Mumsnet Talk

We have four month old kittens , who are very cute and lovely by the way but we normally have a six foot Christmas tree covered in loveliness .

Will they try and be the fairy ?

We would normally put the tree up on the 2nd weekend but this year I am thinking maybe the later the better .

Any tips ?

oh god. I didn't even think of this.

I have a mad 5 month old who attacks anything that moves!!

Everyone who I have told about the kittens kind of rolls their eyes and laughs when I mention the tree .

Scared

Get a tree anyway. It'll be so much fun. Just do decorations that won't hurt the kittens, like paper chains and ginger bread instead of tinsel and baubles.

No glass decorations, nothing edible, small amount of water in the bottom and I never put lights on with small kittens. Get prepared to pick it up a lot.
You are of course not putting up a Christmas tree, but in fact a kitten Theme Park.

A kitten theme park you say ?

That does sound about right , they are pretty good when we are around but I can imagine I will be coming home and finding it on the floor a few times .

And I have to buy new decs ? Result !

Will make good photos I suppose , silver lining and all that .

Kitten will

Attack baubles

attemp to climb tree, if a kitten get to the top, then by kitty law the tree must be forced to crash down with kitty jumping off half way down

Attack baubles

Attack and possibly eat tinsel - especially that thin stuff.

Attack and attempt to eat the cable to any lights

Eat any pine bits the tree shreds

Attempt to climb again

Try to use the tree as a scratching post and at the same time make it topple over

Repeat ad nausium

Do you think it is slightly better to buy a false one ? We always get a real one but I don't want poisoned kittens .

Getting rid of the tinsel is fine by me , I am not keen anyway .

YES.

Your tree will be safe at my house.

I will let you come and look at it through the window

I do believe I meant fake not false ! Ooops .

They are going to go nuts aren't they ?

Couldn't I just decorate their scratching post instead ?

Nagoo , you are a very generous soul .

IME (16 years of cat and tree ownership), fake is more damaged by cat activity than real.
Of my current three cats, 2 are now unbothered by trees, the third reverts to total kittenness and lives in the tree, wide eyed and full of mischief. My old cat, even in his later life, loved stealing everything he could off the tree and hiding it away. One year he stole all the chocolate decorations, carefully unwrapped them, and left them under the table.

We have all unbreakable decorations now, and I'm not precious about the tree - when the tinsel needs rewrapping three times a day a decoration scheme isn't important

Our cats chew the ends of the branches on the fake tree ... And they are fully grown!

My tree had been up since last Saturday and my 2 boys (7months) never even bothered with it. I came home from work on Thursday and my poor tree was over and there were baubles EVERYWHERE . Didn't take long to rearrange and nothing was damaged. It's now secured to the curtain pole

Oh and my old cat at my parents used to eat lametta off it. One year she had a piece hanging out of her bum haha

A spray water bottle is all you need!

You need Operation Bauble!

1. Manoeuvre undecorated Tree in to pre-agreed co-ordinates whilst Cats out on other missions.

2. Ensure Tree remains undecorated.

3. Establish base camp on sofa. Troops to feed & entertain selves as they see fit.

4. Humans to be armed with Class A Anti-Cat Weapons (i.e. water pistols).

5. Ensure weapons fully operational and in range of Tree.

4. Allow Cats to infiltrate Tree room.

5. Humans to remain calm and observe Cat behaviour.

5. Class A Anti-Cat weapons to be deployed at Cats when any attempt is made to investigate/climb up tree. Humans to remain silent during weapons deployment to give Cats false intelligence that Tree is a horrid Cat-hating water-squirting Tree and leave it alone.

6. When Tree-room is cleared of all Humans and Cats, ensure Cats remain on non-Tree side of door and close door to ensure maximum Tree security during non-occupation of Tree-room (such as hours of darkness, employment etc).

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for four days or until Cats lose interest in Tree.

8. Decorate Tree. Allow Cats in to Tree-room. Maintain surveillance on Cats. Be prepared to deploy weapons. (NB - use of fairy lights on tree inadvisable as incompatible with weapons and pose danger to both Humans and Cats.)

