Keeping Kittens Off Of The Kitchen Counters!

[tandl]

My efforts to ‘train’ our four 6 month old kittens to stay off of the Kitchen counters has been failing. And i could use some help! I tried out putting strips of tape on placemats and leaving the placemats up all over the counters. I didn’t have much success bc frankly my counters including my large middle island are all fairly big and of course full of action. The cats jumped right over the placemats that had tape. Except for one, who go5 his paw stuck, theN in a bit of panic got wrapped up the in tape, and ended up running away in his freak out and got w end more hopelessly wrapped up In packing tape. I had to calm him down and get all of the tape off very slowly. Even after that experience he hops right up on the counters multiple times a day.

Long ago with my first group of cats, I used a small spray bottle, to spray water in the cats general direction. and while it worked a decent amount if the time, my understanding now is that is not a helpful or ethical practice.

I tried tin foil, too, and that didn’t phase them at all. They just walked right over it!

 

[LTS3]

Try the tips here: How To Keep Cats Off Counters And Tables

Are you feeding your kitten enough food? If not, the counter surfing is an attempt to find more food to eat. Free feed the kittens and keep the counters clear of food and crumbs. Keep the trash can out of reach if possible (in a cabinet, in the basement, etc).

If the kittens are doing this out of boredom or curiosity, provide plenty of playtime. Have a tall cat tree or two available if the cats are just looking for an elevated place to hang out.

 

[rubysmama]

They're still young, so maybe they'll outgrow it or be easier to train once they're older.

Are they looking for food? Or just like jumping up high. I know, they're kittens, so it's all about fun.

If it's worrying about them getting burned when the stove is on, maybe lock them in another room when you're cooking.

I see LTS3 just posted the TCS article I was about to add. It might have some helpful tips.

There's also this one that might be helpful: How To Set Healthy Boundaries For Your Cat

 

[ArtNJ]

My sense is that a lot of us go through this with our first or second set of cats, and by the third, many of us just try to keep them away from the stove, or off the counter/table when we are actively preparing/eating food. Truthfully, your never going to know/control what they do when your not home, so you shouldn't eat off your table/counter without wiping it down anyway and it just doesn't make sense to try for 100% compliance. Well, that is where I'm at -- the wife still isn't there, but she has no success changing behavior so just gets aggravated. Life is too short for that imho.

A squirt bottle works pretty decently on cats that are bothered by being sprayed, which is most of them. I respectfully disagree with members that think its going to damage your bond with the cat. Maybe if you get nuts about a bunch of things all over the house, or actively chase them to get in a squirt, but if you just use a squirt bottle in the kitchen I've had no problems with it impacting the bond. As I mentioned, I don't do it anymore, but mostly for practical reasons -- imho, its a reasonable thing to do if you just can't bring yourself to only worry about it when your actively eating/preparing food.

 

[Purr-fect]

We used a well rinsed spray bottle, set to the mist spray, for our past cats.

Skitter (our big male cat), would run at the site of the bottle. Whitney would sit with water running down her face, stare at me and not budge! (All 8 lbs of her)

The bottle did help somewhat. We would simply leave it on the counter in plain sight and it provided a deterent.

It didnt damage our relationship.

But our cats, greg and arnold, have taught us that we were wrong and in fact the counters are perfectly acceptable access routes, seating areas, lookout posts to the garden and just generally great places to be.

Frankly we dont mind. But we are extra cautious with the stove. Hot elements are covered with pots with water in them to absorb the heat, I make certain in know where the cats are and I also often sit in the kitchen until the stove top has cooled.

 

[Purr-fect]

Just in case there is any doubt as to who runs the house!

 

[rubysmama]

Hot elements are covered with pots with water in them to absorb the heat

That's a great idea. I've tried putting a pot cover over the burner, but they don't always fit that well, and of course will still get hot. The empty pot with cold water sounds like a much better alternative.

Just in case there is any doubt as to who runs the house!

No doubt at all.

 

[LTS3]

Flat glass top stoves are dangerous. To a cat, it just looks like part of the counter. A walk across a hot stove will result in burned paws Trust me, I know