Jan
19
How do I get my cat to stop ruining the venetian blinds?
ByShe will climb up on the chairs and shelves so she can see out the windows. But then she’ll move the blinds around so she can see, and in doing so, the blinds break because she bends them so much. I know blinds are cheap, but I want to be able to have privacy when I close my blinds, instead of closing them, only to have a foot of open space because the blinds were broken.
10 Comments
January 19th, 2010 at 5:56 am
My cat was doing that. I had to leave the blinds open a little bit so he could see out.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:46 am
If you can, trim her nails so they won’t catch the blinds, or if you can attach a kitty window loft, put one up that she can get on and she will stop going about it the wrong way. Maybe, if she doesn’t stop and you have to replace the blinds anyway, get verticals next time.
k
January 19th, 2010 at 7:13 am
She is having great fun. It is not likely she will change and disciplining her is not going to change her.
Why not be creative? Buy wooden shutters for the inside of the house. They are pretty and she cannot bend them. You might have an even better idea.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Spray bottle w/ water in it, kitty touches the blinds, gets a spray, they hate that
January 19th, 2010 at 7:50 am
easy, get rid of the cat
January 19th, 2010 at 7:52 am
A spray bottle of water, spray her when she climbs them. It’s an association thing, she climbs and she gets sprayed. You have to do it every time though. Consistency is key.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:22 am
If you don’t want to trim your cats nails, buy some Softpaws. They are little caps you glue onto your cats nails. They come in all sorts of colors and look a lot like nail polish. This is how I prevent my cats from climbing my screen on my porch.
Also, while you wait for those soft paws, get a squirt bottle and fill it with water. Everytime you catch your cat in the act, spray it once and say “NO”
January 19th, 2010 at 8:24 am
yes, cats hate the spray, but they do love looking out of windows. I would had to advise you to condition your cat not to do something it so clearly enjoys, and is not inherently bad other than the damage to the miniblinds.
You will have to raise the blinds about 8″ so kitty doesn’t bend them. I have 3 cats, and not a single unbroken miniblind in the house because I didn’t do that. The wooden blinds were a great suggestion, but you’ll have to keep those up as well.
For me, this was just one of those things I decided to compromise in order to have happy cats. can’t win ‘em all!
January 19th, 2010 at 8:31 am
The claws are not the issue here, she’ is using her paws to make a space to see, and it’a unlikely she will change. She can’t be outside so she at least wants to see, is there nowhere else she can watch from?
January 19th, 2010 at 8:57 am
If your window is reasonably deep try getting an outside mounted shade or blind so that your cat can actually sit behind the bind and look out of the window (that’s waht my cat does) Curtains can also do the trick (barring climbing incidents). I worked for 5 years in blind sales, trust me… nop blind is cat proof! Just try to work around it and buy cheap. No point investing in higher quality, stronger blinds… they may last a little longer but you’ll still end up replacing them.