We have three dogs, three cats and two guinea pigs. And we are lucky because they all get along well. At one time we did have two dogs who didn't get along and we had to keep one in one room and the other dog in another room. Keeping them separated was not easy.But we did it because we loved both of them and made it work.
Our dogs get along with each other, and with the cats and the guinea pigs. Our cats seem to get along easily with the guinea pigs too. In fact they all try to curl up and sleep together when they are all together.
Have you had pets in the past that didn't get along or do you currently have some that don't? How do you deal with it? Separate rooms? Did you keep the pets?
That is pretty amazing, I must admit. I only own one cat and she honestly does not even get along with my family members all too well. She thinks of herself as a queen so I assume I have spoiled her somehow. I am glad to hear that the possibility of having another pet could actually help my situation (haha), who knows. I have been thinking about this for a while now ad your post actually is giving me some hope and insight.
Thank you!
I have a bird, and I also had a cat until about a month ago (his kidney disease became too advanced, and he passed away). I don't know if I'd say the bird and the cat got along, but for the most part, they ignored each other. The bird would get nervous and hiss if the cat walked by too close, but otherwise, I think they just tolerated each other's existence.
I've also seen cats and guinea pigs get along. When I was a kid, I had one of each, and they were the best of friends. They'd also curl up together to sleep (we kept a close eye on them though, just in case). When the guinea pig died of old age, the cat was devastated. He just sat by the empty cage and howled for days. It was so sad.
Recently we added 2 rescue cats to the family and are experiencing some growing pains at the moment.
Before the adoptions we already had 2 female house cats Biney and Cleo. Biney is quite a feisty one, that will fight for anything she wants. Cleo on the other hand is quite pedantic. How my views on these two changed.
The first newcomer was Luna, a rescue kitten, and to my biggest surprise ever miss hell cat was the friendly one and miss pedantic turned into the ultimate monster. Cleo hisses, growls and even attacks the baby, Where Biney brings her birds and mice to chew on, and even plays with her.
Things where just getting back to normal when Dexter a male Maine Coon who's owner passed away arrived about two weeks ago. Cleo has taken up arms again and we are have a cat civil war on our hands. Early one morning I ended up in the middle of the battle, as the battle ground was on my pillow around my head. My husband teases me and call me scar face at the moment. Biney and Luna are playing the roles of mediators and silent war witnesses.
Hopefully the civil war will end soon and peace again will reign.
The oddest this of it all is, my two German Shepard Dogs accepted the newbies as part of the family.
My cat and the rat terrier I inherited from a relative aren't best friends, but they can sit a few feet away from each other and not fight. I guess that's about all I can hope for since the dog wasn't raised with the cat and I've only had the dog for couple of years. I'm impressed that the OP has 8 animals that all get along. I used to have 2 cats that hated each other, so having harmony among 8 animals who aren't even the same species is quite a feat.
Our cats and dogs thankfully get along. I think that with time they get to a stasis point where cats and dogs at the very least respect each other's space. Our cats and dogs don't play but they don't fight either.
I love to see different types of pets getting along together. I had a dog and a cat that would curl up together in front of the fire, and at night the cat would get into the dog's basket and sleep next to his warm body. At the same time I had guinea pigs and rabbits, and I when I put them all together into an enclosure on the grass they would run around and play together. The cat and the dog approach and sniff at the other animals, but I would never leave them unsupervised, just in case.
When I lived on a farm we had plenty of cats and two dogs. The two dogs were jealous of each other, in regards to who got the most attention. They fought over food as well. The cats all got along well and ate and played together.
If the dogs were outside and saw a cat coming to the porch they both would make a bee line toward the cat to scare it off. My cat Rufus, was the only cat that would not run from them. He would calmly sit down and start washing his face, and payed no attention to the dogs. When they got near him he pretended not to see them which totally confused the dogs. It was humorous to watch, for Rufus, would calmly stand up and come to the porch with the dogs trailing after him.
My two cats are from the same litter, they have never lived life apart. They like each other and my female cat gets very upset when she is alone, she just doesn't know how to cope without her Brother! The boy cat though is fairly dominant with her, and he plays very roughly with her. I am sure it is just cats showing their dominance, and playing and things like that but it is still pretty bad when he pins her down and she begins hissing at him.
My dog does this thing in which he only seems to really accept strangers if they throw his ball at least once. Food bribes are good for appeasing him, but if you really want him to trust you you have to throw the ball
So once I was cleaning my parrot's cage, so I put the upper part on the ground with the parrot in it(the cage is very sturdy and I was right there, there was no way my dog could have done anything), and my dog just approached the parrot and put his ball next to him and waited for him to throw it. D'awwww xD
Since that didn't happen, and because the parrot was such a shiny flying ball when he was out of his cage, my dog went on trying to catch him in mid flight and generally being jealous of him. But I never had much of a problem, really.
Some of my fish do not get along when they are in the same aquarium. My Dwarf Gourami (relative of the infamous Betta) are territorial. They will fight any time there are two of them in the same tank. They don't even like some other potential competitors. After I added two German Blue Ram into my community tank, the male Dwarf Gourami started to chase them away every time they run into each other.
Being in the aquarium hobby, it is common knowledge that some fish will not get along with each other. It is not something we can change, since it is their natural behavior.
