Having a surround sound system makes your watching experience more submerged in your shows and movies. Home speakers make quite a difference, but they can also attract the curious gaze of your cats. So how do you protect your home speakers from your cats?
There are many ways you can protect your speakers from your cats’ curiosity and sharp nails. It could be something as simple as giving them another distraction to using deterrents from your speakers.
With cats, you may have to try several different options to deter them. Being a cat owner, you know how stubborn they can be when they set their minds to it. Here are all the ways you can help protect your speakers.
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How to Protect Your Home Speakers From Cats
Cats tend to investigate when you get new speakers. It’s something intriguing and makes noise. They sometimes even use your speakers as a scratching post.
To avoid this, here are the many ways you can protect your speakers from your cats:
- Install them near the ceiling
- Put them on a shelf
- Protect them with a cover
- Take the grilles off
- Get a scratching post
- Get cat toys
- Train your cat to leave them alone
- Put material around your speakers
- Spray with anti-scratch spray
- Use citrus scents
- Put them in an inconspicuous place
- Startle your cat
- Trim your cat’s nails
You can figure out which is the best for you and your cats. Not every solution will fit your home or cat, but you know your cat best and can find the best solution from this list.
If you can, hide your wires and any dangling parts where possible. Not only will this be more aesthetically pleasing, but it will remove temptation from your furry little friend.
Install the Speakers Near the Ceiling
One of the most accessible routes to protect your speakers is installing them near the ceiling. You may not be able to do this with all of your speakers, but you can do this with most and still have that surround system feeling.
You can run the wires (if there are any) through the attic or ceiling so they aren’t seen, and have the speakers there.
Installing your speakers higher up is often the popular route, and it keeps your cats from damaging the speakers in any way.
Put the Speakers On Shelves
If you can’t or just don’t want to install the speaker near the ceiling, you can put them on shelves that are out of reach of your cats.
If you have bookshelves, you can add the speakers to those. The speaker can hide between books, and no one will notice the speaker, including your cat. Just remember that surrounding your speakers may distort the audio a little or direct it better, depending on its placement.
There are so many styles of shelves that will match your decor, and you can add some decorations around the speaker so it doesn’t stand out.
Protect Speakers with a Cover
You are not the only one to have issues with your cats.
Many cat owners needed solutions, so companies decided to provide covers for speakers. These covers protect from:
- Scratching
- Hair
- Dust
- Other problems
You can even purchase scratch guards that you can put around your speakers to prevent your cats from scratching them. This solution isn’t 100% successful, especially for those determined cats, but you never know until you try it.
Take the Grilles Off
The grilles on your speakers often attract your cats to scratch and sharpen their nails.
You can simply take the grilles off your speakers, which deters the interest of your pet. You can eventually try to put them back on later if you want to once the novelty wears off.
The best part about this fix is that it will not affect the sound of your speakers, and it will remove the temptation for your cat to scratch them.
The only downfall of this is that if you have children or children do come over, they could poke the cones and damage the speakers. Use discretion when using this option.
Distract with Scratching Posts
A simple distraction can help remove your cats as a problem. After installing your speakers, buy new scratching posts.
They will pay more attention to this new scratching post than the speaker and hopefully forget about the speakers altogether.
You don’t always have to use a scratching post, either. Sometimes cats prefer the boxes your speakers come in. Leave them around for your cats to play with until the speakers become another decoration melted into the background.
Use a Toy For Distraction
You can also invest in toys for distraction. When installing your new speakers, ensure you get a new toy that will take their attention off your home theater.
There are so many cat toys out there that will be useful to you.
- Robotic mouse toys
- A robotic ball that moves around
- Laser pointer machines
You don’t have to go all out, but one or two toys will do. These will ensure your cat will stop putting its nails into your speakers.
Put Something On the Speakers
You can put something on top of the speakers that deter your cat.
This could be something as simple as a figurine they don’t like or aluminum foil. Oddly enough, most cats don’t like the texture of aluminum foil and will try to avoid it.
You don’t have to continue putting something on your speakers. It will only be temporary until the cats no longer want to climb or scratch them. Usually, it only takes a few days before they get bored. It isn’t foolproof, but it does help many cat owners.
Train Your Cat to Leave the Speakers Alone
Although it seems complicated, you can train your cat.
Cats are brilliant animals and can learn many tricks, just like dogs. They may be a little stubborn at first, but once you figure out what motivates them, they will do all sorts of tricks for you, including leaving your speakers alone.
