How to keep a kitten off the Christmas Tree

[Saphire]

My husband and I rearranged our living room today to prepare for all the Christmas decorations and tree. As we were cleaning and moving furniture, our four month old kitten, Charlie, was going wild. He was being especially curious and getting into everything! How will we ever keep him from climbing up the tree trunk, swatting the tree, breaking the ornaments, jumping on the tree...you get the idea. Our older kitty, Lily, didn't seem to be as mischevious as this one when she was a kitten. All you kitten experts out there...help!

 

[winniedapooh]

Don't worry too much. We have 5 of the darling little furballs and 2 were sister kittens 6 months old at Christmas. I liken this to a toddler. I worried and worried and panicked for nothing. Yes they touched and batted a bit. Even managed to get some off of the tree but they got bored with it in a real hurry! Good luck and have fun with Charlie and Lily.

 

[chris1gill]

I don't know, you might have a problem there.... I once had a cat that tried to climb up my tree the day I put it up... the WHOLE tree went falling over, it was pretty lousy!! Anyhow, from that point on, we tied the tree to a hook we put in the ceiling!!! We used strong fishing line I think so that it was almost transparent...

 

[Rock'n Robin]

We did something a little different--I didn't want to tie things into the wall. Since we have an artificial tree, we bought one of those big tree stands, put the pole in, and put quick-set concrete in it! The pole will be in there forever, but that thing isn't going anywhere!
Of course this was after the tree fell on my sleeping BIL.
Robin M.

 

[buckylarue]

We had one small cat that used to love to climb up the trunk of the tree, nest herself in a branch about 3/4 of the way up and wait for us to come over and find her. It's quite a shock to be walking by your tree and hear it meow at you!

Our current cats have also knocked our tree over once. We were living in an apartment with 12-foot ceilings, so we got an 11-foot tree that just about filled the room it was in. It was about half decorated when the girls decided to have a good chase game thru the room and knocked it clean over... We hooked it up with fising line like chris1gill did, and kept the room closed off from the beasts most of the time after that.

Now we have a permanent (sounds so much better than 'artificial', doesn't it?) tree that they have no interest in climbing...

We have found, over the years, that breakable ornaments are generally a bad idea as far as the cats go, because they do still love to jump up and grab whatever they can reach, so most of our ornaments are either cast resin or soft stuffed ones.

 

[N.Bailey]

A bit ago a poster suggested spraying perfume keeps cats/kittens away. The OP in that thread was asking for advice to keep a neighbor's cat off the roof of her car. I don't know if it will work or not with a tree, but having a 5 month old kitten myself, I plan on giving it a try.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

I remember the days when we had our cats and they constantly would knock over the tree...it was such a pain. We ended up having to tie it with rope to the rail for our blinds.

I am curious how Mabel is going to handle it this year!! That will be fun

 

[Saphire]

Thanks for the responses and ideas, everyone! I have a funny feeling about this little guy as he will climb screens every time he has a chance. I can just see him making his way up the tree trunk. I remember keeping only non-breakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree when our babies were small, guess we will do that again. And a trip to the hardware store for some rope or fishing line...thanks!

 

[Mrs.D]

Snoopy was 5 months old for her first Christmas. We got a real tree. She not only climbed it, but was so determined to eat pine needles that her little mouth would bleed. And she kept eating! No more real trees for several years. Now that she's grown up and "dignified" she doesn't bother the tree. Too fat to climb! She will bat at ornaments on the lower branches, so we keep the breakable ones up high.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Is it possible for you to rig the tree with an empty coke can filled with rocks (with the hole taped closed,of course)so that when your kitten jumps into the tree,the can falls and the noise scares the crap out of him?

Just a suggestion.

TOV

 

[Mysteria]

One of the cats I had when I was younger used to love to sleep in the tree. Our dining room looked out over the livingroom where the tree was and had a rail. We had to tie the tree to the rail. Then we just let him sleep in there. He never seemed to hurt himself or the tree/ornaments. My most recent cat (still alive but had to leave him in Canada so he lives with my mother now) would knock the ornaments off the bottom the first couple of days the tree was up but then he'd get bored with it and just sleep under the tree. He was never too happy when the gifts started going under and there was no room for him. We'd find him in amongst the gifts all the time.

I don't know that there is a great way to keep them off but good luck and tie it to something if you have to!

Myst