My cat won't stop scratching the $2,000 furniture!!!?
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at
6:17 am
My 3 year old female cat gets restless in the winter, because she is such an outdoor cat. so she channels that restlessness on the furniture!! my mom is getting REALLY mad and she says if I don’t find a solution she wants to get rid of the cat! we have a scratching post for her, and we’ve trained her to use it. we use couch covers, anti-scratching spray, and nothing really seems to work. de-clawing is not an option, because her whole life is practically outside and she would be defenseless. what should i do i love my cat to death!
Filed under: Cat Scratching Post
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Some people just aren’t listening to you are they? You’ve said declawing isn’t an option and full marks to you for that, so why do they persist in advising you to mutilate your cat against your will?
Does your cat not get outdoors at all in winter? If at all possible I’d advise you letting her go out for short spells so that she can do her clawing outside, but keep an eye out for when she’s ready to come back in the house where it’s warm. Also play lots of energetic games with her and play around her scratching post, make a game of dangling toys on the post so that she reaches for them and gets her claws on the scratching post. Give her lots of attention but when she goes to scratch the furniture just quietly pick her up and place her by the scratching post, let her know (but kindly) that she’s disappointed you. Cats want to please but as scratching is an instinct they don’t know they’re doing wrong.
Maybe your mom just said she’d get rid of her in the heat of the moment, you sound like a caring family so I don’t think it would come to actually letting her go.
Above all please don’t let anyone persuade you or your mom to declaw the cat, her paws would be ruined and her life hardly worth living.
Good luck
trim it’s nails
Either declaw her and keep her indoors or look into a catnip-infused scratching post.
That is one of the many reasons cats are disgusting. $2000 worth of furniture torn to shreds by some useless fleabag. Get rid of it.Listen to your mother.
I used soft paws when I had a cat–they work great
http://www.softpaws.com/
Why do you even have $2,000 furnishings anyway?
wow you talk so much and maybe you should buy a dog and throw the cat in the streets …cats are usually bums at the end of the day.
spray her with water everytime you see her doing that!
spray bottle her whenever she does it, most cats hate water. so like spray her in the face (it may sound mean but is pretty light) and also, make suer you let her know that you hate it. (Hissss at her) cats dont like hissing, Try the spray bottle thing
Have you tried using cat nail covers. There plastic caps that go over the cats nails. You can usually find them at a pet store.
http://www.softpaws.com
Or see if your vet will trim her nails
Put the thing outside, declaw, or get rid of it. Me id go for the outside choice personally. You can still keep the thing but no worry about furniture or declawing
De-claw her.
try spraying lemon juice on the furniture because cats are scared of the smell.
might wanna dilute the juice a little bit though.
ceder chips. not sure if i spelled that right. but,put them around your furniture that she scratches, and she’ll stop going there. leave them there for about a week, then when they’re gone, she still won’t go back. works every time without having to spray them, kill them(which is a horrible thing to say) or make them go outside in the winter. (:
best of luck!
You should get a spray bottle and put water in it and every time it gets on the furniture spray her ,keep on doing it and she will learn her lesson(cats hate water lol) Buy her a scratching kind of toy or mat .I had nice leather couches too and my male cat started to have too much fun.lol so i called my vet to see what the recommend and that is what they said .Everyone knows if you de-claw them you are taking away their joy and will be sad..
1) Leave the cat outside.
2) Get older furniture.
3) Clip/cap. But he’ll still do it.
You can buy these little nail covers that you can put on her claws. The only problem is that they come off outdoors. I had an outdoor cat that destroyed the brand new $5000 furniture. My mom took her to the vet that day and had her declawed. She was an indoor cat from then on (Declawed cats MUST be indoor cars). Now that I have 3 cats of my own I declawed them all an kittens. My life is so much happier and the cats couldn’t care less. The male will wander into the back yard occasionally, but he never goes far. The females don’t go outside at all.
I trained my cat to not claw the furniture. You have to keep at it and keep at it until they get it. My cat is strictly an indoor cat and maybe that makes a difference. Outdoor cats have to use their claws alot more and probably have trouble catching on. I pretended to scratch the post myself, then she would come over and do it, then I would do it, then she would do it, then I gave her treats and just kept saying over and over ‘what a good girl you are’…’you’re a good girl’. She got so excited that she would scratch the post just to show me and I gave her more treats. Positive reinforcement. It worked. I’ve had her 8 years and she never scratches the furniture. I don’t believe in declawing. That practice is wrong.
