as kittens.  Absolutely no problems now.
    They don't even bother to gaze longingly, although outdoor birds
    are a different story.  It took about a month of positive reinforcement
    before I was pretty positive I didn't have to worry.  Now, I can
    leave them all together, and everyone is fine.
    
    LInda

    I'm sorry about Peewee.  I sure wish I could have a parakeet again,
    but s/he wouldn't last 2 minutes around Mighty Hunter LB.
    

    
    I had a parakeet (Kito) for about a year, and although my cats loved to
    gaze longingly at the birds outside, they never bothered Kito. In fact,
    JellyBean took to sitting right beside the cage, and they'd chatter to
    each other like old friends. She never made a move to touch the bird,
    or knock the cage over, or anything. It was just her friend, and it was
    almost as though she were protecting it by sitting there all day.
    

    RE: .9

    I've heard that often a cat will regard another animal (of a different
    species) not as just a friend but as a pet as well.

    Deb 

    Hi everyone,
    
    I have read all of these good things about cats and birds and I can't
    believe it!  When I first brought Tabitha into the house with Charlie,
    the parakeet that I had for 2 years, we nearly had a CATastrophy (pun
    intended).  We tried everything possible to get Tabitha to leave
    Charlie alone, but she just wouldn't.  And it's not that we got her as
    a cat either.  She was only about 5 weeks old when we got her.  But no
    matter what, we couldn't get her to leave Charlie alone.  We finally
    had to give Charlie to my cousin.  Charlie is now QUITE happy with no
    felines around!
    
    You may want to refer to note 1085 for more information on cats and
    birds together.  That has Tabitha's and Charlie's story in it.
    
    Holly
    
    
    p.s.  Following is the first note to 1085.  It's Tabitha's and
    Charlie's story.
    
              <<< VAXWRK::$1$DUS6:[NOTES$LIBRARY]FELINE.NOTE;1 >>>
                               -< Meower Power >-
================================================================================
Note 1085.0     Near Tragedy--How to prevent this in the future?      16 replies
FIDDLE::HTAYLOR "Cat lovers are a special breed"     23 lines   2-FEB-1988 08:40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I need some advice.  When I first joined this notes file, I asked
    about bringing a cat into a home with a bird.  Things have geen
    going fine so far except for last weekend when  Charlie the bird
    almost had a major CATastrophe.
                                  
                                  
    Tabby has looked at charlie's cage every once in a while, but 
    hasn't really bothered him.  Saturday night, I had just gone to bed 
    when I heard a big crash out in the other room.  I got up to
    investigate.  When I turned on the light, Charlie's cage had been 
    knocked over and Tabby had Charlie IN HER MOUTH!!!!  I chased the cat 
    around the house and finally got her to let go of Charlie.  He flew 
    up onto my shoulder and I checked him to make sure he was ok.  He was 
    obviously nervous, but he seemed fine.
    
    Now my question is, what do I do?  Charlie's cage is in my room
    right now, but I would like to bring him out with the rest of the
    family.  any suggestions?
    
    Holly
    
    
    

If you bring a bird into an already-established cat household, you
can expect your cats to say, "FOR ME??!?  How sweet of you...lunch on the
hoof, as it were!"......that doesn't mean you won't have that unusual
cat that understands the difference between outside and inside birds, but
you can EXPECT to have to deal with a POWERFUL instinct to hunt and EAT
creatures with feathers.  As most birds are very vulnerable to stress,
I would be VERY concerned whether the bird would survive the "breaking-in"
period during which you attempt to convince the cat not to eat "THIS bird".

If you do not yet have pets, you might try to get the bird first (a VERY
BIG BIRD WITH REAL SHARP BEAK AND CLAWS) and THEN add 2 very small kittens
(10 weeks or so) so they could entertain themselves.....and then try to
train the kittens to LEAVE THE BIRD ALONE.  You would not, in my opinion,
have a prayer of keeping ONE kitten involved enough with other things to
keep it away from the bird.  I would also never let the kittens outside 
to learn to hunt birds from the other cats in the area, and I would consider
declawing the kittens in order to keep the bird to cat power ratio in 
the bird's favor....

