My cat WILL NOT stop climbing up our Christmas Tree!!!!

[mookie]

We have had the thing up for 3 days now - and have already had at least 5 broken ornaments. Any ideas on how to keep him out? Of course, he is still a kitten, but he's a smart guy, and I know he knows he's doing wrong. Our older cat never touched the tree, and now that he sees the little one - he's gotten some ideas, too. And it's not even a real tree!!!

We've tried spraying him with a water bottle, but he loves it. Not sure what else to do. Especially since the tree is in a room that can't really be closed off...and if we put Mr. Kitty in a room at night, we'll hear him meow until we get up in the morning. Obviously, daytime we can at least watch, but unless I sleep next to the tree with one eye open, I don't know if it will make it till Christmas.

Any ideas?

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I've agreed to watch my DD21's kitten until January.

When we were putting the tree up, she climbed into it and knocked out the lights. I wasn't happy. After that, if she even walked close to my tree, we sprayed her with water.

She likes water too and will come running from the other side of the house if she hears it running. This however, she does not like at all. She'll sulk off and lick her wounds (aka the water).

She's gotten the hint now, and gives it a 5' berth. It's funny to watch, because she'll be walking towards it and you can almost see the wheels turning. She'll all of the sudden walk waaaaay around it.

Now, if I could only keep her out of the fireplace.

 

[Laura]

Fill a can with coins, tape it shut and rattle the heck out of it when he starts misbehaving. This makes a really awful noise, which will hopefully deter the kitty if water doesn't work.

 

[TurboKitty]

Break out your camera and start a webpage?

Our little darling grew out of it. Last year, a "noisy" can helped. I put pebbles into an empty soda can, and would shake it whenever 'Nervy went near the tree. We also got some citrusy smelling spray, which we put on the tree (not the cat!) to discourage her.

 

[gradtchr]

He tried climbing but the one branch he made it to collapsed and dumped him so he quit that real quick. We put some soft ornaments at the bottom for our kitten to smack at, the other three could care less.

 

[icebrat001]

I put a plain tree up and it was of no interest to them, but once the ornaments got in it, they decided to climb it, but I got them to stop.

Get some ballons, blow them up and tie them to the tree, when they attempt to climb the tree they will pop the ballons and the noise will scare them and voila no more tree climbers.

I only recommend you do this if you are there to supervise them as they may attempt to eat the ballon, my cats didn't, but it's always a risk. The popping ballon did not injure them in any way, cats get into much more than ballons.

Disclaimer: No harm was done to the animals, and if anyone has a problem with my post, flame away!

 

[Imzadi]

Oh dear! I remember last Xmas quite a few post like this & have even seen pics & webpages of the poor trees after the cats got through with them.

Some trees were missing limbs, others had bald patches. Some people had to tie the tree to the wall so it wouldn't tip over. Others had to take all the beloved traditional ornaments down & get all non-breakable, non-edible ornaments. Then there are the trees naked the last third of the way down due to the kittys swatting all the ornaments off.

 

[katedrew94]

I feel your pain. Our first Christmas with our kitties, Cal (the orange tabby below) took one look at our tree and chomped on one of the lights. Luckily, it all came out in the end, if you know what I mean. I also have pictures of his brother and sister in the tree. @@

The first thing I did was tie the tree to the wall so it didn't come crashing down.

Then I replaced the hooks of all of the ornaments with fishing wire that I tied in loops, seemed to hold them on better.

Then I used a water bottle and noisy can to keep them away.

The next year we got a real tree because the branches of our artificial tree were too sturdy and fun to climb.

Good luck!

 

[LiLIrishChick63]

We've tried spraying him with a water bottle, but he loves it.

i'm sorry, i don't have any ideas but i just have to my cats HATED water. that's so weird that yours likes it!

 

[Anewman]

Yes little water gun does miracles with indoor cats.

Our cat scratched the back of the sofa once, ONCE.

 

[ToriLammy]

Sprinkle cayenne pepper on the branches of the tree, my cat used to climb the tree, flatten out a branch at the top and make a perch. A vet told me about the pepper and he hasn't touched the tree since (9 years now).

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We actually put the XMas tree in a bedroom when our cat was younger. She would climb the tree if it was out in the open, so we had to keep it behind closed doors. Now we just wait until right before the holidays to put it up.

 

[MichelleVW]

My cats destroyed the tree the first night I put it up...I woke up the next morning to find all the bottom branches sticking straight down with no hope of fixing them!! Luckily the tree wasn't too expensive...so I'm going to pitch this one....get a real tree in a week or so, and lock the kitties up when I"m not home or asleep!!! They don't mess with the tree when we are around..but when we go to sleep....WATCH OUT TREE!!!

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

We have tried everything and my oldest cat won't leave the tree alone. She doesn't do any damage (it's a fake tree) but she does flatten out the branches so we have to keep "fluffing" them. We have found that pepper, hot sauce, or bitter apple help to keep them away.

Now my dog keeps stealing ornaments off the tree. She doesn't destroy them, she just likes taking them. Go figure. My middle cat doesn't seem to bother it much. The youngest is a pest. He sits under the tree and plays with the low hanging ornaments. Almost every morning we go on a search for all the missing ones.

Pets and christmas trees...it's a never ending battle.

 

[minkydog]

I grew up with a big ol' black cat who delighted n climbing the tree every Christmas. After setting it back up 2-3 times my Dad put permanent eyebolts into the opposing walls(tree set in a corner) and bricks in the tree stand. He wired it to the walls and it was so sturdy a child could have climbed it! If you can't break the cat of climbing, put away the breakables. Just in the last few years have we been able to put our fragile ornaments on, about 2ft from the top. I have a wild child and a wild poodle who still knock things off

 

[FergieTCat]

My cats celebrate "The 8 Nights of Burned Noses" because they are too stupid to stay away from the menorah after the first night. You would think after one or two nights they'd get the idea. Nope!

 

[Taylor]

You could try setting up mouse traps around the tree. If you set them down upside down they will not hurt the cat, only scare it.

If that doesn't work, you can borrow Brutus....

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Keep a kitten out of a tree....

Have had many cats, many years...Growing up we had our 2 big boys...Smokey and the Bandit...Christmas tree was always on the ground every morning.

My cats would sleep in the tree. Couldn't wait for Christmas to sleep in it or under it when they got older.

 

[M 'n C]

Tacky I know but how about for a few days just putting some aluminum foil around the tree? Cats tend to stay away from aluminum foil.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Oh my gosh! All these stories (and the link to the 2 cats-that was cute) are part of the reason why our tree is still sitting in the box. I'm so afraid to put it up. When DH brought it down from the attic, Tigger sat on top of the box, pawing frantically to get to what's inside. I swear he knows already. And he's almost 20 pounds, so last year when he'd sleep in the tree, he did lots of damage. I guess we might as well give up fighting it and get out the camera. But the coins in the can are well worth a try.