Cat jumping onto high china cabinet

Hi folks,

We have a china cabinet in our kitchen that's about 6 feet tall and our cats LOVE being on top of it. 

The problem is that one of the cats is quite heavy and when he jumps up, the whole cabinet wobbles and shakes. I'm afraid that one day he'll knock the whole thing over - hurting himself and breaking all the contents. 

Yesterday he tried to jump up and didn't quite make it. As he hung there by his front paws and tried to scramble the rest of the way up, we got quite scratched up. 

I've read about how to get cats off counters (tinfoil/sticky tape, etc), but I'm worried about trying something like that so high up. I don't want him to fall and hurt himself. 

Does anyone have suggestions on how to keep fat cats from high surfaces? Right now they use the kitchen table to jump the rest of the way to the china cabinet (and there is no other place for the table or cabinet to make the jump impossible). 

Your help would be much appreciated!

Welcome to the site

Is there anything you can put on top of the cabinet, to block off all the space up there ?
Like cardboard boxes or something. So he can see there is no space up there for him to jump up to.
I know it might look a bit unsightly but it's better than him knocking the whole thing over and probably hurting himself, as well as causing a lot of damage.

What is on the table when it is not in use for meals or whatever.  At other times can you easily put a Scat Mat or similar on the table to keep the cats away?

Is there a way to fasten the cabinet to the wall so it doesn't wobble. Cat pulls it over not only will the china smash to smithereens, the cat will likely be crushed and die.

GemsGem said:

Welcome to the site

Is there anything you can put on top of the cabinet, to block off all the space up there ?
Like cardboard boxes or something. So he can see there is no space up there for him to jump up to.
I know it might look a bit unsightly but it's better than him knocking the whole thing over and probably hurting himself, as well as causing a lot of damage.

Click to expand...

We put "stuff" (mostly unsightly!) on top of one of our tall bookcases and it's worked very well.

For another tall bookcase -- the one that one of our cats actually did fall from a couple times -- we found that putting it right next to the cat condo/tree was the best solution. That cat loves high places and now she can use the condo almost like stairs to get to the top of the bookcase, which is a bit higher. I have to admit I was very skeptical about doing this but it's been great. I'm not sure if something like that might work for you, PixieSparkle, but if there's a way to make the jumping safer and less drastic with some sort of intermediate platform(s), that might be helpful. Good luck!

And welcome!

Thank you all so much for your quick and smart replies!

I'll try starting with boxes on top of the china cabinet. If that doesn't work I'll check into scat mats (keeping them off the kitchen table generally would be great!).

I also like the idea of adding a tall cat condo and fastening the cabinet to the wall, since he loves being up there so much. 

You guys rock! 

Hi,

Here is a pic showing how I did implement the cabinets into my cats highways (they have separate highways till they become friends, then I'll put some cat shelves on the wall so that they can pay each other a visit, but not yet).

Hope it may be helpful for your catification of the kitchen

Teddy (taking a nap on the left) is young and heavy, he likes climbing, so he has a climbing tree next to. He also likes to have an overlook, so he's got only a cozy pad to rest on. I have fastened the pad onto the wall so it does not slip. 

Sissi (taking a nap in her bed on the right) is a senior and doesn't like climbing so much anymore. She is a bit stiff in her joints, been on Dasuquin joint supplement for a while, so she's got stairs. She will jump on a chair, then up on the sideboard, and up to her bed.

Her bed is wicker, and fastened to the wall as well.

The cabinets are very heavy so I don't have to fasten these, but the previous ones were secured underneath against wobbling, and also fastened to the wall with heavy duty hooks - it does not show from the floor anyway, and your cats will be happy like kids for having that special place

You can get a climbing tree next to, or if it does not bother you they walk over the table, then it can be enough with 1 or 2 climbing shelves above the table for easy access. They will love it!

Sorry for poor quality of the photo. They are sleeping now, didn't want to disturb them with strong light.

Good luck and if you have any questions on the cabinet catification, I'll be happy to help - I've done that in a few different ways the last 12 years. 

What a great idea!  Thanks for posting this picture.