keeping kitty out

[twobananaz]

So here the current siituation:

We have two cats, isis and saki, and two indoor house bunnies, rusty & elias. The rabbits live cage-free in the spare bedroom, but I always have to fence their entry off with baby gates and screens or just shutting the door completely, thus segrating them from the household and not being able to socialiize them as we did before the cats came. The rabbits used to be in the living room and would get free roam of the house all the time, but since isis came into our lives, and decided that hay is awesome to eat and puke up all the time, I have had to lock the bunnies up. I would like for everyone to peacefully coexist without having to clean up puke all the time, or having to constantly sweep and vacuum the hay, but so far the only deterrent I have found that seems to allow the bunnies free roam and only focuses on keeping the cats out of their room are shock collars, which I won't do. Are there other solutions to my problem? I know in the past people have just said keep the bunnies hay locked up, but that's just not possible. I want everyone, bunnies and kitties, to have the happiest lives, and I know my bunnies are suffering because of being locked away from the family like they are. Please, any advice to either get isis to stop eating the hay, or to keep her away from that area completely without having to use those ssssscat things or other motion detectors???

 

[Willowy]

Haha, my kitties like to eat the bunny's hay, too! I can't think of any way to keep a cat away from something she wants. The only thing that comes to mind is buying timothy hay blocks instead of loose hay. I know that's not ideal for the buns (as long strands of hay are better roughage), but it's all I can think of. Or put the hay away/give hay blocks during the day and shut the bunnies in their room at night with loose hay.

 

[aeevr]

I can't think of any way to keep a cat away from something she wants. 

Redirection often works.

Give the cat something similar, but acceptable.

Put a bunch of pots of cat grass and catnip around the house. If you see the cat going for the hay, pick her up and bring her to the 'good' stuff. She should get the hint eventually.

 

[Willowy]

She might "get the hint" but I really don't think it would keep her out of the hay forever, especially when unsupervised. And if grass hay makes her barf, fresh grass probably would, too. And that's what the OP is trying to avoid.

 

[twobananaz]

Thanks willowy, that's exactly what happens. I found that with fresh wheat grass plants, she will eat a bit, but much more than that and its clean up time, although the other cat loves the grass and does not puke.