Thread: Help! We have a climber..

Ooh they're gorgeous! Moshi was a serious curtain climber and usually up the big ones over the patio doors - right up to the top! She even managed to pull bedroom curtains completely off the wall - rails and everything ripped out.

I started doing "time outs" with her when she pulled the bedroom ones off the wall and (touch wood) after just under 3 weeks of shutting her in the bathroom (only place without curtains!), she hasn't climbed once in 3 months. Each time she went up, I picked her off, carried her into the bathroom, said "no climbing the curtains!" and shut the door for 3 minutes. She didn't like it at all, especially being separated from me and Moto, and it seems to have worked.

Good luck!

The only solution is to provide them suitable access to the high ground in your home, if not as you've seen they will get there on their own by any means necessary, by either climbing or leaping.
When Samantha was young she wanted to be anywhere high, top of the bookcases, kitchen cabinets and the Armoire in my bedroom.
Samantha wanted to be up high so she could survey her domain and look down upon lesser beings, like we lowly humans and litter mates.
Some of our cats are just hard wired this way, some cats are ground dwellers and some are tree dwellers.
The Mighty Maine Coon Cat definitely sees itself as a tree dweller.

Tie everything down?
No really I don't know... My Maine Coon is a polydactyl and I swear she climbs like a monkey with those thumbs! We got her a cat tree which helps some. Aside from that I just resign myself to picking things up all the time that they cats have knocked down. I try to make anything I don't want knocked over less accessible. I also had to bungee-cord my sugar gliders' cage to the surface it was sitting on because they cats would climb it or jump up and they did knock it over once or twice.

I found with my 5 month old he loves the cat tree next to a big window. When we first brought the tree home, we placed it in a corner against 2 walls. He could only look into the living room. So he ignored the tree and tried to climb onto any high shelf he could. He even tried jumping into the glass enclosed china cabinet. Ouch! When hubby wasn't around, I moved the tree to the big windows in the kitchen. Now we can't keep him off of it. He loves being up high and looking out the window. He even attacks the tree itself by chewing on it. He tries for other highs spots a lot less now that the tree is in the window.

Climbers not only want to be up high, they want something to do or see when they're up there.
Samantha like being on top of my armoire and even more she liked jumping off it onto the bed.
It wasn't high but she really like being on the kitchen table and looking out the window, I live across from an preschool ad there's a lot of activity.
But she mainly like being there so she could see Papa when he came home from work pull into the driveway.

Here's Roxy's big cat tree (she also has a smaller one)... Her "brother" Church still tries to climb up HIGHER than this tree though even though it's already like 7-8 feet tall though!

I've got trees, shelves, tables, window sills etc lol ;-)

I did find these online and they look sooooo brilliant, but sadly they don't ship or sell to Europe (grrr!)
perch | Urban Pet Haus

I can just picture these all up my walls and saving on floorspace too :-)

If anyone finds these in UK, please let me know!

S

I've got a couple of shelves like that - I had them made from plastic and only cost about £10 each.

Yes, Buddy likes to be up high as well!!! He climbs EVERYTHING in sight!!!! And once he is up there he likes to reach down on a unsuspecting head and give it a little love tap....lol. I got him a cat tree and it did help a lot. But at night while we sleep and him and my other cat play he still climbs the shower curtain and coat rack. He really is such a character.