Is there a slope of ramps that a cat will walk down, instead of jumping down from a high landing?

Question

Older cats gain bone and arthritis problems that are exacerbated by hard landings after a jump.

We have an older cat in this place, and want to give them the best of both worlds:

• a multi-stage tower with various landings to suit their whims that day, and
• a series of ramp that go from floor to top.

We see the cat's mannerisms are to jump up to landings, and also to leap down from them. The jump-ups are not that much of a risk, provided they keep their footing. The jump-downs are a risk with the arthritis.

Does anyone have experience with making cat towers that have ramps that disincline the cat from jumping down? The cat will always jump-up if they have the will, and we don't intended to inhibit this.

We would like to know what slope and arrangement of ramps will naturally incline a cat to take the ramps down rather than leaping down. I have seen this with some elder dogs, but I think that dogs have a different temperament to jumping up/down.

Ideally someone has experience with this or has built it. Target height is 4-5 feet.

Answer 1

At the shelter where I volunteer, we don't use ramps for older\overweight cats but we do give them "stairs" wherever possible. I put it in quotes because sometimes the stairs are a scratching post against a higher scratching post. We also have jungles that are built as stairs that they use to get to and from the ceiling. It seems to me that if a cat thinks they can manage the landing, they'll jump and there's not much to do about it. Moreover, they might feel insecure by the slop of the ramp. By providing them with stairs, we can at least try to encourage them to jump lower. Hope this helps!

Edit: Sorry it took me so long to provide a picture, but here it is, more or less:

Answer 2

We ended up buying a modular cat condo that includes stairs, given the idea from @lpytel They use it just at intended.