My cat/kitten claws and scratches the...?

Question

My cat/kitten claws and scratches the couch and carpet and some of the spots in our house there is no carpet.
How do I brake this habbit?

Answer 1

I hate to say it, but if my cats weren't 11 yrs old, I would have them declawed. It only gets worse the older they get. When we moved out of our house that we had for 8 yrs, there was an actual 4 in hole in the carpet behind my sons dresser and the back of our couch was shredded in one spot. If they have claws, they will scratch. I used to Psst at them, and they would take off. Then when that didn't work, I would psst and act like I was getting up. Then when that didn't work, we got old socks and balled them up and threw it at them. Now when my cat scratches our (NEW) couch and I psst and start getting up, they hang there looking at me like 'are you serious'. It isn't until I actually reach them and slap their paws off that they run. The next cats I have will be declawed.
And for all you nay sayers... Do you circumcise your son? Same diff. If you do it young enough, they heal just fine and don't know the difference. If the cat is older, you are sunk, lol. Wait for the cat to pass on and replace all the shredded stuff in your house, lol. Declawing older cats is very painful for them.
My sis has declawed all her cats very young and a day after they come home with the wraps on their paws they are running around like its no big deal.
Hope this helped. Good Luck, I'm right there with ya.

Answer 2

Put double sided tape on the places where your kitty scratches. They don't like sticky stuff. Also, cover your couch with an old sheet until they learn to use scratch posts and the cardboard scratching boards made for cats. If you don't have any of these scratching posts you need to get some. I would suggest having the more inexpensive cardboard ones about one to every other room, and the more expensive scratching posts are really up to what you can afford. Rub fresh catnip onto the posts and into the cardboard. gently show them what they use these for by taking their front paws and moving them gently back and forth on the posts or boards. Give your kitty time to develop a habit of using these scratching items, and then you should be able to uncover your couch. when they scratch on the carpet, take them to their post or cardboard scratching board and repeat what I wrote above by showing them what is appropriate to scratch on.

Always be gentle, kind and patient. No discipline is really needed, as long as you show them what you expect.
A great site for cat info is listed below. They may have even more tips there that can help you. I'm sure they will.

Also, if you consider declawing your cat, (I hope you don't) please read about that info at the site below as well. It really is major surgery and can adversely affect your cats life.

Answer 3

Yes and declawed cats usually end up with behavioral problems and end up dumped back in shelters by the people who declawed them. I adopted two cats from people who took out not only their front claws, but also their back claws. These cats are completely helpless if they were to ever get out of my house. Many declawed cats become biters because you've now taken away their defenses, which is what happened to my cats when they first came to my house. I'd be cuddling with them and they'd be purring and rubbing against me and all of a sudden they'd turn around and bite and they'd bite hard enough to draw blood. That happens to a lot of cats who are declawed. Declawed cats also have a problem with the litter box and a lot of them all of a sudden refuse to use it because it hurts their declawed paws. So people declaw their cats for an "easy fix" to certain problems they don't want and then they end up causing other problems that the cats will have for the rest of their lives. There are easy ways to train cats to not use their claws that won't cause life long problems so I'm glad you cared enough to at least find out about it first ... So many people don't and then end up with worse problems. Good luck!!

Answer 4

Buy or make a scratching post. If the cat/kitten doesn't go to it on it's own take it to the post when ever it scratches on anything else. If it doesn't get the idea buy some catnip and put it inside the scratching post. You only have to do that until it understands that is where it is suppose to go.

Answer 5

Dont declaw them. That is mean. And if you do it when they are older then a couple months they will resent you for it. And it makes there fingers grow weird. Get a scratching post! And everytime they use it tell them what a good kitty they are and give them a treat. When they strach the couch say no and pick them up and bring them to there straching post. pretty soon they will relize that they cant do that anymore and when they need to scratch something they will use the post. But it takes time for them to relize this. 1-2 months. or less or more depending on the cat. Dont give up. And keep at it. I promise it will work if you keep at it. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

You could get a water bottle but this will take some time. Its a natural thing for cats to want to sharpen their claws, you can trim them with nail clipper turned sideways and then file them if you can that will help with the damage. Or you could try and get a rope post that is different than anything else in your house and hope that she likes it. There is really nothing that you can do to stop it other than declawing, which is a hard thing to do. However if you do it when they are young it won't be as painful physically and emotionally.

Answer 7

kittens are typically claw agressive - thats how they get mothers milk and they play agressively to practice hunting skills - to deter this normal behavior too much can cause mental problems
they do decrease as they mature - provide appropriate scratching areas... cat furniture - you can improve use of cat furniture by moving it around once a week or laying it on its side occassionaly or rubbing cat nip on it..
provide lots of toys - including honeysuckle toys - cats like toys they havent seen for a while best so always hide some for weeks at a time and rotate them

SOFT PAWS are claw protectors that work GREAT!

Answer 8

There is a spray that you can get from Petsmart called No Scratch, it worked for our cats.

Answer 9

you cant
wat u need to do is get a scrathing post and teach the cat to scrath that insted of everywhere els
this will take some time and pationts
cats nead to scrath or there claws get to long

Answer 10

Get foil to cover around the furniture. Most cats do not like foil. Or cat nail covers.