Question
You'd think it would be simple, but my Norwegian Forest Cat is loathe to jump over the 60 cm high fence from carpet to carpet. Currently he will jump out from a covered cat toilet, but I think he is still reticent about the other way. How do I encourage his jumping? We just put it up. It surrounds his food area, toilet and favourite window. We don't want him to use an alternate route through the baby bed, which has a rail to jump over--he has jumped in there at least once. Now he will have an extra area for his own use that is not disturbed by my one-year-old. How do they encourage movie cats?
Answer
Cats are more likely to jump up onto something higher, or down onto something lower. Jumping over something as high as a baby gate doesn't seem to be as natural a behaviour for them. I would break it up into two steps. Perhaps you can put something next to the baby gate that he can jump up onto, and then down from there. Maybe later if you remove the "something", he will try it in one go.
Answered By - mhwombat