Stay off the hamster cage!

Anyone have any tips for teaching a kitten to stay off a hamster cage?
I got a hamster recently and the kittens have not seen one before. The hamster is in a wire cage because that was the sturdiest one I had, and I wedged the cage in an area where it can't be moved or knocked over. Church has mostly been sitting next to the cage which is fine, but the Maine Coon kitten keeps sitting on top of the cage whenever I let her in the room! I am afraid she is going to get a nasty bite on her paw pads! So far when I see here up there I just move her off...

What if you put a 3 sided box over the cage, covering the top and sides, so she can't rest right on top....and persistent commands...........

If you make jumping up next to the cage a hazard to cats, that serves to discourage them too - ie, a few old magazines on the surface around the cage or on the cage top itself. Cat jumps onto the magazines only half on the shelf or dresser top and goes tumbling down.

If the hamster is on a table I suggest getting a sturdy shelf made instead. Piece of wood and a couple of brackets is all that it will take. Put on a wall that doesn't allow them anything else nearby to use to jump up there.

Good luck training your cat. For the small animals safety in a house of cats you might want to find a room where kitties aren't allowed to place the hamster. My cat bothers the heck out of my reptiles and won't stay off their cages, they don't see each other anymore.

Originally Posted by cococat

Good luck training your cat.

For the small animals safety in a house of cats you might want to find a room where kitties aren't allowed to place the hamster. My cat bothers the heck out of my reptiles and won't stay off their cages.

Click to expand...

Same suggestion. Higher surfaces.
DH and I hope to move soon to a house big enough where we can have a spare room or two just for our reptiles.

We have three pet rats and although they've nipped my kitties on their feet & tail for sitting on their cage they haven't hurt them. Only startled them and taught them that sitting on the cage is not good manners. If your hamster lightly nips kitty it will probably teach her that she can watch, but she must stay off the cage.

But if you're concerned that your hamster might bite harder you could perhaps use the water bottle to teach kitty that the hamster cage is not her chair or bed. The fascination may taper off after a while, we've noticed once ours have gotten their fill of watching the rats they get bored and go do something else that they're allowed to play with.

I have to agree that it will be very difficult to "train" your kitties to stay off the hamster cage. I believe it would be best to denote a room where your kitties aren't allowed (they'll hate that!). If this isn't possible, since it's not a very reasonable expectation that they will agree to stay off the cage, what you want to do is make the top of the cage less appealing so that it's their "idea" to stay off it. A great idea is double sided tape, they hate their paws sticking to something! Another thought is to put aluminum foil on it, for the similar reason that they won't like that crinkly noise or the feel of the foil. Just a couple of thoughts...

If I put something on the cage, I have to use something that would be safe if the hamster chewed on it, because they will chew anything that is near their cage. So I don't think tinfoil or tape would be good...

Lol I'll probably sound mean but let your cat get on top of the hamster cage. My cats have climbed on my rat cage once. Never again have they did that. They learned on their own that getting on top of the rat cage will get them bit.

I'd put the hamster in a room where the cats are off limits. Before they knock over the cage, hamster is out, and kitty has dinner