Kitten on kitchen counter - how do I stop it?

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 501
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Calling all cat guru's Wilhelmina, Lippencote, Charleysugar et al.

I would go as far to say that I am a fairly experience cat owner and have brought up several well behaved loving kitty cats over the years.

HOWEVER.... as you have no doubt read in the past I have brought a Burmese boy kitten into the household recently and he is causing me slight problem. He is nearly 6 months old and is definitely into his teenage faze. He is quite willful and gets on the kitchen work surface whenever he wants. I have used a water pistol with him successfully (to stop him playing with the fire place) and have used it whenever he gets on the work surface. He absolutely hates it and will run away quick when I use it however he just goes back up when I'm not around. He has figured out that food comes down from there so when he is hungry he will go in search (he gets fed 3 times a day with kitten meat and there is always dry kibble down so he's not going short). I do not keep any food apart from a fruit bowl (which he is not interested in).

Cats on the kitchen work surface are a no no for me so any suggestions to stop him would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • cosmocosmo Posts: 26,840
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    Tin foil is good for keeping determined cats off work surfaces.

    Most cats don't like walking on tin foil.
  • LippincoteLippincote Posts: 7,131
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    I heard that about tinfoil, and certainly they dislike the sound of tinfoil being ripped. But I don't want my kitchen worksufaces covered in tinfoil.....

    I have never used a waterpistol on my cats. (The usual advice is to ensure they don't see it is you doing it, and I doubt I am adept enough to ensure that.) I don't see the point - if you're there you can just remove them, if you're not - they will do it anyway. So it does not teach them not to do it, it just teaches them to be scared of you shooting a water pistol.

    I have Burmese cats and we have a woodburning stove with no fireguard, I have stopped them jumping on it with a stern warning word - presumably they connect me warning them with noticing that the stove feels hot - anyway after four years neither of them has ever got too close to it. When we had an open fireplace, I had a really effective fireguard to stop them getting too close. Burmese are, as you have noticed, a bit of a menace, and you have to work round them, not through them.;)

    Re the worksurface, I just say 'no' and remove them, and I always feed them on the floor so they don't get a 'reward' from jumping up. Having said that, there is no way in the world you can stop cats doing something when you are not there - sorry! You can limit the behaviour by ensuring there is little of interest on there for them, or making it physically difficult ..... but totally preventing it is doubtful. So, just wipe down the surfaces regularly to ensure good hygiene.

    I have always found that although Burmese are wilful - they do also want to please you. Within reason:D So if they are bonded to you, they will not want to take the p too much - your kitty is still very young, I am sure he will learn if you tell him. Eventually.:D

    What colour is the little devil? :D
  • yorkiegalyorkiegal Posts: 18,929
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    my cat does it if i've used a bleach spray on the counter tops. he seems to love the smell of bleach for some reason. I swapped to a different product and he stopped jumping on the work tops.

    However my neighbours cat frequently used to come in and jump on them, as the first step to jumping onto the top of my overhead cupboards. She stopped after I put some plastic cups everywhere because she hated the noise they made when they fell to the floor.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,336
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    I totally agree with Lippincote on the use of water pistols ~ you have to be VERY good at it for the cat not to realise that they only get a soaking when they jump on the counters when you are around. So they just wait till you're gone:D.

    Sometime putting unbreakable things on the work surface that the cat will inevitably knock over/off & that make a noise can deter them. Or leaving sliced citrus fruits all over the surfaces ~ but could get costly of you have to keep buying lemons/limes etc!

    What about trying some clicker training with your Burmese? If he's really into his food, you could use highly palatable treats in very small amounts for training purposes. Then you could clicker train him to sit on the floor while you are preparing food ~ & he may learn from that that the best way to get food is to sit on the floor in the kitchen & howl:D. Better than walking all over the kitchen surfaces perhaps?! Or maybe do the training somewhere completely different but convenient for you, so that he goes to that place to wait for food.

