Kitten Climbing Safety Net/screen

[dsclp]

Hi. My kitten turns 4 months old in a couple of days and I’ve had her since she was a month and a half (she was supposed to be older). I’ve had safety nets installed on all windows, but aside from the living room windows, they are all “moveable” (they have a sort of latch that I can lift and so the screen lifts) so that we can open the windows.
As it happens Brie, said kitten, is a climber. Which is fine, she looks very cute on her stints as spider-kitten and I do not worry when she does it on the moveable screens because behind the screen there is the glass of the window. Here’s a pic:


When the living room window is open, she goes to hang in the ledge. I live on the 14th floor but I figured that it was okay since she lost interest pretty quick in biting at the net after a couple of NOs. Here she is in the sun:


She used to just sniff at the air and listen to things, sunbathe when she was feeling lazy. But then one day she decided to climb. I never open the window unless I’m sitting nearby so I said No and took her off, closed the window too. This happened a couple of times on the following weeks but after I scolded her she went back to staying on the ledge and sniffing the air. Today she was meowing at the window so I opened it and she climbed straight to the upper corner. I pried her off the net and scolded her, she got angry and bit me (the no-biting training is a work in progress).

Is there any hope for me to educate her into not climbing on this net? It clearly is different from the moveable bedroom net, should she be able to know the difference? Should I keep her off this window even if she does stop climbing?

Thank you in advance.

 

[susanm9006]

How strong is that net and is it that you worry she will pull it off if she climbs it? In the pictures it looks to be heavy plastic which should be sturdy enough for her now but possibly not when she is full grown. For that reason I wouldn’t let her climb that particular window, especially when it was open.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Try this...not saying it will work, but it often does. When she climbs the screen, HISS at her, and immediately remove her. A hiss is universal Cattish for "STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" She'll understand. And you'll get some street cred for speaking her language. Also works with biting, BTW...in fact, that's where I started using it.

LOL...I sometimes actually hiss as I'm typing out these instructions. Invariably, my Hekitty will startle, and look at me as if to say, "HEY! I was just LYING HERE! What did I do?" Poor girl!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

How strong is that net and is it that you worry she will pull it off if she climbs it? In the pictures it looks to be heavy plastic which should be sturdy enough for her now but possibly not when she is full grown. For that reason I wouldn’t let her climb that particular window, especially when it was open.

I agree with this and also think that kittens cannot tell the difference in their minds between a living room net and a moveable bedroom net. Just to be safe, no net climbing!