How can I keep my kitten off of furniture when I am away?

Question

I have a very active 9 week old kitten. When I first got him he was all over everything in the house. I used a spray bottle to keep him off of the tables and my desk and when I am home he is very good about staying off of them. However, I come home from work to find things that were once on the table now on the floor.

How can I keep him off of the tables when I am at work or sleeping?

Answer 1

You can put something on the edge of the tables that he can knock down but is not breakable, but the noise might scare him away. You could put toys around the base of the table and he might be distracted by those and not want to jump on the table. My cat also jumps on the tables while I'm gone, so I made sure that there was nothing that could hurt him just in case. After a couple of times, he realized there's nothing on the table that interests him, but plenty on the floor for him to play with.

Answer 2

Set up a separate room for your kitty where he has everything he needs and make sure he's there when you leave for work.

Be sure to give him plenty of attention and affection when you are home so he doesn't feel neglected. He wants to be with you/you are HIS person. That he doesn't sleep when you do is just a cat's nocturnal nature.

Answer 3

LOL well I guess you could get rid of your furniture, but to try and keep them off is a loosing battle, they have products that are "suppose" to keep cats off of furniture and counters but it is a total waste of money, it just doesnt work,

or put your cat in a cat proof room while you are gone,  

Answer 4

maybe you can buy him a scratch post. He can climb on it and scratch it and another thing you can buy to keep him entertained is some teaser wands you can find something on petsmart.com or petco.com you can hang a ball with some feathers glued to it and hang it on top of the door and he might play with it

Answer 5

You cant that's what kittens do....Its kind of like living with a wild animal until they grow out of it.

Could be worse...Try living with a border collie puppy, you come home and find all the pots that were on the stove are now in your bed.  

Try getting him a friend.

Answer 6

If you are on top of the spray bottle training method your kitten should learn to stay off the designated "spray" areas all the time, even when you are not around. Right now he is associating you being in the room with the spray bottle as "no jumping on furniture time". He sees you with the bottle and goes "okay she has the bottle... I can't jump right now. But when she leaves, she can't spray me!". Try to make the spray as quick and discreet as possible when he is in the room and jumps on areas you don't want him. You need to make him believe he is going to get pinged with water no matter where you are and that it isn't you that's spraying him, he just magically gets hit with water whenever he touches the bad areas. If you cannot be in the room to monitor him and train him then keep him in a different room for the time being. You need to always be watching him and quickly zapping him with the water bottle when he gets on the furniture. It is a lot of work, but that's how you train an animal.

Answer 7

You have to make it very clear that it is wrong to do that when you are there. This way he will learn. Of course, during the first year he will be naughty. But later he will become more responsible. As for being kept off furniture, there is no reason to do this if he is not naughty (scratching etc.). So what you need to do is trim his nails every 2 weeks, just a little bit, and give him a rattan rug or pillow that he can scratch. When he scratche that praise him, when he scratches anywhere else say NO and put him on the rattan. Oh, and for the time being confine him in like half the house when you are away so that he doesn't destroy your living room or whichever room has more things he can drop. We used to keep him out of our office because he used to drop all the papers and pencils etc. But after he turned 1 year old he stopped being naughty, justt sleeps on my desk while I work.

Also, you could cover some furniture with aluminium foil. I've heard that works with dogs. Also there are some sprays that deter them from specific spots, look these up too.

Answer 8

you can't.  it's a cat.  they can get everywhere.

Answer 9

You can't. Its a KITTEN! They explore.

Answer 10

Only do this when you are at home; you don't want him to get it on his face and smother. Take scotch tape and put it sticky side up on what you don't want him on. Cats hate stuff stuck to their paws. The paws are super sensitive. That's why. Once the tape is stuck to him take it off and put up new tape. He'll remember and stay off for a while. Maybe months. My guy likes to jump on the bookcase and push his head through the ceiling tiles and go into the ceiling. He'll sit there and look at the tape. But he remembers and won't go there for now. Good luck.

Answer 11

You can try putting double sided tape on the edges of the furniture to deter him. It may not be feasible to keep him off everything and if you absolutely can't tolerate him being on the furniture, you may just need to put him in a different room while you're away.  One of the most important things a cat owner should do is make their home cat-friendly. Get a cat tree he can climb and jump on so he has a place where it's ok to be. Cats find tables very comfy to lie on and desks are very interesting so if you can just put things he can harm away, it will save alot of grief and feuding.

Answer 12

He is a kitten so he is going to want to explore and climb, however if you do not want him on certain areas you should continue to use the spray bottle while you are home.  

For when you are not home, you could try the double-sided tape method to keep him off, but that might make him more restless because he may still want to climb.  My suggestion would be to give him an alternative to climb on, such as some crates or boxes (not necessarily an expensive cat house).  I have two nine week kittens and they love exploring inside boxes and climbing on things I've shown to them that are okay.  That helps keep them off the computer desk.

I hope that helps. :)