GRRR. Cat scratching new furniture and won't use post!!!?
My cat knows better but when he’s flying through the house, he stops to sharpen his claws on my new sofa. I pick him up and take him to his post and gently take his paws and extract his claws and make them scratch the post. then I pet him lovingly and tell him what a good kitty he is. Well why isn’t this working? He knows what he’s doing is wrong because when I hear him clawing and I walk over to him he takes off and hides and won’t let me catch him. He’s not an evil cat like some i’ve seen that you can actually imagine them laughing as their doing this. He’s a very, very affectionate cat and that’s the only bad thing he does! I’ve even tried putting catnip on the post and he just lays their and sniffs it! Any good tips???
Filed under: Cat Scratching Post
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not to worry my friend the solution is here. There are three things you need to do.
#1 you must clip your cats claws, i was told that when a cats claws become too long they tend to scratch more.
#2 cats don’t like the smell of oranges, so if you can go buy a fabric friendly spray (most pet stores or vets will have it) and spray around the furnature or place orange peels around the area
#3 buy some catnip and sprinkle some on the cat scratch,(your cat will love #3)continue what you have been doing when you take him to his post, you were on the right track
If you want you can put foil on your couch instead of #2. All you have to do is put it around the corners. I guarentee your cat will not touch the couch any more.
clip his nails
This is easy!
Go to the vet and buy a bottle of the stuf they spray on bandages so that pets won’t chew them. It doesn’t hurt them or furnature, and is reasonably priced. Spray that where you don’t want the cat scratching, he will soon stop scratching there.
I would try rubbing some cat nip on the post…I heard that cats really like that stuff…its worth a try
try a squirt bottle, every time kitty is scratching, squirt him with water, works every time, they hate water and remember " hey when i scratch the sofa mom gets mad and squirts me, I think I’ll use my post"
when you gently drag your cats paws down the post, it is a good thing, but this works for only SOME cats to get them scratching on the post, but some do better when you pretend you are scratching the post yourself. everytime they scratch on furniture, spray them with a squirt bottle. do NOT get them declawed, it is cutting off part of their toe. Clip their claws every so often too.
another thing you can do is put them in a small room with only the post, litter box, a toy, food and water, and a sleeping space. cats like small spots and wont get mad at you for this, also they are very organized, so they will use certain spots for certain things like people (eg. LIVING room, TV room, BATHroom, BEDroom, ect) since they wont have any other spot to sharpen their claws, they will do it on the post.
Hope I helped.
I would get a cat-deterrent spray from the pet shop and spray it on the sofa (pick a hidden spot to spray on first to make sure that the liquid doesn’t discolour the furniture).
To futher deter him, fill a spraybottle with water and give him a good squirt everytime he scratches the sofa, preferably right at the moment where he lifts his paws to do it.
Finally, did you try putting valerian on the scratching post? My cats are pretty indifferent to catnip, but valerian is a big hit. All my cats throughout the years have also joined me whenever I started scratching the scratching post.
There are many ways to fix this!
Ask your veterinarian about claw covers. They are small adhesive rubber covers that you apply to each of your cat’s claws. This way, if you can’t get him to stop scratching the sofa, he will not be able to do anything and he might even lose interest in it.
Cat’s also hate the smell of cayenne pepper and citrus. Use a citrus-scented spray on the sofa so he won’t claw it. Also, you could try dabbing a small amount of pepper onto a cloth and patting the sofa with it. Use a small enough amount that you can’t see the pepper on the sofa or smell it yourself.
Hi Kimmy—Well, first of all, not all cats like catnip. I have NEVER had ONE (and I’ve had many) who did. So, this technique is obviously not working. Try this: Just put some plain water in a CLEAN spray bottle. When you catch him at this business, slowly & quietly walk over to where he is scratching on your sofa and "blast" him with the water bottle while firmly saying "NO!" And, do it EVERY time you catch him at it. In the event that you are at work all day, this may not work well for you—you’ll have to resort to the less attractive appearing, but MORE effective method of curing this little problem. First, if you can clip his nails, then do so. If not ( and I cannot—mine turns into a "wildman" if "Mommy" tries to do anything to him), then take him to your vet or groomer and get them clipped down as short as SAFELY possible. Then,—you’re just gonna LOVE this, but it works: Completely cover his favorite (and they usually have one) scratching area on your sofa in either large plastic lawn/leaf bags, and better yet is aluminum foil. Tape this down with 2-sided tape. Cats HATE plastic bags, aluminum foil and particularly TAPE. They HATE the sounds plastic bags and aluminum foil make and hate the feel of anything sticky on their paws. Now, if he’s clever enough to just move to another area and begin the scratching there, you MAY have to resort to covering the entire sofa with either of these "delightful" (especially if you’re having company over—I’d post-pone any of that) new "seat-covers", and leave it on there for about a week. After that, he should have lost interest in the sofa, and you can begin taking pieces (I wouldn’t remove the entire thing all at once), and just see if he still has any interest in the un-covered part. Also, if you only have one scratching post, you may want to consider getting a second one made of and entirely different substance. He is NOT doing this to be "bad" or to make you mad—he’s using the sofa because it has a desireable "feel" to his paws–it may also smell good to him, too. I hope that ONE of these suggestions works for you.
The easiest thing you can do is go to a pet store and buy claw covers. They cost around $30 and are fairly simple to apply, just follow the instructions. Good luck.
Bad Cat Spray…aka tap water in a spray bottle
mist him when he attacks the furniture