A way to keep my cat off the top of my terrarium?

[Arirang]

Hello, all!

I have an ExoTerra 40g terrarium for Nagini... and a cat who loves to climb. She has mildly damaged the (surprisingly delicate) mesh of the lid (seriously, ExoTerra, use heavier stuff like Nat Geo). No punctures, just a couple big dents. I have put a couple of baskets on top just to make it taller, and tried anti-cat-scratching tape to no avail. The baskets are a newer innovation; not sure if it works yet.

Basically, I need a way to keep her off, OR to know if that particular tank could support her weight if I placed something across the lid just to keep her off the mesh. The weight would still be on the glass and probably not as spread out, but at least that mesh would be safe. Would ventilation be a problem? Not sure how much space is needed to get the right amount of air in.

[Sunnieskys]

Home Depot or lowes has plastic flooring in a roll like a carpet runner. 12 ft for 12.99 the back size has points. Once they jump on it points into the feet. They won't bleed it will hurt. No more cage climbing for kitty.

[C.Marie]

Any way you could give her a cat tree or a perch on the wall cats love getting up high to look down on us lower life forms hopefully you can find a solution that's works for your noodle and your cat. Best wishes always..

[Bogertophis]

You might want to reinforce the top with "hardware cloth" (welded wire mesh from hardware stores), that's what I make my cage tops out of.

Your problem with cat reminded me of something I read long ago that might work to train your cat not to like jumping up there:

Basically you get a few sheets of newspaper & a few mouse-traps (snap traps, NOT the "humane traps"): set the traps- on top of surface you want pet
to avoid, then carefully lay the paper on top, so that when kitty lands on it, the traps snap & scare cat off without actually hurting the cat. Hopefully the
"scare" lasts. The trick with training animals is to catch them in the act of doing the wrong thing so they connect the act with the undesired consequence.

But personally, I'd keep the cat out of the room where the snakes or other pets are, because a determined cat may try something else that's worse.

[Arirang]

The room is literally half the apartment. Can't keep her out of it. 20+ pets, 500 sq. ft. Yay me. Side note: Everything but the cat is in tanks and I am not a hoarder. A lot of those are fish.

Knowing my cat, moving her tree into this room would just make it easier to not just climb on the cage, but to /jump/ on it from above.

The pointy roll thingy is an interesting idea... What about ventilation? If it won't be a problem, I'd like to go with that idea.

[Duardo]

I have a rather heavy 16 lbs cat who loves to climb and be around my BP enclosure, He's been conditioned to get off when I say down or his name and this was done by spraying with a little water when he was younger and then as he grew when he heard the spray bottle he would stop doing what he was doing. It'd be easier to train him in case you decide to get more enclosures and then you dont have to modify all of them. It wont make your cat any less curious and adventurous but more mindful of where he can and cannot climb. Also trimming their nails helps a lot lol

[bcr229]

You can also try a Scat Mat; it gives your cat or dog a mild electric shock when they step on it. It's used to keep them off of furniture.

https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-ScatM.../dp/B0007NTBJ6

[pretends2bnormal]

I don't own any cats, but from friends who do have cats, heres a few of the things they had some success with for keeping a cat off of counters. You can treat the cage top similarly, I expect.

Strips of tape, facing up, along the edges and in stripes across. No need to block 100%. Most cats do not like the feeling of tape on their paws and quickly become disinclined to jump on places that hace/had it. Ymmv by personality.

Similarly to the tape, lots of cats dont like stepping on tin foil, so taping strips along the lid, not 100% coverage but enough to ensure kitty has to he stepping on it somewhere, may have a similar effect.

Definitely a good idea to re-inforce the mesh. Unless you have an exceptionally heavy cat, a sheet of acrylic with holes drilled/melted into it for ventilation (however much you need shouldn't prevent structural integrity I think). Just make sure it isn't resting on the mesh, you will need the glass edges to support the weight.
Glass can hold more perpendicular weight than it would seem. Think about how much weight glass lids are for smaller aquariums made out of similar thickness glass to the exo terra tanks.

Last resort, could you mount a cheap shelf above the cage that covers the depth of it only a few inches over the top? No ventilation really lost. May be tougher if you use taller lamps for heat or light, but if the gap is too small for the cat to get under easily, it'll be the most effective, I would think. (And look, storage!)

I dunno, just some ideas. Out of people I've known with cats, the water bottle thing works in much fewer cats.. many only obey it when it is present or you are, some don't care, others flee from it when it is out, but disobey anyway until they're getting sprayed. (This is across 20 different cats over the years that started with it at varying ages, babies up to adult adoptees)

Good luck!

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(Typo, cars does not equal cats, lol)

[glasspassages]

I have a Zilla 20 with a sliding mesh top. I work in a sign shop so I cut two pieces of corrugated plastic sign board large enough so that they rest on the lip of the tank and not the mesh itself. I cut one with the corrugation running horizontally and the other with the corrugation running vertically so that when I double sided taped them together it would provide a little added rigidity. I cut a square hole big enough for my CHE which also serves as ventilation. The book on top isn't to keep the cover on. Rather, it's to make it so that my cat doesn't have enough space to comfortably lounge on top. Finally, I consistently discouraged my cat from going on top. Everytime he went up there I picked him up and put him on the floor. If he was persistent I put him in the bathroom for a ten minute time out. He doesn't go on top of the tank anymore. I kept the cover on the tank though, just in case my cat gets any ideas while I'm at work and also because it really helps keep the humidity up in the enclosure.

I was thinking though that if your cat is very insistent on being on top of the enclosure you could make some sort of temporary top with steep slopes on it like a house roof. That way your cat can't sit or jump on it. You could even try making it out of cardboard so you don't have spend money on it.

Anyways, those are my ideas. Good luck and I hope they were helpful in some way.

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[Skyrivers]

You could put a Chihuahua on top of it? Or buy a retic and feed the cat to it? Oh sorry. Was just being silly.