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Old 03-25-2006, 12:51 AM
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felisdomesticus felisdomesticus is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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wow. Stay away from terriers (including Jack Russells) and retrievers. I'd also say to avoid anything with a high-prey drive--but this post is by someone who has 3 cats. hehehehe

An adult dog would probably be your safest bet because their personality is evident at that point. Cute, small puppies who "are raised" with birds, cats, children, etc. can develop aggressive tendencies towards them, no matter how thorough the training. Young puppies/dogs (under a year or 2) are wild cards who will require incredible attention and supervision--and even with that effort, the dog may eventually outgrow your family if it develops prey aggression. If you get a baby, you need to be prepared for the fact that the dog may not grow up and fit into the family. If you can do that, and supervise all interactions with dog/birds, you should be able to try out the dog/bird thing.

my own experience--my cats (who have an incredible prey drive) could care less about the bird. I was hesitant to adopt her because I had visions of the cats all sitting on top of the cage, swatting at the bird all day long. The rescue people kept telling me to "worry more about the cats than the bird." They were right. I don't know if Scarlett bit them or screeched at them or just looked intimidating to them--the cats stay far away from her, even when she flies down onto the floor and tries to walk around on their level, next to them.

I realize that I am very lucky. I also realize that I can never trust my cats with her, no matter what their behavior has been up to this point. It's in their instinct to hunt--just like it is a part of dogs, too.
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