    I remember clicker training cats on a course (I was given the tutor's bengal cat to train ~ such a quick learner:)) The cats rarely came into the lecture hall but were brought in so we could practice clicker training. The tutor said that the following weekend, with the next group of students, all her cats came into the lecture room, sat by the fridge & meowed for some more training & treats:D.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,470
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    I would love to be able to give you the perfect cure for this habitt and then I would sell it and be loaded but after five or six years with Billy and his love of walking on the worktop I have bow too those who are my betters and wait for the answer. I have tried all the stuff that magazines tell us will do the trick and .... sorry Billy has just jumped up on the worktop.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 501
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    wilhemina wrote: »
    I totally agree with Lippincote on the use of water pistols ~ you have to be VERY good at it for the cat not to realise that they only get a soaking when they jump on the counters when you are around. So they just wait till you're gone:D.

    Sometime putting unbreakable things on the work surface that the cat will inevitably knock over/off & that make a noise can deter them. Or leaving sliced citrus fruits all over the surfaces ~ but could get costly of you have to keep buying lemons/limes etc!

    What about trying some clicker training with your Burmese? If he's really into his food, you could use highly palatable treats in very small amounts for training purposes. Then you could clicker train him to sit on the floor while you are preparing food ~ & he may learn from that that the best way to get food is to sit on the floor in the kitchen & howl:D. Better than walking all over the kitchen surfaces perhaps?! Or maybe do the training somewhere completely different but convenient for you, so that he goes to that place to wait for food.

    I remember clicker training cats on a course (I was given the tutor's bengal cat to train ~ such a quick learner:)) The cats rarely came into the lecture hall but were brought in so we could practice clicker training. The tutor said that the following weekend, with the next group of students, all her cats came into the lecture room, sat by the fridge & meowed for some more training & treats:D.

    I think you are right. Clicker training may be the way forward. I was taking it slowly because I am learning the rights and wrongs of it too. Not helped by the fact that my Bengal girl seems more interested in it and butts in anytime I try it on Brandon. Its mainly because she is a very greedy girl :D. Still won't stop the little pig getting on there whenever I'm out. He's super smart and works things out quick.

    He's lilac BTW :) I'll post an up to date pic soon he is a very big boy considering he's not quite 6 months old. Nearly the same size as Chew the Bengal already.
  • LippincoteLippincote Posts: 7,131
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    I bet he's beautiful, I nearly had a lilac female, but the person before me took the wrong kitten so I got her blue sister:D

    I can understand that it is easy to get them to associate a click with a treat/food, but how does that extend to stopping a behaviour? You have to be there to perform the clicking, so it sounds like a positive version of the waterpistol?

    Good idea to feed them away from the worksurface, but as it will remain the place you prepare food it will be hard to break the association even if he does not actually eat near it. I think repeated consistent sanctions whether with clicker, voice, removing him, shutting him out of the room, will work to a good extent - while you're there anyway....:)

    My male Burmese jumps on the worksurface not to seek food but for other reasons, e.g. he launches from worksurface to the top of the fridge freezer where he likes to sleep, he's there at the moment:D. I could get him off, but he isn't doing any harm.... and anyway he'd only go and do something worse..... :eek: :D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,336
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    The clicker training can help break the habit of jumping on work surfaces to look for food, because they learn that food comes when they sit on the floor (especially if they are removed without any treats if they jump up at other times).

    But if they are getting on the work surfaces for other reasons (like a route to the top of the fridge:), then it wouldn't work!
  • summer_chicksummer_chick Posts: 903
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    I thought I was doing really well with a loud "No" and picking them up off it .. but I really wasn't !! They used to have to use the kitchen window as a way in & out and on wintry days like today ( who stole spring on me ?!) they like to check out the window to see if its the same weather out there as outside the flap, not helped by my needing to open the windows to let some air into the house after a long winter, and I can't open the upstairs ones properly or Kamakazii Kitten will end up falling out !
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 501
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    Well he's going in for his "ahem" special little boy op tomorrow. I thinking that might curtail his jumping antics for at least a day or two, you know what with being sore in the "area" etc......
  • LippincoteLippincote Posts: 7,131
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    That may be a vain hope! :D My Burmese boys were racing around within an hour of getting home :eek: :D

    Worksurfaces are so attractive to cats because as well as being the food prep area, they very often provide strategic lookout points - as well as his fridgefreezer snoozepad, my male cat uses our kitchen window as a lookout when it's raining too - so you are not alone summer chick:D
  • gertrude hubblegertrude hubble Posts: 1,271
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    I've had my 2 boys for 18 months since they were 8 weeks old and they still jump up and walk over the kitchen counters. I am constantly telling them no and taking them off but they don't take the slightest bit of notice and jump straight back up again even after they had the snip.They can try the patience of a saint:)
  • Dave1979Dave1979 Posts: 1,804
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    We gave up and now just put them out the kitchen and wipe the surfaces before we use them!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 501
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    Lippincote wrote: »
    That may be a vain hope! :D My Burmese boys were racing around within an hour of getting home :eek: :D

    :D You were correct of course.

