JazzMama Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 We just got our first cat in May (she's about 7 months old now). I know to avoid tinsel, poinsettias, etc, so that won't be an issue. However, my tree is typically covered with alot of glass ornaments (about 7', artificial, prelit). Bella already won't stay off the top of the refrigerator, window sills, etc, so I think we may have a problem come Christmas. Do I avoid putting up the glass ornaments or are there any tricks to keeping her from climbing up the tree? Also, I know to avoid tinsel, poinsettias, etc, so we won't have that problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanni Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 I wish you the best of luck, my cat never gets in the tree, but she cant resist the urge to bat the balls off the tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcster Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Is the tree real or fake? A fake tree might be better since it won't smell, well, like a tree. Assuming it's artificial, try setting it up a week ahead of time (empty) and see what your cat think of it. She may not care. It she's trying to climb all over it, then you may have a problem (we can't set up a tree with our cats). You can anchor the tree into the drywall with eyeloops and fishing line. That'll keep it from toppling over. As far as ornaments being knocked off the tree, you could try putting some sort of cushion under the tree skirt to help protect the falling ornament. That's my http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Things/thdeebac87.gif. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakes_mommy Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Our first christmas with our cat... well, she lived in the tree! You will have to be mean and throw it out and yell. It'll get the picture, I would not put the glass ornaments up though. You may regret it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conj Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 we had a tree one year. The cat not only climbed it, loved it and the ornaments, but they became her favorite toy and she hid them all over the house. best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokanm Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 My advice is put all your fragile ornaments on the bottom of the tree and further in on the branch. My cats (5) have a field day with them!! And people wonder why we take our tree down Christmas night:confused: Good Luck... PS also a spray bottle of water handy will deter them somewhat, of course if you have the lights on it wouldn't be too good. Ya know that movie Christmas Vacation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugsette Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 last year was my first year with cats (2)... one did not bother with it the other one the baby.... well the bottom tree ornaments were off a few times... don't know what this year will be like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 We are very fortunate in that our cat doesn't bother with the tree at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripn Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 PSalso a spray bottle of water handy will deter them somewhat,of course if you have the lights on it wouldn't be too good.Ya know that movie Christmas Vacation?A water spray bottle was my first thought, but then I thought about the lights! Be careful Try taking scotch tape and put loops of it all over the bottom of the trunk. That's what people do to keep the cat off the table and countertops...they hate the sticky feeling of the tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcster Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 Try taking scotch tape and put loops of it all over the bottom of the trunk. That's what people do to keep the cat off the table and countertops...they hate the sticky feeling of the tape.Or, they could be like my cats and like the taste of the adhesive! http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/LOL/millan_lol.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripn Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 Or, they could be like my cats and like the taste of the adhesive! http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/LOL/millan_lol.gifMy cat likes to lick plastic grocery bags...drives us nuts.We reuse them as liners for small garbage cans around the house, so we sometimes get woken up in the night to a bag-lickin-kitty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happysunshine28 Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 The year before last was our first christmas with a cat, well the tree went to the dump and now we have a 3 foot tree. She lived in the tree she would get up in there and lay down, everytime we tried to get her out she would hold on to the branches and out they went. The tree looked a site when christmas finally came. She would also try to chew on the lights. I am going to try to find a cheap prelit tree and see if it is better now that she is older, I doubt she is since she rules this house, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkey Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 We have four cats. Two are just perfect babies the other two just love to bat the bottom ornaments on the tree. We are hoping this year will be better since they are all over a year old and seem to have gotten a little lazy. All I can say is have patience with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Kitty Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 You could always hang it up side down. I Know a couple had to do it this way because of their little son. By doing this he couldnt reach it. lol. It looked really cool. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n246/BlueKitty_bucket/tree2.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kandy Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 My cats like to perch in the tree at the top looking out the windows still. With the glass ornaments at the top, middle, or bottom they still tend to find one to break. I did find hanging some of the ones I didnt mind them "playing" with at the bottom. They would swap at those and tend the leave the other's alone even though accidents happen when the go up or down the tree. PS we use a artifical tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motoXmom Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 See the thread "When does your tree go up?" Umm yea I have no advice! ROFLMAO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gator Pam Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 I don't know if this will work for cats, but I have heard to prevent toddlers from getting into the tree that a good idea is to set it up inside an old fashioned wooden playpen. I know many people are against having cats declawed, but if she is an indoor cat and declawed, will she still be able to climb a tree? I haven't owned a cat in many years, and can't remember if they can do that once