How to eliminate cat scratching the furniture?
Monday, November 30th, 2009 at
11:24 pm
My cat is 5 months, when he was only a month we had him around a dog and now that the dog is gone he is acting strange. He is running around the house, scratching my couch and I gave him one of those scratching boxes w/cat nip in it. I didn’t want to buy an expensive scratching post because he doesn’t even use the box. He bites people and bounces off the walls everyday…what can i do
Filed under: Cat Furniture
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Get him a scratching post you can get mini ones at pet stores for around 20-30$ It will save your furniture. The box is fine but not something he finds as attractive as a long surface to strech and claw. If you spray bottle him and he has nothing to claw your going to confuse the poor guy.
Once you introduce the post to the house you should put his little pawz on it! when he messes up by clawing furniture Spray bottle him and take him to the post and put his pawz back on it like day1.
Worked for me at least! hope this works!
Joey-
Dont be a lazy ass and declaw him! I grabbed my kitty by the scruff and stuck him outside. He never did it again after 47 times. Slow but be patient! My mwa used to grabbed a cat by the scruff and swat his butt. ;-;
declaw him, and if you want to take the wild out of him.. have his back teeth pulled.. it’ll make him sweet and lazy.. However.. he won’t care about playing any more…
Good luck
He is only 5 months old, and a major part of his playing life is gone (ie dog). A spray bottle with water can do a lot for reminding the kitten not to bite. 1 spray not more at a time. You are not trying to soak the cat but to show it that when it bites scratches etc a bad thing happens to it. Expensive is not the concern. More that the cat has a safe place to scratch with out fear of the consequences. He is going to scratch as cats do.
I found a product at a pet store that’s 2-sided tape, made just for this purpose! Instead of buying it, I had a roll of clear packaging tape that I rolled out and stuck to the furniture "backwards", so the sticky sides were "out" and it worked great! They HATE sticky stuff on their feet! Good luck!!
Do you let him outside. Cats are funny I have two of them. Remember cats love to play, and when they have nothing to do or play with they will start acting out! My advise is to start letting him outside or get him a playmate (another kitten). My cats never scratch up my stuff and I truly believe its because I have two of them to play with each other. This may not be the case with everyone but I am saying what worked best for me. Have lots of toys around for him to…because like i said before, it is in their nature to play, you cant change that. Good luck and hope this helps! Please never hit the cat to get your way, this never works in my opinion and i am not saying you do, but just keep that in mind because I know it is frustrating to see your pet go though this.
omg he sounds like the exact double of my cat! If he goes outside, then try to get him outside when he is in that mood, If he doesnt then the reason is that he has nowhere to getall that energy off! I think its just normal kitten behaviour! If he continues to scratch, when he does get a little sprayer and spray with water,dont worry, its not cruel, its a good way to teach. Remember not to use a water pistel, that will hurt them.
Hope I helped!
Your cat is just a baby and he’s grieving for your dog, although in a strange way, because he is too young to know,he just knows he’s missing the dog! He has lots of energy, is there any chance of getting him a new playmate ?
Yelling at cats or hitting them does no good, it just makes them nervous of you. The best thing is to gently and calmly lift him to his scratching post and toys, each time he does this running around.Play with him as much as you can, tie a bit of scrunched up paper on the end of string and he’ll run after it(but don’t leave it lying around when he’s on his own as he may chew and swallow it)
He will soon settle down, just be kind and patient, as I already said, he’s just a baby and he will grow up very soon.
Good luck
A good trick for getting them to stop scratching your furniture is to put double sided sticky tape on it. I have done it (and left it on for months) and the tape does not hurt the furniture nor did it leave sticky residue when I took it off. I used the Duct Tape brand. The kind you would find in a kit to put plastic over your windows or something. But cat’s hate things that stick to their paws, so this is a good alternative to spraying them too. My cats don’t mind getting squirted with water so that doesn’t work for me.