# How to keep cats away from birds?



## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

So me and my BF have been talking a lot about moving in together, and we've decided we're gunna try to make it happen within the next few months. One problem though, he has a cat, and I have 2 birds. Lol. 

I'm worried the cat might try to go after my birds.

I want to keep their cage inside our bedroom. But so they're not stuck in a cramped bedroom and away from both of us during the majority of the day, I would like to keep a play gym in the living room so they can socialize with us and have some out of cage time. 

The only thing is, I don't want to have to lock the cat up in the bedroom while they're in the living room. And I can't put her outside because she has to be the only cat in the world (that I know of) who is afraid to go outside. Lol. 

I know what you're thinking. "Just don't leave the living room while they're out there." Well yeah that's common sense. But wouldn't I have to deal with constantly getting after the cat? 

And what if the birds try to fly around? Their wings are clipped, so they'd just go to the floor. But what if the cat got to them before I did?

Lol. Me and my BF both love the cat and the birds very much. So getting rid of either of them is *NOT* an option.

Anybody who owns a cat have any advise for me?


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## sidneymysnake (Jul 3, 2010)

Every time my cat went near the playstand or the cage he would get a squirt of water, now he wants nothing to do with either. I trained him to avoid the fish tank, reptile cages, and bunny cage this way. I do make sure to keep a really good eye out though when the bird is out. If the bird flops to the floor I just pick it up immediately. Mind you my cat has been trained to leave cages and other animals that are smaller than him alone since he was about 8 weeks old.


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## dakisgirls (Jul 15, 2010)

With my dogs, I would just give them a stern "No" everytime they even looked at Momo. I think the squirting of the water would work better for cats, though, because they don't really listen very well.


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## m&m672 (Jun 4, 2010)

My cat is declawed, he gets the water gun treatment but always comes back for more. He lays on the finch cage, doesn't cause trouble, just lays on it looking at the finches, it freaks them out. I've had the teils on the floor and he gets in his punch position, a ways away from the action, runs away with the water gun, but always returns. So far no issues, but his curiousity always brings him back. I just make sure to keep an eye on him and if I want the birds out and I don't want to have to keep and eye on them, I put him up. If he is out and I need to leave the room, I put the birds up. If I were you I'd keep the birds cage in the living room and do that, it only takes a second and then its too late. no matter how nice the cat is, they have natural instincts. If your cat has claws, it can pull a wing off of a bird through the cage wires. Its not a pretty sight.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

You may find your boyfriends cat isn’t that bothered by the tiels anyway, my cat shows no interest what so ever, tiels don’t tent to flit around like a small bird would and so don’t really attract the attention of my cat, having said that my cat was actually in the same room as me lying on the floor when cleaning one my tiels cage out and my tiel who was clipped at the time decided he was going to the ground and leaped of his cage and landed on the cat, my cat jumped up and ran off, I still wouldn’t trust my cat if my tiel’s were out, but I also think cats are very clever and they seem to know what prey is off limits, lol


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## Kai (Jan 28, 2008)

I have two indoor cats and they were 8 and 5 when I first got birds. My older cat is actually afraid of them. She doesn't like it when they fly over her, or walk up to her, or (on occasion) land on her. My boy needed some incentive to stay away from them. I used a squirt bottle. He hates the thing and takes off running. It didn't take him long to realize that the birds were a part of the family. He will occasionally sniff them but always walks away. I hope you have success with your family introduction.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I have a cat and a kitten, they're not aloud near or in the bird room, the bird room door is kept shut anyway. I also currently have birds in my bedroom, so the cats are not aloud in my bedroom until the birds are covered and in bed where they can't get to them!


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

My cat shows no interest. Of course they want to suss out what it is when something new comes into the house. But the cat just sniffs dude then walks away. If dude flys off his cage and falls on the floor noah (the cat) gets up to see what happened but does nothing. I once put dude right on noahs head when noah was on my lap and noah just looked at me as if to say "get this stupid thing off me!" but he shows no interest in the birds. 
Its the other way around. Noah will walk past the coffee table when dude is on it and dude will BITE noahs tail if he can reach it and always trys to bite and pull noahs furr. Noah just looks at me as if to say...HELP ME MUM !


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Lol. We already use the squirt bottle on his cat when she does something we don't like. I just dunno how determined she will be with birds. She likes anything smaller than her that moves a lot. Despite that she's a really sweet and gentle cat, I don't trust her with them just because she's a cat, and it's instinct for them to go after birds. From what I'm hearing though, it sounds like the squirt bottle should be enough as long as I'm looking after them while they're out there (which I definitely will be). 

Putting the cage in the living room wouldn't be good for us for three reasons. 

1. If me and my BF are staying up late, we'll be making noise. And they need to sleep.

2. Even though it's not cramped in the living room, they'd still be locked in the cage. Yes I can take them out, but they need other areas besides the cage to hang out. 

3. It's just safer in the bedroom for multiple reasons. 

And Solace: We'll be living in a 1 bedroom place. Lol. So the only other room they could go in is the living room.


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## sidneymysnake (Jul 3, 2010)

You're in the same situation as me - we have a 1 bedroom too, we keep him in the living room as per my hubby's no animals in the bedroom rule. 

Also, I don't buy my cat any toys that have feathers or that are a similar size or shape to a bird or rat. Just so he doesn't think it's okay to attack that texture or shape.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Well, we're trying to look for 2 bedroom places we can actually afford. Apartments out here though suck. They're all very expensive despite their location or the whole cities location at that. 

We would prefer a 2 bedroom though because he also has a snake. We want the snake and the birds to be in their own bedroom and not have to share. Not because we're afraid of the snake getting loose, but because I hear birds themselves don't feel safe when they see snakes. And we don't want the snake in the living room either.

So if we're lucky, we'll get a 2 bedroom. Keep the birds in the office room so if we decide to sleep in, they're free to wake up when they want and they won't wake us up. Keep the snake in our room since snakes don't make any mess or noise. And keep the cat wherever she wants to be except in the office unless we're in there with her.


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## sidneymysnake (Jul 3, 2010)

That sounds like a great plan. Trust me, I know how apartments are, it took us forever to find this one and in the process I had to re-home my great dane  but we couldn't find any apartments in our price range that would let us keep her. Right now we have a fish tank, the cockatiel, cat, and 5 snakes. So far we haven't had any real issues with the bird caring about the snakes. He hasn't even really given them any attention and they could care less about anything going on around them unless it smells like a rat.


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