The key to successfully training your cat to stay away from your speakers is consistency. If you are not consistent with it, your cat won’t know to keep away from your theater system. It can be daunting but rewarding in the long run.
Put Material Around Your Speakers
Just like you can put material on top of your speakers, you can do the same by placing material around your speakers.
This can be anything like the following:
- Aluminum foil
- Plastic
- Bubble wrap
- Denim
- Sticky stuff
- Plastic wrap
- Microfiber
There are so many materials that cats don’t like that will help deter them from messing with the speakers. You just have to figure out which one your cat doesn’t like, and you’d be surprised at what you have lying around the house that a cat doesn’t want to mess with.
Spray With Anti-Scratch Spray
You can order an anti-scratch spray.
Anti-scratch spray has pheromones that your cat doesn’t like and will cause your cat to avoid the area. If you spray around the speaker and not on electrical parts, your speaker is safe to spray.
Not all anti-scratch sprays will work with all cats. Each cat is different, and sometimes your cat may not show any effect. The sprays are more of an annoyance to the cat’s senses than anything, and a cat that doesn’t want to be perturbed will choose peace over annoyance.
Surround Your Speaker with a Citrus Scent
Citrus scents like lemon, lime, or orange are pleasant to humans. It is the smell we associate with cleanliness, but cats do not feel the same way.
They don’t like the smell of citrus and try to avoid it. You can use this scent to protect your speakers from your cat’s indulgences. Just take a little citrus oil and dab it on a piece of paper towel. Then set it on top of the speaker or around the speaker to deter your cat.
They will avoid it and won’t bother with it. Ensure that you put enough of the oil on the towel so it will leave a mark and the cat will stay away.
Put Speakers In Inconspicuous Spots
Sometimes you need to be creative when it comes to cats. They are intelligent and often don’t care about your wants. This includes your speakers. You may need to play a little hide-and-seek with the speakers instead.
There are many methods to hide your speakers so they do not stand out and attract your cat’s curiosity.
You can hide them in some of the following places, but you may have even better spots:
- Underside tables
- Between furniture
- On a bookshelf
- In compartments on your side tables or other furniture
- Pretend it is a table for small decorations
You can be creative when it comes to making your speakers inconspicuous. Figure out the best way for the speakers to blend in a while, not taking away from the aesthetics of your room.
Startle Your Cat
This option isn’t quite the best, especially if you love to spoil your feline friend.
You can startle your cat when your cat gets close to your speakers. This uses negative reinforcement so that they fear the speakers and won’t go near it in the future.
You can either turn on the speakers loud when your cat gets near them, or you can use a different sound. Some people use something similar to shakers, filling empty plastic bottles with coins or rocks to make the noise. You can also use bells or whistles, but any of these works.
However, make sure you are not doing something to harm your animal.
Trim Your Cat’s Nails
If the only issue you have is your cat scratching at your speakers, you can simply try trimming your cat’s nails. This will prevent them from damaging the home theater system and other furniture in your house.
Here is what you need to do when you trim your cat’s nails, so you don’t harm them in any way:
- Get the nail clippers ready where you will be doing the nail trimming.
- Grab your cat and settle it under one arm so it cannot run away or move.
- Take the first paw in one hand.
- Use your thumb and index finger to gently push down on the top and bottom of the first toe you will trim.
- The claw will come out, and you will trim the nail.
- Snip only the sharp part of the nail, ensuring you don’t get too close to the pink part of the nail.
- Repeat for each nail.
Ensure that you read your cat’s behavior when clipping their nails because they will tell you if they are in pain. Their nails can be quite sensitive, and you may clip too close to parts that are painful to them.
If you make them bleed, try rubbing the nail in cornstarch, styptic powder, or dry bar soap. This will help stop the bleeding and encourage healing. At this point, it may also be good to pause the clippings not to upset your cat even more.
Don’t forget that you can schedule a groomer or vet appointment so that they can clip the nails. This is the best option if you don’t feel comfortable trimming your cat’s nails. Better to be safe than sorry.
Tips For Training Your Cat to Stop Messing with Your Speakers
Cats are intelligent animals and can be trained just like a dog. Dogs are often more obedient, which is why many pet owners don’t realize that their cats could learn the same things as their dogs if they just tried.
