How High Is Too High For An Open Window..?

[scraggles]

How high is too high for an open window?

Before having cats I'd always have my windows open wide allowing the air to curriculate. Now, well I don't know if I'm being paranoid or cautious but I rarely push right open the upstairs ones as it kind of seems dangerous? With summer arriving, however, and seeing photos on the Internet of cats hanging out of windows and balconies and window ledges, is a window (with no screen) ok to have open on a two story house as I'm presuming Scraggles would only love to sit out on its ledge?

Thanks for your help!

 

[abyeb]

Unfortunately, it seems like nothing is too high for cats to try to jump. There have been documented cases of cats jumping from 17-story apartments. There’s actually a formal way to describe this phenomenon: high-rise syndrome. It’s explained more here: High Rise Syndrome in Cats - Animal Medical Center - New York City and here’s an abstract from a scholarly article: Feline high-rise syndrome: 119 cases (1998-2001). - PubMed - NCBI

Basically, the reason for this is that cats have little fear of heights. Combine this with their strong prey drive, and if they see a bird or something outside the window, that can cause them to either lose their balance and fall or even jump. This article gives some tips on how to prevent this from happening: Cat High-Rise Syndrome: Falling From High Places

 

[Furballsmom]

You don't have a way to screen the window?

 

[maggiedemi]

All of our windows have screens on them here in NY. All 25 windows.

 

[KarenKat]

We lived on the 10th floor of an apartment and the windows had no screens and swung out from a top hinge. We were worried about this and asked the vet how likely it was a cat would jump or fall out. She said she sees cat deaths from stuff like that more than you’d think. We ended up taking a screen segment we bought at a hardware store and velcrowed it to the inside of the window (no way to add a real screen in that style). It worked great.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
Made since the 1820s and still available at darned near every hardware store in the world for a couple of dollars:

adjustable window screens - Google Search
.

 

[scraggles]

Excellent advice as always! Screened windows are so rare here I'd kind of had it in my head that I'd have to do something structurally if I wanted to block the cats' access and seeing as I rent I'd ruled that out. In fact, they're so rare, I can't even seem to find a hardware store that sells those adjustable ones (so far), it seems you can only get them custom made for around €100... However you have got me thinking and there must be a way around it so I'm going to have a look around and see what I can find that might be temporarily attachable! Thanks again so much!

 

[jcat]

You could try adjustable trellises. The plastic or wire ones are generally easy to cut to fit windows. The other thing you could use is cat net.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

Excellent advice as always! Screened windows are so rare here I'd kind of had it in my head that I'd have to do something structurally if I wanted to block the cats' access and seeing as I rent I'd ruled that out. In fact, they're so rare, I can't even seem to find a hardware store that sells those adjustable ones (so far), it seems you can only get them custom made for around €100... However you have got me thinking and there must be a way around it so I'm going to have a look around and see what I can find that might be temporarily attachable! Thanks again so much!

scraggles - They're a glut on eBay.uk for a fiver:

"adjustable" window screen | eBay

 

[scraggles]

Thanks, 1Cat!