My kittens are about 13 weeks old now and are getting brave enough to explore my den area, which is next to stairs and a dangerous ledge. If they got up on the ledge (and I'm sure they will soon enough) and slipped, at worst it would be a 13 foot drop (onto carpeted steps). The ledge is about 6-7" wide.

Is this as bad as I'm imagining? I'm thinking about installing some kind of net to catch them if they fall. Or is that a silly idea and would just encourage them to jump off?

Trust me, if it hurts...they'll only do it once!

We Are having that same fear, ouly ours is a railing that would fall on to had floor

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That's a pretty long way down, and onto an un-even surface (stairs).

In your shoes, I would probably install some sort of screen/netting right up the edge of the barrier, to about half way out (so you still have head clearance)

I would screen to be on the safe side


Regrds

That's the same set up I've got in my attic with a stairwell like that. My Bengals climbed on the bannister and terrified me turning round and doing acrobatics - Dolly still does it and has never come to any harm. The moggies have given it a go too but soon realised they didn't have the agility to cope. Delilah did tumble down the stairwell and banged her leg but didn't come to any real harm - she's never climbed up again since.

Cats learn by experience and I'm a big believer in letting them find things out for themselves (within reason of course) and personally I wouldn't net off the stairs - sometimes doing something like that just makes them more curious.

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My stairs are similar and the first few times that Max and Freya jumped on the ledge i panicked and got them down, but soon realised that they probably spent all day sitting up there looking out of the opposite window. They also use the ledge to launch themselves at the door handle to OH drum room watch out Phil Collins!
To be honest i have never thought to screen it off.....

My parents have the same kind of stairs but with banister and I was afraid too they might fall trough or slip from the ledge for Onyx.

But in fact, they never came to harm...

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D'ya know, I read this a couple of days ago, and thought, ooh, thats a lot like our new place, wonder if we ought to think about screens in case they take a flyer as they've been climbing up there a lot.......

Then yesterday I heard a thump thump thump, turned around and there's Nutty looking over the edge of the stairs very intently. Went downstairs, and there's Oska with a BIG tail looking very indignant and rather embarrassed after falling off the banister rail.

He's fine, has a rather bruised pride, but we haven't seen him up there again (yet!). Knowing Oska we will though

We've got pretty much the same set up - although our bannisters are open, so my two fosterlings can see each other through them. We were terrified of their bannister antics the first few days, and were going to get my carpenter OH to make a protective ledge underneath the longest bit of the drop, but as we got to know them both (18 month old F4s), we realised if we made a ledge, they would only use it as a toy.

Now Chloe plays on the bannister, and uses it to beg for kisses, and her brother Lex has realised he's not as co-ordinated as her, and he leaves it alone. (He's on my lap now, and I wonder if he can read?! )