The submit How to Safely Care for Both Fish and Cats in the Same Home appeared first on Katzenworld – Welcome to the world of cats!.
By Matt Leighton, vivofish.com
Keeping cats and fish collectively appears like a loopy thought…not less than at first. After all, cats eat fish, and lots of of them will attempt to get into the fish tank – generally with disastrous outcomes.
Yet, some individuals have made it work.
Consider the cats depicted in “Cats and Their Aquarium,” a set of images that depict the creatures peacefully coexisting – even when it’s a bit worrying to see a Maine Coon mendacity on the lid! The cats benefit from the view and admire the heat of the sunshine.
So, how are you going to pull this off? How can you retain cats and fish collectively with out shedding all of your fish or ending up with sopping-wet cats? Here are some concepts to maintain issues peaceable and all people secure.
Tips To Keep Fish Safe From Cats
Cats can catch and kill fish, and their presence can stress them out. It is thus essential to maintain the fish secure and calm.
Cats are sometimes fascinated by fish and luxuriate in watching them, and that’s wonderful. They shouldn’t, nevertheless, be any nearer than inside two feet of the tank. That distance will maintain the cat from pawing on the tank or in any other case stressing the fish.
That additionally implies that there shouldn’t be any tables, cabinets, or the like inside two ft of the tank. Otherwise, the cat might use them as a “launchpad” to leap onto the tank’s stand. Alternatively, cowl such a floor with gadgets like books to make it more durable for the cat to leap.
It’s additionally a good suggestion to purchase a tank stand designed for the specific tank. Such a tank stand may have little room across the sides for the cat to face, climb, or soar on. If the tank and its stand look like a vertical floor with no ledge, the cat will most likely not attempt to soar on it.
Another approach to forestall a cat from stressing out fish is to offer the fish hiding locations the place they’ll retreat from each cats and extra aggressive tank-mates. Different sorts of vegetation, whether or not actual or synthetic, can maintain a fish safely hidden from prying feline eyes.
Cats additionally hate sure textures, like that of aluminum foil or sticky tape. Some tank house owners will “booby lure” their tanks by putting such gadgets on the ledges round them.
Covering the tank up at evening with a towel or blanket will scale back the probabilities of the cat visiting it. If it could actually’t see the fish or mild, it gained’t have an interest.
Tips To Keep Cats Safe Around the Tank
The different a part of the equation is to maintain cats from hurting or drowning themselves making an attempt to get on the fish. This usually means making the tank much less accessible to the cat. One method to do that is to place the tank on one thing too excessive for the cat to succeed in.
It’s additionally prudent to ensure the tank itself is secure, so the cat can’t knock or tip it over. It ought to, due to this fact, be longer or wider than it’s tall, and it ought to have a broad base. Round fish tanks, like these typically used to deal with betta, are significantly precarious. If the tank is on a stand, that also needs to be secure.
The tank ought to have a lid that may be securely fixed so the cat can’t knock it off. The lid also needs to be sturdy sufficient to help the cat’s weight with out breaking or falling into the tank. Anybody who owns a jumbo-sized cat like a Maine Coon ought to ask their aquarist for assist in selecting out the sturdiest lids obtainable.
Putting objects on high of the lid can scale back the quantity of room for the cat and even disrupt their depth notion so they are going to be much less more likely to soar onto the tank within the first place.
How To Enjoy Them All Together
Keeping multiple pets is usually a problem, particularly if the pets would have a predator-prey relationship within the wild. Many of the strategies for retaining the peace in a multi-pet family contain making sure that every pet has its personal area, like separate beds and feeding areas. A cat’s meals dishes shouldn’t be close to the fish tank, so it gained’t affiliate the tank with consuming.
Just as cats typically do nicely in a dog-free room that accommodates their toys and perches, fish would possibly thrive in a room closed off to the household cat. Some house owners arrange areas for each cats and fish – and use catnip to entice the felines into staying of their space and away from the fish.
Some cats are extra within the water than the fish. These cats would possibly get pleasure from a water fountain or water bowl of their very own.
It’s additionally doable to coach a cat to depart the fish alone. Such coaching doesn’t contain yelling or swatting the cat, as these will merely educate the cat to worry their proprietor. On the opposite hand, hissing on the cat will warn it away from the aquarium.
The submit How to Safely Care for Both Fish and Cats in the Same Home appeared first on Katzenworld.
