I have a single male 5 year old parakeet. He is very tame and friendly. I know he is unafraid of dogs, as I have had two wonder up to the cage and my bird has been very curious. In fact, I was more worried that he would bite their noses! The dogs acted more uninterested or a bit fearful of him. But dogs are dogs and not cats. haha.
I’ve had dogs all my life. My dog of 12 years passed away in 2017 and my mom (who we were still living with at the time) adopted a puppy about 3 months later. Now that we’re moved into our own place I miss that companionship of a larger animal. (My bird is great but he doesn’t like to be pet, nor can he keep my feet warm at night haha). We live in an apartment and even a small dog wouldn’t fit our lifestyle right now, but a cat would (an older, laid back cat).
My bird is housed in a cage that is about 24”x24”x30” give or take. His cage stands on a multipurpose kitchen roller cabinet thing (about 4 feet off the ground). We keep him in our living room. It fits the base of his cage perfectly with no room on any side for an animal to perch. The cage and stand stand with the back to a wall and one side to a bookshelf. There’s no place a cat could be near it, besides the floor. During the day, I roll him to the center of the room, closer to a window to see out of, the back still facing a wall, but sides exposed.
My husband and I are looking into adopting a cat 4-6 years old, mellow and laid back. (I absolutely fell head over heels with middle age/senior cats when I volunteered at our local humane society four years ago)
He is a student online and may work part time, but as of right now he is home all day. (I work full time, but I am home at night on the weekends; I also come home for an hour during the middle of the day) He will be able to keep an eye on everyone. If we are both out we would like to keep the cat in our bedroom with the door closed (potentially locked) with everything he/she needs while we’re gone (2-3 hours at a time max). And keep the bird in our living room.
The daily dynamic would work like this: give the cat ample play time for 30 minutes or so them put him/her in our room while our bird has some fly-about time for 30 minutes. Once the bird is back in the cat will be allowed in the common area of the house again. At night I’d like to keep the cat in our bedroom with the door closed until I can be 100% certain nothing may happened during the night. However, I’m prepared to keep the cat in our room at night for the rest of its life.
I AM NOT ASKING advice on having the bird out of the cage while the cat is in the same room. That is not my intention. I am planning to never have the bird out of its cage with a cat in the room.
I AM ASKING will an older cat be interested in a bird at all? I assume it will depend on the cat itself. Will just the presence of a cat be harmful to the bird? I’m not sure how he will act since he his fine with other larger creatures than himself (i.e. dogs). I am aware that both are natural “enemies” and have read plenty of horror stories, and for good reason. I want someone to level with me and their experiences with bringing home an older cat with a bird already in the household. We plan to keep the cat fed and preoccupied to the best of our ability so it won’t be interested. Or is this whole idea of a cat in the house a bad idea all together?
Thank you for your input!