Ok bear with me as I explain…
My wonderful beautiful kitty has now decided that people food is what she needs to eat, something we do not allow here in our house. And because of her new found interest, she realizes that the stuff she digs out of the garbage (thanks to my bad dogs) is up on the counters.
Never before did she ever get on the counters until recently. She has been the best kitty ever but I hate cats on the counters. She is a long haired cat so the shedding is worse despite her being on great kitty food and getting brushed every day.
She’s been to the vet and everything is fine internally so she isn’t lacking in nutrition. She has just developed a taste for human food and is now protesting her kitty food.
I need to stop her but the problem is that she knows when someone is coming so she gets down before we can even see her to squirt water, shake a can, etc. I considered buying a ScatMat but because I have plenty of electric fence and a small garden charger, I got to thinking that if I could set it up safely in the house, I could run tape over the counters so when she jumps up, she will get a zap and there fore end the counter foraging once and for all.
My dad set up an electric fence in his garage but that was to keep out the possums so it didn’t need to be hidden like mine does so my Birdie (my kitty) can’t see it.
I know to some of you this sounds cruel but I really do not want her to eat something I am cooking and burn her feet, or get pancreatitis, which could kill her, if she eats something that she shouldn’t.
This has only been going on for about a month so it should be easy to fix if I can do it in a way that will keep her from ever wanting to do it again, hence the electric fence.
So have any of you ever put up a small electric fence inside to keep the dogs off of the couch or cats off of the counters? If so, how did you do it? I know how to run miles of fence, but hiding it and making it still charged is posing a problem for me so I need some suggestions.
Thanks!
People do this with Invisible Fence brand, but I don’t think they make it “invisible” in the house. I think it’s more fair to the animal to give a visible signal of some type.
I really need to scare the bad behavior out of her because she is in danger. She’s the type of cat that if something is amiss, if something changes in the house, like we get new furniture or moved the furniture, she hides for days. So have a visable barrier will not help long term. Plus since she is getting on the stove WHILE I have something cooking, knocking off lids! I need to do something that will correct this once and for
One or two zaps by an electric fence is far better than having her hospitalized because she got burned by boiling water or is in because she is sick from eating something she shouldn’t have.
If she did this while we were in the room, it would be different but she does it when we leave for 2 seconds. There’s no way to block off the kitchen so this is my best hope of protecting her.
http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Operated-Scat-Mat-48x20/dp/B0007NTBJ6#
I have not used one, so cannot comment on it’s effectiveness. But, it would lay flat on the counter or stove so kitty cannot see it until the jump is completed.
How about getting a latch that keeps dogs and cats out of the garbage. That will cost you a whole lot less, kitty won’t get zapped and fearful, won’t have to wear a collar, you won’t have batteries to keep charged, etc.
That said, yes, Invisible Fence has disks that can be put in strategic locations to keep Invisible Fence collared animals out of an area. They are a pain in the gd arse because they need charging all. the. time. and the collar batteries are not cheap and need replacing about monthly. I know this because we had this set up at work to keep dogs out of cat food.
You can also get mats that are hot that run off batteries. I won one a couple of years ago and it’s great to keep cats off a very limited area of counter or table. Being cats, they quickly learn that it’s the mat and not the counter that’s zapping them and they learn to work around it.
The cans that have a motion sensor and blast air are fun to a point. The point of no longer being able to deal with them comes about the hundredth time you get blasted because you forgot exactly where the range was set. Oh yes, cats can also figure out the range on those babies.
I think setting up actual electric fence in a home is a really silly idea. That’s kind of saying it politely. Especially for a cat. You’d need a hell of a lot of tape to fence off your counter or doorway, or whatever, from a nimble, sure footed animal that can jump great heights and land in a small area.
The stove thing? You really think a zap from an electric fence while she’s trying to get to the stove is going to be safe? Not. So. Much. Either keep her out of the kitchen while you are cooking by making a physical barrier (close the door if you have one), or take the time to teach her about Invisible Fence, shell out the dough, keep the batteries charged, and keep her completely out of the kitchen.
I saw a device on a dog training show on TV; it was a motion-activated gadget which emitted an obnoxious sound when the dog entered the forbidden zone. It was surprisingly effective and might work well for cats too.
Here’s something intriguing:
http://www.amazon.com/Contech-StayAway-Motion-Activated-Pet-Deterrent/dp/B000DZFFN4
http://www.amazon.com/Tattle-Tale-Sonic-Training-Alarm/dp/B000ANOT9U
And a summary of several systems:
http://cats.about.com/od/behaviortraining/tp/comldeterrent.htm
Don’t put food on the counters. Seriously, keep the food in cabinets, the trash in either a dog proof/cat proof container or in a cabinet. I keep mine under the sink. My last collie could open cabinets, so all my lower cabinets had kid latches.
Crate the cat while you are cooking.
I am with Laura on this one - what kind of food is being left out that she is getting into when no one is around?