Had two five month old kittens last Christmas and they were so unimpressed with the tree, it was heart rending. I wanted kittens frolicking in it and causing mayhem, which is no doubt why they didn't bother.

Our cat only bothers with the tree if it's near a chair he can sit on to bat the baubles off.

Lazy bugger.

last year my youngest cat was 1 year old so thought the tree would be safe haha after picking up the tree and rearranging the deccies on it for the tenth time in as many days and said tree looking decidely manky i took it down and gave up wont be bothering to put it up this year

cats and trees in the house don't mix

Ooh that's an oven glove situation that is.

Kittens + trees (fake or real) definitely = mayhem, chaos and almost guaranteed broken things. My two were three months last Christmas and just couldn't bear to leave our trees alone (we have three in a cluster). I was hoping they might have grown out of it by now but I have a feeling at least one of them is going to have reverted to being a kitten again within seconds of the tree going up.

mrsmushroom at least that cat fitted in with the colour scheme - no harm leaving him there for a bit like a moving ornament

My Siamese has ignored our tree completely. I am a bit dissapointed about that really. He's too dignified. But he DOES snack on the angel hair so that redeems him a bit.

Ok , so a real tree is marginally better and I need to get a water pistol to carry out Lady Marys brilliant plan

I am actually quite excited ti see their reaction now .

Next weekeend I think will be the day .

Yes they will

When my youngest cat was a kitten, she knocked over the tree every day whilst I was at work. The key was to prop it up with bags of cat litter covered in cloth. I thought she's grown out of it until I put the tree up last night, which caused her (aged 3) and the oldest (aged 14) to chase each other around the house for an hour. Ah well, here goes again...

Appropriate

Oh dear morloth , very funny but might be a bit close for comfort .

It is going up on Saturday so I will report back and let you all know how it goes .

aw you beat me to it Morloth I was just going to link to that!!!

That is already our house, only we have two of them doing this! We have a fake tree, but somehow, they've managed to pull the branches out of their sockets. I wouldn't mind, but I struggle to get the bloody branches in, in the first place!

The tree has been up for three hours and so far so ignored , fingers crossed it lasts but I think the mad half hour before bedtime could be interesting .

Our tree is being decorated by DH while fluffy cat is supervising, he chews the ends of pre lit branches so most nights you hear one of us shouting "no stop that".

Electrocution is never good.

Yes, they will go bonkers. Mine did, anyway. I suggest everything others have said, no tinsel, and if possible (and a real tree) tie it to the ceiling. We lost a good number of ornaments that year. Now they are old it's not as bad, so there's hope!

my cat never bothers with the tree -he was 4 months the first christmas and he ignored it

he will sit under it but has never played in it

Right. I have admitted defeat. The tree has come down!!!

Kitten could not see past it being a giant, flashing kitten's theme park. Every night I have come home to find it on its side and guilty looking boy next to it.

Came home tonight though to find him chewing on the bulbs and decided to take it down and take it into school for my kids to put up in the class room.

As well! You live and learn.

Oh bugger labouche , mine our still being pretty good , a few baubles knocked on the floor but other than that they are behaving .

To my surprise my 8 month old boys have shown zero interest in the christmas tree so far.

Jinxed that now haven't I!!!!

Mine eats the angel hair, and likes to pull the tinsel off and make a bed out of it. I found some baubles over the summer that he must have knocked off and hidden away. This year I am locking the tree in the conservatory, to protect it from the cat and the baby.

Your Ornaments Are History

Mine sits just out of my view behind the tree and rustles it like he might be about to remove baubles etc then peeks under the branches when I shout at him like "what? I'm just innocently sitting here" with a hurt/confused look on his face.

We removed the angel hair, we had it at the base and dh spent ages arranging it then the cat made a bed out of it.

Touch wood our two kittens haven't done more than play 'bat the bauble' - am hoping this is the extent of the Kitten Theme Park.