Kitten and stairs?

Thanks! Yes, I’ll definitely be careful with the wires – even my parents’ cat is obsessed with them! As for the sofa, there’s no way she can get underneath it because it’s basically flush with the floor. Same goes for the kitchen; the fridge is integrated, so there's no gap for her to squeeze into! I think I’m going to secure the higher steps – well, pretty much all of them except for the bottom two or three. It’ll just stress me out otherwise, especially when I’m not at home! Anyway, you’re right to be so cautious; I’m exactly the same, haha! I’ve got a balcony and I’m going to put some netting up so she can still go out there safely, though I’ll still be keeping a close eye on her!

Hi there, Initially, while they’re still small, it’s best to try and secure the stairs or the space underneath to stop them from hurting themselves if they fall. Once they get a bit older and settle down, it won’t be necessary anymore. Adopting a kitten definitely requires a bit of home-proofing. For instance, when we brought home our two new little ones, we: - Put cable protectors on all our visible electrical wires (it was a lifesaver, as our little girl loved chewing plastic—a dangling plastic cable was basically the Holy Grail for her). The cable tidies are still there today; it actually looks much neater anyway. - Blocked access to the underside of the sofa (our kittens were very skittish) by tucking a folded duvet underneath (which we took away once they were too big to squeeze under). - Initially blocked off certain rooms by putting a flattened cardboard box across the doorway, which allowed us to keep the doors open (we did this because they were nervous and we wanted them to get used to the house bit by bit, as we’d been advised). Once we gave them the run of the flat, we obviously took the cardboard down. - When we let them into the kitchen, we blocked off the back of the cooker and the fridge (and that’s still the case now). We would have liked to cat-proof our windows, but it just wasn't possible. So, even now they're older, we never leave a window open unsupervised. We've come up with a system using our shutters so we can let some air in without them getting onto the windowsill, and without having to close the shutters completely... Maybe we are—or were—being overly cautious, but I don't regret any of these adjustments for a second. Even though cats are very agile, they can still get seriously hurt in a fall (it's much more common than people think), especially if they fall head-first from a "short" height (even just two storeys) and don't have time to right themselves before hitting the ground. At "best", your kitten will be bleeding everywhere from a cleft palate (vet visit, possible surgery, the whole works); at worst, they could be killed (if a post I saw on this forum recently is anything to go by, it happened to a kitten not long ago after a bad fall).

Thanks for your reply! My parents have a cat and they’ve got open-tread stairs too. I don't remember at all how it went when he was a kitten; I don’t think we had any problems, otherwise I’m sure I’d remember! He did fall once, but he was fully grown then and it was just because he was chasing his tail 😁. Mind you, we’d always said "no playing on the stairs" ^^. Anyway, he never did it again, haha!