Maybe its because I have ALWAYS had pets - but the only food that gets left out on my counter is fruits and vegis, which the cats have no interest in. Everything else goes in the refrigerator or cupboard.
Or if I am prepping food, marinating meats etc (going back and forth out of the house to the grill 
) things are covered.
I really do not leave anything “edible” out and unattended. If there isn’t anything to eat up there - the cat will likely stop climbing up on the counters.
As for a deterrent - what about double sided tape? I know they sell wide versions to deter pets (they don’t like it sticking to their paws).
Ok you guys did not read my post thoroughly. She gets on the stove while it is on and knocks off lids. This isn’t just about counters or the garbage, which incidentally happened when we left I’m an emergency rush when my stepdad went into the hospital and we gorgot to take out the trash. We don’t leave trash inside but that’s when she learned this.
Im not going to go buy a $100-200 contraption that does the same thing i am trying to build especoally when i have all of the materials on hand. Scatmats and invisible fences all work on electric charges. I have an idea of how to do it inside but am looking for suggestions from others who have done it before me. Trust me, this is not a new concept. Its no different than doing it to protect your garden from bunnies and deer except that I am trying to prevent her from getting seriously hurt. I would rather her get a momentary zap that will stick in her memory than have her get scalded by something boiling or worse
I’ve had patients that have done this and its a horrible recovery IF they make it. We can not close off the kitchen area as it is an open space leading to the living room. Crating/isolating her is what we do now IF we can find her but it doesn’t solve the problem . She needs to learn NOT to get up there in the first place.
Oh and as for alarms, DH often is asleep while I cook because of emergency call outs so noise alarms arent possible
So thank you for the suggestions but this is what my plan is. If no one on hete has run a temp electric fence indoors and can offer some suggestions on building it, I will figure it out myself
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7659693]
I am with Laura on this one - what kind of food is being left out that she is getting into when no one is around?
Maybe its because I have ALWAYS had pets - but the only food that gets left out on my counter is fruits and vegis, which the cats have no interest in. Everything else goes in the refrigerator or cupboard.
Or if I am prepping food, marinating meats etc (going back and forth out of the house to the grill ) things are covered.
I really do not leave anything “edible” out and unattended. If there isn’t anything to eat up there - the cat will likely stop climbing up on the counters.
As for a deterrent - what about double sided tape? I know they sell wide versions to deter pets (they don’t like it sticking to their paws).[/QUOTE]
I have a counter surfing lab. Nothing goes on the counters (he loves tomatoes and avocados). He doesn’t bother the stove when it’s on, but I’ve had to remove all the knobs from the front and can never leave a dirty pot on the stove to cool unless he’s under direct supervision.
I can’t do it…open floor plan house, but OP, can you put doors on your kitchen entrances? Just french doors would work.
Or just shut her in another room while you have food on the stove. I can’t imagine rigging up electric fence all over the kitchen. I think you’re making it more difficult than it needs to be.
OP, I have used mouse traps that snap and scared the cat off the counter. She got the message in a short amount of time. Running a temp electric fence in your kitchen sounds like a lot of work and if you have children, perhaps a simple fix might work better.
The biggest problem with temporary fencing is that you are trying to fence out a cat. Cats can jump several feet vertically and very accurately. Unless you’re planning to space your wires about 2" apart all the way from floor level to 6’ or more high, it is not going to keep a cat out.
Oh yes, Zuri makes a good point. The snap traps are cheap, entertaining, and they work.
And sure, if spending a couple hundred bucks on a system that works is not worth it to you, then enjoy spending a whole lot more on the cat when she does scald herself. We can’t always get a practical and effective method for free.
FWIW, I’d try a bunch of the snap traps to see if they have the desired effect on her. If not, then look at the IF disc system. However, keep in mind that it does involve training time to teach them to back off it and not barge through it, so if you don’t want to invest the time in that, then you’re better off with the motion detector air sprayers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXttX_lrdoc
In case you’re not sure what Zuri was talking about. They are very sensitive and quite shocking in a non-harmful way.
[QUOTE=Chachie;7659785]
Ok you guys did not read my post thoroughly. She gets on the stove while it is on and knocks off lids. This isn’t just about counters or the garbage, which incidentally happened when we left I’m an emergency rush when my stepdad went into the hospital and we gorgot to take out the trash. We don’t leave trash inside but that’s when she learned this.
Im not going to go buy a $100-200 contraption that does the same thing i am trying to build especoally when i have all of the materials on hand. Scatmats and invisible fences all work on electric charges. I have an idea of how to do it inside but am looking for suggestions from others who have done it before me. Trust me, this is not a new concept. Its no different than doing it to protect your garden from bunnies and deer except that I am trying to prevent her from getting seriously hurt. I would rather her get a momentary zap that will stick in her memory than have her get scalded by something boiling or worse
I’ve had patients that have done this and its a horrible recovery IF they make it. We can not close off the kitchen area as it is an open space leading to the living room. Crating/isolating her is what we do now IF we can find her but it doesn’t solve the problem . She needs to learn NOT to get up there in the first place.
