Pets

[The Marcusky Family]

What do you do about pet food and kitty litter? We're down to cutting the cat off from her litter box to keep the Boy out of the bathroom half the time, and either cutting the cat off from her food by accident or she's knocking it off the table trying to get to it, just to keep it out of his hands.

What are your solutions?

[Anci]

well, we have a dog that we used to keep inside but since we had our daughter he's outside in the back yard ( the main reason was that he sheds a lot of hair and I really didn't like that around the baby). Try to put the bowl of food in a place where your baby cannot reach it ( or see it ).someone I know used to put the kitty litter in the bathtub so her daughter won;t touch it.

[Hetty]

We created what a friend of ours calls "Fort Box" (like Fort Knox!) to keep our toddler sons out of the cat box. We made a painted chipboard surround for the box, with a lift-up lid that locks down. (A simple lock, it wouldn't keep an adult out for two seconds, but it baffles our boys.) The cats enter through a small opening on the side that is just big enough for a cat but small enough to discourage a toddler. The box surround was a bit of work but well worth it.

As for food, I feed our cats twice a day, morning and night. In the morning our boys spend about ten minutes in the pac n play while the cats eat, then I pick up the dishes and put them up on the counter for the day. (Our cats are fat, they don't need to eat all day!) At night I feed them after the boys go to bed, and leave the dishes down all night for the cats to free-feed. As for water, we have water in our office for the cats (our boys are restricted from there), and on top of the dining table in our kitchen. Sigh. Not the best solution but all we could come up with. I would have put the water on our kitchen counter but some of our cats are not agile and couldn't reach it there. My take? Just do what works for now, even if your friends raise their eyebrows. In a year or two you can put things back where they belong.

[AmandaDZK]

Don't know if you have a garage, but we put our cat's food, litterbox and water in the garage. So that the cat has access whenever she needs it, we installed a cat door (can get them from a Home Depot/Lowe's/home construction-type hardware store). My husband is pretty handy, but the installation process didn't seem too bad - think he may have needed a jigsaw and had to (obviously) be able to take the door off the hinges...it's been great though and I know our baby (when she finally gets here) will not be able to get to the cat's area.

I recognize that this may not be a solution for those in apartments (we just relocated from Brooklyn, so we know how it is), particularly small ones, but may help some folks who have garages...I've also seen this work for folks who put in a cat door down to the basement as well. I have heard about the litterbox in the tub solution being used in small apartments, not sure about other options...

[Zicea Becks]

Our dogs have a separate room, i guess you could call it, off of the laundry room. It initially seemed like dead space, but i thought it would be a great place for the dog (we only had 1 dog when we first moved into the house we're in now). It's enough space for the dogs to sleep in, and have their food set aside. there is a door, so it can be closed off from wandering babies. I got a dutch door put on it not too long ago, so it won't seem like we're caging the dogs, and it worked for a while....until Denim-4 started climbing over to get in there with the dogs. He doesn't eat the food anymore, but he'll put it in his pockets, and pulls it out later as though they are treats for the dogs...."to make them do tricks".


Since you have cats, you could possibly put it up high, since cats can jump.


Cats are trained pretty well, so if you put the litter box in the garage, it'll be fine, they scratch to get out just like dogs.

My best friend, kimberly, has a cat, and she had the same problem. Recently, during a trip to PetCo, i convinced her to get those automatic litter box scoopers. ( i thought they were cute).

well, it made more noise than the demo they gave at the store, so the kids are freaked out by the litter box.....so is the cat. (lol)

[Anne Balish]

Before we had a baby, we had a dog who liked to graze the litter box snack bar (GROSS!). Initially, I put up a baby gate at the entrance to the bathroom where the litter box is, but stepping over it was such a pain. The way our bathroom is laid out, the litter box sits between the cabinet where the sink is and the bathtub. I just angle the baby gate and the cats jump over it to get to their litter box. The dog and kids can't get to it and the adults can get to the toilet with no problems.

[Melanie]

We just got a great dane and the Boy (22 months), is constantly in the water bowl ... dipping his blankie in it, the broom (to mop the floor), drinking from it, throwing toys in it..etc, etc. The list goes on. Aside from forbidding my dog to drink (not so good), I have to run after the Boy all day long....sigh.

[april]

my dog in side n his food is on the floor in the kiitchen but i have a gate between my kitchen n the front room

[Brad VanGuard]

Well as a young father we are trying to get our financial needs all in order, and dog food is one of those things that we have to get pet food coupons for. Our dog is an outside dog (Yellow Labrador named Ace) so he is able to run around a lot and uses a lot of energy. He eats a lot but, never gains weight. But it's fun to go out with him and Mack (my little boy) and teach Mack to throw and Ace to fetch.

[BJ Chapdelaine]

One solution for the kitty litter in the bathroom is to put a baby gate in the door but leave a space at the bottom, big enough for the cats to go under but not the baby. We have an 18 month old little girl and this is what works for us...Haven't found a solution for the cat food/water problem yet, but we're working on it...

[Linda Brown Otwel]

we have a cat, and simply enclose its food and litter behind a gate... the cat simply jump over the gate when it needs to access them... and our very curious little boy simply can't access them... I thought that was the simplest way to do it... As for dogs, they can't really jump...???