Cats/kittens are beautiful and make great mousers
... chinchillas are in the rodent/mouse family.
Cats/kittens love to play with soft furry little toys/creatures that move ... a prick from their claws can kill a chinchilla ... have the cat de-clawed? What about the damage the teeth can do to a chinchilla? If the cat does not scare it to death first.
I had a very calm reserved adult cat (strictly indoors cat) when I got my first two chinchillas ... at that time, I did not know about the dangers of feline distemper and what it could do to a chinchilla ... Snuggs was content with just watching the chins from a distance ... the chinchillas were not ... they like to scare Snuggs to death when they were in their roll-a-bout ball ... the chins would take aim at the poor cat and get it going full speed. Snuggles, the cat, finally learned all he had to do was to jump straight up into the air and come right back down to avoid the ball.
But Snuggles was a very rare cat, he did not like to play with furry toys and preferred to just set and watch the chins play.
Kittens are usually more curious than adults and have probably already been taught by their mother to chase and play with things that move and are soft and fluffy. Depends on the cat and on the chins ... I would not chance it again, even though Snuggs never bothered the chinchillas, he could have, very easily.
What if you get very attached to the chins and to the kitten and then the cat/kitten kills one of the chins ... what would you do? How would you feel towards the cute little kitten/cat then? How much guilt would you share if it kills a chin?
Feline distemper is highly contagious and will kill a chinchilla in less than 24 hours. It can spread through a herd of hundreds in less than a week. You will make sure your cat has it's distemper shots? That would protect the cat, but cats like to run around outside, if they get the chance ... what if it walks over the same area that a cat with feline distemper or a carrier of feline distemper, then brings the virus back into the house on it's fur or paws? Chins would start dying and you would have no clue as to what caused their deaths.
Why put your little ones in harms way if you do not have to?
Also do littler boxes really stick up a house?
Depends on the quality of the litter, if you clean the litter box daily and change it out weekly. Most people put the cat litter box in the bathroom ... which normally is also one of the safest rooms to let your chin play in. Almost all cat litters have odor controllers in them ... a chinchilla can not be around or play in a litter box with odor controllers in it. Without odor controllers in a cat litter, you will quickly find out they have one of the foulest smelling poops of most domestic animals.
Jo Ann
And later I found that when any of the cats would sit next to his cage and their tails would get into his cage he would come whipping out of his sleeping place and grab the tail and bite.
Yes, the adults can usually take care of themselves and let another creature know they are not comfortable with them around ... by taking a painful nip/bite or two ... the cats got the worst end of the deal ... but it could have been the other way around. Some chinchillas are not so brave and are easily stressed.
We each have to take into consideration the chances we are/or are willing to take with the animals we keep and be prepaired to accept the consequences. We each have to make that decision for ourselves and for our little ones. Each animal/ each species has their own "as a rule" actions and reactions, and each has the ability to do what we "think" they will not do OR not do what we think they might do.
