Cat scare.....

[Waldener]

So I have two bettas, Pink-Z ( the pink one) and Blue-Z (the blue one.) I didn't name them, a 4 year old did, but anyway.... I have two cats as well. One leaves the fish a lone completely, but the other one sits by their two bowls and puts his paws in between the two bowls. So I've known this was going to be trouble for a long time. So finally today it happened, he knocked over the blue one's bowl and the Blue-Z went flopping all over the counter. The cat ran away quickly and I immediately grabbed Blue-Z and put him into Pink-Z's bowl until I could refill the water and such...... So now Blue-Z is back in his bowl and he seems to be doing fine.

I was wondering though, how to prevent this from happening again? Anyone have any tips on how to keep the cat away from the fish?

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to FishForum. You should cover your bowls, not only to keep little cat paws out of them but bettas do jump. Can you move the bowls somewhere out of reach of the cats?

[Waldener]

Yeah, the bowls are covered, but when he knocked it over, the cover fell off.

[Vikki81207]

I would put them somewhere the cats cant get them. Alot of people with cats keep their bettas in their bedrooms and keep the door shut.

[Blue Eternity]

Yeah, your best bet would probably be to keep your door shut where the fish are.

[dr2b]

I have 3 indoor cats...two of them could care less I have bettas. The other one is OBSESSED. He will get in my room without anyone knowing it and you will hear him screaming at them (yes my cat doesn't meow, he screams lol). I have had to just begin shutting the door so he'll leave them alone.

[Vikki81207]

lol. I've had cats that scream before. Annoying. lol.

[dr2b]

Yeah he is a HUGE cat (13-14 lbs and still getting fatteR) who screams haha. But the best way to deal with the cat is to shut the door. Otherwise they won't leave it alone if they liked it in the first place.

[Jynx]

these bowls sound smallish- I would switch to large bowls or tanks with wide bases so the cats can't upset them so easily. And this is definitely something to be concerned about- when i was a little girl my cat Lulu (my current fish is named after her) killed several of my bettas just scooping them out of small bowls. I was too young to know you were supposed to cover the bowls- and well- looking after bettas was quite different 20 years ago- anyhows- your cats WILL kill and eat your fish!