OT - How to keep cat off stove top?

[Hector]

My Border-Kitty Skiziks is now 6-1/2 months old. He has the run of the house and jumps up on furniture when he chooses. We have an electric range that has the ceramic smooth top with 4 burners. Yesterday wss the first day that he has chosen to jump up onto the stove top. Fortunately it was cold at the time. But the ceramic top retains heat for a while after use. If he were to jump up there shortly after we used the stove top he would burn his paws. The four times that I have seen him jump up there I quickly grab him and make a mean-sounding noise and put him back on the floor. I will have to see if that makes an impression on him to not jump up there, but so far it hasn't. Any suggestions? If I can't get him to stop going there I will have to crate him whenever the stove top is hot, and he doesn't like that much.

[Laura (Cady and Koda's mom)]

At our house we use upside down mouse traps. When he hits them they snap and scare him, without your involvement which will help for times you're not there. One or two snaps and my cats leave the area alone. My cats have free run of the house and are allowed on all furniture except the kitchen counters.

[nancy]

Are you sure the moustraps won't ever snap on the cat - or get knocked on a dog?

 

We went to the dollar store and got a pack of 4 little squirt guns. We tell Maggie "No!" when she gets on a table or counter or tries to climb the screen porch. Then we use the gun. Often without saying anything. She's gettin the idea that doing those things automatically produced wetness. She does try to sneak, but it's been only 6 weeks, and she's acting just like our kids did.

[Lunar]

You can also try using double-sided sticky tape (cats hate that against their paws). Pushing him onto the floor every time he jumps up there *may* work - but I'm still trying to convince my cat that the countertops are off-limits.

 

My dad's old cat used to sleep on their old black stove. It (the stove) was rarely used - but once in a while dad would use it. Cat jumped up there once when it was going. Burnt the bottoms of his paws. He never slept on it again.

[Lunar]

OH the squirt gun.... I forgot about that. Worked like a charm with our cat and climbing the christmas tree.

[donna frankland (uk)]

you can booby trap it. hang a sheet or towel with the biggest part of it hanging off, then on the part that is on the top place some empty tins etc anything that will make a noise.

kitty tries to jump up, drags the towel off and all the tins fall of with a big noise!

or place tinfoil on the top, cats apparently hate walking on it. (obviously both these methods require the hob to be cold to start with)

just to be on the safe side though, it is always worth filling a cold saucepan with cold water to place on the hot 'ring' after it has been switched off, just incase the scare tactics dont work.

worth adding though that i have heard of just placing an empty pan on the ring that has been used, but i have also seen pictures off kitties asleep in empty pans on the hob as they get nice and warm, reinforcing the behaviour instead of being a safety feature!

and as an aside, though this may sound patronising (which is most definately NOT my intention )

please be careful with your washing machine and tumble drier, i knew someone who washed her kitten not realising that it had climbed in for a snooze whilst the dry dirty laundry was in there. kitty went un noticed till the wash had been started and unfortunatley it proved impossible to get the door open till it was too late tragic.

[donna frankland (uk)]

oops edit gone wrong

[AK dog doc]

There's also something called a "Scat Mat" which is supposed to tingle their little feet with very mild electricity. I've never used this and naturally it would only be something to use when the stove is NOT in use (or hot) but since it works when you're not physically present, it's a more consistent correction. I think Drs Foster and Smith catalogue or R.C. Steele catalogue might carry it. Since I've never used it, I can't tell you much more about it. Just a thought.

[nancy]

Have to admit that I didn't even think of Donna's answer. We always have a tea kettle of water on the stove. It sits on a back )cold) burner most of the time. But it moves onto whichever burner we use wneh we remove the pan.

[Hector]

Thanks for the replies! I have implemented Donna's booby trap with a towel and empty cans. Skiziks has only jumped up there once today, and that was before the booby trap was in place. Maybe getting grabbed and verbally harshly reprimanded is having an effect. (Fingers crossed!!!)

 

But if he jumps up on the towel booby trap he is going to get a very noisy surprise. I may try some of the other suggestions if what I am doing now doesn't stop him from stove-top leaping.

[Tammy525]

My cats all hate aluminum foil if it is flat (they love to play with al. foil balls). I leave a flat piece of foil anywhere I don't want them, this keeps all three off (my chair in my bedroom is my al. foil spot right now). It is easy to just pull off when you want to use the chair, too, then back on when I get up.

[painted_ponies]

I've also found that leaving cut citrus fruit out on a surface seems to work as a cat repellant. No idea why. Unfathomable beasts.