We’re about to move, and in our new place the lizard’s cage will need to go in our bedroom or livingroom. One of our cats, Victor, is obsessed with the poor lizard. He will stare are the cage (a 10 gallon aquarium) and eventually sit on the top of it, licking his lips. Needless to say, Lizardo does not like this.
We’ve tried the squirt bottle method, but Victor is smart - he knows we are the ones that spray him, and if we aren’t paying attention or aren’t around, he won’t get sprayed.
If the cage ends up in our bedroom, we don’t want to have to keep the door shut all of the time. The bedroom is the “safe spot” for our other cat, so she wouldn’t appreciate being cooped up all day. It also won’t be fair to let one cat in, but not the other. And if Victor knows he’s not supposed to go in there, he will try his damndest to do so.
We faced this problem keeping the cat out of the crib. Try double-sided scotch tape on the area around the cage and on the lid. Cats don’t like the sticky feeling on their paws. Once it’s trained, you should be able to remove the tape. I’ve also heard that cats dislike walking on aluminum foil, but I haven’t tried that method myself.
Put some objects along the edge of the top of the cage. I got a cat to stop jumping on the kitchen cabinets by putting cans spaced along the counter edge.
Is the lizard really upset? (Er…how do you tell with a lizard?)
I ask because my cats love stitting on top of the mouse tank. The mice go about their mousey business. The cat sits and watches. Cat television. Everyone is happy. As long as there’s no getting in or out of the tank of course.
Electrify the top? As close to 0 amps as possible, just enough volts to give a good shock without doing any real damage. I know I’d stop doing something if I kept getting shocked whenever I did it. Something along the lines of a good shock from static electricity is what I’m thinking about.