At the price of BIG BIRDS WITH SHARP BEAK AND CLAWS, I personally would
not risk it....there is only so much I'm willing to spend on my cats'
food -- and the last time I looked, a parrot, etc. can cost $800.00 and
up.....a little too rich for my blood! 8^}

    Thanks for all the reply's.  I think what I'll end up doing is getting
    a very young kitten.
    
    Hopefully it will become familuar with the bird and ignor her.  
    
    Thanks again,
    
    Mark
    

    Mark,
    
    Did you get your kitten yet?  I wrote into feline and pet_birds looking
    for similar advice but my situation was the other way around.  I
    already have cats and wanted to add a bird.  Well, I did it and to my
    delight it is working out wonderfully.  The (3) cats have looked and
    sniffed but have not made any aggressive moves what so ever.  I even
    take my bird out with the cats around.  They (the cats) don't even
    bother with her now and simply go about their normal routine.
    
    My husband had the bird out over the weekend and she and one of the
    cats came nose to nose.  The bird peeped and flapped her wings and the
    cat went scampering off to the other side of the counter.
    
    I'm very pleased and confident enough that I am getting another bird
    next weekend (to keep the first one, Rosie, company).  
    
    Jeanne (Cali, Sam, Sweetie, and (Rosie the bird)
                                           

    Hi Jeanne,
    
    Not yet.  I still haven't moved in yet.  Once I do I'm planning on
    getting kitten.  Hopefully it will all go well.  
    
    I'll let you know.
    
    Mark
    

	Did anyone else see 'America's Funniest Home Videos' on Sunday
	night?  There was a great film clip of a cat and a cockatiel
	playing with a shoestring, and it looked like the bird was
	winning :^}

	Sandy

    
    	Yes, Sandy, I saw that one!! My parakeet used to chase my
    	dog (corgi) around the same way - the dog was terrified of 
    	him!! 
    

    Did anyone happen to record that on a VHS recorder?? If so, I'd
    love to borrow it.
      Nancy DC

    I got another bird this weekend and I'm happy to say that my 3 cats
    haven't even seemed to notice it.  I'm sooooo proud of them!  They just
    seem to know that these birds are part of the family which means paws
    off!  Of course I will never completely trust them, after all, cats will
    be cats, but all in all, things are working out beatifully.
    
    Jeanne (Cali, Sam, and Sweetie)
    
    P.S.  The one I'm having trouble with is the dog!  For some reason,
    she's determined to get to these birds.  Needless to say, she is not
    allowed in the house when the birds are out.
    
    

Jeanne,

I know the answer to this one!  Sweetie hired the dog to do the dirty work
for her!  She's just like her biological Mom...why do the work yourself
when you can hire someone!  Meg always had me doing her work for her, so
Sweetie must have learned from her!

Give the little angel a hug from me and her sister, Julie!!

Mary

    Mary!  What ever gave you the idea Sweetie was a little angel?  You
    would not have written that if you had seen her SWINGING from my newly
    purshased wall hanging last week or climbing up the screen door to get
    a better look at the outside world, or taking a hissy fit at 2:00 in
    the morning because she saw a ghost or something outside!  
    
    I should have named her "Diablo"
    
    Jeanne
    
    

    I use to have a canary, parakeet, and a cockatiel. My orange tabby
    cat of 14 years never bothered them. However, he died last summer,
    and I adopted a 3 yr. old female torbie, and a 1 yr. old silver
    male tabby. The older female learned quickly through verbal commands,
    not to bother the birds. However, the younger male knocked over
    both the canary and parakeet cages. (The cockatiel cage was a hugh,
    heavy, victorian, wrought-iron cage that he couldn't push over.)
    
    The result was that even though neither bird was eaten, the canary
    died the next day of a heart attack. The parakeet had all it's tail
    feathers pulled out, but he was fine, and his feathers grew back prettier
    that ever. 
    
    Advice: Make sure tht your parrot is in a very heavy cage. Also,
    train your cats (either verbally, or with a water sprayer) not to
    even look at the bird. It can work, but accidents do occur. After
    the rules have been established, our cats and birds co-exist just
    fine.