O Christmas Tree, How I Want to Destroy Thee: Tips for Cats During the Holidays
One of the biggest challenges during the holiday season is keeping your cats safe from your holiday decorations, or maybe keeping your decorations safe from your cat. Winter is a time to get cozy. Blankets, fireplaces, comfort food, and of course holiday decorations. It can also be a time for all of the feelings to emerge, especially in a year like 2020. Whether the feelings are stress or a time to kick back and relax, one thing is for sure… we still don’t want our cats to disrupt our holiday decorations.
By nature, our cats like to investigate new items in the home. However, the trouble with this need is that there are many dangers that accompany holiday decorations. Of course, there are candles on menorahs that can burn cats and the dreaded tree situation. Cats are inquisitive and have a natural desire to climb up to the tallest points in their environment. Christmas trees make a fantastic climbing object, but a dangerous one as they can knock the tree down, chew corded lights and pine needles, and break ornaments that can injure them. It’s important to also be aware of pulling heavy stocking holders down onto themselves and other decorations that may be poisonous.
Poisonous decorations in the home:
Plants:
Mistletoe
Holly
Poinsettias
Lilies
Pine trees
Pinecones
Water under the tree
So at this point, you may be asking,
“How do I keep my cat out of the Christmas tree?”
To keep your cat and your decorations safe this holiday season, you will need to keep all poisonous, breakable, and ingestible objects away from your cat. Especially if there is a kitten in the home. You can think of this as the same type of holiday preparation that you would do for a toddler, except one that can scale almost anything in your home.
The key is management. There are a few ways to be successful this holiday season.
The first is to keep your Christmas tree or menorah in a room that your cat cannot access. When my cats were kittens, I put the tree in our office so that I could shut the door when I wasn’t able to keep an eye on them.
When you first put the tree up, keep all of your valuable or breakable ornaments off at first and see if your cat is going to disrupt the tree. If they have no interest within the first 24-48 hours, they may not have any interest in going in the tree at all.
Providing alternatives keeps cats happy.
Since it is a natural behavior, many cats find climbing the tree irresistible. That is why it’s important to offer safe alternatives to the tree. Offer vertical spaces that they are allowed to climb on in the same room as the Christmas tree. If you offer a cat tree, but it’s not near the Christmas tree, it won’t be as effective because the cat doesn’t have a vantage point in that room and will continue to climb the holiday decor. Cat shelves, towers, and other ways to climb will let them engage in their natural behaviors with less risk.
Block off the bottom of the tree to prevent your cat from having the ability to climb. You can opt to put real or “fake” wrapped boxes under the tree so they can’t get to the trunk of the tree. The boxes will block your cat from getting to the water under the tree if you have a real tree. Vacuum the pine needles under the tree daily to limit the opportunity to ingest the pine needles. If you have an artificial tree that is flocked, monitor your cat to make sure they aren’t eating the “fake snow.”
If your cat is interested in eating pine needles, offer them cat grass around the back of the tree. You won’t be able to see it, but it will serve as an alternative to the needles and maybe even as a distraction from climbing the tree.
The holidays are a busy time of the year and it’s easy to forget to give your cat extra attention around this time. Keep in mind that bored cats will often find their own fun when we aren’t able to keep them busy. Bored cats can turn the holiday decor into a way to get your attention. You may notice if you scold your cat from going by the Christmas tree or the menorah that they tend to go after it more. This is because, at a time when your cat is getting less attention through petting and playing, they will take what they can get. If walking up and touching the Christmas tree means that they will get your attention, even negative attention, they will continue to do it. Reinforcement drives behavior. Scolding them can be reinforcing to the cat as they get to hear your voice.
A bored cat will fill the void of your attention with interactions with holiday decor so it’s important to try and keep the same play and training schedule with your cat during this time!
One way to keep them busy and engaged this holiday season is to teach your cat something new. We offer our Counter Intelligence course which is designed to offer management solutions and redirect their behavior in a positive manner to get them away from the tree or other undesirable surfaces so you don’t even need to get off the couch!
Want to join? Click here