Keeping Tarantulas safe from Cats?

jc55

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When i owned multiple tarantulas,scorpions and centipedes they were all kept in a seperate room with a lock on the door to make sure no person or animal would have access to the room period.Never had any issues in all the years i kept them.
 

Craig73

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Shoot, I was hoping this thread would be about Cats the musical. Thoroughly let down.
 

TGod

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Fair point. My cat is an outdoor cat tho. She gets to scratch that hunting itch so I'd imagine that's why she leaves my Tarantulas alone.
Seriously a dislike? For what letting my cat out side or for my cat being a cat?
 

Marlana

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Seriously a dislike? For what letting my cat out side or for my cat being a cat?
Probably for letting it outside. People get really upset about that. I actually lost a friend over the fact that I wouldn’t keep my cat indoors. And he’s literally a ‘barn cat’, the shelter determined he wouldn’t make a good indoor cat and as such was adopted to be an outdoor cat. He lives his days out on my property where he is safe and cared for. And outside... But I’m apparently supposed to be some kind of cat whisperer and tame him?

Btw he’s never killed birds. He’s a big boy and isn’t agile enough 😅 he does kill everything else though. Mostly rodents and rabbits.
 

TGod

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Probably for letting it outside. People get really upset about that. I actually lost a friend over the fact that I wouldn’t keep my cat indoors. And he’s literally a ‘barn cat’, the shelter determined he wouldn’t make a good indoor cat and as such was adopted to be an outdoor cat. He lives his days out on my property where he is safe and cared for. And outside... But I’m apparently supposed to be some kind of cat whisperer and tame him?

Btw he’s never killed birds. He’s a big boy and isn’t agile enough 😅 he does kill everything else though. Mostly rodents and rabbits.
Ah, I see. Actually that was me attempting to bring the topic back to Tarantulas. When I got my cat she was already 2 and an outside cat so I thought it cruel to suddenly start keeping her inside.
Anyways I have rarely seen my cat kill song birds, only pigeons. She also kills mice and the occasional rabbit . Neither of those three are in any danger of going extinct. Btw rabbits are also an invasive species introduced in roman times I believe.
I also feed birds if that helps tip things in my favor.
 

Matts inverts

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I'll tell you what I find odd whenever I see a cat and tarantula in the same sentence.

You don't or rarely see dog and tarantula in the same sentence with regards to enclosures.

This ISN'T aimed at you OP but the amount of "Help my cat knocked my tarantulas enclosure onto the floor" type threads is ridiculous.

As in if you had a dog you'd (hopefully) make sure the dog couldn't get to the tarantula's enclosure but it seems cats get a pass.
My dog slammed into a shelf and flipped over my African dwarf frog tank. I found her hopping around on the carpet looking for water to live. Luckily, I found her and she is still alive.

Fair point. My cat is an outdoor cat tho. She gets to scratch that hunting itch so I'd imagine that's why she leaves my Tarantulas alone.
My cat has killed two lizards when he escaped outside and that was five minutes of him being out there, now imagine if he was out there for a day or more. Now he is trained to hop on the patio table and chill and follow me when I go back inside.
I have mine on a high shelf that they can’t get too but if you have trouble, I’ve seen shops that have a 75 gallon vision cages with slings and small inverts in them. Most species of rabbit are native, it’s the European rabbit that’s invasive. I wouldn’t worry about tanks with soil and heavy things in them but I would be concerned about small or lightweight tanks.
 

Marlana

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My dog slammed into a shelf and flipped over my African dwarf frog tank. I found her hopping around on the carpet looking for water to live. Luckily, I found her and she is still alive.


My cat has killed two lizards when he escaped outside and that was five minutes of him being out there, now imagine if he was out there for a day or more. Now he is trained to hop on the patio table and chill and follow me when I go back inside.
I have mine on a high shelf that they can’t get too but if you have trouble, I’ve seen shops that have a 75 gallon vision cages with slings and small inverts in them. Most species of rabbit are native, it’s the European rabbit that’s invasive. I wouldn’t worry about tanks with soil and heavy things in them but I would be concerned about small or lightweight tanks.
In my state Eastern cottontails were actually introduced in the 1930s and are not native to my area, which is what my cat catches. They are in pretty large numbers, he’s only able to take down young ones.