declawed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motoXmom Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 I don't know if this will work for cats, but I have heard to prevent toddlers from getting into the tree that a good idea is to set it up inside an old fashioned wooden playpen. I know many people are against having cats declawed, but if she is an indoor cat and declawed, will she still be able to climb a tree? I haven't owned a cat in many years, and can't remember if they can do that once declawed.Yes they can still climb Christmas/Evergreen Trees they have alot of branches to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illinoismom Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 You can anchor the tree into the drywall with eyeloops and fishing line. That'll keep it from toppling over. This is what we do, I have 2 tress I worry about, but the one in the living room they love, so I put the cheap ornaments on the bottom my cheap I mean the ones that I dont care about all that much, I only buy one ornament a year so the ones one the tree are about 25 years old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bayhaysay Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 When we had our cat she just liked to lay in the tree all day, and we let her. She didn't really mess with any of the ornaments she just liked the tree so we let her stay there. Sadly, she's not with us anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancydrew Posted October 14, 2006 Share Posted October 14, 2006 My cat likes to lick plastic grocery bags...drives us nuts. Oh man, so does mine. ANYTHING plastic, he will lick it for hours. Heres some indoor repellants Ive used over the years and have had decent luck with keeping my cats out of my tree.. http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/product_detail.asp?pf%5Fid=1017804&dept%5Fid=12&brand%5Fid=43&mscssid=EJ00MNWAWCF08P53QKGBTD936UDN6QLC http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_Product_Nav_207_sku_20214_R_8068_enemerch_1.aspx?cm_re=207-_-TopSellers2-_-20214 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funnymoney Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 My cat likes to lick plastic grocery bags...drives us nuts.We reuse them as liners for small garbage cans around the house, so we sometimes get woken up in the night to a bag-lickin-kitty. One of our cats does this weird teeth grinding thing while chewing plastic bags. It is like nails on a chalkboard. Then she sticks her head through the handles and wears it as a cape all day. Lucky for us, both of our cats are older and stay away from the tree for the most part. The tooth grinder played with the tree once, but the tree stand broke and the whole tree fell on her. Never had a problem since! So you might want to have a fully-loaded Christmas tree "magically" fall on her, just to teach her good! But that would be mean and oh-so-not the Christmas spirit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmward725 Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 My first Christmas with DH, we had a kitten. She LOVED the tree. I come from a family that ALWAYS puts up the tree the day after Thanksgiving (BF) and takes down the tree the day after New Year's, so I had over a month of fun with her. After a LOT of yelling and swatting her out of the tree and spraying her with water as she ran away through the room (not while in the tree), she finally got the hint. Then I spent 6 months finding all my ornaments. What fun.... After that first Christmas, I didn't have any more problems out of her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabx5 Posted October 20, 2006 Share Posted October 20, 2006 All 3 of my cats climb my tree every year. It's a flippin tradition with them It's a 9 foot artificial. The 2 smaller ones don't cause much disturbance, but when my big one climbs it, it sways back and forth It's like Kong climbing a building I use a squirt bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgroves Posted October 20, 2006 Share Posted October 20, 2006 ornament hooks are cheap...stock up...For the fragile ornaments, Take the hook and wrap it around the tree limb and around the loop on the ornament. It's a pain to remove tehn at the end of the season, but will keep them from getting knocked off or stolen by the cats. 2 cats in our house. One doesn't care, the other liek to hide in there...meow at us, and when we find her tries to walk /crawl out on the limb to us to reward her....well ther tree almost falls over. The anchor to the wall is a good idea as long as you have 2 points to anchor it to. I prefer to anchor it to the ceiling above the tree with fishing line. It's clear and won't be seen easily and the tree won't trip over very far. If hte line does not have much slack in it it might lean over, but stand itself back up. That's also why we wrap the ornament hangers around the limbs.... After the fisrt 2-3 years they stopped getting into the tree, now they sleep under it....Even when we load it up with presents. They eiher push them aroudn to make a spot or lay onto of the boxes (and one of our cats is 18lbs...Yikes!!!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamag Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 we have 6 cats and our biggest problem is the knocking off the decorations, they like to grab the garlin and play with it, the gifts never go under the tree before christmas eve and the yall get locked up in the bedrooms that night because one year they pulled off the bows and tore the paper. if your nerves can handle it, lol it's just a little extra work. lucky for me they never gone up the tree, but then again we don't use a real one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gporter34 Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 The kitten we had a few years ago loved to sleep in the tree. She was small and didn't bother anything. On the other hand, our dog loves to knock the ornaments off of the bottom of the tree. We have to put the cord up high also so that he doesn't chew it up. Even the new baby (5 week old mini daschund girl!LOL) is trying to mess with the tree. It's like having toddlers all of the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meow62 Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 Unfortunately, all of our cats are afflicted with the "curiosity gene." Let's just say that the tree wasn't as pretty on its side with the decorations missing! Plus one of our fur-kids is a chewer (found out the hard way one year when the tree lights wouldn't come on - no, she wasn't hurt; she had chewed the wires while it was unplugged). So, our tree has a place of honor--in the dining room--which has been cat-proofed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cotejb Posted November 6, 2006 Share Posted November 6, 2006 I am wondering myself how my dog will react to us having a tree....I doubt she'll climb the limbs...lol but I can see her attacking the tree.... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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