Cats and Baby Gates

[monkeyprincess]

We currently live in a split level house where you walk in the front door and immediately need to go upstairs or downstairs. We feed the cats in the kitchen, which is upstairs, and their litter box is in the utility room downstairs, so the cats need to have free reign of the house. The cats are middle-aged but still pretty agile, although one of them is a bit of a fatty due to his penchant for eating his and his brother's food when we're not looking.

For those of you with cats, is it reasonable to expect them to jump over the gates to get up and down the stairs (assuming it is placed far enough in front of the stairs so they don't have to add a stair to their jump)? Or have you had to make other accomodations? Our first priority is obviously the baby's safety, so we're worried about having widely spaced slats or a pet door. DH also insists on a gate that is mounted to the wall, and because we have widely spaced rod iron railing at the top of the stairs, the gate will need to be about 6 feet wide at the top of the stairs.

Hoping somebody else has had to deal with this issue because we're kind of at a loss for what to do....

 

[amc80]

They can jump. We have a gate and the cats jump over it as needed. One of them will wait for us to open it unless he really needs to be on the other side, but he's particularly lazy.

 

[Haven]

We used baby gates when we first adopted our dog Bailee, and DH cut one of the rods out of the end of each gate so the cats could fit through easily. I'll ask him to check and see how wide it is and if that would be safe for baby, I'm not sure. But it was a perfect solution for keeping the pup confined but letting the kitties roam free. Sorry, that probably isn't helpful. I'll have DH measure later today when he's home.

I know the kitties can jump over them too, but one of our guys is especially lazy and would wait until we were around to open the gate. That's why DH ended up cutting a bar out. Here's my lazy boy, Manny. Surprising that he wouldn't want to jump, I know.

ETA: Ha! AMC, I didn't read your response before I posted. Good to know our Manny isn't the only laaaaazy kitty around.

 

[amc80]

We used baby gates when we first adopted our dog Bailee, and DH cut one of the rods out of the end of each gate so the cats could fit through easily. I'll ask him to check and see how wide it is and if that would be safe for baby, I'm not sure. But it was a perfect solution for keeping the pup confined but letting the kitties roam free. Sorry, that probably isn't helpful. I'll have DH measure later today when he's home.

I know the kitties can jump over them too, but one of our guys is especially lazy and would wait until we were around to open the gate. That's why DH ended up cutting a bar out. Here's my lazy boy, Manny. Surprising that he wouldn't want to jump, I know.

ETA: Ha! AMC, I didn't read your response before I posted. Good to know our Manny isn't the only laaaaazy kitty around.

Love! This is my lazy man...

 

[monkeyprincess]

Ha ha, love the pictures! I don't have many pictures of my lazy boy on my phone, but here's one showing his, um, generous body proportions (We don't let the cats lay this close to the baby (nor would they want to), but I had been laying with both of them on the couch and got up to sneak a picture)

Thanks for the gate advice. Worst case scenario we could just keep them downstairs when we're gone and leave water downstairs for them.

 

[TooPatient]

Petsmart has baby gates with kitty doors. I don't know anything about them, but saw them when getting another carrier.

We use a baby gate to keep cats and dogs separated when needed. It is an extra tall gate that is bigger than most. Two cats can jump over the gate and two can't. Either dog could push it over but don't. But... when the cats jump, they fairly often knock the gate down.

 

[Kunzite]

I wouldn't use a gate with a kitty door, E is so skinny he would easily get through! This might not work for you since you say your kitty is bigger, but our gates have always been off the floor a few inches to accommodate the trim and our cats go under. They're also tiny things so that might be why. I've seen both of them go through the slats in the gate before! I nearly had a heart attack because they looked like they were going to get stuck halfway through! Can you imagine trying to pull a cat out of a gate!? In a pinch they'll jump over, they just don't like to.