My cat keeps climbing on things?
Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at
9:25 pm
Well we have a christmas tree with very expensive ornaments. He likes to climb in that. We have a balcony like thing in our front entrance and he climbs on that and jumps onto a bureau we have in front of it. In front of that we have the christmas tree filled with expensive ornaments. The bureau is old and when he jumps on it it might tip over onto the tree. He also tries to jump from the bureau onto the tree and he might tip it that way. How can I get him to stop doing that.
Filed under: Cat Furniture
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Being so small, cats don’t just live at floor level. They like to climb to higher places as not only does it give them a good view of everything going on around them, but it also keeps them safe from surprise attack.
Move the bureau away from the tree so that he can’t use it as a launch pad to jump onto the tree. Provide him with a cat tree of his own or do you have a shelf, bookcase (anywhere high) that he could be allowed to sit. Encourage him to use his own high place by rewarding him with food treats when he uses it and he’ll soon develop a preference for climbing that item.
Keep ornaments off the lower branches so that they are out of his reach. Add a couple of drops of either a citrus or eucalyptus scented essential oil to water and use a plant mister to spray the tree. Cats dislike these smells and it works with keeping my two away from the tree. You can also surround the base of the tree with pine cones, because they don’t like the feel of them underfoot and this will stop him getting too close.
Spray him with water or block that area off.
Cats pretty much do that. Mine likes to lay on top of all of my furniture, either it’s a table r a very tall cabinet.
You can try spray him with water when he does it, but think he’ll still do it when you’re not looking…
Expensive ornaments and cats just don’t mix! So remove the ornaments you treasure and enjoy Christmas with your cat.
good luck!
move the "bureau"?! i doubt he’ll knock the tree over. I’ve had cats all my life and they’ve never managed to knock the tree over. They might break some ornaments though…lol..try not to put too many ornaments on the bottom of the tree.
Your pet might be trying to tell you something or maybe it needs a friend of the opposite gender to mate with. Try a cat climbing board (Easily found in pet stores) for christmas, im sure he/she’ll love it.
I don’t think expensive ornaments and cats go together very well. I will be putting my tree up this week sometime and I have a new kitten after my old cat died. I know we will spend a lot of time re-attaching the ornaments and we have even decided to tie the tree to the pipes, just in case. My old cat never bothered about the tree but this new kitten is much more feisty and into everything. So until he calms down a bit we will just have to take precautions and so will you.
You probably won’t get him to stop. make sure he has kitty climbing things to climb on. Cats love heights!! They feel safer up high. I had a cat once who continually knocked over the xmas tree. I finally tied it up so he couldn’t. But he stilled played in it. Make sure you don’t have breakable things on it. And don’t put any tinsel on your tree, unless you want to pull it out of their butt. or worse, have to have the stuff removed surgically from their stomach.
You have a cat now, somewhat like a toddler. Put up your good ornaments. They will get broken. Make everything as cat safe as you can. You might try moving your old bureau until your tree comes down for the season.
Congratulations, you have a perfectly normal cat.
Put the breakables in a room with a door you can keep closed so the cat can’t get to it. It is in a cat’s nature to climb things. It is unlikely that you will be successful at training the cat not to climb the Christmas tree – as it is far more likely that the cat will stop climbing while you are watching, but do so when you are not there to stop him.
For now, you should consider taking down the expensive ornaments. You should try to "catch" the cat just prior to leaping on/into the tree, bureau, or any place else you DON’T want it to explore – surprise the cat with a stream of water from a spray bottle. And remember this when putting out – Cats like to investigate, cats like to climb. To say anything else, would be redundant and I would be repeating myself.
All the Best