How to stop cat acrobatics on stairwell

[ameliashuman]

Our upstairs room has a stairwell in the middle resulting in two half walls and a long drop to the bottom of the sairs. This normally hasn't been a problematic place for our cats as they usually just sleep on the walls. However, our youngest kitten Marco has decided the walls make great opportunities to stalk, run, and leap around. He's taken to trying to jump across going from one wall to the other, which has resulted in a few misjumps and falls. I know cats are expert fallers and we're going to have to take the hand railing down so he doesn't fall on that, but it still scares the s**t out of us when he falls and we'd like to stop the behavior. We try to prevent him from going upstairs but this is hard given my husband works up there during this time of covid and is up and down all day. Has anyone else dealt with a similar problem/ figured out a safe way to deter jumping across halfwalls? I've seen those outdoor fences that hang over at an angle to keep cats inside yards, is that viable indoors and where would you get them?

 

[ArtNJ]

I can't remotely picture what you are describing. Pictures might help.

I have seen posts about folks putting up like plexiglass on a 2nd floor bannister. I've had those bannisters myself and didn't regard it as risky at the time, but I guess some folks have cats that like to practice balance beam or whatever. Anyway, we have posters with cats that do all sorts of scary/destructive things. I've seen posts about jumping onto chandeliers for example. So if folks can picture what you mean, I'm sure they will try and help.

 

[ameliashuman]

I grabbed this from the internet but it looks like this, two half-walls and a stairwell in between.

 

[Furballsmom]

I think that artnj might have something, in that you may need to temporarily install something (that he can see) that impedes/stops him.

 

[ArtNJ]

Although it might be simpler then that, if the picture is accurate. Supposedly some cats don't like sticky tape, so double sided tape on the bannisters may be possible. Or aluminum foil. Some people have recommended that for counter tops. I've never used either tactic personally.

 

[allypuk]

Although it might be simpler then that, if the picture is accurate. Supposedly some cats don't like sticky tape, so double sided tape on the bannisters may be possible. Or aluminum foil. Some people have recommended that for counter tops. I've never used either tactic personally.

We have just bought some cat sticky tape to put dowm on a small area of carpet next to a doorway as the kittens were starting to use it for scratching, so far it has worked very well, almost too well as they were wary of that area in less than a day. They absolutely hate stepping on it. So could be a way to go. We bought a roll of double sided sticky tape aimed at cats which was actually a bit more expensive but we didn't want the tape to be too strong and hurt them. They still let out a little squeak when they first touched it but I didn't see exactly what happened. They have not touched it again.