cats and parrots?

[snakesentwined]

We're also a multi-species household - including 2 siamese cats and the Parrot (plus two corn-snakes and a large aquarium of tropical fish - which Isis considers to be her own! ).

For most of the time, Isis is more interested in the cats than the cats are in her: she has even learnt to imitate their meow - and often comes down onto the cage bottom to watch them if they are about in the room. By contrast, the cats only show any real interest when Isis flaps or flies.

Either way - we maintain a happy household the same way as just about everyone else who has responded: love them all as much as we do, there are no unsupervised interactions between any of the non-human family members.

Whilst we are out of the house, Isis remains in her 'den' and locked in the lounge (Siamese are *very* clever, and have managed to break in to the room before!) - the cats then have the range of the rest of the house.

Everyone gets made a fuss off when my partner gets home at lunchtime, then the cats are fed and locked into the kitchen for an hour or so whilst Isis gets a fly and a play. An hour is normally enough before she gets tired and stroppy - so then she retires to her den and the cats come out for their own snuggle and play.

We do the same when I come home at 5pm - so everyone gets a double chance for play with everyone.

Evenings, Isis goes to bed about 8:30 - and then the cats are free to lap sit as much as they like.

At the weekends when we are both home, *if* both cats and bird are in a relaxed and sociable mood - then we let Isis out whilst the cats are still in the room - but only under very careful supervision, and never within touching distance of each other.

[liz]

That is wonderful that you can coordinate your critters bonding time.
Only my cockatiels are caged unless supervised. Rambo only gets caged when someone comes who is affraid of birds (because he can be a nuisance). Myrtle's is never closed (no one is affraid of her). Niether Amazon can really fly. They sort of jump and do a controlled crash. They walk on the floor with the dogs and cats. Both bark. Rambo runs to the front door barking with the dogs to greet Mom's nursed and aids and wants picked up when they are done with the doggie hellos.
Myrtle is still very shy (I have had her a week now) and does not come down when someone else is in the house. The cats give Rambo the right of way and are now doing it for Myrtle.
Rambo loves to pick on my son. As soon as Chuck comes through the door he yells "come mear - come mear - come mear Chuck - hurry hurry - right now". Then he proceeds to torment Chuck until we have to pick him up. Myrtle loves Chuck and sings to him and gives him kisses.
Every once in a while one of the terriers will chase a chicken but stops when we tell them.
Only the poor cockatiels have to stay in a cage, but they are a happy little flock in a huge parrot cage. Oh, two of the cockatiel talk too.
Okay, I've rambled enough.

[purringparrot]

We run a resort that boards cats and birds and many of our bird clients have cats and so do we. many of our combo clients hav no problems with the 2 interacting but do take precautions with the smaller guys. Usually once a ct has been nipped or challenged then they loose all interest except for watching.

[liz]

That is wonderful.

Back in the days when I had time, I thought that would be a good business. When we went away we would board the dogs but have to have someone come in for the others. I wanted to start a pet hotel with rooms set up like a bedroom and adapted for dogs, cats and birds (the cats having steps and walkways on the walls and the birds with perches in front of windows). If they live together, keeping them together would be less stressful when their parents are away.

All it would require is a screened door leading to the hall and a doggie door leading to a kennel with a wire mesh lid on it.

If a cat yowels or a bird squaks the dogs run to check on them. When a dog won't listen to me, a cat will come in as reinforcement. If the dogs or cats are getting into trouble the bird will tell on them.

They are a family unit.
They are a family. I wish I had been able to set up the hotel. Some one needs too.

[ninadivine]

I also have a parrot and I have two cats and a dog and two kids lol but I think most experts would say I was making a mistake having all of them in the same house. Unfortunatly cats carry a bacteria in they're natural flora called Pasteurella that is lethal to parrots and some experts say they could die from contact with cats esspecially they're salliva witch wouldn't even require direct contact, or even from you simply contacting the cat before the bird or from furniture or other things that could have cat hair, scent or saliva on it. I think it sounds a little rash personally but being a medical assistant it does get me worried when I think aboout it. My parrot is the smallest known to man so that doesn't make me feel any better about it either. I would never allow my cat and bird to come into contact and try to keep the germs as seperate as I can.

[liz]

I didn't know that. I am learning more every day. Thank you.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I don't think there is significant risk that a healthy bird could get some form of Pasteurella infection from a handler that also handles cats. We can also get Pasteurella infections, but it doesn't stop us from keeping cats -- its quite rare and usually associated with a bite or a compromised immune system. It will readily infect a bite wound, so even an apparently trivial injury should receive medical attention, but I don't think being very worried about casual environmental contact is necessary. If I had a bird that had health issues to start with, I'd be a little more concerned, but that would go for an immunocompromised human and a cat as well.

I don't think the bacterium survives long outside the oral cavity of the cat, and I actually found a couple of research papers that study this. It does survive pretty well in water, so sharing water bowls is probably not a good idea. Any direct mouth to bird contact is not a good idea and mouth to food or food dish to bird is probably also not good, but you have to put this in context. We humans carry a ton of bacteria in our mouths as well and we don't scrub down and dress up in bunny suits and surgical masks to handle our birds. I do wash my hands, typically. This website ( http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/normalflora.html) has a nifty table of common bacteria found in humans and where they are found (skin, mouth, eyes).

All we biological organisms live in a sea of more or less hostile organisms. Some exposure is normal, it's concentrated exposure we want to avoid by not feeding spoiled food, for example. The stuff in the spoiled food was already present in the environment or the food, letting the food spoil just concentrated it to a dangerous level.

You pays your money and you takes your chances.

[Mario N. Johnson]

You can train your cat not to attack your parrot. Cats are just like dog that can be obedient if they are trained well.
Cat Grooming