Here are some tips to help you improve your training experience:
- Try a spray bottle
- Use catnip
- Feed them a treat
- Give them their favorite toy
- Praise your cat
- Try a time-out
- Stay consistent
- Stick with a few techniques
All of these can help you train your cat so they don’t bother your speakers and damage them. It will even help when you get new speakers too. They will remember their training. Just stick with it.
Try a Spray Bottle
Try filling up a spray bottle with water. Any time you see your cat approaching the speakers, you can spray them.
Start with just spraying them a little when they try to approach the speakers. You can even give them a little spray when they are interested in it.
Try to stay on top of this, especially when you initially install the speakers. Figure out a day you can stick around and watch them. This will show them they can’t mess with those speakers, and if you do this from the beginning, it will stick with them longer.
Use Catnip
Not all cats enjoy catnip, but many of them do. You can use catnip to lure them away from the speakers. Ensure that any time they show interest in the speakers and you pull out the cat nip, you use a command to reiterate that they need to leave the speakers alone.
You can use a command like “Leave It” or “Go.” It is essential that you enforce that command and then reward them with the catnip after they have completed the task you want. You may need to show them the first few times, but they will catch on.
Catnip is also a great distraction, especially if your cat loves the stuff. They will roll around in the catnip before they start scratching on your speakers, which is an added bonus!
Feed Them a Treat
This training tip is similar to using catnip. You can give them a reward of a treat every time they listen to your command. It reinforces that they did the thing you wanted them to, and they are more likely going to listen to you in the future when you teach them that command.
There are so many good treats out there you can give your cat. It could be a little bit of canned tuna or something a little fresher. Here are some great treats to give your cats:
- Poultry
- Fish
- Cheese
- Pumpkin
- Eggs
- Regular store-bought treats
You’d be surprised at what your cat would love to have as a treat. Try a few out to see which one is their favorite.
Give Them Their Favorite Toy
Sometimes you can use their favorite toy like you are giving them a treat.
When they leave the speakers alone, hand them their toys so they know they are rewarded for not damaging the speakers.
You can even use the toy as a distraction when you first install the speakers to show your cat that nothing is intriguing about those speakers. It is both a distraction and a treat for your pet.
Praise Your Cat
Praising your cat can be quite the mind game. When your cat messes with the speakers, you can ignore their bad behavior to show you won’t give them the attention they seek with the speakers.
Then when your cat leaves the speakers alone, you can show them praise. However, this tip is only helpful if your cat seeks your attention by messing with the speakers.
If your cat doesn’t care if you give them attention, then you won’t be as successful using this training tip. You’re better off trying something else, but each cat is different, and you know your cat.
Try Time Out
You can do something as simple as time out. You will first need to figure out what and where the time-out will be. Sometimes it can be a bathroom or a crate. It really is up to you and what you think is the best place for your cat to go to time out.
Whenever your cat shows interest in the speakers or messes with the speakers, you can put them in time-out. Now, you do want to give them a chance to leave once you acknowledge their proximity to the speakers and then put them in time out if they don’t listen.
Ensure you communicate with your cat when you put them in time out. Tell them that’s where they are going. They will eventually understand that time out is a punishment and refrain from playing with the speakers.
Time out should not be for long periods of time. It should be a few minutes up to a max of 10 minutes. Any longer than that can actually cause more bad behavior to arise, and you don’t want that.
Stay Consistent
Consistency is one of the most significant issues when training your cat and any other pet, for that matter. Inconsistency will confuse your pets.
If you do not stay consistent, your cat will not understand what is wrong and what is right. This is because they get away with something at one point, but then you punish them for it later.
When you first install the speakers, it is best to stay as consistent as possible in the beginning. Always start off strong. When you start strong, you can give yourself a little break later because they will understand the speakers are not to be messed with more quickly.
Stick With a Few Techniques
You want to stick with only a few techniques when training your cat. Don’t try to implement all the tricks in the book. It is not only exhausting but will be for your cat as well. It could even confuse them even more.
Try to use a select few techniques and see how that goes. After trying these techniques for a few days, then try something new. You may even want to wait a week! You won’t always get results in days, but small baby steps.
Stay consistent and wait it out to see if the technique worked. If you quit one technique or approach too early to start a new one, you may only delay your cat’s understanding of the training. Give it time. It will work.
Protect Your Home Speakers From Cats Outro
Getting new speakers can be a hassle when you have a curious cat, but it doesn’t have to remain that way. Follow these tips to keep your cat away and keep your speakers safe from any of those sharp nails.
Just a little reinforcement can go a long way.