I think if you get a kitten, you should do the responsible thing and keep it indoors. My point was mainly that there are other situations and we shouldn’t judge without knowing. My cat would have been put down if it wasn’t for the barn cat program that my local shelters organized. Where unsocialized cats can live out their lives outdoors on someone’s property instead of euthanized. And I’m sorry but it’s not so simple as keeping a cat indoors sometimes. Cats born and raised outdoors don’t adapt well to indoor life, after a certain age. There are exceptions but those aren’t the norm by any means.
 

Matts inverts

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In my state Eastern cottontails were actually introduced in the 1930s and are not native to my area, which is what my cat catches. They are in pretty large numbers, he’s only able to take down young ones.

I think if you get a kitten, you should do the responsible thing and keep it indoors. My point was mainly that there are other situations and we shouldn’t judge without knowing. My cat would have been put down if it wasn’t for the barn cat program that my local shelters organized. Where unsocialized cats can live out their lives outdoors on someone’s property instead of euthanized. And I’m sorry but it’s not so simple as keeping a cat indoors sometimes. Cats born and raised outdoors don’t adapt well to indoor life, after a certain age. There are exceptions but those aren’t the norm by any means.
I get it but in my town, people try to feed the cats and try not to let them take over. One of my cats is a baby from a feral or barn cat. I try not to judge people but if you left a cat outside in my area, the cat would only kill native animals and get eaten by coyotes. And the only invasive in my area are a couple sparrows and a couple mice and the cats don’t even get them. I agree.
 

LucN

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When a friend of mine had Ts, she had cats too. The Ts were kept in a closed cabinet. Interestingly enough, when taken out during feedings, the cats were more intrigued by the crickets than the spiders.
 

Matts inverts

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When a friend of mine had Ts, she had cats too. The Ts were kept in a closed cabinet. Interestingly enough, when taken out during feedings, the cats were more intrigued by the crickets than the spiders.
I have a tub of dubias I keep on the floor but when I pull the tub of them or crickets out, my cats start slapping the side and push the tub five feet from where I had it. No need for feather or laser pointers, cats get entertained from feeders in a tub. The roaches don’t seem to mind, they just keep eating and go hiding. I have to close my door to do anything with inverts or small geckos because my cats are interested. They don’t want to hunt them, they’re more interested in what they are.
 

basin79

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My dog slammed into a shelf and flipped over my African dwarf frog tank. I found her hopping around on the carpet looking for water to live. Luckily, I found her and she is still alive.
I'm sure you gathered what I was alluding to though. As a dog owner you wouldn't put your tarantula enclosures on the floor or on a low shelf where the dog could actually reach.

Yet some owners of cats, that can pretty much get anywhere that isn't closed off don't think of putting the tarantulas somewhere the cats can't actually get too.
 

Matt Man

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Cats love knocking stuff over, which means your Ts.
You have 2 choices
Isolate the 2 from each other
or
get rid of one
 

RevS

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Seriously - I have both a cat and Ts and this was never a problem.

The cat mostly ignores the Ts and I make sure the vials are in a place where they can't be knocked down from. Large enclosures are even more secure - I just try to make sure the cat can't sit on top of them (I don't want to take any chances - he's heavy).

Feeders are the main thing that catches my cat's attnetion. Also - feeding and maintenance. Sometimes the cat will just ignore it. Other times he'll get interested - you need to be super careful and NEVER leave the enclosures open when you're not keeping an eye on both them and the cat. This is because when you feed your Ts there will likely be some sort of movement that might get the cat's attention.
 

Acro

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I am and have always been a cat person, I have one myself. Right now tho I'm finding it difficult to like them. My Mrs tho has 2 which lately have been hell bent on trying to kill her Tliltocatl Albopilosum and they very nearly succeeded the other day so for now until we can cat proof the T it is staying at my house.
As I said I have a cat but most of my T"s are safe in a cabinet and the others she has shown no sign of being a threat to and thats probably because she's middle aged and she's not into everything like my Mrs"s kittens.
Her T was kept in a open cabainet with only a small distance between the top of the enclosure and the roof of the cabinet and we thought the cats wouldn't get in there but they can be very crafty it seems. Anyway has anyone had any bothersome experiences with cats and their t's? What did you do to cat proof them?
You have provided all the answers, I just placed them in Red and Bold to make them clear. :)
Good Luck!
 
