Hello all! I am curious as to what some of your experiences are with keeping Hermanns or Russian tortoises with cats have been? Do they interact peacefully? Also, does anyone have any experience with, forgive the fable resemblance, Tortoises and a Mini-Rex? (Rabbit) Thanks!

I don't have that species of tort but I have a Sulcata and two cats. One of the cats is very interested in my tort. Which is one reason I use a rabbit cage so she is safe. I catch my cat watching my tort all the time. I know if she (the cat) could get to the tort the result would be bad.
Welcome to the forum! I love your username!

Thanks! My cat is pretty acclimatized to strange new pets as he (Killer) has been around cats, ferrets, snakes, bunny(somewhat OK), oddles of fish, and lizards. He does not like dogs though... Anyhoo, I would intend on having a kitty proof enclosure for when i am not there to save his scaly behind. Thanks for the input!

I have two cats and both don't bother my torts at all. One will actually back up when being approached by the torts and turtles. I caught her in the tort table once drinking from the soaking dish.

Having kept and presently keeping both rabbit and cats with torts I'll tell you that they get along fine with one major consideration. This is don't ever let them come in contact. The reason for this is the same reason you should wash hands after handling any herp, they carry zoonoises that can make the animals very ill and possibly fatal for either the mammal and the herp. In addition to these health concerns, there is factor of sanitation in the both the cat and the rabbit will consider the tort substrat as litter.

I don't let my cats near my tortoies, I think two of them would just ignore them, but the other two have claws and I'm worried that they'd even just bat at the tort and maybe claw the eye or something! Not risking it!

none of my other pets come into contact with my tortoises, the smaller tortoises have very secure outside enclosure to prevent this and indoors they are in a room (soon to be shed) where other pets don't go. Rabbits have very strong hind legs and then there is the teeth i wouldn't take the risk of them damaging the tortoise.

Thanks for your input.

This post was last modified: 04-16-2008 05:27 AM by livelycorpse.

The problem is intestional flora of a herp and a mammal are not the same. What is normal and essential for herp is debilitating and possibly fatal for a mammal as is the reverse. This is from experience, I lost a cat because of this. My exotic vet is very adament on this point.

You already heard the reasons it's not wise to mix torts with cats, but you also asked about our experiences with it. We take in unwanted cats, so usually have a large number around our house and yards, so cats and torts do at times mix. We have never had a cat harm any of the torts.

The most has been soft closed paw taps with nails not out. Enclosures outside that didn't have covers use to be favorite sleeping places for the cats in the warm sun. Was common to see a tort sleeping next to a sleeping cat. The cats tended to be more interested in watching the goldfish in all the turtle enclosures then doing anything with the "moving rocks". However with a hatchling that mix could easily turn deadly... or eggs laid/left on the surface rather then properly buried.

Inside we have to watch that lids don't slid open enough for a cat to slip into the enclosure or more commonly, that the weight of the cat when jumping onto the enclosure, doesn't break the screen. Once more the cats mainly want to sleep under those heat sources, not really mess with the turtles or tortoises.

We have our major trouble, when we have torts out soaking or are cleaning cages. Seems a lid off of any water turtle will be the location some cat jumps onto expecting a lid to catch them, only to get an unexpected dip into the water...and then a very unwelcomed bath.

Another problem is we once had a long haired cat who jumped into an inside enclosure while we were working on it. I was suddenly smelling something burning and realized her tail hair was up against the heat lamp and burning. Luckily it was caught quickly before anything serious happened.

I would once more say don't mix them or allow it to happen often, but things will happen and usually it is safe when a tortoise and a cat share space.