How To Kitten-Proof Your Home

It has been almost exactly four weeks since we welcomed a new rescue kitten into our home, and let me tell you…It has been a learning experience. I haven’t had a kitten since I was fresh out of college 15 years ago, and John has never had a kitten. I don’t think Ginny (my first kitten) was really all that bad because I don’t remember her doing even half the things our sweet little Marlo has done in the past few weeks.

The adoption coordinators at the shelter where we adopted Marlo sort of intimated that she was a particularly energetic kitten, and now that we’re used to her, I’d have to agree. She’s a bit of a nut case! She climbs curtains, gets into plants, is currently tearing our skin to bits with her teeth and claws, and continues to terrorize our two older pets. It’s a lot, but we wouldn’t trade it for the world. She means the world to us already and we know she’ll eventually grow out of her worst habits. That said, we have definitely learned a lot since adopting her. If you happen to be in the same situation, keep scrolling to learn how to kitten-proof your home based on what we’ve done since adopting our own nutty baby cat!

Protect Your Plants:

I’ve actually written a whole post about caring for plants with pets in a house (read that here), but the short answer for us currently is two-fold: hang them up high, and cover the pots of lower taller plants with tape. Hanging plants up toward the ceiling is an easy solution since it keeps them out of your kitten’s reach, and taping over the interior of planter pots deters your kitten from getting into its dirt. We noticed Marlo pooped in our coffee tree’s oversized planter pot the second day we had her home, so I asked my vet about it a couple of days later, and she suggested double-sided tape. Not wanting to purchase yet another thing, I just wrapped the ends of regular single-sided tape over the sides of our planter pots so that the sticky side was facing up, and it has kept Marlo out for the most part.

Protect THEM From Plants:

The other thing you have to keep in mind if you want plants in your house with a kitten is that you need to protect your cat from the plants! There are so many toxic plants that you need to know about (Google around for a list, though, since I’m not an expert). My suggestion is just to keep a close eye on your kitten and see what she/he gravitates toward. If you see her targeting a certain type of plant and it’s toxic, just move it out of her reach.

For example, I have a book shelf in my office that I keep plants on, pictured above. So far, I haven’t seen Marlo try to scale the shelf itself, so I put plants that are more toxic toward the top of the shelf to keep them out of her reach. Hanging macrame holders or hanging metal pot holders (like the one you see pictured in this post) are other great ways to keep these particular plants out of her reach. By the way, I’m speaking mostly about plants like pothos, monstera, and ficus, which are really bad for your kitten to munch on.

Keep Them Off The Countertops:

Our kitten was pretty bad about getting up on our kitchen countertops when we first brought her home, but I bought a spray bottle within a week, and have consistently spritzed her whenever she climbed up, and that has kept her off, for the most part. To be clear, I don’t jet spray her in the face! I just give a little spritz way over her head so the water falls gently down on her, and that’s enough of a deterrent. Now, whenever she jumps on the counters and she sees me reach for the bottle, I don’t have to spray at all—she hops immediately down because she knows what’s coming. It helps that I found a beautiful amber spray bottle from a local store called Be Just Cville, so I happily leave it out on the open shelf in our kitchen. It doubles as chic décor.

Ensure Breakables Stay In Place:

As you may know if you’ve been following along with me for a while, we have a lot of art and breakable décor in our house. Marlo has been pretty good about not targeting these types of things, but in order to keep her and our treasures safe, I’ve done a little bit of preventative work. First, I stuck our most prone-to-paws ceramics and other breakables down with removable museum putty (purchase the same pack we used here), and I stuck leaning art to the wall using 3M picture hanging strips along the top edges of the art frames. Neither of these products are permanent, so once Marlo has calmed down, I can eventually not stress so much about using them, and the sticky stuff won’t damage our walls or shelves. It’s great peace of mind, though, for the time being.

Set Up Surveillance:

You might not need to go this far, but I’m an anxious person by nature. When we leave the house and lock Marlo up in her safe space (more on that room in a second), I like to be able to keep an eye on her. We have this Eufy pet camera and it has made me feel at ease when we’re not in the house with Marlo. I can quickly “peak” in from my phone when I’m out and about to make sure the kitten is snoozing soundly or playing happily by herself, and it also tosses pre-loaded treats so I can catch her attention if she’s doing something naughty, even when I’m out of the house. I also recently bought this camera for another room that our kitten frequents, and it has been a game-changer for my anxiety levels. I love that you can swivel both cameras around remotely from your phone so you can get an entire view of the room, as needed.

Create A Safe Space:

Okay, so let’s talk briefly about that “safe space” I mentioned. When you first bring a kitten home, it’s really important to set up a designated area that’s pretty much completely theirs. This is especially important if, like us, you have other pets in the house. We set our guest room up to be completely Marlo’s by taking out or sticking down any breakables within her reach, and we also took out most of the plants or put them up high enough. We filled the room with toys, put a cozy cat bed in the room, and also set up her litter box and her food and water here (food and water are both elevated on an existing guest bedroom desk so the dog can’t get into them when the door is open, as pictured above). Even when Marlo has the run of the house under our supervision, we often find her coming back to this room in particular, we think, because she knows it’s “hers.” Honestly, this should be at the top of my list because it’s the first thing you need to do when bringing home a kitten.

Toys, Toys, Toys!

I’m sitting here right now trying desperately to get this post finished while our kitten is leaping onto my back, my lap, and my face. Toys! Are! Everything! If you need to distract your new kitten so you can get work done, cook dinner, or whatever else you have on your to-do list, you need to make sure you have plenty of cat toys available for your kitten to play with. They have so much energy to get out on an hourly basis, so making sure you have toys handy in every single room is key. This stationary spinning balls toy has been so good for our Marlo that I just ordered a second one to keep in our kitchen during meal prep time. And she responds immediately to bells, so I also grabbed this set.

Speaking of, another tip is to keep an eye on your kitten to see what he/she gets extra excited for because it’s also helpful when trying to track them down. If we, for whatever reason, can’t find Marlo immediately, we know that she goes nuts for bells, so we just grab the nearest bell toy and shake it to get her to come running. Time will teach you so much about your pet, and each new revelation will go such a long way in making you and your pet more comfortable in your home.

I feel like I could go on and on, but I know not everyone just so happens to have a new kitten in their household so I’ll wrap it up. In case you found your way here thanks to that handy thing called SEO and you do happen to have a new kitten in your home, let me know in the comments if you have any particular struggles to problem-solve! As a bonus aside, I do highly recommend this calming pheromone diffuser if you’re integrating a kitten into a multi-pet household to keep everyone feeling balanced.

One thing I know I didn’t cover is how to contain electrical outlets and cords, and that’s because I really haven’t found a good way to do this. I unplug things when I see Marlo nipping at them, and would, of course, suggest outlet covers if that becomes a fixation for your kitten (ours does not seem interested). I think plug and outlet fixations are things kittens eventually grow out of, but let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise. At any rate, I wish you and your new kitten the very best. If you’ve made it this far, I’ll let you in on a secret…We have a second rescue kitten coming to our home permanently in just over a week, so you’ll be seeing lots more kitten content very soon!

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