How do you stop a cat from warming itself on your new game console?
Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-02-08 19:45 JST)
During the cold winter months, there’s nothing more indispensable than indoor heating. While we may struggle to drag ourselves away from the front of a heater, pet owners know that animals are the same way. Especially cats, which are known for being sensitive to the cold.
Reddit user TREY-CERAT0PS’ cute kitty has also found a nice little spot to keep warm. On top of a powered-on Xbox One S. And while adorable, it sounds like TREY-CERAT0PS doesn’t want the cat climbing on the Xbox and is seeking advice from fellow gamers.
TREY-CERAT0PS explains, “He’s really cute and all but I don’t want to have hair in the internals.” While it will vary by breed, cats do a lot of shedding. If cat hair enters the ventilation port and builds up, it could likely cause heating issues with the console. And for that reason TREY-CERAT0PS took to Reddit to get some advice.
As of this writing, the post has already amassed over 1,000 comments. Some recommendations people are giving include buying a heated cat bed, placing a cardboard box nearby, placing a lemon or other citrus fruit scented stuff on the console, using something like a monitor stand to keep the cat from being able to climb on it, wiping something slippery on the console so the cat slides off, putting double-sided tape on the console so it’s sticky, and to stick Velcro on the console to prickle the cat.
But cats very much do as they please. We can see through responses in the thread that many have already tried and failed with the given suggestions. A user named Striife- posted, “I did this for my kitty (buy a heated pad). She was interested in it for about two days, after which she promptly returned back to her outpost.” Some have also suggested buying the cat its own Xbox or setting the console up vertically.
Game consoles nowadays are powerful and get pretty warm while playing, thus needing to blow out the warm air. It sounds like pets taking notice and climbing on top of consoles is all too familiar to pet owners, and many photos showing just that can be found on Reddit.
As for the Xbox One S, when it’s sitting horizontally with its ventilation fan blowing upwards, it probably seems like the perfect little spot to a cat. The same can be said for the Xbox Series S.
While setting the console up vertically seems like the easy solution, TREY-CERAT0PS has noted there isn’t room to do so because of their setup. It looks like they’re going to try either the double-sided tape or using a monitor stand. It will be interesting to see just how the cat responds.
