Cat Scratching NIghtmare?
Friday, July 30th, 2010 at
11:06 pm
I can’t stop my cat from scratching. She’s 6 and we inheritied her from a friend who could no longer look after her. Since we’ve had her she’s changed so much. She’s so much more confident and looks happy she plays all the time but she scratches really bad.
We’ve got her a scratching post which she ignores, clipped her nails, shouted at her, ignored her, squirted her with water but nothing works. We even thried this foul smelling spray to spray where she scratches she’s ruined our carpet in our house and our sofa.. I’m at my wits end over what to do…
Filed under: Cat Scratching Post
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It sounds like you also have a "Louie". My 17 pound orange and white cat, Louie, who is very dumb, had a huge problem with scratching. Only a combination of things helped him after a few months of never ending training. It was exhausting. Clipping the nails as you have done, helps. Use a combination of all these methods and I think you’ll find relief…we did! (and the cat is STUPID!)
1. Always use the squirt bottle method, thats a good one
2. There is another spray called "No scratch" use that as well. You’ll have to use it a lot, so buy several bottles.
3. PLENTY of scratching posts. When you see kitty scratching, put kitty on the scratching post and show her scratching motions and praise her. If she does use the post, TREATS!!!!! and love and rubbing and scratching, whatever she likes the best. Scratching posts go by anything the cat scratches, so it’s easy to convert.
4. Place aluminum foil on the spots she is scratching and when she goes there, take her to the scratching post to scratch instead. They HATE aluminum foil. I put it on to of my screened top terrariums and they stay off. Also over someof my potted plants to keep them out of the "kitty dirt".
5. Claw covers. The vet can help you place them on kitty
6. There are plastic sticky covers that you can get to put on the furniture that will keep kitties claws from going inthe furniture, but doesn’t necessarily stop the behavior.
7. Orange peel, they hate that. Put some around the forbidden areas and take kitty to the scratching post and hold the paws to emulate the scratching motion. Use a calm comforting voice.
8. Take some catnip and rub it on the scratching posts. enough to get kitty interested. Make the scratching post a FUN thing. Play with kitty so she’s attacking the scratching post to see how satisfying it really is. Reward her!
9. Get a log of wood for kitty to scratch too and see if she takes to it. I had a cat start to scratch a couch once, took him over to the woodpile by the fireplace, placed his paws on the wood and showed him scratching and he took to it immediately! it was amazing.
10. I used to scratch on the post myself to show him! (weird, I know, but how else can he learn?) Used a nice voice too!
Good luck, a combination of these things saved our good formal living room couches from certain destruction from a very large and stupid cat. We LOVE that cat!
http://www.catster.com/cats/664143
check out this site. it has answers to common pet problems. it helped me with my two cats. we also have the scratching posts, which our male cat uses along with our couch. we added catnip to the posts and reapply it every couple of days. he prefers the post over the couch now. perhaps the site will have some tips that work for you. good luck!
You are doing all the right things. A couple of more suggestions. Place tin foil or plastic over the places she likes to scratch. Also, if you catch her scratching, pick her up and take her to the scratching post. Praise her when she does use the post.
I have also put double sided tape on places where my cats liked to scratch and it work very well…they hated the touch of it.
Don’t give up on her, you just have to continue to try new method…
Have you tried rubbing lotsa catnip on cat scratch post?
Tried a different, bigger cat pole/tower,.. the type with hemp-type rope rather than carpeting?
You may have to try also clear plastic runners strategically placed where she rug scratches and covers (sheets/throws) for sofa,… if worse comes to worse for awhile.
I have a housefull of rescued cats,.. semi-ferals, ferals and unwanted and not 1 scratches my lousy sofa (only have 1 area carpet, rest is hardwd.) Maybe I’ve been lucky with these kitties.
But 1 did scratched the heck outa the walls’ wallpaper,.. till I found out she loves big cardboard boxes,.. so she’s the only one who uses boxes as scratch post,… while others use the few assorted style poles/towers that I occasionally rub cat nip on.
Pls. try these suggestions.
Gd. luck
* P.S. ~ pls. do NOT even contemplate declawing,.. it is barbaric and cruel,.. watched the aftermath.
Baby powder on the carpet areas where she scratches will deter her. Not too much, as you don’t want her inhaling a dust cloud.
The thing is, you have not matched what she wants to use for scratching. Most cats will take to the cardboard scratchers, but an approach you also may also want to try is to get a carpet square (remnant), and make a makeshift scratching area (tack it to a piece of wood), and try to get her to use it. Match the carpet to what you have in your house, and perhaps put catnip on it, take her to it, and reward her with attention when she uses it.
For the sofa, double sided tape usually works. I have posted links.
http://www.softpaws.com/
These are awesome. I have a cat that loves to knead me. Do not declaw. That sugery means they take off the nail and the toe to the first joint, the equivalent of chopping off the first part of our fingers!
First, start with getting a set of Soft Paws. These won’t stop her from scratching, but they’ll stop her from causing damage to your furniture while you work on redirecting the behavior.
Second, put double sided tape on the furniture she’s scratching to deter her. You can use a can full of coins to startle her when she scratches the furniture, then use her favorite treat to reward her for not scratching. Obviously, the squirt bottle doesn’t work, because she’s not stupid.
She knows that she can scratch when you’re not around, because YOU are the cause of the squirting.
Third, get more scratching posts — both vertical and horizontal. Many cats prefer to have the option of scratching both ways, and since she’s scratching both your carpet and sofa, she sounds like she’s a cat that likes her options.
Getting more scratching posts will lessen the likelihood of her scratching inappropriate surfaces, because she won’t need to go all the way back to the other room to scratch when she wants to scratch NOW — and why walk all that way when the sofa feels just as good to scratch? Put her scratching posts near where she’s been scratching — put the horizontal ones over the carpet she’s been using, and put horizontal ones next to the furniture. Give her a few options of textures — for example, one of my cats likes to scratch sisal rope, so we have a sisal-covered post. My other cat prefers a sisal-weave material, so we have a post covered in that. And both of them like to scratch cardboard, so we have a few Turbo Scratchers around the house that have cardboard inserts.
Praise and reward (with her favorite food) when she scratches her posts. She should understand pretty quickly that scratching the posts = good things, therefore increasing the likelihood of the behavior to be repeated.