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Matt Man

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and FTR, while I like Cats, they are probably the worst invasive species (other than us) on earth as far as killing local fauna
 

Chris LXXIX

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Outdoor cats have massive ecological impacts, and people still seem to find any idiotic reason to let their cats outside and avoid sterilizing them.
Whaaaat? No! :singing:

I do agree about the sterilization part, but cats deserves to be free and go outside if there's the chance for that. Almost everyone here in Italy do that since forever, with even butchers throwing occasionally meat to them.

One of mine (your average bulky, big headed male cat) is loved by the entire neighborhood and he spend in Spring/Summer a good 10/15 days always outside :pompous:
He's currently outside (with his sister) at the moment (22:47 here).

A cat forced at home 24/7 it's like a biker without anymore his Harley :(

Probably this is also why I've never had a "Cat/T's" incident since decades of keeping both.
 

RevS

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Whaaaat? No! :singing:

I do agree about the sterilization part, but cats deserves to be free and go outside if there's the chance for that. Almost everyone here in Italy do that since forever, with even butchers throwing occasionally meat to them.

One of mine (your average bulky, big headed male cat) is loved by the entire neighborhood and he spend in Spring/Summer a good 10/15 days always outside :pompous:
He's currently outside (with his sister) at the moment (22:47 here).

A cat forced at home 24/7 it's like a biker without anymore his Harley :(

Probably this is also why I've never had a "Cat/T's" incident since decades of keeping both.
I'm particularly interested in how the cats are supposedly an invasive species in Europe where they've been present for at least 4000 years. Possilby even 7k years (I recall a case of cat burial found somewhere that was that old).

I can agree that they might be a problem in America or Australia (and especially on small islands) but the numbers provided on how much the cats kill are extremely high. Tho I didn't look too much into 2013 research what I do know is that it is a meta analysis of selected pre-existing data on the subject.

In Europe attempts to decrease the population of outdoor cats usually result in exploding populations of rodents that need to be poisoned - I've seen this happen over the last two decades in my own town.

And it'd be very naive to ignore the fact that we also helped to spread the population of rodents which can out-compete local species in many areas of the world. We did a whole lot more damage ourselves and I wonder what effect on non-native rodent populations would it have to get rid of the outdoor cats.

Still. I keep my cat indoors for the simple reason - there's a lot of traffic in the area and I doubt he'd live that long if he was an outdoors cat. Most of the ones I get to see "disappear" within few years.
 

Chris LXXIX

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I'm particularly interested in how the cats are supposedly an invasive species in Europe where they've been present for at least 4000 years. Possilby even 7k years (I recall a case of cat burial found somewhere that was that old).

I can agree that they might be a problem in America or Australia (and especially on small islands) but the numbers provided on how much the cats kill are extremely high. Tho I didn't look too much into 2013 research what I do know is that it is a meta analysis of selected pre-existing data on the subject.

In Europe attempts to decrease the population of outdoor cats usually result in exploding populations of rodents that need to be poisoned - I've seen this happen over the last two decades in my own town.

And it'd be very naive to ignore the fact that we also helped to spread the population of rodents which can out-compete local species in many areas of the world. We did a whole lot more damage ourselves and I wonder what effect on non-native rodent populations would it have to get rid of the outdoor cats.

Still. I keep my cat indoors for the simple reason - there's a lot of traffic in the area and I doubt he'd live that long if he was an outdoors cat. Most of the ones I get to see "disappear" within few years.
Yep, indeed. If you live nearby high trafficked roads (thankfully, I live in downtown but it's like living in the country... hard to explain to everyone but you are European so you know the kind of older architecture we have here in Lombardy and nearby Switzerland, France with those old house with huge gardens etc) cats outside are a nope, too risky. Plus, where I live is "ZTL", meaning only residents, those for work (couriers etc) or electrical cars can enter. The rest, bike or foot.

In France was (still is? I don't know) common to see cats roaming outside as well :)

I don't know either which kind of other animals may harm cats here in Italy aside for pidgeons and rats, which there aren't a scarcity of those :shy:

Correct about Australia or other nations, 100% true.
 

mack1855

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See how this went from T,s being protected from killer cats,to all about the cats?.
They do this
Why do you think Dr.Evil has a cat,not a yellow lab?.Or a B.hamorii?.
 
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