    Brandon's has had his op and is fine.

    Got back from the vets at 3pm. He had 20 mins of love-ins, yowled for food, ignored the vet prescription food provided, dragged the towel out of the cat carrier and has spent the last 30 mins beating the towel up! To think I had got a cold compress ready to apply to the "area" just in case :D

    FYI he was on the kitchen work surface within 30 mins of getting home, there is no hope apparently.......
  • LippincoteLippincote Posts: 7,131
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    A cold compress!:D:D None of mine have ever even noticed their clackers have gone!

    Glad to hear he is back to his usual self:D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10,625
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    cosmo wrote: »
    Tin foil is good for keeping determined cats off work surfaces.

    Most cats don't like walking on tin foil.
    Lippincote wrote: »
    I heard that about tinfoil, and certainly they dislike the sound of tinfoil being ripped. But I don't want my kitchen worksufaces covered in tinfoil.....


    Got my TV unit covered with tin foil. My cat kept jumping up on it, then pawing on the LCD screen, or jumping up at/on the TV.
    It certainly works, however, looks very odd.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 615
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    Toby was a complete pain jumping on the kitchen worktops all day and even a drenching in water didn't bother him !! luckily he did it till he 6 months old then just stopped ......hope yours does too:D
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 501
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    Toby was a complete pain jumping on the kitchen worktops all day and even a drenching in water didn't bother him !! luckily he did it till he 6 months old then just stopped ......hope yours does too:D

    Update.

    Funny you should say that, he's coming up to 6 months this weekend. In the last week he has finally got the idea that I don't want him on the work surface. I went on a consistent regime of when he did it in front of me I picked him up and put him on the floor whilst say the low down no (a low tone of voice I used to tell him that play biting was unacceptable). Once or twice I've seen him think about it and then stop!!!

    However he still tries to sleep on my face at night, steals socks and carries them around so I guess I can't have everything:D

    Will be picking up a second Burmese boy kitten from the same breeder (it will be his nephew) at the beginning of July so I'll have to go through all of this again:eek::)
  • wrexham103.4wrexham103.4 Posts: 3,334
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    Our Sam is 2 yrs old now and shes been doing it since she was a kitten, every time since she was a kitten we've told her 'no' in a stern voice and plonked her back on the floor, but still she persists , at xmas she a had a good chunk out the turkey that was on the work top too (although we didnt mention this to our guests :o hehe)

    when she was a kitten she also used to go inside the kitchen cupboards walking over the plates and bowls so we had to wash everything 5 times a week :rolleyes:
  • North DownsNorth Downs Posts: 2,470
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    Our Sam is 2 yrs old now and shes been doing it since she was a kitten, every time since she was a kitchen we've told her 'no' in a stern voice and plonked her back on the floor, but still she persists , at xmas she a had a good chunk out the turkey that was on the work top too (although we didnt mention this to our guests :o hehe)

    when she was a kitten she also used to go inside the kitchen cupboards walking over the plates and bowls so we had to wash everything 5 times a week :rolleyes:

    "since she was a kitchen" :)
  • wrexham103.4wrexham103.4 Posts: 3,334
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    "since she was a kitchen" :)


    hehe sorry :o kittens in the kitchen :o
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,286
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    when mr dudley was a kitten he used to jump on our worksurfaces, a huge no-no in our house. straight from the litter tray up to the food preparation surface, i think not :eek:

    we got over it by putting shallow plastic kitchen trays of water all along the worksurface, twice he jumped up knocked the tray off, got soaked and made a loud bang as the tray fell. hes never jumped up since :)
  • funkycubfunkycub Posts: 9,339
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    Oh my cats LOVE tin foil.

    I have to say our girls aren't allowed in the kitchen. It's the only room
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