You need more than one scratching post. I have 3 in the living room. One is a perch covered in carpet, one is a true scratching post, and another is a flat cardboard type. My cat doesn’t like sisal and that is a popular type of post. She only likes carpet. So maybe that’s another thing you need to consider. I had the type of post with both sisal and carpet and she never touched the sisal part.
You need to make sure the scratching post is next to whichever piece of furniture she likes to scratch. I don’t care if mom hates the post there. It has to be where the cat wants to scratch.
There are also sticky pieces of double sided tape that you can buy from the pet store. They’re clear and they stick on the furniture. The idea is the cat will hate it when it scratches and gets stuck. They do seem to work but I haven’t used them much.
I’m so glad declawing your cat isn’t an option ! You must already know that it’s a very cruel operation which causes lots of physical and mental problems to cats.
If anyone is reading this and thinks indoor only cats don’t need their claws, that is wrong ! They need them to dig in for exercise, declawed cats can’t do that and that’s why most end up with arthritis.
Anyway, this asker obviously loves her cat dearly and has made it clear declawing is not an option !
Punishing cats by squirting water is pointless, it doesn’t work and the cat just becomes nervous of you.Scratching is natural behaviour to cats, it’s not bad behaviour and shouldn’t be punished.
I think you need more scratching places for your cat, different sorts of posts and pads around the house but also here is a link to how to train your cat to use a scratching post,written by an expert:
http://clawsforever.ning.com/group/anniesbible/forum/topics/scratching-posts-and-training
It sounds as if your cat gets bored easily in winter, one of ours does too so I spend as much time as I can playing with him to use up his energy. Roll a ball, drag a piece of string,make her a kickable sized catnip toy to play with, fun and games satisfy restless cats.
I can think of a few things to help resolve the problem of your restless cat clawing the furniture.
First, you need to occupy her time more with lots of play. Try using a wand toy with her several times a day for at least 20 minutes at a time. Use the toy to create "hunting" type games. Let her watch, stalk, chase, run, jump, and catch the toy. My cats are indoors always and I find that they are much, much better behaved when I spend enough time playing with them.
Second, you need to provide some more alternatives for her to scratch on. A lot of times cats use the furniture because it is tall and heavy and won’t tip over when they grab on for a good hard pull. Try getting a taller, heavier post so she can stretch up high without fear of it toppling over. If the post you are using now is on the smaller side, try tipping it on it’s side to create sort of a diagonal scratching surface. I did that with my cats little post (from when they were kittens) and they love to stand on the angled post and dig away. Try different materials for the scratch surfaces as well. She may have a preference for sisal vs. carpet, for example. Also, most cats LOVE the cardboard scratch pads that lay on the floor. They’re usually laced with catnip to make them even more attractive. Make sure to get the larger size so she can get all the way on top of it–her weight will help hold it in place as she digs in. One of my cats uses the cardboard pads exclusively–she really prefers them to the vertical or diagonal posts.
One last thing you could try is to find a surface that more closely resembles what she might scratch when she’s outside. A large log or piece of a tree trunk (bark and all) would give her a natural scratching surface that is similar to what she is used to. This solution might be a little messy, but you could put an inexpensive throw rug or something under it and just shake it out when needed.
And, good for you knowing that declawing isn’t an option. Even if she was an indoor always cat (like my two), she would still need her claws. I noticed that some people have not really read your question and suggested declawing. I’ve got some links in my profile if you want to find out the many ways a cat’s claws are essential to them. In fact, anyone who said to declaw should read the information so they can learn why it’s not a good idea.
Scratching is instinctive and natural behaviour for cats. They do it to mark territory with the scent from their paws, and as a way to excercise the muscles in their paws, front legs and upper body by pulling back against their claw hold. This is why even when cats spend a lot of time outdoors, they still need outlets for scratching whenever they are indoors.
The knack is finding a surface your cat will enjoy scratching. So offer her a variety of both vertical and horizontal types of scratchers. These can be shop bought ones or things as simple as a sheet of corrugated cardboard, a tree branch, wooden log or a coconut/bristle door mat. These articles have lots of advice on teaching cats to use a scratch item and protect furnishings.
http://www.catbegood.com/cat-basics/scratching-posts-exercise-play/
http://www.celiahaddon.co.uk/pet%20problems/cats/scratching.html
I don’t know which anti-scratching spray you tried, but Feliway can be very effective if sprayed on surfaces daily for at least 20 days. It mimics the scent from cats’ facial glands, and as a rule, they don’t generally scratch the places that they rub their faces up against.
Kudos to you and your family for already ruling declawing out of the question. It really is an unnecessary amputation which no cat deserves to endure.