Kitty climbs me like a tree.

My kitten jumps onto my back with her claws. It hurts! And this morning, she jumped up and started climbing me, and she tore some of the threads on my clothes. How do I teach her not to do this?

Join the human cat tree club!.

Some say to shake them off as soon as they jump up. Sophie still does it to me and she's over a year old, but she now jumps onto the kitchen unit then up onto my shoulders but i still get the odd scratch.

Oh, so that's common for cats, then? Well, I imagine once she is full grown she will be too big to climb me.

Oh yes it's common Both of mine climbed me from being tiny kittens, but like i say, Sophie is over a year old now and she still does it only now it's from the kitchen unit onto my shoulder, all 10lb 1oz of her!

Heh heh.

No suggestions here but I can relate. One of my cats is two and sadly, hasn't outgrown this yet. She is unmoved by my screams of pain when she tries to jump on my shoulder and comes up *just* short.

Max does this too, he runs up my leg and sits on my shoulder (feel like Long John Silver!). At the moment it doesn't hurt too much, but he's only about 2lbs

He loves to sit on my shoulder and survey his kingdom, plus he gets to walk around with me and be nosey!

Originally Posted by Purity

Max does this too, he runs up my leg and sits on my shoulder (feel like Long John Silver!). At the moment it doesn't hurt too much, but he's only about 2lbs

He loves to sit on my shoulder and survey his kingdom, plus he gets to walk around with me and be nosey!

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See, that's the problem - it's adorable when they weigh 2 lbs. But it's bloody painful when they weigh 8 pounds!

marsh's never done it... he's sooo sophisticated

I have heard that a good deterrent to this is noticing when they are about to jump up on you and simply stepping to the side so they miss. He will likely soon stop if you give him a quick sidestep a few times..

Mine don't do this at all. But they were both rescues and didn't know them during the kitten years.
I am in pain when my 16 lber jumps on my stomach when I am napping, let alone climbing up my back and shoulders...No way

Heh heh, Lovesmummy, that is a good idea to step aside just before Kitty jumps.

I keep a toy on a string in my pocket and when I know the kittens are close, I drop the toy and walk with it, diverting them from wanting to climb me. With bottle babies, it is tough, all 6 of my latest kittens climb our legs- we are "mom" and they would be climbing all over mom if she were here, so I am it. I hiss at them as well (if I can stop screaming long enough)

Originally Posted by hissy

I keep a toy on a string in my pocket and when I know the kittens are close, I drop the toy and walk with it, diverting them from wanting to climb me. With bottle babies, it is tough, all 6 of my latest kittens climb our legs- we are "mom" and they would be climbing all over mom if she were here, so I am it. I hiss at them as well (if I can stop screaming long enough)

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I am going through this, so I'll have to try the toy thing.

My kitten Lonestar tried this on me! We tried everything.

Originally Posted by Loveysmummy

I have heard that a good deterrent to this is noticing when they are about to jump up on you and simply stepping to the side so they miss. He will likely soon stop if you give him a quick sidestep a few times..

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This only works if he completely misses, though. One of my foster kittens tried to jump to my shoulder from the utility cabinet without my knowledge (my back was turned) - only problem was he missed and ended up slamming right into the back of my head. I honestly don't know which one of us was in more pain after that one.

My babies used to do that when they were little. They grew out of it on their own. They are almost two years old now, and they haven't tried to climb me since they were about three months old. I thought it was the cutest thing when they were babies, even though they put a few snags in some of my slacks.

Generally speaking, if their claws are clipped they can't really climb cloth. You could try that. I know that my two don't try to claw anything other than their scratching post since their claws won't snag on stuff anyway. I have a Pekingese and I simply can't afford any "accidents" from a swipe from a massive Maine Coon paw so they're always clipped. It's really not difficult to do and they do get used to it.

Check out my post "how can I make her stop" from 6-14-05, my kitten Julie used to do the same thing till I tried the suggestions.