She won't stop climbing!!!

Okay, for lack of knowing where to put this thread I picked here because it is image heavy. Anya is a climber. More so than any other cat I've ever had. We've tried to cat proof our apartment accordingly but now she's taken to getting places we never imagined she could get.

Here she is on the high shelves in the kitchen...



Here she just looks proud of herself and smug. I promptly got a chair and got her down...




This one is the one that stumps us. She has a new fascination with jumping on top of the door in our bedroom and balancing up there. I have a video of her getting up there too (very gracefully I might add) but I can't figure out how to upload it.




Any ideas how to give her safer boundaries?? I'm so scared of her falling and hurting herself. I've seen her fall from our bookcase which isn't hardly as high or treacherous as either of these places. (She wasn't hurt. And I have since removed the item that threw her off balance.)

Brian and I have thought that maybe we would get her a HUGE cat tree. One that goes higher than anything else in the apartment. Maybe this will be her new fave high spot?

Has anyone else had a cat with this urge to climb and be high? And how have you dealt with it?

Mods, if you feel I would get better advice in another area like the lounge, or behavior, or care and grooming, please feel free to move this thread.

She's a crazy girl!! Maybe the tree would work, maybe she's trying to tell you something. Mine are not climbers at all, they barely get off the ground

Wow, she is a climber huh? My boys aren't so much, so I don't have any ideas.... maybe a big cat tree would work. How in the world does she get on top of the door? My boys haven't tried that trick.....yet!

I've seen a few pictures of kitties who like to balance on the tops of doors like that. Maybe the cat tree would help. I bought mine off E-bay for a very reasonable price!

Originally Posted by babyharley

Wow, she is a climber huh? My boys aren't so much, so I don't have any ideas.... maybe a big cat tree would work. How in the world does she get on top of the door? My boys haven't tried that trick.....yet!

Click to expand...

I have a chest of drawers about four feet away from the door. She climbs on top of it and then just leaps. It's actually kind of impressive to watch ... and scary at the same time. I can just see one wrong landing and her biting it on the door top and then the floor.

Yikes! I'm sorry sweetie- i really don't know what to tell you. My girls aren't really climbers. Abilene will venture on the shower curtain rod now and then and has a really high shelf in the bathroom but that's about it. The other ones don't really climb too much. My sisters kitties on the other hand- man they'll climb just about anything- doors, refridgerators, you name it- we have yet to figure out how to break them of it....we just try and make sure the areas they climb aren't too cluttered so that they won't knock breakable stuff down.... we worry about them falling though but don't know how to remedy them. We're tried bitter apple and other repellants, bubble wrap, aluminum foil, nothing's worked I'm sorry sweetie, wish i could help more. Maybe try a really tall cat tree? See what your vet says?

Radar climbs up everything he can including swinging on the top of the door. He climbs well and hasn't come to any harm though has broken some stuff and we now prevent him from doing breaking more by taking it down. I don't think there is much you can do tbh- your cat looks perfectly safe and as if she would enjoy a cat tree but that won't necessarily mean she will stop climbing doors

I have some massive climbers as well. When we got out 7 feet tall trees, most of them stopped..but one in particular, Spam, STILL got up on high places, the door being one of them (I have a few cats who love balancing on doors..lol, and on high bookshelves). What I did was I would hide behind something so they couldn't see me, and I would spray them with water every time they jumped up on it. if they see you, they will only stay off things when you are in the room, but if you spray them when they can't see you, they will learn that jumping up on things will result in them getting wet.

oh man, i had one that was a climber like that also, it never stopped no matter what i did..

but nice pics

stoli doesn't climb too much any more. i got him a cat tree and it kinda curbed his enthusiasm. if a cat tree doesn't completely work, i'd beat her at her own game and put up a carpeted shelf that matched the decor of the room and let her have that shelf to play on. you know the kind that is thin and really long.

Amazingly enough we had the same problem with 8-Bit. (I knew that would shock you). So we decided to give him safe places to climb. We got a huge cat tree, seen below, and then cleared off a space on top of our book case for them to perch. It works out well for us.

Basically, the only way you can "train" a cat to do something (or not do something!) is to offer them an option that is more desirable. So I agree, a cat tree (or a few acceptable climbing surfaces) would help.

Also, the way I keep my cats off of my shelves is to offer them not clearance to hop up onto them. I push things nice and close to the edge so that they don't feel they have enough depth to get up there. But mine jump to high places. If she's climbing like a kitten, it might not help.

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Also, the way I keep my cats off of my shelves is to offer them not clearance to hop up onto them. I push things nice and close to the edge so that they don't feel they have enough depth to get up there.

Click to expand...

I was actually thinking that is what I would do with the kitchen shelves. Maybe move my big cookbooks from the countertop to the right edges of the shelves so there was no where for her to jump to.

And I'm searching eBay for the tallest cat tree I can find today. If anyone has a favorite seller on there, or a really tall cat tree from there that they want to recommend feel free!

Wow she can actually get up that high even with Soft Claws on?

Nice pics, and by the way she looks great w/ blue caps!

Try this one

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZpetisfunQQhtZ-1

Originally Posted by lookingglass

Click to expand...

Heather we have the SAME 'Where the Wild Things Are' figurine next to our television in our bedroom. (The lower one with the orange and yellow stripes)

Originally Posted by laureen227

Java's my climber, & she only climbs in the rooms where there's no high cat furniture. so she'll sit on the bookshelf in the front rooms, or on the TV cabinet in the den, but in the bedroom she sits on the tree. i wish i could afford a tree for each room, but not yet!

Click to expand...

I think I like http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...1872&rd=1&rd=1, but I'm going to keep looking, do some measuring, and show some links to hubby before I buy.

I was also looking at these:

2nd Choice

3rd Choice