Cat Grooming Blinds

[catlover73]

My nine year old cat female cat Starbuck has been grooming my blinds next to my desk.  My hubby is worried that this is not safe for her.  She is not trying to play with them or climb through them she is just grooming the slats.  He wants me to get her to stop.  Any idea's on how to do this? 

She is an indoor only cat and this is a 2nd floor window so there are no stray cats for her to see.  She is eating, drinking, eliminating and acting completely normal.

She has always done this but it almost seems like she is becoming obsessed with grooming the blinds.

 

[margd]

I have to admit, this is a new one on me!  Still, you should be able to get some bitter apple and spray your blinds with it.  Starbuck will lose her taste for the blinds in a hurry!

 

[catlover73]

 
I have to admit, this is a new one on me!  Still, you should be able to get some bitter apple and spray your blinds with it.  Starbuck will lose her taste for the blinds in a hurry!

Ok thanks I will look into ordering that online.

Well hubby looked at the reviews for the bitter apple sprays on Amazon and they were all terrible.

Does anyone have any other ideas about what I can spray on the blinds?

 

[catlover73]

Anyone have any other ideas about what to use. Hubby does not want to buy bitter apple spray due to horrible online reviews using it for cats.  The sound she makes cleaning the blinds is really bugging him.

 

[margd]

I checked out the reviews because I was concerned that I might have recommended something that would actually harm either your cat or your blinds.  The negative reviews I saw mostly said that it didn't' work.  it does seem that the bitter apple sprays sold by amazon are not effective on a lot of cats, though it still works more often than not.  Just for my peace of mind, however - did your husband see anything about it actually harming your cat?  That worries me - I really don't want to recommend anything that might have a bad reaction in even one cat without a warning to that effect.

It does seem that your best bet would be applying something invisible and easily washed off to the blinds that your cat doesn't like.  A lot of cats really don't like the smell of citrus.  You could always see how your cat reacts when faced with a handful of lemon or orange rinds.  If they act as a repellent you might try blending them and testing on the blinds in an inconspicuous spot to makes sure it doesn't mar the surface.   You could actually do that with any non-toxic substance you know your cat doesn't like.

The other thing you might try is putting double sided sticky tape on the blinds temporarily.  I can't imagine that your cat would enjoy licking that.  After the habit was broken, you could remove the tape.

Hopefully someone else will come up with some other ideas for you!  And I'm sorry the bitter apple didn't work out.  

 

[catlover73]

There was nothing about the bitter Apple Spray being harmful. Most of the reviews just said it did not work. I even looked at reviews outside of Amazon and they were the same.

I will mention the double sided tape to hubby but there are a lot of slats on these blinds. I wish I could just move the desk away from them but the area does not have enough space.