My nephew and niece are about to have their first child, their only child heretofore having been their Maine Coon kitty who cannot go outside due to his having been adopted de-clawed.
We’ve talked about confining Rascal to another part of the house, but they’d rather not have to do that and of course they can’t close the baby’s door, so how to keep the cat out of the baby’s bedroom?
D and I came up with getting a doll, spraying it with something called “No!” and placing it in the crib to acclimate Rascal not to go into the room or into the crib, which is doing at present.
Elevate the crib?
Anyway, hoping I’d find additional answers here, among you more itelligent folk (and Maine Coon owners), I decided to post our dilemma.
D and I also have a Maine Coon, and we’re sure that our gentle Bert wouldn’t harm an infant, but our nephew is known to “play” rather roughly with his, and although I have never met the cat, and admittedly not knowing that much about the breed (Bert is our first), we’d rather be safe than sorry.
We’d really appreciate your assistance!
Q and D
PS: If it makes a difference, they live in a large double-wide. No basement.
I assume you say they can’t close the baby’s door so they’ll be able to hear if it needs help. But if they get a baby monitor, they’ll be able to close the door and still hear every breath and coo.
Most cribs are at least 4 feet tall rails included. I would doubt the cat would make the effort, unless it is easy to climb other things to get into the crib. Are you saying that at the moment the cat has the habit of jumping into the crib? Right from the floor?
If so, just spray the shit out of him with a water bottle whenever you find him there. It’s not about there being a baby in the crib or not (the doll is irelevant) the cat just needs to know not to go there, ever. The crib must be the Sad Wet Place of No!
But at a more basic level why can’t the door be closed, when the baby is sleeping or whatever? Because they couldn’t hear the baby if it woke up? That’s what baby monitors are for.
Agreed, baby monitor - plus kitty training with a squirt bottle before baby is even around to teach him that the bed is not for kitty. (Just in case the cat slips in during a night-time feeding.)
Thinking back a bit I had a room in my old home I wanted to keep the cat out of. I finally solved the problem by getting a squirt gun and everytime he tried to go into the room I gave him a gentle squirt. Kept it up for about a week and finally he got the message and didn’t go near the room’s door.
Just keep the door closed. Our daughter has always slept with the door shut. We used a monitor until she was about 2.5, and now she just gets up and comes to us if there’s an issue. Our cats know they’re not allowed in there, and there’s never been a problem.
Okay, my bad about the crib. It’s not a crib, it’s “a standard baby bed”, according to D.
Closing the door on a newborn? Whether I believed in old wive’s tales or not, I , personally , being old fashioned, would not feel comfortable doing that, monitor or not, and that is their thinking as well. Yes, they’ll have the monitor too, but they want to keep the cat totally out of the room.
Cat cage sounds good to me, get him used to it now, I guess. Squirt gun as well.
Can you articulate why they feel uncomfortable leaving the door closed? It’s actually safer in a fire, and I can’t see a situation where it’s less safe.
That said, we put a Scat Mat in the crib for a month or so before the baby was born, and we never had a cat in it after one zap each.
I’ve raised kids with cats, fully-clawed cats at that, with all doors open and never had one single bit of trouble. I’d suggest your nephew do some research on the issue.
The only issue is that now they all love cats. Is that so bad?
I don’t know, Hello Again. I’ll do some more research and report in tomorrow. Can he jump that high? I don’t think so. My Bert can jump onto my bed, and I just measured it (28" high - with blocks underneath the legs for storage), but I doubt he’d jump 4 feet flat-footed.
The No! spray would be sprayed onto the doll, not the bedding.
From what I remember, that was a toddler fucking with a cat and provoking it, not a cat just randomly leaping into a crib and mauling a newborn. That isn’t going to happen.
I know you can’t talk to new parents, though. They think they’re supposed to be afraid of anything and everything.
