Kittens and tree - HELP!

[Axlcat]

I’m looking for recommendations for the best battery operated lights on shorter strings and any other tips!

This Christmas is our first with our new kittens! They are currently 4 months old.

i am terrified of them hurting themselves having read some absolute horror stories about them getting tangled in trees / electrocuted 😱

we’ve had cats for years and our last cat who we lost in August at the age of 14 wasn’t bothered by the tree but I think these 2 absolutely will. So, I think I need to get battery operated lights and I’m looking for your best recommendations of bright good quality ones! And any other tips please!

kitten pic for tax!

one of our cats is a terror. The year she was a kitten she got tangled up in the lights and nearly strangled herself within five minutes. Had no lights that year. Nor baubles, and the tree was tied to the wall. It’s probably best not even to try.

My cat used to just climb up into it and sleep.

But we had some robins as decorations on it and none survived. She was very proud she killed the birds!

If you can afford it, and must have a "lit up" tree, have you thought about getting one with built in fibre optic lights?

And as a pp said - tying it to the wall is an absolute must!

Those cats look like trouble 😻what beauties, thank you for prompt payment of the cat tax!

@expandabandband this is my worst fear! I’ve had a suggestion which is to get battery strings that are not too long so they can’t get tangled in them as easily (as having one long string)

We will indeed be tying to the wall!

I wonder if there is a spray of some sort that will repel them?

@Scutterbug im hoping mine will be the same - I can live with ruined decorations! They are absolutely fearless though so……

Beautiful 😻

Can you get a pre lit tree? That way there’s no tangles to get caught in. I’m ok with the fact my kittens will go in the tree, I’m not bothered with it because it’s going to happen,there’s no point stressing. Leave any breakable baubles off and hope for the best.

We have a mini (3ft) tree we put up for the cats, hook on their springs, place their favourite bird/mouse/feather toys in it, add a few squirts of cat nip spray and they have fun destroying that instead of the main tree

When ours were kittens i also had a newly crawling baby so that year i got a snaller tree and put it on a sideboard and they ignored it.

I hoped for Christmas tree madness after seeing all the photos on line of cats causing chaos in trees.

Every kitten I've had has been very disappointing. All I've ever need to do is avoid baubles on the lower level of the tree as they are too tempting.

Kittens are a lovely tree decoration
You can get individual lights with no wires for chewing
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284844228917?chn=ps&_ul=GB&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1eFPC7miuTAe5_0hiIWGCDw47&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=284844228917&targetid=2361954446071&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9046364&poi=&campaignid=21701214154&mkgroupid=168798367673&rlsatarget=aud-1195034332244:pla-2361954446071&abcId=10027104&merchantid=531356999&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqJ_Olc6CigMVo5RQBh1uzwKjEAQYBiABEgKJCPD_BwE

or

10 Ivory LED Christmas Tree Candles – Lights4fun.co.uk

My main concern would be them ingesting something from the tree so I would not get any kind of tinsel, lights or anything involving a 'string', which is very limiting. One of my cats likes eating string, cotton, ribbon etc and an emergency operation to remove that from their stomach over Christmas isn't really what you want to be doing.

Cats are usually fine with Christmas trees but kittens want to investigate and chew everything.

Definitely get a pre-lit tree if you think they are sure to climb it. We brought our gingers home from the rescue centre on 23rd Dec when they were 5 months old. We got them then because we knew we had two weeks to settle them before going back to work. None of my previous cats had been remotely interested in the Xmas Tree so we naively thought these would be the same. It was utter carnage! They were shut out of the lounge unless we were there to pluck them out of the tree every 30 seconds.

I thought I had photos but I must have been too traumatised to take any 🤣 Here's a photo I took the following year when they had calmed down and seemed to have worked out the tree wouldn't take their weight. We put a couple of bright bobbles at the bottom for them to bat around and that seemed to satisfy them.

Good luck!

Similar problem here. Where can you get a long string of battery operated lights? We have a 6.5'' tree and most of the sets only have about 100 lights which would look daft.

Be careful with the baubles that break into sharp pieces if they're whacked off the tree, with kittens or toddlers, for that matter.

Really, we had two years of just a tree, no lights, only felt decorations before the madness abated. Long strings of battery operated lights are still enough to strangle a kitten if they get tangled up and fall out of the tree. Or you have to keep them out of the room unless you are watching. I cannot stress hard enough how close our kitten came to being strangled even with us in the room.

My tree is out in the garden. We have 3 cats and none of them can leave it alone. They try eating it, which can't be good for them, knock all the ornaments off and try to climb it. Luckily, we have a covered area with power just outside and the switch is inside so I can turn the lights in and look at the tree.

It's the only safe option for us.

We don’t do lights as one of our Siamese is a horror for wires , non breakable decorations and no flocking as that can be toxic to cats . I’ve already heard of one kitten this year that got strangled by light wires whilst he was home alone so keeping the tree in a room where the cats aren’t unsupervised is probably a good idea .

When ours were kittens, I used bells not glass baubles, so at least I could hear if they tried to climb it.

But these www.amazon.co.uk/Scentsicles-White-Winter-Scent-Sticks/dp/B014J7UQ9E/ things you put in the tree to make it smell worked the best of all. They hated it. I can only use them for the first day before the kids complain as well - they really do smell awful - but I presume the cats can smell the lingering scent.

Some fantastic ideas here - thank you! @OrchestralRemoversInTheDark bells is a great idea!

@Floralnomad I read about a kitten getting strangled too - absolutely heartbreaking. If we do put a tree up, they will sleep in another room and won’t be unsupervised.

@Icequeen01 sounds like absolute carnage! This will be my luck I’m sure.

@AInightingale definitely need short strings - Tesco have some

@Breadcat24 absolutely brilliant idea! Thanks so much