Stairgate and aged cat

[MistletoeGolightly]

What do other people do about pets and stairgates? I have a very aged cat - far too old to jump over a stairgate. DS is just about to crawl and I went to look at some stairgates assuming the cat would be able to squeeze through the bars but they are all too closely spaced.

Would it be hugely irresponsible to mount it slightly raised with a narrow gap at the bottom - say 3 or 4 inches, too narrow for DS to get his head wedged - so the cat could squeeze under? Any other ideas welcome - and if anyone knows of a stairgate with wide-spaced rungs would love to hear of it.

I've never found the spacing to be a problem with my cats, even the fattest (and at one time we had nine cats and three gates). I'm always amazed at the size gaps they can fit through. We have one Lindam one and not sure the make of the others.

We have 2 huge cats and nether of them can fit through the cats luckily theyare able to climb over them, particularly as we are about to move to a house on 4 floors so that is alot of gates.

Fit through the gaps I mean.

LOL! Our cat isn't hugely fat but he's very old and not very limber, he has some difficulty even with the cat flap so I think climbing isn't an option alas.

Piximon, what brand of gate do you have? I've been looking mostly in mothercare and all the gates I looked at in there have weeny narrow rungs, they are too narrow even for the cat's head, I think. Trouble is, most places sell them pre-boxed so it's hard to look at the rungs!

Ours are all Lindam and there is not a chance of them getting through the bars. Mind you the biggest one ways in at 20lbs .

toys r us have them all out in display as does ikea

come to think of it our ikea one was quite widely spaced

Our cat wculdn't squeeze through bars - we ended up with one across the kitchen doorway which we placed high enough so that the cat could squeeze underneath but the baby couldn't, one across the bottom of the stairs where the cat could jump onto the window sill and then down the other side of the stairgate ... and then we had dh's very clever stairgate-with-a-cat-hole. It was a wooden one, to fit across the French windows where we had a catflap - dh cut a square out of it by taking out several inches from a couple of the poles, then used the spare pieces across the cut ends to square off the hole he'd cut out. He always said that there's a gap in the market for stairgates with cat-flaps in them! Something like that might work for you.

Thank you all for the tips - I don't think there is a ToysRUs near me but there is an IKEA so a trip may be in order - feel knackered at the thought!

Wigwam, does your DH do DIY house visits? Not sure my skills are up to cat-flap stairgates but if your DH goes into manufacture please let me know!

On a serious note, did you have any problems with your high-up version in the kitchen? That's what I was thinking of doing but then read the stairgate instructions that said improper positioning could cause serious injury and had a brief but paranoid nightmare about DS getting trapped underneath in a sort of Indiana Jones escape. I take it you've never had any problems of that kind...?

mistletoe, we've got a cat that won't jump over the stairgates either and is far too fluffy to fit between the bars. We've gone for the "raise it higher" option. So far, DS1 has not made any attempt to climb under it. I was concerned at first, but I don't think that has even occured to him. I've just used std stairgates bought on the internet.

Oh good - thanks for the reassurance Jonah. I think in that case I will go for the raised option - especially as I actually have a stairgate I bought boxed without realising how close the bars would be and I can't arsed to take it back to the shop.

We didn't have any problems at all with the higher-up position in the kitchen. The cat soon got used to it, and it was never so high that dd could get stuck underneath it - and she didn't really bother trying.

Hooray - much the easiest option, I will def go for it! Thanks WigWam!