So you’re planning to add another furry friend to your household. Well, congratulations on a good decision. We’re all for a family of animals but often, the varieties we choose to group together fire back.
You could be a pet parent of a darling fur-ball of a cat, and an equally adorable chinchilla may have caught your attention too.
But before adding the two to your otherwise peaceful home, you need to learn some facts about chinchillas and cats living together.
Chinchillas, being prey by nature and cats being predators, can often disturb the peace and tranquility of a household. But countless pet parents worldwide have had the pleasure of seeing their cats and chinchillas coexisting cordially.
So what is the best decision for you? Wait until you have read this article before taking the giant leap of faith.
Chinchillas And Cats
Differences and Similarities
For starters, there are not many similarities between cats and chinchillas. The only aspects you will find in common are:
- Their crepuscular
- The two animals are suitable for domestication
- They’re both furry
You can figure out how the scarcity of similarities does not create a ground for bonding between the two animals.
They’re very different, and in domesticated settings, one may still find them cordial, but out in the wild, you’d never catch a chinchilla and a cat together.
As for the differences:
- Their nutritional and dietary requirements vastly differ
- Cats are predatory creatures by nature, and chinchillas are historical preys
- The most remarkable difference is that cats are felids and chinchillas are rodents. Thus, their coexistence is questionable.
Will Cat Attacks Chinchilla?
In all honesty, yes, there are very high chances that a cat may attack a chinchilla in the house where it lives. Cats are natural predators and don’t get along with chinchillas since they see the latter as promising prey most of the time.
It wouldn’t be wrong to describe that cats usually find chinchillas nothing more than toys they can bat around with or threaten. You see, chinchillas are rodents, and cats have been known to possess powerful prey instincts toward them.
Secondly, chinchillas are also relatively smaller in size than cats, so they view furry creatures as large and terrifying animals.
Hence, bringing a chinchilla into a house where your pampered cat has already been living for years might not be an excellent idea.
Even if your cat is a well-behaved household member, the chinchillas would nonetheless feel anxious always of the threatening animal around.
At the very least, what you can do to make the situation work is to place your cat and your new chinchilla pet, or vice versa, in separate enclosures at all times. Even if an interaction occurs between the two, ensure it happens under your supervision.
Also, we advise you to refrain from organizing playtime with the two pet animals. The idea would be disastrous and might result in serious injuries or even death for the little chinchillas.
If you wish for your two precious pets to live in harmony in your household, you will have to introduce the two first properly.
Also, give them time to adjust to each other, and once you see both the animals become less aggressive towards one another, you could make them interact more often.
Gentle introductions time and again are necessary to ensure your cat doesn’t frighten your new chinchilla member.
How Do Chinchillas Feel About Cats?
For pet parents who dream of building a family with a cat and a chinchilla included, this may not come as excellent news again. You see, just as cats do not treat chinchillas too well, chinchillas, on the other hand, are not very friendly towards cats too.
The primary issue of the rodents is the big size of cats compared to their own. This makes the little rodents feel threatened, anxious, and stressed.
If you force a cat and a chinchilla together without getting them used to it first, your chinchilla might even refuse to eat and drink and eventually fall ill.
Hence, you can figure out why putting the two very different animals together in a household without prior introductions will be wrong.
And leaving the two unsupervised could be an even graver mistake: you may come to find your cat batted the chinchilla around till it got severely injured or perhaps even died.
Final Verdict
Let’s get one fact straight here: cats and chinchillas should never live together because there is simply no crossover between the two.
But like we mentioned above, if you’re a pet parent who absolutely cannot dream of abandoning their pet cat or their pet chinchilla, you will have to take alternative measures.
For instance, you will have to keep them separately at all times. As long as the two domesticated pets ignore each other, you can expect to coexist peacefully.
We recommend refraining from allowing the two animals to come in close contact with each other, smelling each other, or even forcing them to play together.
If you need to, you may only bring a chinchilla within a safe distance of your cat to allow the rodent to smell it. However, try doing this only for the sake of making your little pet rodent less anxious about the giant animal around it.
Final Thoughts
Cats and chinchillas can generally never live together as friends. The two animals have distinct differences with barely any similarities that would instigate cordial relations between the two.
To have a pet cat and pet chinchilla coexist together, you may do so, but only if you have a space large enough to ensure the two remain separated at all times.
Since chinchillas and cats are highly incompatible creatures, minimizing contact between the two is best to avoid risks of injuries and death.
