Re: Iguanas and Cats: The ongoing battle

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Posted by Joan on August 17, 1999 at 10:54:07:

In Reply to: Iguanas and Cats: The ongoing battle posted by Kitty on August 16, 1999 at 00:22:35:

I lost our first ig Merlin to one of our cats. Our cat colapsed the top of the cage and "played" with Merlin for an undetermined amount of time. When I found him he was in so bad of shock that he never recovered. All I could do was cry and tell Merlin I was sorry for letting this happen. I called the vet and they said that bringing him in right then would add further shock and try to handle that first. He never came out of the shock.

Merlin was in a room that the cats were not suppose to be allow in. The way they got in was the door was not properly shut. We did two things...one rebuilt the top of the ig cage so that it was strong enough to withstand a truck be parked on it, gave me great piece of mind and ... two trained the cats that they are unwanted in that room. I left the door ajar and when they came in I squirted them with Sneakers spray bottle. They don't like the water. They now know they are not wanted in that room.

The next is a little more drastic. We have birds in the living room where the cats are and this is a life and death situation for the birds. We used a blowgun. Yes thats what I said. Walt and I used to play blowdarts and were very good at hitting what we were aiming at. We didn't use darts on the cats, you can get little light plastic thumpers. Every time one of the cats even looked at the birds they would get hit with a thumper. They never knew we were doing it, all they knew was that if they looked at the birds something would hit them. The cats won't even look at the birds now and totally ignore them. I don't recommend this for everyone. You have to be good at hitting the target and before trying it Walt and I hit each other with the thumpers to be sure it wasn't anymore than a sting. The best part is that they don't associate the disipline with you. Ours would jump and then look around, they never figured out where it came from.

Kitty I know that you are looking more for a way for the two of them to get along, but given most cats personality (hunter) I think the Tiger needs to have a healthy respect for Dexter. Whether this means Dexter whipping the cat or you using the spray bottle when the cats gets close enough that it upsets Dexter. Cats are killers, sweet but killers just the same. You need to put a little fear in Tiger.

Joan (I know very, very long)

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: I lost our first ig Merlin to one of our cats. Our cat colapsed the top of the cage and "played" with Merlin for an undetermined amount of time. When I found him he was in so bad of shock that he never recovered. All I could do was cry and tell Merlin I was sorry for letting this happen. I called the vet and they said that bringing him in right then would add further shock and try to handle that first. He never came out of the shock. : Merlin was in a room that the cats were not suppose to be allow in. The way they got in was the door was not properly shut. We did two things...one rebuilt the top of the ig cage so that it was strong enough to withstand a truck be parked on it, gave me great piece of mind and ... two trained the cats that they are unwanted in that room. I left the door ajar and when they came in I squirted them with Sneakers spray bottle. They don't like the water. They now know they are not wanted in that room. : The next is a little more drastic. We have birds in the living room where the cats are and this is a life and death situation for the birds. We used a blowgun. Yes thats what I said. Walt and I used to play blowdarts and were very good at hitting what we were aiming at. We didn't use darts on the cats, you can get little light plastic thumpers. Every time one of the cats even looked at the birds they would get hit with a thumper. They never knew we were doing it, all they knew was that if they looked at the birds something would hit them. The cats won't even look at the birds now and totally ignore them. I don't recommend this for everyone. You have to be good at hitting the target and before trying it Walt and I hit each other with the thumpers to be sure it wasn't anymore than a sting. The best part is that they don't associate the disipline with you. Ours would jump and then look around, they never figured out where it came from. : Kitty I know that you are looking more for a way for the two of them to get along, but given most cats personality (hunter) I think the Tiger needs to have a healthy respect for Dexter. Whether this means Dexter whipping the cat or you using the spray bottle when the cats gets close enough that it upsets Dexter. Cats are killers, sweet but killers just the same. You need to put a little fear in Tiger. : Joan (I know very, very long)

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