Climbing the Curtains

Not to be rude, but I kept picturing a little kid doing things as a toddler/small child will do just because its there 🙂 Your kitten is in the toddler stage and as most living beings this age can be little whirlwinds of energy, you are lucky to have it now. I have no curtain climbers, but I do have a wanna be blind killer! He (Kitty) wants to kill any blind that he thinks blocks his view of anything.

Hope that someone comes on that will have good advice on how to stop this other than removing the curtains.

Cats need things to climb and places to sit high up so they can view their domain. If he doesn’t already have a cat tree and scratching post, you should get him one. It doesn’t have to be huge but it should have both sisal and carpet to scratch on and a platform at the top where he can sit.

There are some good samples here: http://www.petplanet.co.uk/category.asp?dept_id=816

While you are checking out those trees, also take a look at the cardboard scratchers and activity centres. You may want to put a couple simple scratching toys in other rooms. Cats need to play hard, and if they aren’t getting enought play time from their ‘staff’, they make up stuff to do.

Try getting him a feather and wand type toy for playtime with you. There’s something similar to what I have called a Pouncer on the website above. Don’t let him play with it without supervision since many cats will try to eat string or yarn and that can be very dangerous, even fatal. Do play with him a couple times a day until he is literally exhausted.

We have a TDK member who makes some great cat trees, and I think she is in the UK. But I’ll be darned if I can remember who it is right now. Maybe she’ll see this and post.

If he isn’t deterred by water, try noise. Put some coins in a tin and rattle it vigorously while saying “NO”, when you see him going for the curtains.

Reward him with praise, pets and treats when he uses his cat tree. In fact, you can put some treats on the top level now and again just to remind him that the cat tree is a great place.

You might have to remove the curtains for a few weeks, but once he learns his tree is the right place to scratch, then he should leave the curtains and furniture alone.

Good luck. Do you have pictures? We love looking at kittens of all ages.

I believe it is Buttons that makes cat trees isn’t it? In Ireland? The Happy Kitty Company on Facebook.

I agree with what the others have said, give the kiteen something he is allowed to climb, some cats need to climb, some to hide, some need something to pounce down on and others something to jump up at. It seems you have a climber.

If you have windows with ledges, he might enjoy watching outside too. I have benches under mine so they can lie there and see the birds or whatever is going on. Cat trees are wonderful things, they have so many designs now that it shouldn’t be hard to find one to fit your home. If $$ is tight, try going to thrift/re-sale shop, look for sales, yard sales and keep on the lookout for them.

Sophie went through this phase when she was a kitten. We called it “the Conquer of the Air” project 🙂 Eventually she gave up on it 🙂

I just came across this post and felt compelled to recommend Cat Tree UK as they have an amazing shoice of cat trees and cat scratching posts Hope this helps!