kitten and canaries

[mogs]

hi all,

My kitten has found my cage with canaries in... also hamster in another cage too.

She is just sat on the canary cage at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions how to manage this....I have moved her loads of times (with me making hissing noises to scare her) and she just goes back.

mogs.x

[angieh]

I am sorry to say that it is nature mogs. Cats and canaries don't really get on well together, as I'm sure you know. Any self respecting cat will look at a canary and think "snack". :cat31

If I were you, I'd put your canary and hamster in a room and exclude your kitten from that room permanently for the good health of you, the canary and the hamster at least! :cat1

[dandysmom]

Agree with Angie! That would definitely be the wisest solution.......

[Elaine]

I was trying to think of some kind of act of god that would give little kitty a scare but cannt think of anything that would frighten kitty to stay away without scaring canary and hammy too.
As Angie and Eileen say, the best solution may be to keep them in a room which kitty doesnt have access to.
One solution for hammy may be to change the cage to a glass tank. I have my hammy in a hamster tank which I bought at P@H. My cats can watch her but cannt get claws through any bars.

[mogs]

hi, thanks for the replies.

Fortunately she can't get her paws through. My last cat (best hunter) was so good with the household pets! I'm sure I read somewhere that they can, eventually, understand that these pets are off limits.

Anyway, she's bored of them known and starting to get to know the dogs. :-D That'll keep her busy for a while. :cat1

[Elaine]

A good friend of mine and Candyshandy's doe cat rescue but did start off by doing parrot rescue. She does still have parrots and rescues mostly feral cats. I have even witnessed a parrot walking across the floor of a room full of cats to drink out of the cat water fountain. One cat did try to sneak up on it and the parrot warned it off no problems but then parrots are much better equiped and have size as an advantage, which is more than the canary does. Bat maybe in time she will learn.
You could try giving her a short sharp squirt of water when she goes near the cage, being careful not to squirt the canary. The trick with that though is to be as sneaky as possible so that the cat doesnt associate the water with you squirting it. If she knows the water came from you, she will only learn not to go near the canary when you are in the same room.