Oh and as for alarms, DH often is asleep while I cook because of emergency call outs so noise alarms arent possible
So thank you for the suggestions but this is what my plan is. If no one on hete has run a temp electric fence indoors and can offer some suggestions on building it, I will figure it out myself ;)[/QUOTE]
Several people were suggesting options out of concern for your cat - crating cat while cooking seems pretty basic to me, as is locking kitty in another room while you are cooking … both options would seem to cost very few $$$
But if you think that some home version of an electric fence designed for much larger animals, is the safe (cheap?) way to go …
well, best wishes to your kitty is all I can offer :yes:
And yeah I have counter surfing cats, they are trained enough to stay away from the stove while I’m in the vicinity … and if the stove is alight & I’m not, well neither is the cat (I make certain of that).
I also use pots with heavy lids that must be lifted to remove so no knocking asunder.
Of course I also realize that none of these options will be suitable for you
I don’t think fencing is going to work. Either you’d be running electric tape across your entire counter space(which seems like it could backfire on you and potentially be dangerous near heating elements–definitely wouldn’t want to electrify your stove), then you aren’t going to actually zap the cat most times she gets up there. A scat mat placed next to the stove, the big sheets of double sided sticky tape placed next to the stove, a motion sensor air can that will spray her if she makes it onto the stove are some deterrents you can try which, yes, aren’t things you already have on hand but are likely to be safer and more effective.
Sticky tape on the counters works well to discourage a kitty. Cardboard squares covered in double sided tape works.
No, I’m not trying to be argumentative, please don’t think that way ! I have been trying to think of every possible solution that I could fix her of this habit, but most of the suggestions are things we have already tried, thought of or done. Some things just wouldn’t work in our situation.
I do need to do a quick PSA on snaptraps and glue traps, though. I’ve been a vet tech most of my adult life and used to recommend these to people just as some of you have as a way to ward of curious cats. Sadly, throughout my career, I have treated several cats and kittens due to getting caught in these traps. I’ve seen cats with broken toes and lacerations needing stitches from snaptraps, torn lips and fractured jaws (that was on a poor kitten who had the trap get caught somehow on its lower jaw!) The worst glue trap experience was trying to unstick a fluffy cat’s eyelid from the glue trap that she got stuck on her entire side of her head when she laid down on it.
So while these things may not happened to you yet, it is entirely possible that they might so I would never ever recommend using mouse traps again. These things may seem extreme and in all your years of doing it, you may never have heard or seen anything like this but I have and so please keep it in the back of your head that it could happen.
Anyways, for my situation, I guess I need to clarify it a bit. Our kitchen is in one line against one wall in an open room. We can not put doors up and yes, when we can find her, we do put her away but we can’t always find her to do so. And that does not fix the problem, it just puts a bandaid on it. Besides, out farmhouse has a lot of nooks and crannies that make it impossible to find an invisible cat!
Yes, to some of you it may seem cruel to do but as I have said before, it is much worse to deal with a burned cat who knocked over a pot of hot water or who jumped on a burner that was still hot than to run a few lines of electric tape for an afternoon. Again, this is something I know most of you have not dealt with so I understand that my career has exposed me to a lot more than what you have seen, but it has also made me more paranoid too lol
The way that I am thinking is a lot like the scatmat design, thanks to my dad’s suggestion. I wouldn’t run the hot tape everywhere but I could run a few lines across the stove/counter/sink, entice her with tuna and let her get zapped. I do think that once would be enough for her.
My garden charger is not strong like the horses’ charger it is. I can’t remember how many joules it puts out but it is very small, the shock is similar to that of the invisible fence we had a few years ago so not deadly, just enough. A the lines I would run would be about that of the garden’s length too.
So I’m pretty set on doing this. Yes, I know some of you don’t agree but this is what I am going to do regardless. It’s no different than using an invisible fence for the pets, or a scat mat.
Plus if I am in the hospital and someone is farmsitting for us, I will know that she is safe after this and I won’t be as worried about her getting on the stove because whoever is here can’t find her to put her away.
This could be an excellent way to electrocute your cat. They are tiny! How on earth do you know how much electricity is “just enough” for your cat?
How are you planning on cooking if your kitchen has electric fence all over it? I doubt that zapping her once or twice and taking it all down will be effective. Cats are usually smart enough to figure that out. No wire? No zap.
Snap traps are placed upside down, often under newspaper, for something like this. When the trap goes off, it jumps up in the air. There is very little risk and makes noise. Less risk, I’d say, than gerry rigging a cat electric fence
A spray bottle (add vinegar or lemon juice to make it EXTRA effective) or a can loaded with pennies are reasonable, tried and true deterrents.
